The Grimm War

by McDouggal

A trick of the Void traps the Operator and Ordis on Remnant just after the events of the Mountain Glenn incident. Warframe story spoilers through Chains of Harrow, although not Apostasy or Sacrifice.

9. The Precipice

"General Ironwood. Specialist Schnee. Please close the door."

Winter Schnee, Weiss's older sister, does so as Ironwood asks "What's going on, Ozpin?"

"This is extremely secret. Do not discuss it with anyone not in the know – and the only people currently in the know are me, Glynda, Qrow, and a pair of student teams."

Ironwood raises his eyebrow. "How secret can it be if there are students aware of it?"

"The students are well aware of the necessary secrecy. If I am to share this with you, then you must also be sworn to silence."

Ironwood looks up, glancing at Glynda and Qrow, who are flanking Ozpin, before nodding. "You have my word."

"And mine," says Winter.

Ozpin nods before sighing. "Around three months ago, after the Breach, there was a moon shard impact not far outside of Vale. I sent team RWBY on a mission to retrieve the largest remaining shard as a way to test their traditional navigation skills. When they reached the impact site, they discovered that it was not a shard of shattered moon, nor was it anything terrestrial." Ozpin is silent for a few moments, seemingly waiting.

Winter says it first. "You're not saying they found aliens?" she asks, disbelievingly.

Qrow nods. "They found a ship, heavily damaged. More importantly, they saw signs of combat around it. Pretty soon after that, they made first contact with one of them. It... wasn't really friendly."

Ozpin interrupts. "No shots were fired, although there were weapons pointed. She explained that an accident had left her ship incapable of space travel until she could perform repairs, and requested protection until she could get enough repairs done to get back into space, at which point she would fight at my direction until she found a way to go home."

Glynda nods. "Ozpin offered the hidden hangar as a place to repair her ship. It kept her close."

Ironwood leans forward, eyebrow raised. "Why?"

"Because she was clearly not sent by Salem, and therefore could be a powerful ally," Ozpin says. "And if she did turn out to be an enemy, keeping her close would make it more easy to take her down."

Winter crosses her arms. "Why are you telling us this, then?"

"I thought that with Glynda and I nearby at all times, we would be able to handle the alien if she proved hostile. However, something came to light that changed this. Do you remember Doctor Merlot?"

Ironwood nods. "I thought he was dead."

"He survived the destruction of Mountain Glenn. Some of the CCT relays were going down, and when we went to investigate them... Well, short version, he was continuing his experimentation on Grimm. Two student teams – RWBY and JNPR – investigated, and went beyond their original mission parameters. I attempted to locate a Huntsman or Hunter team who could assist them, but none were available. With no options left, I asked the alien to perform the reinforcement."

Qrow nods, stepping forward. "From what I've heard, this alien wasn't lying when it said it was a veteran of enough combat to put all of us combined to shame. It was fast, decisive, and brutal."

Ozpin nods. "In a last gambit, Doctor Merlot claimed he had a dead man's switch hooked up to the base's self-destruct sequence. The alien's response was to destroy the switch by shooting the hands. Repeatedly."

"When the students brought him back, the doctors had no choice but to amputate them," Glynda says.

Ironwood exhales hard, imagining the scene, before Winter asks "But why are you telling us this now?"

"Simply put, what came to light during this was that I significantly underestimated the alien's combat capability. Even with Qrow alongside Glynda and I, I'm unsure whether we would be able to take her down."

"I can't just leave Atlas forever, Ozpin," Ironwood says.

"I know you can't. I'm asking for Winter to stay at Beacon until the alien has finished her repairs and returned to space."

Winter raises an eyebrow. "Why me specifically?"

Qrow is the one who answers. "Because, Ice Queen, you have a nice little trifecta of things we call 'good reasons.' Firstly, you're good in a scrap. That's important; this alien made Pyrrha Nikos say she was completely outclassed. And I mean completely. What was it she said, Oz?"

"I believe she said that on favorable ground and with surprise, she would last about three seconds."

"Yeah, it was something like that. Anyways, the second reason is that you have no current assignment, as Ironwood seems to have you just along for the ride for the last few months."

Ironwood places his metal arm between the specialist and Qrow. "It's called mentoring, Qrow. She's become my second in all but name."

"Yeah, sure. The last reason is that you have a good excuse, or at least one that holds up to most scrutiny."

"Oh?" Winter asks, eyebrow arched and arms crossed.

"Your sister Weiss," Glynda says. "She's still having trouble with some of the more powerful aspects of your family Semblance. Who better to help her with that than a member of her family, who has already mastered her Semblance?"

Ironwood nods, looking contemplative. "I won't dismiss it out of hand, but I would like to see the alien before I commit to anything."

"I can certainly try. As a warning, she will be quite brusque."

Ironwood chuckles. "I can handle that."

The group stands up, walking to the elevator and letting Ozpin input the code for the secret level.

"This is an unexpected visit. She will initially be hostile, but will calm down quickly once the challenge phrase is finished."

The door dings to open, and the natives of Remnant enter a room that looks empty aside from a bunch of wires falling from the back end of the ship and a pile of what looks like sections of hull plate near the front. They slowly walk forward before a hole is blown in the concrete less than an inch in front of Ozpin's foot, causing them to halt, Winter grabbing for her blade and Qrow swearing as he does the same. A voice calls "Tyl Regor!" from somewhere in the room; they can't tell where.

Ozpin calmly replies "Tubemen."

The Operator still doesn't appear, asking "Who are the other two?"

"General James Ironwood and Specialist Winter Schnee. They are people I trust, who are also sworn to secrecy regarding you," Ozpin says, face never losing its composure.

The alien reappears on top of the Orbiter, near where the mass of wiring had fallen down from. Standing, she replaces her rifle on her back as she jumps down to retrieve them. "What did you want?"

Ironwood steps forward. "I just have a few questions."

"Then ask them," the Operator says, leaping back up to the top of her ship again and opening up the access panel she'd been working in before.

"Who are you?"

"Don't have a name. Call me Tenno or the Operator."

"How do you not have a name?" Winter asks.

"Ask Ozpin or your sister. I've explained it to them before, and it wasn't when I was trying to replace a fairly intricate wiring harness."

Winter glances at Ozpin, who nods. Ironwood asks "How are repairs coming?"

"She's flight capable, but not space ready," the Operator says, before a shower of sparks fly out and she says something in a musical language. "Ordis! I thought you said this section was depowered!"

A chipper voice comes out. "It should've been. The crash must've caused a short somewhere. Deactivating power to a possible short location. Test now."

The Operator reaches in and sparks fly again, causing more of the musical language to come from the Operator.

The Atlesians exchange mildly confused looks. Ozpin asks "Is everything all right?"

"Well, I just got zapped twice by enough electricity to kill a normal human, and this wiring harness wasn't rated for that and is now useless. Take a guess." More sparks fly out as another test fails to find the source.

"There's only one more thing it could be, Operator. Try it now," Ordis says.

The Operator reaches back in, and no sparks fly out. "That did it. Where's the short?"

"It should be accessible from crawlspace 3, Operator."

"Wonderful," the Operator says sarcastically. Standing up, black scorch marks are revealed on the formerly pristine white arms of the Ivara. "Do you need anything else?" she asks the assembled Remnant natives.

Ozpin shakes his head. "No, it's fine. We'll leave you to it."

The Operator nods, hopping back up to the airlock on the Orbiter as the natives take their leave.

The elevator ride back up is silent until Winter says "I never mentioned having a sister."

"Hmm?" Ozpin says, eyebrow raised.

"She said to ask my sister. I never mentioned that Weiss was my sister," Winter explains.

Qrow chuckles. "Winter, you both have snow white hair, the attitude of a princess, and the last name of Schnee. I'm sure that she just put two and two together."

Winter shoots Qrow a dirty look, before admitting "I guess that would be the easiest explanation."

---

"Operator, the Black Queen just set the matchups for the second round of the tournament."

"Did you find who did it?"

"No. I went through four proxies before I found the fifth one, which was someone's personal computer which had had all of its data overwritten."

"How long did that take?"

"I hit the end of the trail after .05 seconds, Operator. This was a queued order. I think whoever is running this knows that there's someone else in the system."

"Any luck on running down a motive?"

"None, Operator. The only people with the kind of knowledge to be able to do this on Remnant are either dead or happily employed and paid a lot of money."

"What about national pride?"

"It could be an Atlesian. The remaining Atlesian teams are going up against first-year teams. But one of the draws is against team RWBY, who are in the conversation for a top 3 finish, so that doesn't seem likely."

"Could it be a sacrifice to throw people off of the scent?"

"NO. Team FNKI is regarded very highly in Atlas for their skill. A more likely sacrifice would be Team APPL."

"I don't get it, Ordis. What is the plan?"

"I don't know, Operator."

---

Neon and Flynt enter the arena in a blaze of rainbows and sound, surprising Weiss and Yang, who were expecting something far more reserved than the apparent rave girl on rollerskates and the jazz musician currently opposite them.

Flynt speaks first. "Hey! You're Weiss Schnee, right? The heiress."

Weiss bows her head in recognition. "I am," she says.

"I take it you're pretty good with Dust, then?"

Weiss shrugs. "I do my best," she says.

"Yeah, my dad was good too," Flynt says, starting to scowl. "Ran a dust shop of his own. Until your father ran him out of business."

"Oh," Weiss says, looking somewhat ashamed now. "I'm sorry to hear that."

Flynt looks away, sarcastically saying "Sure you are."

Yang's temper flares, raising her finger. "Hey! Why don't you-"

She's interrupted by Neon's unflattering immitation. "Hey! Why don't you!" she says, mockingly. "That's what you sound like."

Yang is confused. "Uh..."

Neon switches subjects a little bit too fast. "Where'd you get your hair extensions?"

"This is just my normal hair?" Yang says, confused and slightly angry.

"Ooh, really?" Neon says, somewhat mockingly.

"Yeah! Is that a prob-"

"You should try rollerblading sometime! It's super fun!" Neon says, spinning in place as she continues talking. "It'd probably take you a while though, since you're so... you know, top-heavy."

Yang looks down, trying to tamp down on her anger. "Excuse me?!"

Even as Yang and Weiss attempt to make sense of these insults, the match begins, Neon blitzing forwards and trying to get Yang to chase her.

Yang throws a jab at Neon as she passes, but quickly focuses on Flynt instead as he sounds his trumpet. The insults had almost worked. She had nearly gone after the elusive, peppy cat faunus.

Instead, she starts charging towards the musician, who begins blasting sound towards her, slowing, but not stopping, her advance. She continues to push forward, her aura slowly chipping away around her, trusting Weiss to come up with something.

Over the tremendous torrent of sound, she can barely hear glyphs being cast. Yang guesses that Weiss is probably working at fending off Neon at the moment, and groans internally as she sees four of Flynt appear, causing the force against her to increase substantially and finally stop her forward momentum. She feels her hair starting to heat up, her Semblance trying to burn. She holds it back, feeling it keep building. She needs to trust that Weiss will find a moment to get her free. She only needs one.

She finally gets it. The torrent of sound is disrupted, and Yang sees Flynt thrown up into the air by some glyph of Weiss. She leaps forward with a mighty yell, hair bursting into flames, and lands a Semblance-enhanced straight punch directly into the falling man's chest.

He flies off like he'd been shot from a cannon, slamming into a ruined wall in the stadium and continuing through, but there's surprisingly no elimination announcement. Before Yang can consider giving chase, she gets her leg swept out from under her by the rollerblading cat Faunus, and her attention is redirected again.

Jumping to her feet, the two members of team RWBY join up again. "Thanks for the assist," Yang says, panting a bit.

"No problem. He had to stay still to use his music... thing. They were probably trying to split us up so that he could lock me up and wear me down while you tried and failed to catch Neon."

"Yeah," Yang says, shrugging. "Let's go figure out where they got to. Don't stick too close so that he can't catch us both at once."

The pair move forward carefully. When they get a chance to look at the scoreboard, they see that they have the advantage – Weiss has only taken chip damage to her aura and Yang is at 80%, while Neon is at 90% and Flynt is at 40%.

"What'd you do to get free of Neon, anyways?"

"Ice puddle as she was turning. Ruby's shot yesterday inspired me."

"Nice," Yang says, appreciatively.

"If we can gunk up her roller blades, we can take away her mobility," Weiss notes. "At that point, her only weapon is her nunchucks, and her footwork will be compromised."

Yang nods. "I've got an idea to deal with that."

They're silent as the game of cat and mouse continues, moving out of the ruined city and into the rocky area of the field when they hear the trumpet to their rear. The pair quickly turn, seeing a speed boosted Neon coming flying towards them.

Yang grins.

Pumping her fists quickly, she loads one shell gravity dust in one gauntlet and one shell fire dust in the other, before leaping high and firing the shells into the ground as she slams her fists into it.

The formerly smooth rock flooring becomes so much rough gravel, with a significant amount flying everywhere around Yang. Looking up, she smiles as she sees Neon's eyes growing wide in surprise as she desperately tries to turn away.

Even with the speed boost from Flynt, she probably would've made it. Unfortunately for her, Weiss creates another puddle of ice underneath her. Nearly everyone in the audience flinches and groans in sympathy as the brightly colored Faunus wipes out hard. Yang charges over to where she lays groaning on the ground, pinning her and about to start pummeling, but pulls up as she hears the elimination buzzer sound and glances to see that Neon has been marked out – not by Aura, she still has 70% of that left, but by the judges deciding that Flynt would be unable to effect any form of rescue for his downed teammate and deciding not to risk injuring the student.

Neon lets loose a groan from where she lies on the ground, sounding more like disappointment than pain, as Yang gets off her and moves to join Weiss as they try to hunt down Flynt.

In the 1v2, Flynt simply cannot match up. He tries desperately to dodge and blast sound but can't do both at the same time. Eventually, Yang slaps his trumpet out of his hands before picking him up and tossing him out of the arena.

The second elimination buzzer sounds, ending the match.

Yang lies down, offering a hand up to the recently thrown Flynt and pulling him back up to the stage. "Thanks," he says with a nod of gratitude, accepting his trumpet from Weiss.

"That. Was. AWESOME!" yells a very excited and very dirty Neon from behind the victorious members of team RWBY. "We thought for sure that you guys would get pissed off at us and go for the ones who were taunting you, and then you didn't, those ice puddles were cool moves and that gravel field was great! Also, ow, that gravel field hurt."

"Yeah, thanks for not beating her face in," Flynt says. "That was nice of you."

"Oh yeah, we were hosting a party tonight if you wanna come! There'll be music and dancing and all sorts of fun!"

"Wait. You guys don't hate us?" Yang asks.

"Nah! You're cool!" Neon says.

"I know you're not your father," Flynt says. "From what I've heard, you've done a good job of pissing him off."

"Wait, what? How did you hear about that?"

Flynt chuckles. "I know that you aren't in Atlas anymore, but that doesn't mean that you're not a subject of gossip. You are still the heiress of Schnee Dust, after all. And the rumors coming out of Schnee Manor around the time of your departure was that he was extremely unhappy with your choice of schooling, and he's only gotten angrier as time goes on."

"Eh, her dad's a jerk anyways," Yang says with a shrug. "I'll probably skip out on the party since I'll be fighting again tomorrow, but the rest of our team might show up."

---

"You called, Professor?" Pyrrha asks cautiously as she exits the elevator to Ozpin's office.

"Ah, miss Nikos. Congratulations on your selection to the singles rounds of the Festival; your performance was exemplary."

Pyrrha inclines her head. "Thank you. I wouldn't have made it without my team, however."

There's a scoff from a dark corner to Pyrrha's left. "You're underselling yourself, kid. You would've made it through just fine."

Confused, Pyrrha turns and politely says "I'm sorry, I don't think we've met?"

"Name's Qrow."

"Oh, you're Ruby and Yang's... uncle, right?" Pyrrha says politely. "It's nice to meet you."

"Yeah, yeah. Tell her why she's here, Oz," Qrow says, crossing his arms and half-glaring at Ozpin.

Ozpin gives off a half-smile. "Before I tell you why I called you here, I have a question. What's your favorite fairy tale?"

Pyrrha looks confused. "I'm sorry?"

"Fairy tales. Stories from your childhood. Surely you remember some of them."

Pyrrha still looks confused, but perks up a little as she remembers things from her early childhood. "Well, there's The Tale of the Two Brothers, The Shallow Sea, The Girl in the Tower..."

Ozpin nods. "And what of the Story of the Seasons?"

"I do remember that one. A callous old man, who refuses to leave his home, is vistited by four traveling sisters, who help him return to the world, and in return he grants them incredible powers so that they can continue to help people all over the world. They accept, and promise to share their gifts with Remnant until the end of days. Winter, Spring, Summer, and Fall; the four maidens. My mother loves that story."

Ozpin nods genially. "Would you believe me if I told you that one's been around since I was a boy?"

Pyrrha laughs. "You're not that old, Professor."

Ozpin turns serious instantly. "Would you believe me if I told you it was true?"

Pyrrha is silent for a moment. "I beg your pardon?"

"What if I told you that there were four Maidens existing in this world, that could wield such tremendous power, without Dust?"

Pyrrha is confused. "You mean... like a Semblance?"

Ozpin smiles slightly. "Like Magic."

Pyrrha looks down, sounding almost disbelieving. "I..." she starts to say, before shaking her head.

"Yeah," Qrow says, "First time hearing it's pretty crazy."

Pyrrha looks from Qrow to Ozpin. "You're serious?" she asks.

"Do I look like I'm joking?" Ozpin asks, face completely serious.

"No..." Pyrrha says, struggling for her next words. "Why... are you telling me this?"

Ozpin glances at Qrow, seeing his approving nod, before looking back at Pyrrha. "We are telling you this because we believe that you, Pyrrha Nikos, are next in line to receive the Fall Maiden's powers."

Pyrrha's eyes grow wide, sitting in silence for a few seconds before she asks "We?"

The elevator doors ding and open, revealing General Ironwood and Glynda Goodwitch.

"Sorry we're late," Ironwood says, straightening his tie.

Pyrrha is overwhelmed. "What is this? Who are you?"

Goodwitch steps forward, joining Ironwood and Qrow and trying to sound reassuring. "You know who we are. We're still the same teachers and Headmasters you met when you arrived at Beacon."

"'Cept we've got a little part time job," Qrow says.

"We're the protectors of the world," Ironwood says with confidence.

"And we need your help," says Ozpin.

Pyrrha is shocked into silence for several moments. Goodwitch finally asks "I'm sure you have questions."

Pyrrha is still shocked. "Maybe one, or two..." she says, marshaling her thoughts. "I still don't understand. You said I was next in line to receive the Maiden's power. What do you mean by that?"

"The Maidens have existed for thousands of years," Glynda says. "But much like in nature, the seasons change. No two summers are alike. When a Maiden dies, her power leaves her body and seeks out a new host, ensuring that the seasons are never lost, and that no individual can hold onto that power forever."

"So how does the power choose?"

"Through a series of stupid and convoluted rules," Qrow says, crossing his arms as he leans back against the wall.

"Qrow," Glynda says, warningly.

"Hey, don't get mad 'cause I'm right," Qrow says.

Goodwitch turns back to Pyrrha, explaining it carefully. "At first, the only thing that was certain was that the powers were specifically passed on to young women. But as time went on, it was discovered that the selection process was much more... intimate."

"Intimate?" Pyrrha asks, concerned.

"As we understand it now, when a Maiden dies, the one who is in her final thoughts is the first candidate to inherit her power," Glynda says.

"Unless it's a dude or some old hag," Qrow says. "Then the power goes to someone random, and our job gets a lot harder."

"Why tell me all this now?" Pyrrha asks. "Why not wait until I've graduated?"

"Honestly, we've run out of time," Qrow says. "I don't know if you've noticed, but things are getting a lot scarier out in the world. Tensions are high. Grimm are getting stronger, growing more prevalent. And it's not going to be much longer before the peace we've been enjoying so much goes out the window."

"You're not talking about a war?" Pyrrha says, disbelievingly.

"Not between nations," Ironwood hastens to reassure her.

"We can fill you in on the details once we know that you're with us," Qrow says. "For now, all you need to know is that one of the Maidens has been attacked. And for the first time in history, part of her power was stolen."

Ozpin pulls out a manilla folder, sliding it across his desk to Pyrrha, who opens it up to an image of a tan-skinned woman with horriffic scarring across her face. She almost appears to be sleeping. Pyrrha looks up. "Is this..."

Ozpin sighs. "The current Fall Maiden, Amber."

"... Is she still alive?"

"For now," Ironwood says. "We're using state of the art Atlas technology to keep her stable. But there is a lot about this situation that is... unprecedented."

"What do you mean?" Pyrrha asks.

Ironwood sighs, closing his eyes. "We don't know what will happen if – when she passes," he says, quickly correcting himself.

"Won't her power just... transfer to the next host?" Pyrrha asks.

"Look who's been listening!" Qrow says, before leaning over to Ozpin. "She is smart."

"Under normal circumstances, yes," Ironwood says. "But this is a delicate situation. It's not uncommon for the last thoughts of the slain to be of their attacker."

Glynda nods, gesturing at the folder in Pyrrha's hands. "To make matters worse, the power has never been split like this before. For all we know, it could go and seek its other half."

Pyrrha nods, slowly. "Her assailant."

Ozpin nods. "And that would not bode well for any of us."

Pyrrha looks up, suddenly looking angry. "If this is all true, then why keep it secret!? If she's so important, if we're truly on the brink of war, why not tell everyone?"

"From what we understand, it used to be common knowledge," Glynda says, shaking her head.

"Excuse me?" Pyrrha says, surprised.

Qrow pulls out his flask, unscrewing the cap as he talks. "How do you think legends and fairy tales get started? Even the craziest ones come from somewhere," he says, taking a deep drink as soon as he's finished.

"Our group was founded in order to protect both mankind and the Maidens," Glynda says. "Those hungry for power hunted them in hopes of inheriting their strength."

Qrow finishes his drink, screwing the cap back on as he says "And as you can imagine, the ones who succeeded weren't exactly the kind of people you'd want to have unimaginable power."

"And so our predecessors chose to remove the Maidens from the public eye, allowing their existence to fade away into legend," Ironwood says.

"The things we're telling you go against hundreds of years of human history and religion," Glynda says.

"No one would want to believe us," Ironwood affirms. "It would cause an uproar."

"It would cause panic," Ozpin says. "And we all know what that would bring clawing to our Kingdom's walls. Ozpin leans forwards. "Which is why we would like to-"

Pyrrha interrupts Ozpin. "I'll do it," she says, to Ozpin's surprise. Not looking up from the ground, she says "If you believe this will help humanity..." Her voice trails off before she looks up, determination on her face. "Then I will become your Fall Maiden." She's silent as the adults look to each other warily. "That's what you wanted, isn't it?"

Ozpin leans back into his chair, face serious. "It is. But I'm afraid it's not that simple. Given Amber's condition, you won't be able to inherit her power naturally."

Ironwood steps forward. "However, I believe I have a solution. For the last few years, Atlas has been studying Aura from a more scientific standpoint; how it works, what it's made of, how it can be used. We've made significant strides, and we think we've found a way to capture it."

"Capture it and cram it into something else," Qrow says, distaste obvious in his voice. "Or in your case..."

"That's..." Pyrrha says, disbelievingly.

"Classified," Ironwood says.

"Wrong!" Pyrrha exclaims.

Goodwitch glares at Ironwood. "The feeling is mutual," she says. "But desperate times call for desperate measures."

"And these are indeed desperate times," Ironwood says. "We can't transfer Amber's power to you. But we can give you what those powers are bound to."

"... Her Aura," Pyrrha says slowly.

"Her life," Ozpin says. "It would become intertwined with yours."

"The question is, what's that going to do to you?" Qrow asks.

"You have an important decision ahead of you, Miss Nikos," Ozpin says. "There's no guarantee that this transfer will work, and no guarantee you'll be the same person if it does. I advise you to take your time on this matter. But understand that before the Vytal Festival is over, we will need your answer."

---

The fight between Yang and Mercury starts with a bang, Yang closing the distance with blasts of her gauntlets. There's no grand strategy here; the arena is a flat, open surface upon which to fight. The only thing being tested here is skill at fighting.

Yang knows that at range, Mercury has the advantage on her. The shotgun rounds from Ember Celica simply aren't effective if she isn't in close if she's not using her limited stock of specialty ammunition.

Reaching the unconcerned looking man, she launches a flurry of punches to test the waters, most of which Mercury dodges or deflects before he attempts to sweep Yang's legs in the middle of a pattern. Hopping over the very telegraphed move, Yang sees the other leg of Mercury coming around to kick her; with a quick motion, she fires her gauntlet and throws herself to the right to avoid taking the hit.

The pair circle for a moment before Yang jumps forward once again, making sure her forward leg is always firmly planted to resist a leg sweep this time. It does limit her footwork slightly, but she doesn't want to get caught with her feet off the ground again if she can help it – she's seen what Mercury can do with a solid kick and shot from his boot if he gets the chance.

Yang continues to press the attack, punches, jabs, and knees flying at breakneck pace, while Mercury continues to give ground and play defensively, seemingly attempting to wear her out. Yang knows she can keep going for a while, though, and knows that one mistake by Mercury can end up with the match in her favor.

Eventually though, she recognizes that she's overextending and frustrated, and is about to give Mercury the opening he's waiting for. Instead, she fires one gauntlet at his feet and the other at his chest while she jumps, throwing herself back and up and landing about ten meters away.

Mercury smirks at her as they slowly circle, his hand reaching behind his back for something. "And here I thought you were just going to keep on pushing," he says, before striking a pose and kicking several times, summoning a floating circle of his projectiles before throwing the wind dust crystal he'd palmed onto the ground, sending them flying towards Yang at extreme speed.

There's no way for Yang to dodge it, instead blocking with her gauntlets as best she can, feeling her Semblance start to try and burn. She suppresses it as best she can as Mercury pushes forward on the attack, gunshot enhanced kicks flying fast and furious. She begins slowly losing ground, on the back foot as Mercury's fighting style keeps her at range.

She's slowly losing aura – even with her dodging and parrying, she's still taking chip damage, and with how hard Mercury is pressing, she can't repeat her earlier disengagement. Attempting to regain the initiative, she leaps forward to try and initiate a grapple, but Mercury had expected that, ducking under her and sending her rolling past before firing off a gun-enhanced side kick into her chest while she's off balance, sending her flying and scoring the first solid hit of the match.

Recovering from the forced slide, Yang rolls onto her back, eyes widening as she sees Mercury plummeting down towards her. Thinking quickly, she rolls to the side, Mercury landing right next to her. Yang's arm snaps out, grabbing his – surprisingly solid feeling - ankle and pulling hard in combination with another roll. Mercury is seemingly taken by surprise, getting thrown to the ground next to Yang. Both combatants scramble to recover, getting back to their feet and getting distance, resetting the fight again.

Yang's eyes flick to the board – her aura is at 60%, Mercury's at 87%. She knows she needs to be careful – she only has one chance to land a solid shot with her Semblance, and Mercury has been quite proficient at deflecting and dodging her attacks. She needs to find or force an opening.

Yang charges forwards again, attempting to gain the initiative in the fight. She throws a flurry of punches, lulling Mercury into thinking that she'll be repeating her earlier strategy, before she slams her front foot into his shin and surges forwards in a tackle.

Mercury can't dodge this one like he did her earlier grapple attempt, and the pair go down in a heap. Fortunately for Yang, this is her style of fighting much more than it is Mercury's, and she manages to come out on top, hair bursting into flames as she launches a Semblance-enhanced punch into the chest of Mercury, causing his aura to visibly strain under the impact before Mercury manages to throw her off of him.

As Yang scrambles back to her feet, she hears the elimination buzzer sound. Knowing her own aura is at roughly half, she starts celebrating. Before she can even start to raise her arms in triumph, she hears Mercury snarl "I'm not done yet, blondie."

Spinning, she sees Mercury flying towards her, leg outstretched in a kick.

Yang defensively swats aside Mercury's attack, and hits... nothing?

Her arm seems to phase through Mercury's leg, and Mercury seems to dissolve before hitting her, reappearing sitting on the ground, legs toward her with a disappointed look on his face.

"What?" Yang asks, confused, before shaking her head and offering a hand up to Mercury.

---

The Operator bolts to attention. "What just happened?"

"The hacker briefly seized control of the broadcast systems as the match ended. As nothing seems to have happened, I'm taking no action to shut it down."

"Did you figure out who it was?"

"I found the approximate location of the terminal. The problem is that the initial triangulation places it in the slums, and the cameras in that location are mostly inaccessible from the CCT."

"Can you at least narrow it down?"

"There are approximately 52,843 people and faunus in this particular slum, Operator. I can try, but it will take quite some time, and if he is as competent as I suspect he is, he will avoid any cameras."

"Do your best. Now, what happened at the end? Yang was clearly defending against some form of attack there, but no attack actually happened."

"I don't know, Operator. No camera angle caught anything out of the ordinary."

"Dammit. Ordis, can you guarantee the security of a scroll message to Ruby or Yang? I need to talk to Yang about what happened there."

"Not without neutralizing the Black Queen, Operator."

"Estimate risk."

"Unknown. However, if it was me, with the limits this hacker seems to be operating under, I would currently be watching all messages to team RWBY."

"Damn it all. Where are they currently?"

"Currently, they are at the festival fairgrounds."

"Prep the Ivara and figure out where their dorm is. I need to meet them."

"Ivara prepping. Same loadout as previous. Team RWBY's dorm is dorm B-312."

"Keep the Atlas warm. I've got a bad feeling about this."

---

"I don't get it, Cinder. She should've hit Mercury!"

"It's fine. We'll just have to move the plan forwards a day, since the Pyrrha-Penny match won't be delayed. Give me the scroll, I need to contact Adam."

---

"Hey Yang, what happened at the end? You looked more confused than anything," Ruby says as she and Yang wander the fairgrounds.

Yang looks troubled. "I swear that after the elimination buzzer sounded, I heard Mercury say 'I'm not done yet' and try to keep attacking me, but when I went to block it, my arm just went through him and he reappeared on the ground."

Ruby looks troubled. "Huh. Velvet said that Coco also had a hallucination while fighting Emerald and... Mercury... Oh no," Ruby says, fumbling out her scroll and panicking at what she sees.

"Ruby, what's wrong?"

"Pyrrha and Penny are fighting in like 10 minutes! And my scroll isn't getting any signal so I can't call them! Is yours?"

Confused, Yang pulls out her scroll and sees that she doesn't have signal either. "Nope. That's odd, is the CCT down?"

"Come on Yang follow me we need to warn Pyrrha!" Ruby says, starting to run off towards the colosseum.

"Ruby, what? What's going on?" Yang asks, confused, but following anyways.

"I think someone has an illusion semblance and Pyrrha can control metal and Penny is a robot and I need to warn Pyrrha before something terrible happens!" Ruby rambles as she sprints.

"Ruby, go. You're faster than me, I'll catch up." Before Yang can even finish the sentence, Ruby disappears in a cloud of rose petals.

Having piloted the Ivara to team RWBY's dorm and successfully hidden inside, the Operator cancels Prowl and sits on one of the beds. She knows that team RWBY won't return until late, probably until after dark. She settles in and starts thinking.

'None of this makes sense. What's even happening here? Someone in the slums is using tech that lets them see and alter everything over the air, and all they're using it for is to rig a tournament? Why? What's the end goal?'

The Operator shakes her head, continuing to ruminate on the issue. 'Maybe they're trying to create a panic event? Attract Grimm? But that doesn't make sense; who benefits from a Grimm attack? Only the Grimm, and you can't negotiate with them. They don't have leadership.'

'Use the Grimm attack as a distraction, maybe? Same idea with our survival missions? But what prize is worth potentially wiping out a sixth of the population on this planet?'

The Operator says "Ordis, have you seen any indication of a higher intelligence in charge of the Grimm?"

Ordis responds quickly. "There are some FAIRY TALES fables that speak of a pair of gods that created humanity and the Grimm, but these can be safely ignored as standard creation myths, Operator."

"Wonderful," the Operator says sarcastically. "There goes that possible explanation of this."

---

The match between Pyrrha and Penny starts off calmly, Penny's wire-controlled swords flashing to deflect shots from Pyrrha's rifle-form Miló before Penny charges forwards, her eight blades slashing in incredibly complex attack patterns.

Fortunately for Pyrrha, with a little bit of help from her Semblance, she's able to either dodge or deflect every strike aimed at her, countering with a swift jab from her weapon, now in spear form, at Penny's chest. It's of course swatted away by one of Penny's blades, and the combatants separate once more,

'Once her blades are committed to a movement, she doesn't have a lot of fine control as they swing,' Pyrrha thinks, her tournament mindset cutting through the confusion and fear caused by Ozpin's offer. 'If she only had one or two blades, this would be easy, but with eight? She can constantly press the attack while keeping one or two blades back to play defensively even when I do find an opening in her attack patterns. And keeping it at range favors her as well; my rifle is nothing compared to that energy blast she can fire.'

'Wait, the energy blast. She holds mostly still to fire it, and her blades are all tied up in that and can't be used defensively. I can bait her into using the energy blast; I'll get one good press off before she catches on and doesn't try it again.'

Nodding decisively, Pyrrha breaks off the circling and leaps back, shifting Miló to rifle form and bracing it on her shield, Akoúo̱, as she opens fire again, emptying the magazine into Penny's spinning swords, but leaving one in the chamber – using her semblance to fake the noise of the firing pin dropping on an empty chamber and widening her eyes in fake surprise as she scrambles for a fresh magazine.

Thankfully, Penny takes the bait and starts spinning up her swords to channel the energy cannon, and this is when Pyrrha strikes.

Fast as thought, Miló shifts from rifle to javelin form, and the last cartridge is fired as Pyrrha throws Miló forwards at speed, following up the direct hit on Penny with a Semblance enhanced leap forward as she grabs Miló out of the air and shifts it to its Xiphos form, keeping in Penny's face as best she can to prevent her blades from being able to swing effectively, landing stabs and slashes with her blade and bashes with her shield.

With her Semblance, Pyrrha feels a few of Penny's blades beginning to strike at her back, so she rolls forwards through Penny's legs, a quick kick to the inside of Penny's leg robbing Penny of her balance and ability to strike at the momentarily vulnerable Pyrrha.

Backpedaling to keep out of Penny's much larger melee range, Pyrrha's eyes flit quickly to the board, and her heart sinks – Penny didn't take anywhere near as much damage as she'd hoped from that attack, down only to about 80% aura. She hears the crowd roaring in approval of her assault but blocks it out as she looks to Penny.

Pyrrha's heart sinks as she sees four more blades floating out of Penny's backpack. Eight blades were already hard enough, but twelve? With only a 20% aura lead, for the first time in years Pyrrha is unsure whether she'll be able to win a duel.

Suddenly, Penny swings her hand forward, and four of her blades fly at Pyrrha in quick sequence. Surprised, Pyrrha's dodge isn't perfect, and she's forced to use her Semblance to deflect the last blade. She'd thought that she was out of range of Penny's melee, but apparently not. Realizing what this means, she charges forwards, knowing that Penny can almost certainly keep the pressure on no matter the range.

Feeling the blades approaching fast from the rear, Pyrrha leaps into an airborne acrobatic movement, using her Semblance to slightly adjust the flight path of both the blades and herself. She realizes as soon as she does this that she's made a mistake, however, as she feels more of Penny's blades striking at her again, forcing her to stop her forward progress and continue dodging and blocking as best she can.

---

Ruby's world stops being blurred as someone steps out in front of her in the corridor on the way to Pyrrha's locker room. Bouncing off them and landing awkwardly, she recovers quickly and tries to keep going, but is blocked again.

"Well hello there Red, what are you doing in such a hurry?" Mercury says, smirking as he sets himself into a combat stance.

Nervously, Ruby stands up, trying to act nonchalant. "I just realized that I didn't wish Pyrrha good luck in her match and wanted to do that before it started," she says.

"Well, that's too bad. Her match has already started. I guess you missed her," Mercury says mockingly.

Ruby shakes her head. "Not yet. Let me by, Mercury."

Mercury's smirk transforms into a grin. "I can't let you do that, Red."

"Operator, Ruby Rose is currently trying to fight her way past one Mercury Black – something about wishing Pyrrha Nikos good luck in her match with Penny Polendina."

The Operator bolts upright, casting Prowl before exiting team RWBY's dorm and heading back towards the Orbiter. "What's happening, Ordis?"

"I DON'T KNOW. It doesn't make sense; Miss Rose is trying to fight her way past Mercury Black, but without her weapon she doesn't stand a chance."

"What about the tournament fight?" the Operator asks, reaching the main corridor and moving down it as quickly as she can, cursing internally that she doesn't have Loki instead.

"Pyrrha Nikos is being pressed hard but holding her own. Given the infinitesimal amount her aura has dropped, it seems she is using her Semblance to great effect to help her dodge Penny's attacks. I don't - OH SHIT."

Shocked at the fact that Ordis just swore, the Operator stops for a second. "Ordis?
What just happened?"

"GET BACK HERE NOW NOW NOW Operator, break stealth and return with all speed to the Orbiter! Pyrrha Nikos just TORE HER TO SHREDS ripped Penny Polendina apart with her Semblance!"

There's no hesitation, the Operator immediately using all of her immense parkour ability as best she can and blitzing towards the main elevators. "The Atlas is still warmed up, right?

"Yes it is! Hurry, Operator!"

"30 seconds to the elevator. Can you get it out of the way of a longfall?" the Operator asks.

"IT'S ALREADY It's done. HAH, HOW DO YOU LIKE THAT Operator, I have caused the terminal our little hacker has been using to experience a fatal overload, causing an electrical explosion. Unfortunately, I was unable to stop the Black Queen from transmitting one final message and command that knocked most of the CCT offline."

Leaping through the open elevator door and beginning the stories-long fall, the Operator says "What was the message?"

A deep female voice comes over the line to the Operator. "This is not a tragedy. This was not an accident. This is what happens when you hand over your trust, your safety, your children, to men who claim to be our guardians, but are, in reality, nothing more than men. Our Academies' Headmasters wield more power than most armies, and one was audacious enough to control both. They cling to this power in the name of peace, and yet, what do we have here? One nation's attempt at a synthetic army, torn apart by another's star pupil. What need would Atlas have for a soldier disguised as an innocent little girl? I hardly think the Grimm can tell the difference. And what, I ask, is Ozpin teaching his students that would result in this? Hunters should carry themselves with honor and mercy, yet this shows neither.

"Perhaps Ozpin felt that defeating Atlas in the Tournament would help people forget his collossal failure to protect Vale when the Grimm invaded its streets. Or perhaps this was his message to the tyrrannical dictator that has occupied an unsuspecting kingdom with armed forces. Honestly, I haven't the slightest clue as to who is right and who is wrong. But I know the existence of peace of fragile, and the leaders of our kingdoms conduct their business with iron gloves. So I ask you: When the first shots are fired... who do you think you can trust?"

---

Ruby barely hears Cinder's speech, barely notices Mercury leaving the area. All she can see is the screen where the scene of one her friends ripping apart another is replayed over and over again before finally going black. She's still for several more moments before Yang runs up to her, grabbing her sister and forcing her to look at her. "Ruby? Ruby! I know what happened, but we need to move! There's Grimm attacking the arena, we need-" Yang's interrupted as Ruby's eyes go wide before she blasts off in a shower of rose petals towards the arena. "-our weapons. Dammit!" Yang says, pulling out her scroll again and confirming that there's still no signal. She tries to summon her weapon locker again, but – as expected – it does nothing.

'I caused this,' Pyrrha thinks, looking at the scattered parts of the robot girl in front of her, barely hearing the terrified screams of the crowd as the sounds of flying Grimm approach. 'I killed an innocent person. It's my fault. All this panic, it's all my fault. All the people the Grimm are going to kill, it's my fault.'

The shadow of a massive Nevermore passes over her, and she hears it land in front of doesn't move. Her eyes don't even shift from the torn body in front of her, barely noticing the blurry black shape as her eyes refuse to focus on anything else. 'If this Nevermore is my destiny, then it's better than I deserve,' she thinks.

Her thoughts are interrupted by something red rushing forward and interposing itself between her and the Grimm. "Leave her alone!" yells the voice in front of her.

Pyrrha finally manages to look up from Penny's body, seeing Ruby, eyes shining with unspent tears, holding one of Penny's blades in a two-handed grip.

Pyrrha's still as she tries and fails to tell Ruby to leave her to her fate, that it's what she deserves, but can only watch as the massive black bird screams at the impudent girl in front of it before snapping its beak at her.

Ruby dodges, slashing at the head of the Nevermore, but achieves nothing before the head retracts and the situation repeats.

---

Releasing the Transference on the Ivara, the Operator asks "Ordis, what's the situation?" as she tries to regain control of her mental faculties.

"IT'S GONE TO it's bad, Operator. Communications across the network are down, and the emergency services are being overwhelmed. I have minimal overwatch, mostly from old systems that weren't fully integrated into the CCT."

The Operator mulls this over as she wakes into control of the Atlas, immediately drawing the Corinth and moving towards the airlock exit. "What are the hotpoints?"

"The arena and the main entrances to the city of Vale. The gates will hold for now, but will fall eventually. The arena is seconds from being hit."

"Resources?"

"Most of the students at the arena were disarmed, and their weapons are in the lockers still at Beacon."

"Get the lockers to them. I know you can."

"I CAN'T I'll need your assistance, Operator. You'll need to move to the locker room personally so that I can use your transmission equipment to input the proper coordinates."

"Get what communications you can online. I'll get the students at the arena onto a radio net; I'll need you to perform coordination for them," the Operator says as she leaps out the airlock, moving with all skill towards the still open elevator door.

The Atlas is much bulkier than the Ivara, and the Operator has to be careful to not tear the ladder apart as she ascends. It takes longer to reach the main floor, where she can resume moving at speed, occasional papers and other small items attached to the walls sent flying as she nearly flies through the hallways towards the lockers.

"Ordis, once I get there, I need you to hold the lockers momentarily. Can you open them remotely?" the Operator asks, grabbing a corner and swinging around it, nearly tearing the brickwork apart with her momentum.

"YES," Ordis replies shortly, obviously stressed.

"Open Ruby's locker as soon as you can. I need to leave a message for her."

The locker room door is, ironically, locked. This doesn't stop the Operator, but she doesn't have time to be clever. Instead, she focuses her Void energy into her fist, covering it in rock and enhancing the Atlas's already megahuman strength even farther, smashing the thick oak door like the fist of an angry god and reducing it to flinders.

Stepping through the wreckage, she quickly moves to the locker that had just sprung open. Looking inside, she sees what she had hoped to see – in addition to Crescent Rose, there was also some writing materials.

Quickly stepping out of the Atlas, she uses her human hands to write "Radio 37.9 scramble 29" on a piece of scrap paper before tearing the strip of paper off the notebook and tucking it inside of Crescent Rose near the magazine release. Satisfied that it's secure, she replaces Crescent Rose in the locker and closes the door before stepping back into the Atlas. "Ordis, you're good for launch. Radio net is 37.9 scramble 29. I'm returning."

The Operator isn't even halfway through her statement before the first lockers start blasting off; she's halfway down the hallway back to the ship before the last one leaves.

---

It's been years since Ruby last seriously used a sword – a loaner from Signal Academy before she built Crescent Rose. She feels that lack of practice as her strike against the leg of the Nevermore does nothing thanks to poor edge alignment, and she needs to use her semblance to get away again.

Then again, maybe it's the tears in her eyes that keep welling up despite continually being wicked out as she uses her Semblance to dodge strikes from the Giant Nevermore.

Even as she fights, she knows that she can't keep this up forever. But she just needs to buy time for Pyrrha to get back up. She just needs to protect her friend, it wasn't her fault that she's using another friend's sword because she can't anymore.

A streak of yellow flies in from the side as Yang finally catches up and tries to take on the Giant Nevermore with only her fists. It predictably does nothing before the Grimm bats at her with a wing, sending her stumbling back, moving its eye to its original target, the one whose despair is practically overtaking the panic of the crowd.

Lurching forward at its target, the Nevermore suddenly feels a severe pain in its eye, losing half of its vision practically instantly. Screaming, it starts whipping its head around, knocking Ruby away from the sword she'd been using and sending her head over heels. Yang leaps forwards, trying to distract it as the giant bird spots Ruby, but is simply buffeted away again, the bird firmly retargeting onto her sister.

Before anything else can happen, the first rocket locker falls from the sky, impacting directly on the neck of the Giant Nevermore, killing it instantly. The rain of lockers continues, falling all over the arena floor.

Ruby's locker, the one that killed the Nevermore, pops open as more of the Huntsmen students come down to the arena field. Most keep well clear of Pyrrha, either out of distrust or being unsure what to do. Ruby wonders for an instant whether she should go to Pyrrha first or get Crescent Rose, but realizes that her locker is on the way anyways, and Jaune is already running as fast as he can towards her.

As she grabs Crescent Rose, she performs her normal fast check, discovering the scrap of paper in the magazine release. Confused, she removes it and reads the flowing handwriting, eyes widening as she sees the short phrase set on it.

Pulling out her scroll, she quickly navigates to the radio function, setting the channel and the scramble code as fast as she can before toggling transmission, saying "Ruby Rose to anyone on this net, come in, over."

The response is immediate. "Miss Rose, the situation is FUCK bad. Get armed and get everyone capable of fighting onto this radio channel," Ordis says, almost sounding distracted.

Ruby waits for a second before she realizes that Ordis isn't going to say over. "What about Tenno? Over," she says.

"The Operator is DOING NOTHING remaining with her ship for the moment until we can get into contact with Ozpin."

---

The first reaction of General Ironwood and Winter Schnee when this had started was to attempt to call for extraction to the air fleet, but the loss of CCT connection and tied up emergency radio nets make this impossible. Instead, they broke away from the Beacon staff and are pushing their way to the front of the lines of panicked civilians, attempting to get to a military transport in order to board the Dreadnought RANV Sovereign to better command the fight.

Thankfully, this means they're near the front of the line when the first bullheads land and open their doors, disgorging lesser Grimm before they fly off.

The crowd screams and tries to scramble back, several people ending up trampled and buffeting Winter back. Ironwood is able to stand tall, and calmly draws his hand cannon, blasting away several of the charging Beowulves before Winter manages to push her way through the fearful crowd, sabre in hand and already slashing at the lone Ursa that had been dropped off, her off hand creating a wall of ice in between an unchecked group of Beowulves and the civilians they're attempting to protect.

The fight is over quickly, Ironwood keeping his pistol at high ready while looking skyward. "Clever bastards," he growls.

Stepping next to the General, Winter nods sharply. "The crowd will always wonder whether the next transports are full of Grimm now."

"And they didn't shoot at the crowd themselves, so the panic while they wait will only attract more Grimm."

Winter nods in agreement. "I'll stay here until either the evacuation is finished or backup arrives," she says.

The General nods, pistol at low ready as another wave of transports come in. "You do that. I'll get the Knights and Paladins on the ground. We might still be able to turn this around."

Winter turns, looking at Ironwood like he's gone crazy. "Sir, with the CCT down, we won't have any method of control!"

"Desperate times call for desperate measures, Specialist Schnee," Ironwood says, before charging towards the smallest transport as it opens its doors, quickly commandeering it and getting it moving towards his command vessel.

---

The Operator waits calmly, Corinth aimed at the elevator door, all senses on full alert. She still hasn't heard anything from Ordis about a connection with Ozpin. A thought occurs. "Ordis, is the Void Cloak able to be activated?"

"In theory, yes. It sustained no damage in the crash, and the wiring that feeds it has been repaired. However, we have not performed a live test yet."

The Operator nods. "Good. If I call blank slate, activate the Void Cloak and evac to the safest place you can find. I'll find a way to join up with you."

"Are you sure, Operator?"

"Very. Vale is on a precipice. I don't know which way it's going to settle. Better to have the plan and not need it than need it and not have it."

"PREPARING TO FLEE LIKE A COWARD beginning startup cycle for the engines now, Operator."

As Ozpin walks over towards Pyrrha, flanked by Port, Oobleck, Glynda Goodwitch, and Qrow, he halts, spotting Ruby desperately trying to get everyone to do... something with their scrolls.

"Everyone, please, it's not that hard, we just need everyone who can to get on channel 37.9, scramble code 29 so that we can communicate. We can do so much more if we're able to talk to each other!"

"And who put you in charge?" Cardin says.

"Do you have a plan?" Ruby says immediately, rising to the challenge. "I do, and it starts with getting everyone onto the same radio net so that we can actually talk to each other!"

Ozpin smiles slightly, stepping forward before saying "Ruby is right. Everyone should get on the radio net she's suggesting. I'll leave Glynda, Professor Port, and Doctor Oobleck with you to help coordinate the response."

Ruby seems relieved at this, happily letting Glynda take over getting everyone onto the net while Ozpin and Qrow approach Jaune and Pyrrha.

Pyrrha's slowly blinking herself out of her shock as Qrow moves to keep watch. Ozpin kneels and asks her "I know this is a bad time, but we're out of time. I need your answer now."

Jaune just looks confused as Pyrrha starts, turning to Ozpin and saying in a disbelieving tone "Professor? But, I just caused all this."

Ozpin places his hand on her shoulder. "I know you didn't mean to. I know you would never mean to. But we're out of time, and I need your answer now."

Pyrrha looks down at the ground and is silent for several seconds before finally looking back up. "I'll do it," she says. "I'll be your new Maiden."

"I'm coming with," Jaune says, leaving no room for argument despite not knowing what just happened.

A brief flash of displeasure crosses Ozpin's face before he accepts this. Standing, he offers a hand up to Pyrrha before Jaune gives her her weapons. Before they can try to leave, Glynda stops them, scroll extended.

"Message for you, from your little secret."

Raising his eyebrow, Ozpin takes the scroll. "Ozpin here. What is the issue?"

The Operator's voice comes over the lines, crisp and clear. "Ozpin, I've got Ordis working to coordinate the response as best he can, but your emergency services are overwhelmed. What do you want me to do?"

"Keep guarding the VIP. I'm coming with several people to deal with that situation, and I'll be there as soon as I can get transport."

Even through the radio distortion, the Operator sounds disbelieving. "Are you sure, Ozpin? I could be out on the front lines."

"Yes. Keep the VIP safe."

"Understood. You should be aware, the evacuation of the colosseum has started, but some bullheads are bullheads dropping off Grimm at the landing pads. Ordis has dispatched a student team to guard the evacuation, but with the CCT being down he cannot identify which bullheads are allied and which are enemy."

---

Ironwood finally boards the Sovereign, practically sprinting through the hallways towards the bridge. Bursting onto the bridge, his aura absorbs the panicked shot of an armsman who didn't identify him properly. Normally, he'd have the armsman disciplined, but now is not a normal time. "Report," he says, calmly as he can.

"Sir, over-the-air communications are still overloaded, and the CCT is still down," the Captain of the Sovereign says, sounding relieved to no longer be in overall command of the operation. "We're getting a very confused picture of what's happening from reports from ground teams and what little we're able to get from the local forces, but it's a mess."

"Grimm threat?"

"We're seeing mostly minor and moderate forms, but some major Grimm are appearing at the walls. No Omega-class yet, but the Grimm are in a massive swarm, and we can't risk using the cruisers for direct fire support in the city."

"Do we have communications established with the other members of the air fleet here?" Ironwood asks, looking at the massive holo-map in the center of the room.

"Yes sir. What are your orders?"

"Keep two destroyers close to us as our personal screen. Use the rest to screen the cruisers as they get outside the walls. If we can't shoot inside the city, we'll winnow them as best we can before they breach the walls."

"Sir? Doesn't that breach doctrine? The air fleet isn't supposed to split its forces when engaged by a Grimm swarm," the Sovereign's Captain asks.

"And Dreadnoughts are supposed to remain at standoff distance. The navy is already doctrinally in a position where they shouldn't be. By moving our cruisers to a position where they can be of use, we bring their guns into the fight. Have them drop their Knights in autonomous mode on any trouble spots they fly over as well."

"Sir!?" the robotics tech says, bolting up from his monitor where he'd been futilely attempting to hack a way around the lack of CCT, "I must object to this order in the strongest possible terms!"

"Objection noted and overruled. Captain, send the order," Ironwood says, nodding his head sharply."

The Captain looks at the robotics tech, looks at the General, then turns to the radio operator. "You heard him. Get the call going."

"30 seconds sir, I just need to get on the correct nets."

The robotics tech rushes over to Ironwood. "General, this is dangerous. The autonomous mode is completely untested outside of the laboratory, and the latest laboratory testing revealed severe problems in their threat assessment software. If there are humanoid enemies down there, they could classify all humanoids as enemies!" he pleads.

The General is unmoved. "Have we received reports of any humanoid enemies on the ground?"

"Well, no, but-"

"Objection overruled. Get back to work, Lieutenant," Ironwood growls.

The robotics tech throws up his hands. "You're all witnesses," he yells to the bridge crew as he moves back to his station. "If this goes badly, it's not on my head anymore."

There's no response from the bridge crew, just the radio operator telling the Captain "All ships waiting for your orders, sir."

---

"Ozpin's on the move, boss. Has his new sacrifice and Qrow in tow, too," Mercury says.

"Excellent," Cinder says. "Follow him. Have we heard anything from Watts?"

"He's evacuating," Emerald says from the pilot seat of the Bullhead. "Whoever's in the system got him good immediately after your broadcast. Blew up his terminal in his face."

"Hmmph," Cinder says, sounding almost disappointed. "I'd hoped he'd be able to help us keep track of what the do-gooders were doing, but I suppose I can't blame him."

They fly in silence for a minute before they see the large part of the Atlesian fleet above Vale start to move, point defense guns flaring all the while.

"Ironwood must've reached the fleet," Emerald says. "Captain Sanders would never break doctrine like that."

"Contact Adam. Tell him to start phase 3 in five minutes." Even as she says this, she sees the first pieces of glinting metal drop from the ships, the signs of Atlesian Knights and Paladins being deployed.

Mercury smirks before keying open the radio. "Adam, tin men have been deployed. Start phase 3 in five minutes." A click is the only response from the radio on the other end.

Cinder smiles, leaning back into her seat. 'Everything is going just as planned, and in just a few more minutes, I'll have the full power of the Maiden in my hands,' she thinks.

---

A Hunter team in training that Winter only vaguely recognizes finally reaches the air docks.

"Are you in charge here, ma'am?" the one in the lead, a boy in a sleeveless shirt and vest with claws on his hands asks as their sniper, in a red and white sweatshirt, climbs up to an overwatch position.

"Yes. Specialist Winter Schnee."

"Brawnz Ni. Sniper's May Zedong, the other two are Roy and Nolan. We're team BRNZ out of Shade Academy. I'd offer to shake your hand, but my weapons make that a little dangerous. We can hold the docks."

"Good. I need to get to the Sovereign to help organize the Atlesian fleet; I'll leave you to this duty."

"Alright, ma'am. Before you go, though, you should probably know that the student teams are all coordinating on radio channel 37.9, scramble 29."

"Good. I'll set mine onto an alternate. What are the other teams doing?"

"Mostly finding their way down into the city. There are a few sweeping the colosseum looking for any stragglers, but most of the fight is on the ground. There's someone on the net trying to coordinate us; whoever it is has his work cut out for him."

Winter's reply is cut off as a cruiser passes overhead, dropping two squads of Atlesian Knights and a Paladin on the disembarking area. Deploying, they move to the outside of the crowd, bright blue lights glowing eerily, weapons at high ready.

It makes for a very impressive picture right up until one of their heads explodes, taken off by a rifle round.

Brawnz immediately turns. "May?!" he yells.

"Wasn't me! Came from – SHIT!" she yells as a bullet impacts right next to her head. She immediately abandons her position, leaping to the ground.

As soon as she hits the ground, several more sources of gunfire open up, this time making themselves known. Winter's heart sinks as she sees the telltale white masks of the White Fang in windows, stepping out of doorways, and otherwise making themselves obvious targets firing off a quick salvo before they just as quickly disappear. Some aren't fast enough, and the return fire kills a few.

It's not a serious engagement, and only three of the 24 knights are knocked out of the fight. Winter is confused for a moment, before the Paladin swings its body around and aims directly at her, already charging its arm-mounted cannon, while the Knights turn their guns on the humans in the crowd.

Knowing that her current backstop is a bunch of now-screaming civilians, Winter doesn't try to dodge the Paladin's blast, instead quickly summoning a white Beowulf to take the hit for her. She immediately goes on the offensive, artfully dodging around the machine's brutal strikes, aiming her saber for the vulnerable areas she knows of.

It takes nearly thirty seconds, but she finally knocks out the Paladin with a death of a thousand cuts. Immediately, she tries to raise Ironwood, but the radio nets are still overloaded. Instead, she calls over the student's network "This is Winter Schnee. Do not trust the Atlesian Knights or Paladins. If they are attacked by White Fang, they will classify any humanoid as a threat." A cavalcade of voices responds, many asking if she's serious, that they have a Paladin with them right now. A few confirm the reports, gunfire sounding in the background.

Turning, she sees one of the male students down with wounds in his arm and gut. He's still breathing, at least.

"Roy! Roy, stay with me!" a frantic Brawnz says, desperately trying to staunch the bleeding from his friend's torso.

Winter immediately moves to assist, pulling a tourniquet from her medical pouch and tightening it around the wounded arm. "Keep pressure on the wounds. I'm going to try to help the civilians." Standing, she yells "May! I need you up high on overwatch. If you see anything with a Grimm mask, put a hole in it."

She barely hears the sniper respond in the affirmative, moving to aid of the wounded civilians. There's fewer than there should be; one person trying to help with the medical duties says it's because the student who got hit used his semblance and seemed to absorb the bullets – or at least, he did until his aura broke.

Finding a free moment, she checks her radio again and finds that the net is open enough to get a transmission through. "Break-break-break. This is Specialist Schnee. We have mass-cas at the Amity evacuation point; we need medevac ASAP. The mass-cas was caused by autonomous units. Cease deployment of Knights and Paladins and deactivate any you find in the field."

There's silence on the radio net for a moment before Ironwood's voice comes on. "Specialist Schnee, what happened?"

"The Atlesian Knights and Paladin dropped to provide support and protection were attacked by White Fang. The Fang made themselves known, then immediately retreated. The robotic units then immediately turned upon both the combatants with me and the civilians we were protecting."

There's silence on the radio for several seconds, before Ironwood's voice comes over. "Understood," he says, sounding almost defeated. "Sending the destroyer Lumimyrsky to your position to provide evacuation and medical aid, the airborne Grimm are too thick to risk medical bullheads. ETA three minutes."

The bridge of the Sovereign is silent. Everyone knows what the report from the Specialist means – they'd just airdropped thousands of soldiers that, as soon as they were attacked by humanoid enemies, would classify all humanoids as enemy to be eliminated.

---

Ironwood looks to the robotics expert. "Can we shut them down?" he asks, already knowing the answer.

"Not with the CCT offline," he says.

The communications officer is already desperately calling every ship in the fleet, countermanding the order to drop the robotics, but he's too late. Most ships are reporting that they've already dropped their robots as ordered. As best he can figure out, 4 in 5 of the robots the Atlesian fleet had brought with them are now on the ground, waiting for a White Fang attack to turn them into simple murder-bots, the only good news being that the Sovereign had not dropped her considerable complement. The comms officer busy, the Captain gives the order to the Lumimyrsky himself, detaching one of the Dreadnought's escorts.

In a commandeered bullhead, Ozpin, Qrow, Pyrrha, and Jaune are all silent. Jaune holds Pyrrha, trying to comfort her about what happened not half an hour previously, while Qrow watches out the window as their pilot aggressively evades any Grimm interception.

Thus, Qrow sees Atlesian Knights opening fire on civilians. With a muttered oath, he stands and yells "I need to get down there," to the pilot before starting to stride over to the door. Ozpin grabs his arm before he can reach it.

"Are you sure about this, Qrow?" Ozpin asks, looking directly into Qrow's eyes.

"Oz, those people are being killed. I can help them, and we both know that I'm not needed here." The two men keep their eyes locked for a second before Ozpin nods, releasing his grip on Qrow, who heads to the door and says, "Ready for drop."

"Drop in three, two, one," the pilot says, skillfully slewing the bullhead to the side, creating a bubble of dead air on Qrow's exit while keeping up his own speed. Qrow throws open the door, leaping out and dropping to help the people.

---

"Elevator active, Operator. Appears to contain Ozpin, Pyrrha, and Jaune."

"Lock it down once they're here," the Operator says, checking for what feels like the hundredth time today that the Corinth is still fully loaded and ready. She imagines that she can feel the chill of the unfired barrel, hungering for the combat taking place outside. She doesn't normally sit inactive while a fight is happening; she's tenser than usual.

The elevator finally dings, and the Operator waits for the door to start opening before she yells "Tyl Regor!"

The reply of "Tubemen" comes almost before the Operator has finished the challenge, Ozpin, Pyrrha, and Jaune stepping out of the elevator.

The Operator strides past them, slamming the ground in front of the elevator and creating a rubble barricade in front of the door as Ordis sends the elevator climbing away again. Turning, she asks "What's so important that you ordered me to stay here, Ozpin?"

"It'll take too long to ex-" Ozpin says, before being cut off by the Bo Prime suddenly in front of him, impeding his progress.

"No," the Operator snaps. "Whoever 'Amber' is, she's apparently important enough that the destruction of one of the four major cities of Remnant is an acceptable price to pay to reach her."

Ozpin stares at the helmet-like visage of the Atlas, which is completely steady and unmoving, before sighing and explaining "Have you heard of our story of the Four Maidens?"

"A FAIRY TALE about being kind to strangers," Ordis says. "Four young women assisted an old man, and he rewarded them with magical powers."

"That tale has basis in fact. Four young women were given magical powers long, long ago, and since then, those powers have been passed down to other young women."

The Operator remains still. "And Amber is one of these 'Maidens?'"

"Was. Several months ago, she was attacked, and part of her powers were stolen."

The Bo is returned to the Operator's back, and Ozpin starts moving forward. "So why are you here?" the Operator asks.

"Miss Nikos has volunteered to host the remaining half of the Maiden's power. We are here to effect that transfer."

"How?"

"The powers bond to aura. We cannot trust the normal process of passage. Miss Nikos will take the remainder of Amber's aura into her via this machine."

The Operator privately asks Ordis "Wait. Didn't you say that the aura is the physical manifestation of the soul?"

"According to their mythos, yes," Ordis says. "But-"

The Corinth snaps up, the barrel roaring and flinging hot death over Ozpin's shoulder, impacting the empty half of the aura transfer machine and creating a large, sparking hole. The students scramble back, Ozpin turning much more slowly.

Working the pump with authority, the Operator spits out "Did you know, or are you just stupid?"

"Did I know what?" Ozpin asks.

"'Aura is the physical manifestation of the soul.' That's one of the first things that I learned about humanity on Remnant. Do you know what happens when you put a soul into a body that already has a soul in it?" the Operator says far too calmly, aiming the Corinth directly at Ozpin's face.

Ozpin is silent for a second, so the Operator continues. "I know what happens. It's a process that the Orokin perfected. A process called 'Continuity.' You see, the Orokin were immortal, but it wasn't because they solved aging. Instead, whenever they reached old age, they would find some young person whose body they liked and simply... take it. They would take their soul and place it into the new body."

The Operator is silent, seemingly waiting for a reaction. Pyrrha and Jaune look horrified, but Ozpin looks as impassive as ever.

"Do you know what happened to soul – to the person – who was in the body before Continuity? It simply ceased to be. There was nothing left of the person that once existed. Merely an empty shell of a body that the Orokin would simply move into. I don't know what would happen if only part of a soul was implanted via this process, but I can tell you this: You will not find out today. You will never find out if I have my way."

The Operator waits for a response from Ozpin, silence ruling the room for several seconds before the shotgun bobs up almost imperceptibly. "You knew," she says. It's not a question.

Ozpin barely moves in time to dodge the blast of the Corinth.

---

New alarms start blaring on the bridge of the Sovereign. General Ironwood immediately swipes away from the tactical view of the battle to look at a cutaway of the ship.

A moment later, he looks up. "Captain Sanders, you have the bridge. Lieutenant Armiga, get all your armsmen to lock down the robotics bay, now. Someone released Torchwick, and whoever it is made a beeline for there," he says, standing up and walking quickly towards the exit of the bridge, hearing Lieutenant Armiga try desperately to get the command down to the armsmen through his hopelessly clogged radio nets.

As soon as the door to the bridge closes behind him, Ironwood breaks into a jog – fast enough to get him where he needs to be quickly, but not so fast as to tire himself out. Drawing his pistol, Due Process, he quickly checks the magazine and chamber. A half full magazine loaded, three full in reserve around his person. He quickly swaps in a full magazine, not even paying attention as the process is so ingrained. Returning the pistol to low ready, he sidesteps a sailor running a trolley loaded with replacement barrels for the flak cannons – if doctrine is being followed, these will be for the third change, the second having already been completed. He looks exhausted; the cart is not light, and he's probably been running since the attack started. He doesn't even bother to shout "gangway" as he approaches the General, presumably assuming the General will see and get out of the way.

Ironwood is barely past the sailor when something trips him. Reflexes trained into him over decades make him immediately roll to the side, barely dodging the stiletto-thin blade stabbing into the deck where he was a moment ago. He snaps the pistol up, shooting at the sailor who had just attacked him.

The illusion shatters as the bullet impacts, revealing a small woman with pink and brown hair and oddly frilly clothing, carrying a long thin blade in one hand and a fancy parasol in the other.

Springing to his feet, Ironwood aims his pistol at the diminutive woman. "Surrender now, miss Politan. Make it easy on yourself."

Neo tilts her head, looking puzzled for a moment. The moment doesn't last as the parasol comes flashing up, knocking Ironwood's aim off.

Ironwood had been expecting this, and instead of shooting steps forward and strikes with his left hand at Neo, who performs a seemingly impossible bend backwards to dodge before sliding past, returning her blade to the umbrella's grip. The parasol flashes quickly, again striking Ironwood's gun and pushing it just enough that his shot flies over her head.

Pressing forwards, Ironwood attempts to neutralize some of Neo's advantage in speed and flexibility by keeping the distance close, where his larger stature and more maneuverable weapon will give him an advantage.

Neo refuses to play this game, constantly dodging out of Ironwood's grabs and strikes, including one daring maneuver where she grabs onto Ironwood's left arm during a recovery and uses it to flip back and away from him.

Ironwood's pistol immediately snaps up, firing a burst of three shots. Neo dodges the first, deflects the second with her parasol, and shatters at the third. Ironwood immediately spins and dodges left, avoiding Neo's strike with the ease of the veteran he is. At this close range, he doesn't have time to aim, snapping off a reaction shot that finally lands a hit on Neo, winging her hip and making her stumble.

Ironwood doesn't waste this opportunity, grabbing for Neo's arm and catching her at the elbow. Pivoting at the hip, he pulls her off her feet, slamming her into the deck, flipping the pistol around and holding it by the barrel, bringing it down towards her head with extreme force.

Neo's hand flashes and deflects the first strike, holding onto the butt of the gun for a moment, before she rolls out of the way of the second, loosening Ironwood's grip and getting a leg firmly planted against the restraining arm. She can't throw him off her, but she does manage to force him to relinquish her arm, causing the next strike to simply shatter her like glass once more, reappearing down the hallway in front of Ironwood with a jaunty grin on her face.

Ironwood flips the pistol around again as he stands, firing a shot that Neo deflects with her parasol before the firing pin drops on an empty chamber with a click. Neo holds up the magazine she'd stolen from his pistol, waggling it teasingly before throwing it over her shoulder down the hallway behind her.

Neo doesn't give Ironwood a chance to reload, immediately pressing forwards as soon as he reaches for his belt, striking at his free hand with the parasol. Ironwood steps into the strike, left shoulder first, tucking his pistol into the holster with his right hand before spinning into a kick.

Neo leaps over the telegraphed attack, attempting to strike at the plant leg, but Ironwood's recovery is almost swifter than his strike, catching her shoulder and forcing her to throw herself into a roll away from the general.

Neo's recovery is interrupted by the sound of moderately close small arms fire behind Ironwood. A lot of it. Ironwood ignores it, surging towards the two-tone criminal, but Neo just smirks as she lets herself get hit, shattering once more and not reappearing.

Ironwood stays guarded for a few seconds before the clamor behind him gets to be too loud to ignore. It sounds like there's a war going on inside the Sovereign, but there weren't nearly enough boarders detected to be causing that much shooting.

The only alternative is that the robotics were activated and were attacking the Atlesians, but with the Robotics officer having turned them off, there was no way that should be possible.

Drawing and loading his pistol, Ironwood starts running to the sound of the guns.

He's only halfway to the robotics bay when he's forced to throw himself back around a corner as a Paladin starts shooting at him. That doesn't stop him from seeing the trio of armsmen, their blood splattered on the floor, a still-loaded disposable launcher rolling away from nerveless hands.

Ironwood doesn't stop to think, rolling out of cover and sprinting for the launcher, snapping it up and firing it at a much closer range than would be safe for someone without Aura. As the smoke clears, he hears the Paladin fall over, "dead"

Ironwood's emergency channel lights up. "General Ironwood, come in!" Captain Sanders sounds almost panicked.

Ironwood grabs the radio. "Ironwood here."

"Sir, the robotics have been activated! They're attacking Engineering!"

"Get Lieutenant Armiga on the line." Ironwood waits for Armiga to sign on. "Armiga, what's your assessment of the chances of holding Engineering?"

"None, sir. They can hold for five more minutes at most. Half of my armsmen are dead or too wounded to fight from trying to contain this in the first place, and two thirds of the remainder are on the wrong side of the robotics bay. That remainder is aleady at Engineering, but they're too heavily outnumbered and outgunned."

Ironwood closes his eyes, taking a breath in and out, before he keys the radio. "Sound abandon ship. Helm ahead full. Try to have the Sovereign crash outside of Vale. Detach the Snjóstormur, order her to join the Lumimyrsky."

"Sir? And you?"

"I'm going to get my men out of Engineering."

"Sir, you're on the wrong side of the robotics bay for that. You'll never make it in time."

"I'm not going to leave them there. Not if I can get them out."

"Sir, there's an army between you and engineering!"

"Then I'll have to kill an army. Sound abandon ship."

---

Ozpin reacts quickly after dodging the shotgun blast, zigzagging towards the Operator quickly and unpredictably enough that another blast of the Corinth only just clips the edge of Ozpin's Aura. Starting to pump the shotgun, the Operator lets go of the grip, finishing the pump with her left hand as she lunges forward, fist coating itself in summoned rock.

Flinging himself to the side, Ozpin just barely avoids the blow, cane swinging and hitting the Operator square in the chest with enough force to kill a bear.

The Operator doesn't even flinch as her shields shatter, bringing the stock of the Corinth around like a bat and forcing Ozpin to duck under the swing before she snaps off a kick, catching Ozpin in the shoulder and throwing him several feet onto his back.

Ozpin immediately flips upright, contorting in midair to dodge another shotgun blast.

The Operator changes things up, shooting an airblast grenade at Ozpin, who unthinkingly dodges the slow projectile, letting it detonate behind him and making him stumble. The Operator immediately charges forwards, the Void-enhanced fist aimed directly at Ozpin's face.

Unlike the last punch, Ozpin's dodge is not clean, and Ozpin is sent flying across the room towards the elevator, Aura visibly straining and nearly shattered. He quickly scrambles to his feet as the Operator places the Corinth on her back, drawing the Lex Primes on her hips and firing a trio of shots, tracking from right to left.

As the Operator predicted, Ozpin tries to go against the tracking, dodging to the right.

Directly in front of the elevator doors.

With a quick pulling motion, the rubble barricade that the Operator had set in front of the elevator is sent into motion, rolling into a surprised Ozpin's back and flattening him, shattering his Aura.

Ozpin tries to pick himself off the floor, but the Operator has already reached him by the time he gains his bearings, grabbing him by the neck and picking him up as though he's weightless.

"Give me one good reason why I shouldn't kill you for what you tried," the Operator growls.

Ozpin's choked answer is interrupted by the elevator doors exploding into the room in a blast of fire.

-AUTHOR'S NOTE-

I will apologize for this chapter taking so long; I do work healthcare and COVID hasn't made this easy, but I did put off writing this chapter a lot. I hope a 14,653 word chapter makes up for it.

If the chapter feels rushed in terms of pacing, it kind of is. I put the first half of V3 into one chapter; that was arguably a mistake.

A couple of conversations are lifted almost directly from the show (the introduction of the Maidens and the initial smack talk between Flynt/Neon and Weiss/Yang). I legitimately couldn't come up with a better explanation of the Maidens than the one that was in the show that would also be accessible for people who play Warframe but don't watch RWBY.

I'm considering going back and retconning chapter 1, changing Excalibur to Garuda and both altering and adding some dialogue - giving the Operator's briefing about Remnant and the Grimm on-screen and also slightly cutting down on the amount of things that the Operator shares. I didn't quite have the Operator's personality set yet when I wrote it, and chapter 1 is rough in general.

The Operator/Ozpin fight got rewritten twice and has been heavily rejiggered. I'm still not 100% happy with it, but I think it displays the power disparity between the Operator and the most powerful "good guy" in the show. If the Operator had been in any of her other 'frames the fight would've lasted longer, but Atlas can take a lot of punishment, so she just didn't feel the need to dodge. I still think it's a little too short, but I liked the way it ended.

I hope you enjoyed Ironwood v. Neo. That fight was unplanned and spur of the moment as I was writing it; it turned out far better than it had any right to. The fight basically came down to "Ironwood is too experienced to fall for Neo's tricks, but he's too predictable to actually finish her off."

The Atlesian Navy is remade along my specific lines - Destroyers that are mostly armed with flak and other short-range anti-air weapons to act as a screen for larger ships and are much faster than capital ships, Cruisers that are primarily used for fire support for ground forces, relying heavily on higher caliber ventral weapons, and Dreadnoughts which have a main gun mounted spinally for use in taking out Omega class Grimm - although they have a variety of other weaponry to deal with other Grimm threats as well.

A quick rundown of my personal Grimm classification:

Minor Grimm are things like Creeps, Beowulves, and Centinels. They are small Grimm that rely on numbers and speed to do their job, and what most Hunters would classify as mooks.

Moderate Grimm are heavier ones, that can take a little bit of punishment, relying on toughness and strength to do their job. Things like Ursas, Boarbatusks, and the smaller Goliaths in the attack on Mantle. Most Hunters can easily handle these, but it may take a minor amount of time to do so.

Major Grimm are the big ones. Things like the Nuckelavee, the Sea Serpent, Beringels, and the Goliaths that Ruby and Doctor Oobleck observed at Mountain Glenn. These things are usually fast, strong, and tough, or are extremely able in two of those three categories.

Omega Grimm are the big ones. These are things that are the size of large buildings, and are existential threats to entire cities alone, to say nothing of when they're accompanied by swarms of lesser Grimm.