A/N: Greetings all! Hope everyone's doing well today. I know I sure am, because we've come to the final part of the White Fang arc! And man, let me tell you, as fun as this arc was to write, it was also pretty big in terms of length and what went down in it. But I suppose we shouldn't dawdle, should we? Let's get to what we all came for, yeah? This is…

Chapter 80: The Tigress' Trial

…..

Gwen let out a tired breath as her hands stopped glowing, having spent the past few minutes feeding her mana into the man laying out before her and Kali. In the time that Ghira and Ruby left to go find the others for help, they had moved William Faun into the Belladonna house, laying him out on the living room couch for the time being. Will had been hurt by Tyrian pretty badly, but with a combination of mana and medical supplies, the goat man was already beginning to look better. His wound was now all cleaned up, with Kali just finishing putting the last bandages around it. "Ah, okay, that's as much as I can do." Gwen sighed. "I've already exhausted a lot of my energy tonight."

"That's alright, Gwen." Kali assured as she snipped of the bandage from the roll, securing it to Will's arm. "He's all patched up now." The cat woman smiled down to Will, who was staring at the ceiling apprehensively. "Will, how does your arm feel now?"

"H-Huh?" Will stammered. "Oh! Yes, it feels much better, thanks Kali." He then bowed his head to Gwen. "And thank you too, Gwen. I have to admit, no human has ever shown this amount of kindness to me in the past."

Gwen sent him a sympathetic face. "Yeah, that's the case I've heard about most concerning Faunus rights. That humans hate and fear them because they're different." Her eyes shifted down a little. "But really… we aren't. We're all sentient beings who share this planet. I'm beginning to wonder why we can't all just get along."

"Heh, I really wish it were that simple, Gwen." Will chuckled as he slowly sat up. "I can respect the way you think though. Yes, we DO all share this planet, but it's like you said, humans fear what they don't understand. It's made it hard for ALL of us to make a living, but then there's Menagerie, where we can just be ourselves." The man shrugged his shoulders. "Sure, it's a little crowded, but it beats having to face discrimination."

The Anodite pursed her lips in frustration. "Maybe… but it's still not fair. Humans have the entire WORLD they can share, but the only place where Faunus can feel safe… is on a mostly desert island in the middle of the ocean." Gwen shook her head. "It's just not fair."

Kali put a hand to Gwen's shoulder. "I understand, Gwen. In fact, many of us think it's unfair. That's why the White Fang was formed in the first place. To help fight back against the human's oppression." The cat woman craned her head down to face the floor. "Sadly… it seems that the organization's motives have become so twisted in recent times that I'm afraid that it's pretty much a shell of its former self."

Will nodded his head. "I have to agree, Kali. I'm sorry that your husband's dream didn't turn out the way he thought it would."

"Hey, let's not give up just yet." Gwen objected. "Dreams may not be able to take off instantly, but that doesn't mean they're dead." The redhead gave the two a small smile. "I know that humans and Faunus CAN live together peacefully. It's just going to take time. And who knows? Maybe after all this, the White Fang will reinvent itself again."

The two Faunus smiled at Gwen, though Will gave a reluctant sigh. "I wish it were that easy, Gwen. But knowing how Sienna Khan operates things, that might just be a pipe dream."

However, before the conversation could go any further, the door to the living room opened, revealing Jaune and Pyrrha on the other side. They came sprinting in with joyous smiles on their faces, with Jaune calling out to his Anodite friend. "Gwen! You won't believe who's coming down the road!"

The statement immediately caught made Gwen, Kali and Will stand up, though the latter had to do it slowly. "Who is it?" she asked. "Is it Ben? Or is Ghira back with the others?"

"Both!" Pyrrha exclaimed. "And what's better is they have Trumbipulor!" The Invincible Girl directed her eyes over to Will, her smile unwavering. "Mr. Faun… your family is with them as well. They appear to be all fine."

Will let out a gasp as all of the stress immediately left him, though that also had the effect of making him cry a little more. "Oh… oh, thank the gods!" He put a hand to his eyes and wiped the tears away from them, letting out a small sob before trying to get himself together. "Okay, keep it together, Will. Keep it together."

Kali pat the man's shoulder in reassurance. "It's alright, William. Now come on, your children are waiting for you." With that, the five went back outside, where everyone else was already waiting for them. Kevin, Nora, Ren, Neptune and Penny were all standing at the base of the stairs, all of them in awe at what they were witnessing. "What's wrong, everyone?" Kali asked.

"Nothing." Kevin said while pointing forward. "In fact, things are pretty much going right!"

Kali glanced up, and she broke out into a small smile at what she saw. There, coming down the stone path were her husband, Ben, Team RWBY, Sun, Ilia, Rex, Raven, Winter, Holiday, the Fauns, and Sienna Khan, all of them alive and well. Over Raven and Yang's shoulders were the unconscious bodies of the Albains, the two fox Faunus beaten up quite a bit. But they were nothing compared to what was being transported behind them. Winter and Weiss had summoned two large gravity glyphs to transport the massive body of Trumbipulor, the Paku-Dermoloid having been knocked out cold. His body was beaten up much worse than the Albains were, with multiple gashes, wounds and bruises scattered about his leathery skin. "Well… that's quite the reassuring sight." Kali agreed.

"Ben!" Gwen exclaimed before surging forward to meet her cousin and the others, with the rest of the team following after her.

"Honey! Kids!" Will cried out in relief.

"WILL!" Shauna and her children sprinted forward and met the man halfway, the four falling into one big embrace. "Oh, sweetheart, are you okay?!" The sheep woman shouted in concern.

"Daddy, what were you thinking?!" Bonnie added, her small finger pointing at her father's arm. "You shouldn't move around so much while your hurt!"

Will couldn't help but chuckle at his daughter berating him. "Hehe, I know, and I'm sorry. But I had to let somebody know and I didn't have any better options. So I came here." Will craned his head up to Ghira, the bearded man smiling at the reunion as his own wife joined him as well. "Thank you, Ghira. Thank you so much for saving my family."

But Ghira shook his head. "Oh, you really shouldn't be thanking me, Will." He pointed over to Weiss, the heiress working together with her sister to set Trumbipulor's body on the ground. "You should be thanking that young woman right there."

The goat man blinked in surprise before his son spoke up. "Yeah, dad. She's the one that saved us from that maniac!" Billy reaffirmed. "She summoned this huge suit of armor out from a glyph, and—"

"Wait… glyph?" Will shifted his eyes back to Weiss, and it was only then that he realized who she was. "Is… is that Weiss Schnee? Heiress to the Schnee Dust Company?" He then took a glance at the other white-haired woman as well. "And that must mean that's her sister, Winter."

"Yes, honey." Shauna confirmed. "Weiss saved all three of us from Tyrian. She and her sister are by and far NOT like their father, if that's what you're worried about."

Bonnie pulled on her father's pant leg frantically. "Yeah, daddy! And what she did to save us was so incredible! You should've seen it!"

Will had to let all of this information set in as it was thrown at him. A Schnee… saved his family? He stood up to his full height and began walking over to Weiss, confusing both his family and the Belladonnas. When he finally made it over, the Schnee sisters had just finished lowering Trumbipulor's body to the ground, their gravity glyphs disappearing beneath the giant elephant alien. "Excuse me… Miss Schnee?"

Both Weiss and Winter perked up at the question, though Weiss was the one to answer. "Oh! You must be Mr. Faun!" she greeted him with a bow. "It's nice to meet you."

"Are you okay, sir?" Winter asked. "Ghira told us that you were in a pretty bad state when you arrived here."

"Y-Yes, I am." Will stammered slightly. He hadn't expected them to be so kind and concerned about him, especially when he only just greeted them. "Kali and Gwen helped me out in that department." He then bowed his head back to Weiss. "Miss Schnee, I… I just wanted to thank you for saving my family. They are the one thing in this world that I truly cherish more than anything, and I'm so grateful for what you did. I'll admit though, and please don't take this the wrong way, but you of all people were probably the last person I expected to save my family."

Weiss gave the man a sheepish smile. "Yeah, I've been getting that a lot lately. But you're welcome, Mr. Faun. I wasn't about to let Tyrian kill anyone tonight." She set her sights onto Shauna and the children. "Especially a woman and her kids." She gave them a wink, resulting in Shauna smiling at her, Bonnie winking back, and Billy profusely blushing.

"Hah, well I'm glad that's the case…" Will's eyes shifted down to Trumbipulor, the Paku-Dermoloid unmoving aside from some light breathing. "But still, it's almost surreal seeing this thing defeated after over a week of cowering from him. Who took him down?"

Weiss jerked a thumb over to Ben, Yang and Raven, who were all chatting it up with Team JNPR, Neptune and Penny after dropping the Albains onto the front porch of the house. "Those three over there, sir. You'd want to thank them for that."

Suddenly, Bonnie ran up to her father excitedly, jumping up and down as she spoke up. "Oh! Oh! Daddy, listen! See that boy in the green?" She pointed over to Ben. "He says that his watch that can change him into aliens!"

Billy brightened up and he ran over to his father as well. "Dad, that guy is so COOL!" he raised his arms up over his head. "He transformed into another one of those elephant things to take that guy down!"

Will raised an eyebrow at his children's story. "Uh… what?"

Weiss rolled her eyes and put a hand up to her mouth. "HEY BEN!"

That managed to catch the hero's attention, making him raise his head over in Weiss' direction. "Yeah, Weiss? What's up?!"

"Mind showing these guys what you did before?!" Weiss asked as she jabbed her thumb over to the Fauns. "You know, the surprise you mentioned showing to everyone?"

An eager smile came to Ben's face and he gave her a nod. "Oh yeah! THAT surprise."

Needless to say, the rest of the team were just as confused as Will was, with Gwen even going so far as to give her cousin a questioning look. "Uh… Ben? What's she talking about?"

Of to her right, Yang wore a smirk and gave Gwen a thumbs up. "Oh, just you wait, Red. Hit it, Green Boy!"

Ben reached for the Omnitrix and made his selection, the core popping up instantly. "Already on it!" With that, Ben slammed his hand down onto the core and was quickly enveloped in a bright flash of green light, making everyone shield their eyes for a moment. When they all looked back though, they were astonished to see another Paku-Dermoloid, this one clad in green and black and with a full set of impressive tusks. He reared his head back and called out his name; "DYNATUSK!"

Everyone's jaws dropped in perfect sync with each other, all of them astonished at this new, gigantic form. Finally, Kevin shouted out; "DUDE! …WHAT THE FU—"

But Gwen slapped a hand over his mouth before he could finish that. "Kevin! There are children present!"

"Oh… sorry." Kevin muffled before Gwen took her hand back. "But seriously, how the heck did you get close enough to Trumbipulor to scan his DNA?!"

"Simple, I tricked him into giving it to me." Dynatusk answered proudly. "I faked giving myself up and he believed me. As you can see, that proved to be his last mistake as the leader of the White Fang."

"I'll say!" Nora hollered whilst jumping up and down like a child. "This transformation is so FREAKING cool! How much cooler can you get than a giant, bipedal elephant?!"

Neptune was wearing a similar grin as Nora's, the blue-haired boy feeling the same way at seeing a massive elephant alien in front of him. "Man, I don't know, but somebody would have to work HARD to top it. It's big, it's powerful, it's a freakin' elephant! What more could you ask for?"

Dynatusk chuckled as raised a hand up to them. "Hehe, alright guys, calm down. I'm just as hyped as you are about this, but let's try to draw it back a bit." The Paku-Dermoloid walked over to Weiss and the Faun family, the children smiling from ear to ear as he knelt down to address their father. "Hi there! I'm guessing that you're Mr. Faun, right?"

"Y-Y-Yes." Will said with a nervous stutter. "A-And who are you?"

"I'm Ben Tennyson. My cousin Gwen and my friends Kevin, Rex and Holiday are from different worlds that are similar yet different to your own. And mine is one where aliens are known to exist." Dynatusk waved a hand over to the unconscious Trumbipulor. "Heck, your former oppressor over there IS an alien. Myself and many of my enemies were transported here in a massive explosion just over two weeks ago, and somehow, Trumbipulor and Simian ended up all the way here." The large alien bowed his massive head. "As such, I take full responsibility for all of this, and I apologize that you and your fellow citizens had to go through all of this."

As the hero made his formal apology, Sienna was watching it all unfold from the side-lines with her arms crossed, the woman contemplating over what she was seeing. Thanks to Ben Tennyson, her homeland was now free from the tyranny of that damned elephant. But at the same time, he had gotten on her nerves with that Rath transformation of his, making her stress go through the roof. And, from what she heard from Raven on the way here, the boy had also managed to effectively destroy her throne room, as well as break every window in the palace. He would NOT be getting off easily. 'I must find SOME way to make him pay recompense for all of this trouble.' Sienna thought to herself. 'But the question is… how?'

As Sienna thought over a suitable repayment, Will stared up at the large alien elephant in front of him, digesting the information that he was just told. "W-Well, that's definitely… interesting." he uttered. "If I hadn't just seen it with my own eyes, I probably wouldn't believe you."

"Yeah, I find that to be the case most of the time." Dynatusk nodded.

Will gave another chuckle and he bowed his head to the hero. "In any case, thank you for saving our home from that… alien." He narrowed his eyes over to Trumbipulor in disgust. "Lord knows that no bad deed goes unpunished."

"Exactly. Now I suggest that you and your family head home." Dynatusk advised as he rose back up to his full height, towering over the family of four. "You guys have probably been through enough for one night. And make sure to spread the word; your home has been freed."

Shauna smiled up to him. "You have no idea. And don't worry, we will." She then gazed down to her children expectantly. "Kids, say goodbye to Ben and Weiss. We're headed home."

Billy and Bonnie rushed forth to bid farewell to Dynatusk, who had to bend down once more to look them in the eye. The goat boy raised his hand up and said; "Hey, thanks for getting rid of that stupid elephant guy. He was seriously un-cool."

Dynatusk couldn't help but grin at the vocabulary. 'Heh, he reminds me of ME when I was ten." He raised his own massive hand up and gave the boy a high-five. "Haha, don't I know it? Trust me, I know a few things about how un-cool my bad guys can be." His eyes then went down to see Bonnie raising her hand up, the little girl beaming at him with every ounce of joy she could muster. He extended his trunk and wrapped it gently around her hand, shaking it. "Take care, Bonnie, and you too, Billy."

"We will!" Bonnie promised. "And we promise that we won't tell your secret to anyone!" The little girl then focused over to Weiss as her hand was freed. She ran as fast as her legs could carry her hand gave Weiss a hug, which the heiress was all too happy to reciprocate. "Thank you for saving us, Weiss."

"Of course." Weiss pat the little girl's back in reassurance. "Now, you both take care, and stay out of trouble, okay?"

"We will." Billy acknowledged. "Trust me, after today, I think I've had enough excitement to last a while."

Weiss gave him a small wink, which made the young boy flustered once again. "I'm sure. Now you two get going. Your parents are waiting." With one final goodbye, the Faun family made their way out of the forecourt and into the streets of Kuo Kuana, going back to their own home. However, Weiss could feel another pair of eyes on her, making her turn around to see Rex giving her a knowing smirk. "Ugh, what is it, Robo-dolt?"

"C'mon, you KNOW that little guy has the BIGGEST first crush vibe going on." Rex replied as he nudged her arm.

Weiss simply scoffed and rolled her eyes. "He's a ten-year-old boy who's got a crush on an older girl. How many times have you heard THAT story?"

"Yeah, I know it's pretty common." Rex admitted. "Still, I think it's kinda sweet."

Weiss simply gave a shrug. "Hey, they're nice kids." The heiress sent her gaze over to Dynatusk as he stepped over to the two. "So, what do we do now that everything's been taken care off?"

"Well, first thing's first…" Dynatusk hefted Trumbipulor off of the ground and over his shoulder once again, using his massive tusks for leverage. "I need to put Trumbi here into his new container. Tetrax has the pod ready, right?"

"Indeed, he does!" Penny pointed around the house. "He and General Ironwood are waiting for you guys… as well as a few others."

Sienna's eyes narrowed at the mention of the general. 'Oh great, just what we need. So the HEAD of the Atlesian Army is here too.'

But off to the side, Yang simply raised an eyebrow at the redheaded android's statement. "Others? Whaddya mean, "others"?"

Ruby and Weiss shared a smile at the Blonde Brawler's question. "Oh, trust me, sis, you'll find out soon." Ruby said as she waved her hand to them. "Your squad should head back there for a little surprise, hehe."

…..

After Ruby's rather vague statement, Dynatusk, Yang, Blake, Sun, Ilia and Raven all headed around the Belladonna house and to the backyard, lugging the unconscious bodies of the Albains and Trumbipulor with them. Sienna even accompanied them as well, the tiger lady wanting to have a few words with the general herself. Once they made it around the back, the group were immediately greeted by a surprising sight, which made everyone except Ilia, Sienna and Raven drop their jaws in shock. It was none other than Team CFVY and Cooper, the five teammates standing right by the ramp of the Resolute with Tetrax and Ironwood. They were all gathered around an absolutely massive pod, once that was mostly metal with a giant glass sliding door on its front, the perfect size for an elephant-sized alien to slip into. There was also a strange hose that was coming from the inside of the Resolute, and it was attached to the back of the pod for some reason.

"Hey guys!" Coco waved over. "What took ya so long?! Ya missed all the action!"

Dynatusk broke out into a big smile and laughed out loud. "HAHA! Well, excuse me if we had our own situation to deal with first."

"Coco!" Yang set Fennec's body down and ran up to the fashionable girl, giving her a high five. "My girl! How's it going?! I didn't expect to see you guys here!"

Blake stepped up and gave Coco a short handshake. "Yeah, haven't you guys been busy helping Goodwitch and the other students fix up Beacon?"

"Hehe, yeah, but things were gettin' kinda boring back home, so when Ironwood said he wanted us as backup, we jumped at the chance." Coco quirked an eyebrow and put her arms across Yang and Blake's shoulders. "Though, uh… might I suggest inviting us along from the start next time this happens?"

Yang rubbed the back of her head, a small chuckle escaping her lips. "Heh, yeah, sorry 'bout that. We were kinda on a tight schedule with this one."

Blake nodded her head in appreciation "But still, we're glad you guys could show up to help. It means a lot."

"Hey, we're happy to help!" Fox spoke up. "Better than just watching Vel awkwardly trying to talk to Bird Boy all day—OW!" The blind warrior was immediately smacked upside the head by the bunny girl for his comment, making him wince in pain. "Gah, jeez Vel, it was a joke!"

Blushing furiously, Velvet huffed and turned away from him with her arms crossed. "Well it's certainly not one that I appreciate, Fox."

As the two bantered back and forth, Yatsu simply gave out a sigh. "You know, sometimes I think it's a miracle that this team functions so well."

Off to the side, Ilia leaned over and whispered to her best friend; "Uh… Blake? Who ARE these guys?"

Blake blinked in surprise, realizing that Ilia hadn't met Team CFVY yet. "Oh, they're some of our friends from Beacon." The cat girl explained. "They're a bit rowdy, but you get used to them. They're actually REALLY nice people."

"I see…" Ilia's eyes trailed across the group of four, with Yatsu trying to separate Fox and Vel while Coco watched on, advising her team to quit squabbling. "Blake, your friends from Beacon are really strange."

As all of that happened, General Ironwood and Tetrax moved over to Dynatusk, the massive alien focusing down to them. "Ben, good to see you." Ironwood greeted. "At least, I'm assuming it's you and NOT the other elephant."

Dynatusk gave Ironwood a deadpan expression. "General, what other alien would you see wearing green here?"

Ironwood raised a hand, pointing up to the Paku-Dermoloid. "I know, I know. But you can never be too careful with these things." The general shifted his eyes over to see Sienna Khan coming up behind Dynatusk, taking him aback slightly. "O-Oh! Miss Khan, it's… it's good to see that you're alive."

"General." Sienna acknowledged with a nod. "While I would be quite vexed at your presence here under normal circumstances, I have already been through enough stress for tonight." The tiger lady rubbed her temple slightly as she recalled everything she had been through. "Just so long as you leave Menagerie without conflict, I will not inflict too harsh of a judgement onto you."

"U-Um, thank you." Ironwood bowed his head to her. "I promise that we won't be here for much longer." The general then moved his attention to the unconscious Trumbipulor, the alien's injured form clear for everyone to see. "Good lord… is he even alive?"

"Oh yeah, he's still breathin'." Dynatusk confirmed. "He's just gonna have to do some healing in his stasis pod during his long sleep. …The stasis pod CAN do that, right?"

Tetrax gave him a single nod. "Indeed. The stasis pod acts as both a suspended animation containment unit AND a healing unit. His injuries will heal slowly, but it will still be faster than letting them heal normally." The Petrosapien walked over and put his hand to the hand-print scanner on the front of the pod, allowing its glass door to shift out and up with a hissing noise. With the containment unit open, Tetrax waved his hand to it, giving Dynatusk the okay. "Alright, Ben, simply place him in and I'll do the rest."

"You got it, Tetrax." With that, Dynatusk lowered Trumbipulor down, leaning him up against the back of the pod's interior. From there, Tetrax reached into his pouch and pulled out a special muzzle, attaching it to Trumbipulor's trunk and then up to a nozzle on the roof of the pod. After that, he put his hand to the scanner, allowing the glass door to lower back down and lock into place. After typing in a few commands on the pod's console, a blue liquid suddenly began filling up the pod, and it was undoubtedly coming from the large hose that was attached to its back. Once it was filled up, Trumbipulor began floating in the liquid and a small green light lit up at the top of the door, indicating that the procedure was complete. "Hah, it's finally over." Dynatusk breathed in relief as Tetrax began loading the pod back onto his ship. "This has been one hell of a night."

"So we've heard." At the sound of a familiar voice, Dynatusk craned his head down to see Cooper, though he had to do a double-take at his friend's new wardrobe. "Hey Ben, how're you doing?"

After a taking a second to let his friend's words process, Dynatusk transformed back into his human form once again. "Cooper?!" Ben exclaimed. "Dude! Where'd you get the new threads?"

It was then that the others began to take notice of Cooper's new attire as well. "Yeah, man!" Sun supported. "I dunno where you got those duds, but they look pretty cool!"

But Yang had a pretty good idea for who was responsible for the geniuses new clothing. She raised a brow over to Coco with a big smirk. "Lemme guess, you're responsible for that, aren't ya, Coco Puff?"

Coco raised her arms up. "Got me dead to rights, Yangarang. I took him out shopping a few towns over the other day and we got some things custom made for him. And I gotta say, I have NO complaints about it whatsoever. It's both stylish…" Coco pulled her sunglasses down and glanced her eyes over to Cooper's rear. "AND it gives me a good view."

Yang burst out laughing while many others looked away awkwardly, with Cooper's face becoming as red as a tomato at his girlfriend's comment. The blonde genius cleared his throat, hoping to put his embarrassment down a bit. "Coco, baby, could we please save the comments about my ass for more of our… personal moments, please?"

"Ah, c'mon, babe." Coco came over and gave his back end a small smack in passing. "You know I love it."

"Public displays of affection ASIDE..." Raven announced as she attempted to keep her wits about her. "I believe that there's something more important that we have to discuss. That being… Salem." The tribe leader turned to General Ironwood with an apprehensive expression. "Jim… she was here. And what's worse… she's even more terrible than we could've ever imagined after Oz described her to us."

Ironwood wore a remorseful face at this, his head lowering as he clenched his hands. "I see… Gwen told me all about it earlier." He slammed his normal fist against the side of the ship, growling to himself in frustration. "BLAST! If we had just been here sooner, we would've been able to—"

"Do nothing." Ben plainly said, shocking Ironwood, Team CFVY and Cooper all at once. "I'm sorry, general, but that woman… she's WAY more powerful than I had originally thought she'd be."

While the six newcomers seemed nonplussed by all of this, everyone else who was with Ben at the time of Salem's arrival were all in agreement with the hero's statement. "Ben's right." Yang spoke up next. "That lady… she was able to throw me around like a rag doll with her magic." She moved over to her boyfriend, who was still looking very sullen about the whole thing. "She even managed to force Ben out of his transformation… and she also somehow damaged the DNA code inside the Omnitrix."

Cooper's eyes widened at this, as did Blake, Sun and Ilia, the latter three having left before that revelation happened. "Ben… did Salem really do all of that?" he asked. "What DNA did she damage?"

Ben let out a sigh and lifted the Omnitrix. "It was Humungousaur… and I have no idea what I can do about it. I mean, I KNOW that Azmuth can fix it, but… he's not exactly here to fix it." However, Ben's eyebrows shot up as an idea entered his head, a hopeful expression coming to his face as he went over to his friend. "Hey! You're pretty good with tech, Coop! Maybe you could try to fix the DNA code in here?"

But Cooper was quick to raise a hand, shaking his head ever so slightly. "I'm sorry, Ben, but DNA code isn't exactly something I'm all that savvy in. I mean, I've been trying to learn it from the Galvan, but it's been a pretty slow grind." Cooper placed a hand to Ben's shoulder. "But don't worry, we all know that Azmuth's going to be SO eager to see you when we can finally go back home, so you'll be able to break the news to him then."

The Omnitrix bearer winced at the predicament that was present before him, a slight fear over coming him at the prospect of getting an earful from the diminutive Galvan. "Oh, joy." He lifted the Omitrix up and brought up the holo-ring, which was still set to Dynatusk. "Well, at least I've got a pretty good replacement until then. Heh, in fact, I think Dynatusk might be more powerful than Humungousaur at his base size, now that I think about it."

Yang came up and clasped her boyfriend on the shoulder. "See? Things will all work out, Green Boy. I'm sure of it."

Ben smiled back at her and put his hand over hers. "Yeah, you're right. And after today, we'll just have to work twice as hard to take Salem down. She might have more power than us, but we can't lose hope now." The hero set his gaze out to Cooper and Team CFVY, nudged his head to the Resolute. "Hey guys, after all of this is over, how about we all get together for a big training session tomorrow morning?"

As the five were about to answer, they heard a slightly irritated; "Ahem!" gaining their attention. They turned around to see Sienna, the tiger lady sending a stern glare to all of them with her arms crossed. "I hope you all are not forgetting anything." she reprimanded. "Perhaps the fact that all of the instigators behind the coup of my leadership are either here," she gestured down to the Albains, "or on that ship." Sienna pointed into the Resolute's cargo bay, where Yuma and Trifa could be seen bound up and sitting on the floor. "They need to be taken care of."

"Oh, right!" Ben said as he gave a nod to Sienna. "We'll get them off the ship for you, Sienna. Then we'll be out of your hair as fast as—"

"DON'T be too quick to leave just yet, young Benjamin." Sienna interrupted. "There is still the little matter of your recompence."

Ben blinked in surprise at this, as did many others. "W-Wait, ME?! What did I do?!" The hero questioned. "Yang, Raven and I all stopped Trumbipulor for you!"

"Perhaps so, but then there is the little fact that you DESTROYED my throne room, broke EVERY window in my palace, and your overall lack of decorum to me when you transformed into that RATH creature!" With every injustice she listed, Sienna counted off on her fingers, her face growing ever more frustrated. "You have MUCH to answer for, Ben Tennyson."

Ben's eyes widened in shock as he tried to plea his innocence. "Hey, I can't be responsible for Rath's actions! Anger's practically coded into his DNA, and I'm not in my right mind because of it!" But then, he realized something else; "Wait… how do you know about the windows?"

"Branwen told me on the way over here." Sienna answered. "She also told be about the giant crevasse that you put in my floor!"

Almost immediately, Ben and Yang sent a couple of judging sideways glances over to Raven, the tribe leader shifting her eyes between them. She knew that she was already on thin ice with them, and the cracks were growing ever more with this. "Kids, I know that this is a lot to ask of me right now," Raven winced, "but believe me, I had NO idea that she would be prosecuting you on this. I just wanted to break the news to her early so that she wouldn't be even angrier with us after the fact."

Ben sighed and shook his head. "Well, I guess I can see your point." The hero then pointed a finger at Raven. "But remember, you've still got somethings to explain yourself, so you'd better be ready after this trial."

"I… I understand." Raven looked away, her face etched with apprehension.

As he watched the scene unfold, Ironwood couldn't help but be confused at what was happening between the three. "Ben, what do you mean by that?" the general asked. "What's going on?"

Ben was about to reply, only for Raven to jump in and do it for him. "It's a long story, Jim. One that I'll have to tell after all of this is over. But for now…" She turned away from him and began walking onto the Resolute. "Let's just say that I haven't been completely honest with everything since my arrival."

Ironwood's face hardened into a slight glare. "Why doesn't that surprise me?" He let out a breath and put a hand to his forehead. "And here I was thinking that she might have changed for a few moments."

Yang stepped over and looked Ironwood right in the eye. "General… quite honestly, I don't know how to think about this either. But for now, we should focus on the OTHER big thing."

"Right, of course. The trial." Ironwood went back to Sienna and gave her a nod. "Shall we get this started?"

But Sienna raised a single hand up to him. "My apologies, general, but your presence isn't needed in this trial." The tiger lady lowered her arm back down and faced Cooper and Team CFVY. "And neither is theirs. You six only just arrived here, so I'm willing to let you off the hook just this once."

"WHAT?!" Coco exclaimed. "We can't even testify for our friends?! That's bullshit!"

"Relax." Sienna pressed further. "The proceedings will be quick, I assure you. I do not want to take part in this anymore than anyone, but it has to be done." She caught sight of Tetrax stepping back out of the Resolute and she whipped her arm up to him, pointing a stern finger. "You! Crystal man! Bring Yuma and Trifa out and into the house. They are to be tried effective immediately."

Tetrax blinked at the request, all while taking note at how perturbed Sienna appeared to be. "Umm… alright then." With that, the Petrosapien did an about face and went back to his ship, intending to retrieve the two Faunus assassins.

Blake went up to the White Fang leader with a bit of an irritated face, the cat girl not at all amused by what was happening. "Sienna, is all of this REALLY necessary? I mean, Yuma, Trifa and the Albains, I get." She waved a hand over to her green-clad friend. "But Ben? He didn't technically do anything wrong! Sure, he might've made a few mistakes, but who doesn't?"

But Sienna's demeanor was unwavering, her eyes closing before turning away from the younger girl. "Trust me, Blake, I know what I am doing." she affirmed. "After what I have been through tonight with Tennyson, I feel it only right to have him defend his actions, whether they were intentional or not."

Blake's brows furrowed at the response. "What game are you playing at, Sienna?"

"You will see soon enough." Sienna glanced back to see Tetrax coming back down the ramp, this time with Yuma and Trifa in tow. The former was giving Sienna a rather nasty glare while the latter was keeping her head down in shame, which caught Sienna's attention immediately. "Yuma, Trifa… I hope you both are aware of the gravity of your actions tonight."

"Oh, I am aware…" Yuma said with a deathly tone. "Aware that YOU are a SPINELESS WEAKLING! Relying on humans to help you rise back to power?! You have brought shame onto the White Fang!"

"No." Sienna said plainly. "It is you who have brought shame onto our name." She shook her head in disappointment. "I should have known that Adam had an ulterior motive for bringing you two on, but now, I suppose it is too late for regretting past decisions." She shifted her attention over to Sun and Yang. "You two, bring the Albains into the house. It's time for the trial to begin."

Ben let out another sigh at that. "Great. I wonder how bad my punishment is gonna be?"

In contrast, Yang was wearing a hopeful smile as she lugged Fennec back over her shoulder. "Ah, don't worry, Green Boy. I'm sure it won't be THAT bad."

…..

"GUILTY!" a shrill voice echoed through the Belladonna's meeting room as a gavel smacked against the large, wooden table. "Guilty on all counts! Case dismissed!"

"Nora, the trial hasn't even started yet!" Jaune berated as he and Ren began dragging their hyperactive friend away from the table.

The Pink Dynamo in question just grinned cheekily. "I know! I just always wanted to say that."

Pyrrha sighed as her teammates rejoined her, shaking her head in disbelief. Everyone had gathered back into the Belladonna house to witness the trial happen, and the redhead couldn't help but wonder why this had to happen in the first place. "Why does Ben even have to be put on trial?" she inquired. "He took down Trumbipulor with Yang and Raven! Any sort of wrongdoings that they've done should be null and void… well, perhaps not in Raven's case. But the point still stands!"

Next to her, Gwen crossed her arms a she focused on her cousin, who was sitting at the table with the White Fang betrayers. The hero had wisely chosen to sit as far away from them as possible, even though their arms and legs were bound to the chairs they were sitting in. Yuma was struggling in rage to break free while Trifa sat calmly, the spider girl simply staring at the table forlornly. The Albain brothers had finally regained consciousness, and they were giving everyone dirty looks. The Belladonnas, Sun, Ilia, and Ben received the worst of it, though they pretended not to notice. "I'm not all that sure about this either, Pyrrha." Gwen said. "But if we have to go through this in order to leave, then so be it. Hopefully Ben's punishment won't be too severe."

Ruby raised an eyebrow in the Anodite's direction. "Uh, Gwen, don't know if you've noticed, but we're dealing with a rather powerful tiger woman who uses a metal whip as her main weapon." The Hooded Huntress pointed out. "We'll be lucky if Ben even survives his punishment."

Neptune shifted his eyes around and raised a different point. "Uh, Ruby… you DO realize how… weird that sounds, right?"

"What do you mean? I—" But then, her silver eyes widened and an intense blush came to her face, the girl pulling her hood over her head in embarrassment. "GAAAAAH! Neptune, get your mind out of the gutter!" The whole thing brought some much-needed levity to the scene, though the moment that the door to the meeting room opened again, revealing Sienna Khan on the other side.

As the White Fang leader came walking in, Rex leaned over and whispered to Weiss; "So, what d'ya think she'll sentence these guys to?" The EVO nudged his head to the White Fang betrayers.

"I really don't know, Rex." Weiss admitted, a saddened expression forming on her face at the sight of Trifa's mood at the moment. "But I really hope that Sienna at least goes easy on Trifa. I mean, she's just confused and had no better option than to go along with everything."

Behind the two, Holiday spoke up, the doctor surprised at the revelation. "She is? How do you know that?"

Weiss and Rex moved their heads around and the heiress began explaining. "Well, I talked to her a bit when we finally caught her. All she wanted was for her kind to gain the respect they wanted, and she didn't know who to trust at the time." The white-haired girl focused back onto Trifa, who now appeared to be more apprehensive now that Sienna was starting to sit down. "I just hope that everything goes well for her."

As the leader of the White Fang took her seat, Ghira and Kali did as well, the couple sitting on either side of Sienna. With a steady breath, Sienna gave a single nod. "Alright, let's get this over wi—wait. Where's the gavel?" Everybody immediately set their eyes onto Nora, the redhead having been the last one to handle it. Sienna noticed this and narrowed her eyes at Nora, who was quick to give another cheeky, yet guilty smile before producing the gavel from behind her back. With a nervous chuckle, Nora ran over and gave a quick apology while handing the gavel back to Sienna, the tiger lady quick to snatch the small wooden hammer out of her hands. "Thank you. Now, let's bring this quick trial to order, shall we?"

However, Corsac simply balked at the whole situation. "Bah! What a sham!" he scoffed. "You already know that we are guilty of what we have done, Lady Khan." He added a bit of venom to the word "lady", still simmering over the fact that Sienna now had control of the White Fang again. "So why in the world would you even NEED a trial?"

However, Sienna slammed her gavel on the table, her gaze hardening at him. "I WILL have order in this court, Corsac! After all…" She craned her head over to Gwen, Kevin, Rex, Holiday, Winter, Ilia and Teams RWBY, JNPR, and SN. "We have MORE than enough people here to make up a substantial jury. So why not take advantage of this?"

Kevin couldn't help but smirk to himself. "Heh, this'll be the first time I've ever been on the opposite side. Neat."

"But that's hardly fair!" Fennec argued. "We don't even have our own lawyers!" He whipped his head around and narrowed his eyes at Tennyson. "And HE is the only human who is being tried!"

Sienna rolled her eyes. "Yes, because even if they violated White Fang law in coming here… I still have to admit that, in the end, they helped bring down your regent elephant. Meaning that their punishment will not be as harsh as yours."

Winter gave a sigh of relief. "Well, that's certainly a good thing to know."

"Yeah." Blake nodded. "At least she's going to be a little merciful."

However, Yuma wasn't having any of it. "You know what?! Fuck this!" With all the exertion he could muster, he finally managed to find a good balance and stood up onto his feet, despite them still being tied to the legs of the chair. "Screw all of you, I'm outta here! AHAHAHA—WHOA!" The moment he tried to hobble off though, he fell backward, resulting in him slamming against the floor. He tried struggling back up, but the best he managed to do was fall to his side, his face contorting in anger before giving out a small growl. "…This is fine."

"Oh, for god sakes!" Ilia stepped up and pulled Yuma back up straight, giving the bat Faunus a stern face. "That'll be enough out of you, traitor."

"Like you're one to talk!" Yuma snapped back. "You were originally going to join us, but you chickened out!"

"No, I saw sense." Ilia retorted. "I wanted no part in something I knew was wrong. You crossed the line in going along with what Trumbipulor told you to! Extorting our people, instilling fear in them, trying to ally with Salem… and now you're going to pay for it."

Yuma narrowed his eyes at her before darting them back to Sienna. "You know what? Why don't we just speed this along?! I'm guilty! We're ALL guilty! And guess what?! We're proud of it!"

Fennec was surprised by Yuma's sudden attitude shift. "Brother Yuma, what're you doing?! Stop talking or you will make our punishment even worse!"

Yuma glared right at Fennec. "NO! I will NOT cower before a weakling like her!" He whipped his head back around and snarled at both Sienna and Ghira. "Ever since its founding, the White Fang has had nothing but weak leaders who were too afraid to do what was necessary; and that is waging war against the human race! Ghira is soft and Sienna has no backbone! And both of you are lacking in true Faunus pride! An embarrassment to the Faunus race if ever I saw one!"

Off to the side, Kevin felt that tingle in the back of his mind again. 'I know I've heard his voice from somewhere! But for the life of me, I can't figure it out!'

Corsac's face scrunched up, the fox man aggravated at what his compatriot was doing. "Oh lord, he is going to get us all killed."

Ghira and Sienna glanced to one another with deadpan expressions, almost as if to say; "seriously?" to Yuma's mad ramblings. Sienna coughed into her hand, hoping to get the small trial back on track. "Ahem, I see. Well then, what WOULD you consider the prime example of Faunus pride?"

The bat man's lips curled up into a sinister smirk. "Why, Adam Taurus, of course!"

"HOLD IT!" Blake sprinted over and slammed her hands on the table, glaring directly at Yuma. "Your honor, may I PLEASE have permission to read off an organized list about why that statement is BULLSHIT!"

"Blake!" Kali gave her daughter a light smack on the hand. "Watch your language in this house, young lady!"

"She's right, Blake." Sienna affirmed. "While I am all too eager to agree with you, we have more important things to address here. Please, return to your team and try to stay calm."

Blake's ears lowered slightly and her head drooped. "Yes ma'am." She went back to where she was standing before, all while berating herself for her ill-thought action. "Gah, that was so STUPID of me!"

Sun wrapped a reassuring arm around her for support. "It's okay, Blake." He then whispered to her; "If it makes you feel better, I hate that asshole too." That managed to get a small chuckle out of Blake, which reassured him that he had done good.

As the trial got back on track, Sienna finally came to notice that Trifa had not spoken up. Instead, the spider girl was keen on keeping her eyes focused on the table. She would have to fix that. With a slam of her gavel, Sienna called out; "Trifa!" which got the young woman to whip her head up and fix her eyes straight onto her. "Aren't you going to present your case?"

Trifa blinked a couple times as she let Sienna's question sink in. "I… I don't have much of a case to make." She bit her lip in apprehension, but she forced herself to go on. "Yuma's already said it, we're all guilty. But while I did go along with the plan… I began to have second thoughts when Salem's people arrived." She trailed her eyes up to Rex and Weiss briefly before going back to Sienna. "And then… after I was defeated, I wasn't sure what to do anymore." Trifa bowed her head to the tiger lady. "Lady Sienna, I know that our crimes could be punishable by death, but if you could find it in your heart to spare us of that fate, then we will serve our time."

"WHAT?!" Yuma hollered.

"Trifa, what are you saying?!" Corsac added.

Fennec couldn't believe what he was hearing. "How could you say all of this?! What happened to the deadly assassin who was all too happy to cause pain?!"

Trifa simply glowered at the three. "She began questioning your sanity when you began making a deal with the devil! I maybe a trained killer, but I at least have a conscience!"

However, before the conversation could get too heated, Sienna slammed the gavel against the table again, catching their attention. "Alright, settle down, children! I have made my decision." The four of them immediately went silent as Sienna set her gaze on all of them, though she went to Trifa first. "Trifa, while it is apparent that you have remorse for your actions, I am afraid that they cannot go unpunished." She pointed her gavel at Trifa. "As such, you WILL all be imprisoned for a long time, but I may consider letting you out on good behavior… in say fifteen or twenty years, give or take."

Trifa was about to gasp at her sentence, but then, a surprise came in the form of an… "OBJECTION!" Everyone's heads whirled around to see none other than Rex, pointing at Sienna with a determined face. "That is SO unfair! You just heard her pour her heart out to you and you're STILL gonna just put her away for a long-ass time?!"

As the shock of Rex's argument startled the crowd, Weiss decided to get into it as well. "Yeah! I mean, at LEAST consider an alternative or something!" The heiress stepped up to Trifa and stood next to her, the spider girl craning her head up in astonishment. "Sure, she helped Trumbipulor out, but she regrets doing it! Shouldn't that count for something?!"

Trifa had no words. Nothing could describe what she was hearing at that very moment. A Schnee was standing up for her. 'What ass-backwards world am I living in?'

Yuma's face twisted in rage at this. "Be silent, Schnee scum!" he spat at Weiss. "This is NONE of your business! What reason would a goddamned Schnee ever have in defending—"

"SHUT UP!" Trifa hollered, stunning Yuma into silence. "Yeah, she's a Schnee. But after we fought, she showed me mercy, empathy… kindness. I was grateful to her for that… and I'm grateful to her now, too." The spider girl went back to Weiss and bowed her head. "Thanks for standing up for me, Schnee. You AND the Gear Head. But… if I have to face imprisonment for that amount of time then—"

"Wait just a second." Sienna interrupted, surprising both of them. "You say that Schnee spared you in your fight… and showed you kindness as well?" Trifa gave her a silent nod, to which Sienna let out an amused; "Hm." She glanced over to Weiss with an intrigued expression. "Well, it seems that you are being nice to many Faunus today. Very well, I will pass the ball into your court, Schnee. If not imprisonment, then what do YOU think that Trifa's punishment should be?"

The two girls were left stunned by this, both of them unsure of what to do at that point. "Well… it HAS to be a punishment?" Weiss asked.

"That IS the idea." Sienna confirmed.

"Er… well…" Weiss was having a bit of trouble at first, but then she had an idea. "Oh, um… maybe community service? Help fix the damage that's been done to Kuo Kuana after all of this?"

As the heiress suggested this, Trifa had to admit, it wasn't a bad idea. 'It's better than rotting in a prison cell for twenty years, at least.' She sent a worried eye over to Sienna, hoping that she would take the suggestion. 'Schnee, even if this doesn't work… I'm gonna thank you for trying.'

Sienna scratched her chin in contemplation, thinking over the idea. "Hmm, well… I WAS going to put the other White Fang subordinates to work on the same task." After pondering on it for a few moments, Sienna made up her mind. "Very well, Trifa will be sent to community service with the other White Fang, BUT on one condition;" She gave Trifa a dead serious face. "You must help me weed out any other conspirators amongst the White Fang. And if you know anyone by name who is doing so, you must tell me. Are we clear?"

With her eyes brightening up in hope, Trifa gave Sienna an eager nod. "Oh yes, of course, Lady Seinna!" she agreed. "I promise that I'll work hard to help you."

"Very good." Sienna pounded her gavel against the table once more. "Then it is decided. Trifa will be sent to community service while Yuma and the Albains are to be sent to prison for their crimes against the White Fang and Menagerie as a whole."

"HA!" Rex pointed at the newly sentenced trio. "TAKE THAT, jerkwads!"

This did not do well to improve Yuma's mood. "TRIFA!" he screamed at the top of his lungs as he desperately wriggled around in his seat, trying to free himself from his bindings. "You'll pay for this, you traitor, I SWEAR it!"

"Do you realize what you have just done?!" Fennec furthered.

But out of all of them, it was Corsac who was giving her the most malevolent glare of all. Out of the corner of his eye though, he spotted Ben Tennyson, who had been staying silent as the proceedings went on. The hero was wearing the biggest grin on his face at what Trifa had said, though Corsac saw it as smug instead. This boy was the reason why their plans had failed, and he would see to it that he would pay. "You… you've ruined everything... EVERYTHING!"

Ben's eyes went to Corsac and he gave him a shrug. "Eh, not the first time I've heard that."

Corsac made to lunge up and try to tackle him with his body as it was still trapped in his chair, only to fall short and land on the ground as Yuma had done before. As he struggled to get up, Trifa sneered down at him in contempt. "No, Corsac, it wasn't just Ben who ruined your plans." she denied. "You managed to do that yourselves after trying to ally with Salem."

"Exactly." Sienna nodded before glancing up to Weiss. "Well? What're you waiting for, Schnee? Undo her bindings if you would."

Weiss' eyes widened at the request, but she quickly complied. "Oh, right!" She used the very tip of Myrtenaster to slice through the durable straps, which fell away from Trifa's wrists and ankles in an instant. "There we go! You're free to move as you please."

As Trifa took a few seconds to take everything in, she stood up and stepped over to Weiss, staring the heiress right in the eye. "Hey, Schnee… thanks. And I mean that, thank you." She rubbed the back of her neck and glanced off to the side awkwardly. "Listen, I'm not exactly good with this sorta mushy stuff, so sorry if I'm comin' off a bit… rough."

"Hehe, it's alright." Weiss chuckled, giving Trifa a wink. "If anything, I know what it's like to be a bit rough around the edges myself."

Trifa smirked and quirked a single brow. "Heh, I'll bet. But yeah, thanks."

"Don't mention it. Second chances can be a good thing." Weiss shifted her eyes over to the Albains and Yuma, who were all still fuming with anger. "Though I don't suppose that those guys will be looking for a second chance anytime soon."

"Indeed, they will not." Sienna said while folding her hands. "Effective immediately, they are to be transferred to the White Fang's personal prison back in Mistral until a more permanent residency can be found for them elsewhere."

Ben tilted his head slightly. "Like where? Up in Atlas with Adam?"

"Oh, of course not." The tiger lady denied. "The fact that they are allies would risk the chance of them forming a well-thought escape attempt. Rather, I think it would be best to put them in separate prisons, just to be safe." Sienna put a contemplative hand to her chin in thought. "Now all I need is a way to get them off this island immediately. Many of our boats were destroyed by Trumbipulor when he took over."

"Excuse me." Everyone looked over to the meeting room's entrance to see General Ironwood standing there, giving Sienna a bow. "Apologies for the interruption, Lady Sienna, but I couldn't help but overhear. If you'd like, I could transport them to Mistral for your quite easily. I have a Bullhead at the ready and I'd be more than happy to make the trip."

Sienna took a moment's pause to consider the offer. In hindsight, she didn't exactly have that many choices at the moment, and the general was offering willingly. As begrudging as it was to admit, she needed his help with this. "Very well, general, if you insist." Sienna was quick to point at him. "But only because we have no better options. After this, I won't be so quick to request your help again."

Ironwood gave her a nod. "I understand. Team!" At his call, Team CFVY and Cooper came filing into the room, the five going straight for the Albains and Yuma. "Take them away, please."

"On it, G.I." Coco complied before reaching down and picking Corsac off the floor, with Cooper helping her undo his bindings and force his hands behind his back. "C'mon, Crew Cut, let's go."

Cooper chuckled at the joke, along with Corsac's hairstyle. "Hehe, nice one, Coco."

"IT WAS NOT!" Corcac screamed as Fox and Velvet began escorting his brother out of the room ahead of him. "You haven't seen the last of us, do you hear me?!"

"He's right!" Yuma said as he struggled against Yatsu's grip, the tall swordsman having to wrestle with the bat Faunus to keep him restrained. "We WILL have our revenge on you ALL!"

As Team CFVY, Cooper and General Ironwood filed out of the room with the criminals, Ben grinned and let out a sigh of relief. "Hah, well, I guess that's that." The green-clad hero made to get up. "Well, now that all of THAT is settled, I guess we can go home now—"

CLACK! The sound of Sienna's gavel hitting the table again made Ben sit back down, his eyes widening in fear. "Did you really think that I had forgotten about you, Tennyson?" The White Fang Leader asked. "I do not let things slip away from me all that easily, especially when it concerns one's punishment."

Ghira furrowed his brows and sent Sienna a stern look. "Oh, come on now, Sienna. Ben didn't do anything wrong! And if he did, it was by accident." The panther man gave a good-natured smile to Ben. "In the end, Ben Tennyson is a hero, and we owe him much for his help in defeating Trumbipulor."

Kali sent a similar grin over to Yang. "Not to mention Yang and her mother. Their teamwork with Ben helped take Trumbipulor down as well."

Off to the side, the Blonde Brawler gave a nervous chuckle and rubbed the back of her head. "Hehe, aw, it was really nothing." However, at the mention of her mother, Yang's mind began to feel bogged down again, unsure of what to make of the rather important information that her mother hand told her and Ben earlier. 'God damn it, mom, why did you gotta make things so complicated?'

In her seat, Sienna closed her eyes at all of the points being brought up. "Perhaps so, but still, there should be at least SOME compensation for what he did to my palace." She opened her eyes back up and focused on Ben. "As well as for what he said to me when he had changed into an anger induced beast."

Ben let out a sigh and lowered his head slightly. "Sienna, I truly am sorry that I said those things as Rath. I'm not completely in my right mind when I transform into him and I sometimes don't keep track of what I'm saying." The young man raised his head back up and met Sienna's eyes once again. "And if it means anything, I'll also pay for the damages to your palace. Even if I have to work it off, I promise that I'll—"

But Sienna raised a single hand, stopping Ben in midsentence. "Tennyson, while I appreciate the sentiment…" She gave him a thumbs down. "I am afraid that simply will not suffice. If you want me to take your word as faithful, then you will have to prove it to me."

Ben blinked in surprise. "Uh… okay, how do I do that, then?"

"Simple. I will dictate your fate through the Faunus tradition of…" Sienna narrowed her eyes at the young hero as she stood up. "Trial by combat."

A collective gasp went through the crowd of teens as Ghira shot up out of his seat. "SIENNA!" he hollered. "You can't be serious! That tradition is old and out dated!" He whipped his arm up, gesturing at Ben. "Can't you see that he's sorry for what he did?!"

"Please reconsider, Sienna." Kali pleaded. "This boy doesn't deserve—"

"Relax, both of you." Sienna said as she raised her arms up to them. "My mind has been made up. If young Tennyson wants to have his freedom, then he'll have to prove his strength to me in a one on one fight."

Ben's eyebrows rose at the prospect. "So… if I win then I get to go off scot-free?"

"Perhaps, but I will be judging you more on your performance than anything." Sienna elaborated. "Prove to me that you are capable in a fight, and we will call this even. But if you refuse, then I get to punish you in any way I deem fit."

The hero smiled and gave an agreeing nod. "Well, alright then! I think we can work around that. I accept the trial."

However, over with the rest of his team, many of them were questioning their leader's sanity. "Is he KIDDING?!" Ilia's hands went to her head in disbelief. "Sienna has never been beaten in a trial by combat! She'll pulverize him!"

"I have to admit, this is a rather rash decision." Winter conceded. "Yes, Ben has an advantage with his aliens…" Her eyes trailed down to the Cerberus Whip at Sienna's waist. "But Sienna's whip appears to be quite painful if used correctly. This fight will ultimately be determined by which form Ben chooses."

At his comment, Sienna gave Winter a sideways glance, taking her off guard a bit. "Funny that you should mention that, Schnee. I intend to up the ante of this bout." Sienna reached to her waist and pulled the Cerberus Whip off of her, setting it to the table with the chain links clinking against each other. "We will not be using any weapons in this fight. Only our natural abilities."

"Ha! Are you kiddin'?!" Kevin guffawed. "Ben's gonna pulverize you if that's the case."

But Ben raised a hand up to his friend. "Hold up, Kev, I'm at least going to give her a fighting chance." The hero pressed down on the Omnitrix's faceplate, making the green holo-ring appear out of it. He walked over to Sienna and presented the watch to her. "Alright, Sienna, I'm letting you chose which alien you wanna fight. Fair is fair, after all, and—huh?" To his shock, Sienna simply pressed down on the faceplate again, making the ring disappear. "What? I-I don't understand."

"Ben," Ghira spoke up, gaining the boy's attention, "in a trial by combat, the rules are to not use any sort of weapon. It is a trial on one's natural strength and skill alone, mirroring what our ancestors used to do in the past. Simply put…" The panther man pointed to the Omnitrix. "You cannot use your watch in this fight."

The entire team were stunned into silence by the rule, but Sienna kept her calm and collected face as she stared down at her soon-to-be opponent. "Well, Tennyson? What say you to all of this? Are you still up for the challenge?"

Ben took a few glances at his friends, the Belladonnas, and then finally brought his eyes back to Sienna. A confident grin came to his face and he extended his hand, offering the woman a handshake. "You know what? I accept."

The whole team's jaws dropped collectively, with Blake facepalming for good measure. "He's dead."

…..

After the initial trial had ended, Sienna had given Ben a full thirty minutes to prepare for his trial by combat. And in that time, Gwen had done nothing but implore her cousin to reconsider his actions. "Ben please rethink this!" the Anodite was practically begging at this point as Ben and Yang were doing a quick spar in the forecourt, with their other teammates watching on from afar. Even Team CFVY and Cooper had come back from the Bullhead to see how the fight would go down. "Listen, I know that this is a Faunus tradition, but you heard Ghira. It's old and outdated!"

"Doesn't matter—ugh!" Ben said as he dodged one of Yang's jabs and countered with his own. "I said I'd do it, and I'm not about to go back on a promise."

"But that was BEFORE you knew you wouldn't be able to use the Omnitrix!" Gwen pressed further. "Without it, you're bound to get the snot kicked out of you."

Yang quirked a brow at the redhead while giving her a smirk. "Oh, ye of little faith, Red! I've been making sure that Green Boy stays in tip top shape every day!" She sent another punch at Ben, only for him to roll out of the way and spring up right beside her, sending another punch her way. She grabbed his arm with a small chuckle. "Heh, you see? He's pretty spry, don't ya think?"

Gwen pursed her lips at this. "Well yeah, maybe. But this is the leader of the White Fang we're talking about here!" she urged. "She's probably trained all her life to fight like this." Gwen gestured to how the couple were fighting right now. "While you and Ben have been training like this for only a little over two weeks."

"Oh, I KNOW that I'll probably get my ass handed to me, Gwen." Ben assured. "But I can at least give it all I've got against her, can't I? She wants to see strength? Well, I'll give her strength."

The Anodite sighed and threw her hands up in the air. "Ugh, I give up! I'll be over with the others penning your last will and testament."

As he watched his cousin leave, Ben couldn't help but feel a bit amused by how she was acting. "I know that Gwen gets frustrated when I make these kind of choices, but I have to admit, it is kinda funny to see her flustered like that." The hero's eyes went to his girlfriend with a more serious air to them. "Still, she has a point. I've got no idea how this match will turn out."

"Me either." Yang shrugged before patting her boyfriend's cheek. "But I've still got faith in you, Green Boy." She pressed her lips against his in a tender kiss before giving him a wink. "Now go show her what you're made of!"

"Hehe, will do." Ben promised.

"Ahem." The couple took their eyes off each other and their heads whirled around to see Raven standing next to them. "I don't suppose that wishing you luck is out of the question?"

Yang gave her mother a very stern expression. "Depends, do you actually mean it or are you not gonna be one-hundred percent honest again?"

Raven winced at the words that were being flung her way. Not to say she didn't deserve it after everything she had chosen to hide from them, but coming from her own flesh and blood, it began to stir up her regret even more, even if she didn't want to admit it. "Listen, I know that after everything I've done, you both are probably done listening to me." She bowed her head slightly to Ben. "But all the same, I wish you luck in this fight, Ben. You are very brave for taking part in this."

"Well… thanks, Raven." Ben acknowledged. "I can only hope that I'll be able to walk away with at least… some of my bones intact."

The tribe leader couldn't help but give a chuckle at that. "Well, at least you're optimistic." She then focused on her daughter again. "I believe Sienna is almost ready to start this off. Are you going over with the others or are you staying here?"

"Staying." Yang answered. "Ben's gonna need my help if he can't get up on his own. …Hopefully it doesn't come to that."

Raven was quick to agree with her daughter's decision, seeing Sienna and the Belladonnas exiting the house out of the corner of her eye. "Very well then, I will be over there with the others. Something tells me that Sienna wouldn't appreciate my presence that much." She got a silent nod from her daughter before she and Ben went over to meet Sienna, which only made Raven more apprehensive. 'Why am I feeling like this?!' she wondered as she walked over to the rest of the team. 'I'm a Branwen! I should be able to just ignore this feeling… but why CAN'T I?!"

"Uh… Raven?" Ruby's voice suddenly snapped Raven out of her stupor. Her attention immediately went down to the silver-eyed girl, who was sitting down on the front steps of the Belladonna house. She had noticed the small interaction between her sister and the older woman just a few seconds ago, and was curious at why Yang had just brushed Raven off like that. "Are you okay? You and Yang kinda… weren't as chatty as you usually are."

"I…" Raven wasn't sure what to do at that point. The daughter of her once best friend and her former lover was speaking to her very casually, something that had surprised her greatly. 'Well, it probably shouldn't.' Raven rationalized. 'She DOES have her mother's caring nature, after all.' With a reluctant sigh, Raven sat down on the steps herself and answered; "Well, no, Ruby. I don't think I am alright. During our encounter with Salem, the witch gave out a piece of important information that I didn't know that she knew. One that I had been keeping from you until I deemed the time right."

Up a few steps, Jaune let out a groan of frustration. "Oh, of course! Because it WOULDN'T be our team if secrets were being kept from us twenty-four-seven." He crossed his arms and gave Raven a questioning gaze. "Alright, so what is it?"

However, before she could answer, Sun did it for her. "Oh, nothin' big… except for the fact that she KNOWS where the Spring Maiden is!"

This elicited many gasps from the crowd of teens, though none more so that Winter, who was directly behind Raven. "Are you KIDDING ME?!" The elder Schnee stood up and grabbed a hold of Raven's shoulder, forcibly turning her around to meet her face to face. "You've known where the Spring Maiden was all this time and you DIDN'T tell us?! Are you MAD?!"

Raven furrowed her brows and shoved Winter's hand off of her shoulder. "No… just smart. If I had told you all right off the bat, then you would ALL become Salem's target." The tribe leader set her eyes onto the entire group, who were giving her all judgmental glares. "Listen, up to this point, Salem has been going soft on you all. She's only seen the lot of you as a mere nuisance up to this point, but after tonight, I'm afraid that won't be the case anymore."

"But that was probably just going to happen anyway!" Weiss pointed out. "Why not just tell us right off the bat?"

"It probably WOULD have been the wiser decision." Holiday concurred. "We could have avoided all of this grief in the long run if you had just told us."

"Yes, Yang and Ben already made it a point to say that to me." Raven revealed. "But… there is another reason why I chose not to tell you. And it's… a rather BIG reason."

"Oh please!" Nora balked with a light chuckle. "What could POSSIBLY be a bigger reason… than… that? Oh my god." The Pink Dynamo was stunned into silence, along with everyone else, when she saw a rather powerful energy begin to emanate from around Raven's eyes, the woman still staring out across the crowd sitting on the steps.

"As you can see… I am the Spring Maiden."

The silence went on for a bit longer before a collective; "WHAT?!" echoed across the forecourt, gaining the attention of the Belladonnas, Sienna, Yang and Ben, who all whirled their heads around to see what the commotion was about. The powerful couple in particular had been especially surprised to see the Maiden energy for a brief moment around Raven's eyes before it disappeared once again. She had told them about it already?

"Huh, didn't think she'd have it in her." Yang conceded.

"Maybe we should've given her a bit more credit." Ben added.

Conversely though, Sienna shouted over to the team, curious as to why the overall silence of the night had been broken. "Hey! What's going on over there?!"

Everyone's eyes widened after realizing what they had just done, and Pyrrha was quick to try and save face. "Oh, uh, nothing! Everything is alright, Miss Khan! Please, go on with the trial!" After Sienna moved back around to her approaching opponent, Pyrrha whirled her head around and glowered directly at Raven. "I knew it!" Pyrrha whispered harshly. "I knew that you were hiding something from us!" Her eyes narrowed further when Raven didn't even flinch at the accusations. "And just HOW did you come to acquire the Spring Maiden powers in the first place? Because I have a feeling that you weren't chosen to be their new host."

Before Raven could even think of a response, Winter extended her arm out and pulled Pyrrha back, giving her a stern gaze. "That's enough, Pyrrha." she insisted. "This is neither the time OR the place for this." Her sights then went to Raven, boring into the Spring Maiden with great intensity in her eyes. "But we WILL be discussing this later. Are we clear on that?"

"Yes." Raven answered. "I was going to be doing that anyway." Without another word, Raven faced back to the forecourt, where Sienna and Ben were taking their spots on the battlefield.

Sitting next to her, Ruby could see that Raven's face had become a mixture of emotions; a little anger, some sadness… but there was one that she could tell was the most prominent; regret. What the older woman was regretting, the Hooded Huntress didn't know. But Ruby knew remorse when she saw it, and it was there, clear as day. 'This might require further questioning.' she commented in her head before going back to the fight that was about to start. "So, what do you think Ben's chances of winning are?"

Penny did some quick calculations in her head and came up with an answer just a few seconds later. "I'd say he has about a one-in-ten chance that he could win."

Rex's eyebrows shot up. "Hey, that's not bad. Ten IS Ben's lucky number after all."

The android sent him a deadpan expression. "Rex, Ben is the one in that scenario. And the other chances almost always result in him being beaten to a pulp. This is anything BUT good."

"Oh… I see." Rex slumped his shoulders. "Well, it was nice knowing him, at least."

Over on the make-shift battlefield, Sienna and Ben were standing off against each other, both of them preparing themselves for the fight that was about to get underway. The tiger woman herself had her arms crossed, waiting for her opponent to give the word. "Well? Are you ready for this, Benjamin?"

"Just a moment." Ben said before removing his jacket and handing it to Yang. He then raised the Omnitrix up and spoke into it loud and clear; "Omnitrix, voice command mode."

"Acknowledged." The Omnitrix spoke back.

"Decouple Omnitrix. Command code: zero-zero-zero. Release coupling: zero."

"Command accepted." With that, the Omnitrix's wrist band loosed up around Ben's wrist and the hero grabbed it, pulling it off with his right hand.

Needless to say, everyone was surprised, but Ben kept a smile. "Just so that the fail-safes don't kick in while we're fighting. If the Omnitrix transforms me by force, I'll get disqualified from the trial automatically, right?"

Sienna nodded her head. "That is indeed correct." The White Fang leader went into a battle stance, now ready to begin the fight. "Well, now that you're ready, let us begin."

"Right." Ben held the Omntrix up to Yang with a smile. "Hey Yang, I know that this is probably a big thing to ask, but… can you hold onto the Omnitrix during the fight?"

Yang's lips parted in surprise. "You… you really trust me enough to hold the most powerful weapon in the universe?"

"Hehe, of course I trust you." Ben gave her a wink. "I mean, what kind of boyfriend would I be if I didn't?"

Yang brightened up at that and reached out, taking the Omnitrix in her hand. She set her eyes down upon it and gave a small chuckle. "Heh… you know, this… this has a lot of weight for such a small thing." Yang returned Ben's wink soon after. "Go get her, Green Boy."

"Will do." Ben affirmed before facing Sienna once more, getting into a battle stance of his own. "Alright, Sienna, ready when you are!"

"Very good!" Sienna nudged her head toward Ghira, the chieftain standing off to the side of the battlefield with Kali. "Ghira, call it!"

Ghira let out a reluctant sigh and he raised his arm. "Very well, but that doesn't mean I have to like it." The panther man brought his arm down and yelled; "Let the trial by combat begin… NOW!"

With that, Ben and Sienna rushed toward each other, the latter belting out a loud roar when she lunged forward. The two were about to meet in the middle when Ben ducked out from under Sienna's mighty leap, resulting in her missing him all together. She tuck-and-rolled across the ground before springing up to her feet, only to be taken slightly by surprise when Ben rammed into her back and made her stumble a bit. However, she was quick to save herself by doing a flip, landing on her feet quite gracefully. "Misdirection, Tennyson?" Sienna asked as she sprinted for the hero once again. "I did not expect that right off the bat!"

Sienna reached out and made to grab Ben by the collar of his shirt, only for him to grab her arm the moment it got close to him. "Oh, trust me, I like throwing my enemies off their game when I fight. Helps me get the upper hand!" In a flash, Ben reached up and pushed down on Sienna's shoulder, forcing her to the ground and pinning her with his chest and elbow against her back. "Haha, CQC!"

Sienna's eyes darted to him in confusion. "What?!"

"Close-quarters combat." Ben answered with a smirk. "Who says videogames can't teach you a few things?"

Sienna pursed her lips at that. "Hmph, impressive, but you should try to measure that confidence of yours…" The tiger lady pulled her free arm up and slammed him in the gut with her elbow, making him let out a grunt forcing him up from her for a brief moment. She took that opportunity to wrestle her arm away from his grip and flip herself around beneath him. "Otherwise, you'll lose track of what matters!" In a surprise move, Sienna wrapped her legs around Ben's midsection, taking him off guard… and making his face flush red in the process. In a flash, Sienna pulled herself up and tackling him to the ground, using her hands to pin his shoulders.

As the rest of the team watched, Jaune couldn't help but get a little red in the face himself. "Holy crap. That was… unexpected."

Neptune tugged at his collar a bit. "Is it bad that I kinda wanna be the one fighting her?"

Ilia rolled her eyes at that. "Oh for Pete's sake, control your hormones!"

Weiss was sending a worried gaze across the battlefield, her eyes landing on Yang as the fight went on. The heiress would be all too quick to agree with what Ilia said, but there was a more pressing concern to her at the moment. "I just hope that Yang's able to keep her temper in check. Look."

Everyone saw that Yang was trying desperately to keep herself under control as the fight went on, her hands tightening around Ben's jacket and the Omnitrix as she watched her boyfriend get pinned. The precarious position that Sienna had placed herself above Ben didn't help matters either. 'Relax, Yang.' she said calmly to herself in her head. 'This is just a fight. Jealousy is NOT needed here.'

Sienna smirked and raised her arm, preparing her finely sharpened claw-like nails to strike. "Come now, Tennyson. I thought you had more in you than that!"

But Ben returned the smile with gusto. "Actually, I'm just getting started!" He bent his legs up and pressed them against his chest before thrusting them forward, kicking Sienna off of him. She didn't go very far, but it was enough to allow the hero to get up and go back into his fighting stance. "Alright, now where were we?"

Sienna had gotten up as well, a slightly intrigued expression having formed on her face. "Hm, not bad, not bad…" She then pulled her hands back and readied her claws again. "But let's see how you handle this!" With a burst of speed, Sienna rushed toward Ben, zooming across the field in a zig-zag pattern in order to confuse him.

Ben widened his stance and kept his eyes on Sienna as she zipped around the battlefield, hoping to catch her strike in time. 'Wait for it… NOW!' Right at the moment Sienna surged up to him with her claws raised to strike, Ben lurched forward and reeled back his fist, bringing it up a split second later to deliver an upward blow directly to Sienna's stomach. The woman let out a gasp the moment she was hit, the wind having been knocked out of her.

But that didn't mean that her guard was down, because the moment that Ben made his next move, she was ready for it. The Omnitrix bearer sent a sweeping kick to her legs, intending to knock her over. But as they were about to connect, Sienna leapt away as she collected herself, taking deep breaths as she collected herself. "Hah, not bad, Tennyson. I truly expected you to go down sooner."

The hero wiped some sweat away from his brow. "Heh, thank you. You're pretty good yourself." He made a "bring it on" motion with his fingers, encouraging her to come at him. "But I'm guessing we're not done yet."

"Absolutely not!" With another roar of determination, Sienna leapt at Ben and the two began to fight each other in close quarters, both of them keeping their fists up and close to their faces to block their respective hits. Once in a while, Ben would get in a lucky hit to Sienna's shoulder or arm, but whenever he tried to hit her face, she would easily block it. Conversely, Sienna was getting plenty of hits on Ben's body, practically pummeling him backwards as he continued to stay on the defensive.

With every hit his body took, Ben winced in pain, be it in his chest, arm or even in the face a couple times. But he HAD to keep going. He couldn't just give up at that moment. 'If I have to get beat up to pass this trial, then fine. But I'm not going down without a fight!' With that thought in his mind, Ben began redoubling his efforts, a loud yell escaping his throat as adrenaline began pumping through his veins. And with that second wind, he started to get in some more hits on Sienna, even managing to connect his fist with her face on one occasion.

Needless to say, Sienna herself was surprised by the boy's second wind. 'Oh, now THIS is what I wanted to see from him.' After the two threw a few more rounds of punches and kicks at each other, Sienna finally decided that it was time to end it all. 'This is where you go down, Tennyson.' With that thought, Sienna brought her knee up and slammed it into Ben's gut, eliciting a howl of pain from the young hero.

"GAH!" Ben doubled over in pain, with tears beginning to brim his eyes after what had just happened. But as he made to glance back up to Sienna, he saw her leap gracefully over his head, bringing her claws back out as she did. Right as she hit the ground, Sienna slashed a single hand across Ben's back, tearing through both his shirt and skin. "AAAAAUGH!" Ben grit his teeth in pain as blood began immediately began to draw from the four cuts, the force from Sienna's blow making him fall to his knees.

But the tigress wasn't done yet. She used her leg to kick him back up, only to send a volley of punches at his face, going so far as to make his lower lip split open. Finally, Sienna straightened out her fingers and sent a clean chop down at Ben's chest, her sharp claws going through his shirt again and leaving a clean scar along his left pectoral. After making him scream in pain again, Sienna used her other hand to shove him down to the ground, the hero now very much in pain.

"BEN!" Gwen shouted at the top of her lungs. The Anodite stood up, only to be immediately stopped by Blake, the cat girl taking a firm hold of her shoulder. "Blake! What are—"

"It's not done." Blake explained. "It'll only be finished when Sienna calls the match."

"But he's suffered enough!" Gwen pressed further.

Blake simply gave her a smirk and pointed out to the battlefield. "I wouldn't be too sure about that."

Gwen directed her eyes back to the fight and was astonished to see her cousin beginning to stand up. He was winded, bloodied and beaten up, but he was all too quick to raise his fists up in Sienna's direction, the tiger lady's eyes widening as a result. "…You are still willing to go on?" Sienna asked. "Even after all of that?"

"You… kidding?" Ben breathed out. "I can do this all day."

Back on the sidelines, everyone was beaming at the fact that Ben was still willing to fight, with even Coco giving out an impressed whistle. "Man! Tennyson's one tough son of a bitch! How's he able to take so much punishment?"

"My guess?" Cooper piped up. "He's been doing this against bad guys for so long that he's gotten more durable over the years. It's pretty impressive."

Over on the battlefield, Sienna closed her eyes and smiled at this act of determination, slightly chuckling to herself a little. "If you insist." With that, Sienna suddenly did a front flip, landing on her hands before thrusting herself feet-first at her opponent catching Ben off guard. The leader of the White Fang connected her feet to Ben's chest, sending him sprawling back down to the ground with her pinning him once again. With the young hero breathing in and out steadily beneath her, Sienna gave him a sly grin. "Alright, I have seen enough."

Ben's eyebrows rose up in surprise. "Wait… really? You're calling it here?"

"Yes. You are exhausted and you probably would not be able to go on with those injuries." Sienna raised a brow at him. "If you were still able to transform, then it'd be a different story about who would be able to last longer."

The hero gave out a sigh as his breathing evened out. "Well, I can't argue with you there." He shrugged up to her. "But I still think you would've given me a run for my money."

"Maybe so, but all the same, you put up a good fight." Sienna stood up and offered her hand. "And that means that you are free to go."

"…Hold on, what?!" Ben reached up and grasped Sienna's hand, allowing her to pull him up. "But… I didn't win."

Yang came up to them, just as confused as Ben was. "Yeah, if Ben lost, doesn't that mean he gets punished?"

Sienna shook her head. "This was never about winning, remember? Like I said before, this was to prove to me that you were willing to fight for your freedom, as well as show me your skill in battle without the use of your weapon." She reached up and ruffled Ben's hair a bit. "And you know what? For a young cub, you're not too bad."

The couple blinked in bewilderment at the vocabulary. "Did you just call me… you know what? Not even gonna question it." Ben went to bow in respect to Sienna, though his clothes rubbing against his wounds made him wince a bit. "Thank you, Sienna."

"You're welcome." Sienna nodded back. "But one last thing; while I have no doubt that our paths will cross again, Ben Tennyson, I hope to NEVER see Rath again. Am I clear?"

Ben was quick to give her a salute. "Yes ma'am! Won't happen again, ma'am!"

"Good." Sienna sent him and Yang a small wink and a grin. "Now… I think it is time for you all to begin preparing for your trip home."

…..

As the whole team began to board Tetrax's ship, Raven trailed behind the group, mostly so that she didn't have to deal with their judgmental gazes. At the same time though, she couldn't BELIEVE that she was feeling like this! She was a Branwen for god's sake! Her father had raised her to be a hardened warrior thief who didn't let her emotions control her! It was practically a disgrace to her family name… but at the same time, all of that had been thrown out the window the moment she fell for Tai all those years ago. Ever since then, her resolve had waned and, little by little, she opened up to her team. And because of that, she was also beginning to open up to these kids as well, most of all, Yang and Ben. 'God damn it, Raven.' she chastised herself in her mind. 'How is it that you're able to get yourself into these situations?'

However, at the sound of chatter, Raven's eyes went up to see Winter finishing a conversation with General Ironwood. She also saw Coco, Velvet and Cooper standing across from Yatsu and Fox, the five appearing to say goodbye to each other before the former three went to the Resolute themselves. The man gave his top specialist a salute before he, Yatsu and Fox boarded the Bullhead, the hatch closing up soon after. All at once, the Bullhead took off and began heading north to Mistral, making Raven a bit perplexed. "So… I suppose Jim didn't want to waste any time?"

Winter sighed and then turned around, furrowing her brows at the Spring Maiden. "That's right. He wants to get to Mistral by sun up, after all." She craned her head up to the night sky, which was beginning to become a brighter shade of blue as the sun peaked out over the horizon. "Which means that WE should be leaving soon if we want to make it by nightfall back home."

"Hm, I suppose so." Raven agreed. "And what of the boys that went with him?"

"He asked Yatsu and Fox to go with him incase the prisoners became restless." Winter explained. "And Ruby had asked Coco and Velvet to come home on the Resolute for a special meeting, so they and Cooper will be joining us."

"I see." The tribe leader crossed her arms. "I'm just surprised that Jim didn't stay to hear my… special news." Raven raised a brow at Winter. "He IS going to be told about this, right?"

"Oh, most certainly." Winter assured as she turned toward the Resolute. "He will be told first thing tomorrow. I simply wish to not put too much stress on him than he already has."

Raven nodded in understanding. "Ah, I see you've noticed it too, eh? How paranoid he gets whenever he's stressed out?"

Winter pursed her lips at that. "I… I have never questioned General Ironwood's judgement in the past, but after what happened at Beacon, he seems to be more on edge every day." She glanced off to the side. "I'm simply making sure that he doesn't fall off of that edge. The last thing he needs is for things to start piling up on him."

"I suppose that's one way to go about it." Raven shrugged before seeing Ben, Yang, Blake, Sun and Ilia walking over with Sienna and the Belladonnas. They were in the middle of a small conversation, one that took the Maiden by surprise a little bit.

"And you are certain you wish to leave?" Sienna asked with her eyes trained on Ilia.

The chameleon girl gave her leader a bow. "Yes, Lady Sienna. As much as I value my place in the White Fang… I've also found a group of great friends that I want to get to know better." Ilia stood up straight and sent Sienna a sad smile. "I will miss this place, but I feel like there's more for me out in the world than here."

Sienna crossed her arms and let out a small chuckle. "Heh, I see. Well, I was hoping you would take part in rebuilding the White Fang with us, but I suppose beggars cannot be choosers." She set a hand on Ilia's shoulder. "But remember that you will always have a place here with the White Fang… even if you ARE friends with a Schnee."

Blake gave Sienna a deadpan face. "Really? We're still on THAT chestnut?"

"Oh please, Blake, I am merely kidding." Sienna waved off. "All the same, I wish you all luck in your fight against Salem. And should you need the White Fang's assistance, we will be more than happy to oblige."

Blake sighed and gave her a grin. "Well, I'm not about to look a gift horse in the mouth, so thank you." She then shifted her attention to her parents, who both had happy yet saddened smiles on their faces. "So… I guess this is it?"

"For now, at least." Ghira promised. "There's a lot of rebuilding to do here, both for the town AND the White Fang." He stepped forward and gave his daughter a hug. "But I know for a fact that we'll see you soon, Blake."

"You're father's right, dear." Kali said as she joined in. "We've already been making a few plans with Sienna, and I have a feeling that you'll be playing a part in them." She gave her daughter a kiss on the cheek followed by a wink. "But we'll make sure to call you and give you a heads up before we put them into motion, alright? Oh! And give Rema plenty of kisses from me, okay?"

"Hehe, okay." Blake chuckled as she fell out of her parent's arms. "I guess I'll see you guys soon then."

"Right." Ghira said before giving Sun a steely expression, making the monkey boy jump in surprise. After a few seconds of staring him down, Ghira let out a sigh. "Alright, listen boy, I may not like you, but it's all too obvious that my daughter does." He pointed to Sun's face. "And I want YOU to keep her happy, alright? Think you can do that?"

Sun was a bit taken aback, but he managed to get a hold of himself rather quickly, returning Ghira's serious expression with his own. "Sir, I wouldn't dream of doing anything else."

"Good man." Ghira approved before waving his hand up. "Now you all should get a move on. Your ship is about to leave." With one final goodbye, Blake and Sun rushed up the steps with Ilia in tow, leaving Ghira to address Ben and Yang. The panther man couldn't help but wince at how disheveled Ben was at the moment, even with the Omnitrix and his signature jacket back on. Between the rips in his shirt, the slashes across his body and the bruises on his face with even more under his shirt, it was evident that Sienna had really done a number on him. "I… apologize if this was more than you were expecting to go through today, Ben."

"Ah, it's no problem." Ben waved off. "I've been through worse. Besides, it was worth it to free your home." The hero extended his hand and gave Ghira a nod. "I hope we get to work with each other again soon, Ghira."

Yang did the same with Kali. "It's been a real honor to meet you both." the blonde added.

"Oh, of course!" Kali said as she and her husband shook their respective hands. "And we very much look forward to seeing you all again."

"Indeed we do." Ghira concurred. "Have a safe journey home, alright?"

Ben gave a salute after the handshakes finished. "Will do! We'll see you later…" The hero sent a small glance toward Sienna. "And hopefully there'll be less beatings in my future."

But Sienna just shrugged him off and waved toward the ship. "Ah, just get to your ship already."

"Heh, yeah, sure." Ben gave her and the Belladonnas a thumbs up. "We'll see you guys later." The couple began making their way back to Tetrax's ship, only for both of them to come to a halt when they saw Raven waiting for them at the ramp.

The Spring Maiden wore a somewhat solemn face as they approached, taking in a deep breath to steady herself. "Well, I believe it's time I begin explaining myself."

Yang placed her hands on her hips. "Yeah… but why did you tell the others before the trial was over? You could've just waited until we left."

"It… felt like the right thing to do, I suppose." Raven's eyes went to the ship before continuing. "I kept this secret even when I said I would be transparent with all of you. And since I already told you two about it, I thought it would be easier to just come right out and say it." Her head craned down a little bit and her gaze lowered to the ground. "I owe you all that much."

The Blonde Brawler sighed a little in frustration. "You know… for what you've hidden from us, I'm at least glad that you have a conscience." She strode forward, going past her mother while nudging her head toward the ship. "C'mon, we've got a long trip back."

As the trio made their way on board, Sienna couldn't help but smirk as they went up the ramp. "You know, in an odd way, I think I'm going to miss them. Not much, but a little bit."

"I'll miss them too." Kali affirmed. "To think we only met them yesterday. But at the same time, we all know that this isn't the last time we'll see them."

"On that, we can all agree." Ghira said as he watched the ship take off, his thoughts going to his daughter on board. 'Blake… everybody… good luck. And stay safe.'

…..

A/N: And with that, the White Fang arc comes to a close. And what a way to go out, huh? A happy and safe reunion of a family, Weiss making a pretty big impact on Trifa and Sienna in the trial (as well as Trifa being allowed to go free), Raven fessing up to the rest of the gang (for better or for worse), and Ben going into a Omnitrix-less fight against Sienna to prove himself to Sienna. Overall, I'd say that this was a near-absolute win. Of course, there's still the matter of Humungousaur's DNA still being damaged, which was something even Cooper couldn't fix, but our favorite Vaxasaurian won't be gone forever. Plus, it IS a little sad that Ghira, Kali and Sienna won't be seen for a while, but again, they aren't gonna be TOTALLY gone from the story for long. And hey, Ilia's joining the team permanently now, so there's that! How WILL the chameleon girl fare though now that she's got her new friends? We'll just have to wait and see.

But for now… NEXT TIME! Raven finally lets the big cat out of the bag about how she came to acquire the Spring Maiden powers, and Yang is rather frustrated by what she hears. Afterward though, we move onto something a little different when Ruby decided to introduce Velvet and Coco to a certain Aerophibian inmate who's hoping that the rabbit girl can accept her apology. When they finally get home though, the team find that the adults have been having a bit of fun in their absence. What's more, Jaune's parents have a little gift for their son and his team. What could it be? Well stay tuned to find out! Well guys, that's all from me for now. Thanks for reading and I'll see ya next time! Laters!