This chapter was supposed to be out by the end of April. Given how I started writing on May 1st, I suspect I failed that goal. However, I did discover that outlining chapters has a remarkable increase on the speed of writing them. We'll see how it goes for chapter nine.

A Battle Fantasy in Remnant

Chapter Eight

Elevator Troubles

-]l[-

Then Lance shot her, the crackle from his gun deafening in the silent night.

Shouts rang out from behind him, as the girl collapsed to the ground, Roman's body falling on top of hers, forming a corpse pile.

"Relax." Lance cut off any complaints. "She's not dead, just unconscious. Besides, how else would I have both checked for another illusion, and prepared them for transport? Chill. I may be ruthless, but even some laws in war should be followed."

-]l[-

"So what's up with Torchwick and the girl, Jimmy?" Qrow asked. In the background of his video James could see the forests of Sanus, indicating that the veteran huntsman was still on the road. Last Ozpin had told him Qrow would be arriving in around a week.

"Torchwick is locked up in my flagship," James answered. "As for his accomplice, she is under heavy guard, both technological and manmade. I appreciate the information about her Semblance—without it, it would be much harder to keep her contained."

Qrow shook his head and muttered something James assumed was insulting, before ducking under a tree branch. "And the other girl? Amber?"

James stepped to the side to allow Ozpin to answer this one. The headmaster was the one responsible for the Maiden, James barely even knew where she was staying.

"Amber is recovering, albeit slowly," Ozpin answered. "Her mind is stable, against all odds, though her Maiden power is much weaker. It appears to be split between herself and her attacker."

He paused. "In fact, I'd say what she is feeling most right now… is boredom."

-]l[-

"I almost preferred being in a coma," Amber bemoaned, throwing herself onto her bed. "At least I physically couldn't realize how bored I was then."

She rolled over, shoving her face into a fluffy pillow and speaking through it. Not like there was anyone in the room to comment. No, Amber was alone, just like she had been for the past week straight, save for the occasional visit from Ozpin.

"Can't practice my magic, because 'We don't know how the Maiden power being split between two people will affect it.'" Amber emulated Ozpin's voice, before letting out a chuckle at the thought of the kindly old man speaking through a pillow like she was at the moment. "Can't use my Semblance, because I still haven't discovered it… can't fight anyone who doesn't know I'm already alive, and everyone who does know that is too busy!"

Amber paused at the thought. Not everyone was busy… supposedly a girl named Natalie had been responsible for healing her. Thinking back to when she had first awakened, Amber remembered seeing a nurse carrying a magic staff, and, as the only other people present at the time were Ozpin, Ironwood, and Glynda, none of whom were named Natalie, it would make sense that the last person present was the one responsible for healing her.

Now all she had to do was find Natalie, and then she would finally have something to do, someone to talk to, and someone to fight.

Amber couldn't wait!

Actually, scratch that. Amber would have to wait. Ozpin was due to visit any minute now, and Amber would need to wait for a time when Ozpin was distracted to sneak out. If Ozpin's mutterings were to be believed, there was a school dance coming up soon. Ozpin would be distracted by running the dance, and it would be the perfect chance to enact her plan.

All that remained in this plan was learning just where she would be able to find Natalie.

A knock sounded on the door. "Come in," she called.

The door swung open, and Ozpin stepped inside. He raised an eyebrow at Amber's position—face still mashed against the pillow—before taking a seat in one of the two chairs in the room.

"What would you like to talk about today, Amber?"

"Ehhhhh… who's the girl that healed me?"

"Oh? Natalie you mean?" At Amber's nod, Ozpin continued, "She's a first year student here at Beacon, technically, but…" He trailed off. "All signs point toward her and her team being stronger than trained Huntsmen."

"She's a student? Then she stays in the dorms, right?"

"Yes. Why do you ask?"

"No reason."

Ozpin stared at her for a moment, clearly unbelieving, before turning away with a sigh. He took a sip from his cup of… something from his cup, and pulled out a book. "Let me tell you about our plans going forward, then."

Excellent. Now just a quick visit to the CCT to find out exactly which dorm Natalie was staying in. Her plan was coming together nicely.

-]l[-

"Yo, Natz?" Matt called from where he was slouched on his bed.

"Hmm?"

"Wanna go to the dance together?"

"Sure."

"Cool."

Outside the door to team MALN's dorm, Jaune, Sun, and Neptune, all having crossed paths at the same time, froze.

"You mean it's that easy?" they murmured in sync, before all heading their separate ways.

-]l[-

"Lance?"

"Hmm?"

"Wanna go to the dance as friends?"

"Nah. I have things to do that day."

"Cool."

Anna stepped away from her friend, a satisfied grin on her face. She didn't particularly care about the dance, and had no plans to go, but figured she'd offer on the off chance Lance was feeling particularly social this week.

It's what a friend would do. And if it kept Lance from thinking that kidnapping some other girl was the only way to get a date, all the better. Kidnapping was wrong!

Leaving Lance alone at the lunch table—Matt and Natalie had decided to head into Vale with a few other students to go shopping—Anna exited the dining hall through one of its side entrances, and made her way to the main plaza of Beacon.

As she walked along, enjoying the sensation of the sunlight on her face, she took note of all the new students arriving in Beacon. Apparently teams from the three other academies on Remnant were all arriving in preparation for the Vytal Festival.

"Ah, excuse me?"

Anna stopped walking at the call and turned, catching sight of a pair of students waving toward her. One had longer dark hair, the other with hair a similar tint of green to Anna's own, though in this case it was more mint-like than forest green.

"Hmm?" Anna hummed.

"You look like you know your way around," the black-haired woman commented. "Me and my teammate here are still learning our way around Beacon. Could you direct us to the student dorms, please?"

Anna raised an eyebrow. "You're visiting from another academy, right?"

"Yes. Haven Academy. I'm Cinder, and this is Emerald." The mint-haired girl waved a little as she was introduced. "Anyways, the dorms?"

"Ah yeah. Just head down toward the statue, take a right, head straight, and then it's the third left."

"Thank you," Cinder said, before leading - her teammate off in the direction Anna had indicated.

"Strange," Anna muttered. "I thought all teams were four people? SSSN is, at least. Maybe it's just Haven that does it differently…"

-]l[-

"You were discovered," she stated, cloaked in the shadows where she stood against the wall of a large warehouse.

"It was a cat, Cinder. It's not like it's going to walk up to me and just shout 'hey everyone, this guy tried to kill me last week!' Besides, I was mostly covered up. It'll be fine." His response was snappy and irritated.

"...We won't take that risk. Salem has a different plan for you. We've already lost enough of our team with Torchwick's embarrassment of a showing on Sunday."

"A different plan?"

"Yes. You'll be headed to Mountain Glenn to coordinate with the White Fang."

He scoffed at that. "All because of a cat. Overreaction much?"

Cinder pursed her lips. "Do not question her, Mercury."

"Agh, fine. I'll go help the Fang with… whatever it is they're doing out there."

/-/

Mercury shivered as he gazed upon the city that sprawled out before him. Don't get him wrong, he'd seen cities before. Vale, Vacuo, but none of them had the same vibe that the ruins of Mountain Glenn did.

It was a dead city, a mass grave, a tomb. A monument to the failures of Vale.

The buildings were on the verge of collapse—many already partially fallen down—and Mercury could see the framework where the citizens had been preparing to put more buildings still.

Every now and then, Mercury caught sight of a Grimm as it poked its head out of one of the buildings, crawled from a pit, or soared over one of the apartments.

The Grimm presence had been growing steadily stronger the closer Mercury got to Mountain Glenn. It had started with just Beowolves right outside of Vale, with the occasional Ursa thrown in. Then, after hopping off the White Fang Bullhead that had taken him to a landing spot a few miles outside of Mountain Vale, it had increased to much more worrying numbers.

Mercury was pretty sure he had seen a Griffon fly overhead just a few minutes ago, and his White Fang guide had mentioned a herd of Goliaths that patrolled a nearby town.

The sight of Mountain Glenn was a bitter reminder of what Mercury was fighting for—the destruction of humanity and everything they'd built.

Mercury turned away from the overlook, and back to the White Fang soldiers he was traveling with. "Where's the entrance?" he asked.

The same soldier that had informed him about the Goliaths—the only soldier to talk to him for the entire trip—was the one who answered, pointing into the forest. "There's a path through the trees that will take us down to street level. From there it'll be a quick run to the entrance."

Mercury nodded, and followed the group as they headed down the path. He hadn't done all that much besides follow for the past day. 'I hope Cinder knows what she's talking about.'

He had been sent to Mountain Glenn to meet with Roman's replacement—someone provided by the 'Queen of the Grimm' herself. With a title like that, Mercury never wanted to meet Salem, and the feeling extended to anyone associated with her.

And yet, here he was. Ready to meet yet another psychopath dead-set on destroying the world.

The group reached the end of the path in the trees and was forced to dash across an empty road to get inside the city. Careful to steer clear of any of the Grimm in the area, the group reconvened inside a small broken-down building.

"In here," Mercury's guide called, gesturing him closer. Mercury strode over to the man, and saw the small trapdoor embedded into the ground.

"I see." Grabbing a hold of the handle as the White Fang watched, Mercury heaved upwards, opening the trapdoor with ease before stepping forward and dropping into the darkness.

It was a longer fall than he had expected, nearly fifty feet, but he landed with ease, his artificial legs making what could have been a fatal fall for a non-Huntsman into an action as easy as stepping down a step.

Automatic lights turned on as Mercury rose from his crouch, revealing a ladder that led back up into the darkness, as well as a tunnel leading further in. Not bothering to wait for the White Fang members to arrive, Mercury set off down the tunnel.

It took a minute of walking, and the White Fang had almost caught up to him by the end, but the tunnel opened into a much larger room. In the center sat a large rectangular table with a map covering most of its surface and pins stuck into it at various points. Encircling the table were a number of White Fang officers—whom Mercury immediately discarded as unimportant—and a pair of taller men talking to each other at the end of the table.

Stepping into the room, Mercury made himself known, his metal boots ringing loudly against the concrete floor. The two men turned to look at Mercury, and he got his first good look at the people he would be working with in the immediate future.

On the left stood Adam Taurus. Mercury recognized him well. His combination of a red and black suit, black horns, and, most strikingly, a Grimm-inspired mask that covered his eyes made his appearance very hard to mistake.

The second man—the one Salem had sent—Mercury was not expecting to fact that he did, however, was very concerning. Mercury had a very specific skill set, and knew very specific knowledge.

Among that knowledge was the names and appearances of other assassins and killers across Remnant. So when Mercury recognized Salem's soldier, it was only natural that he blurted out the name.

"Tyrian Callows?"

"Oh! Cinder's little assassin. How nice of you to join us," Tyrian said, turning with a swish of his coat. "Come, Mercury… take a seat. We have much to discuss."

-]l[-

Emerald took her seat at the edge of the auditorium, taking a sip of punch as she sat down, and pulling open a romance novel. Mercury was on another mission due to the chance that he would be discovered, and so Emerald found herself alone on the night of the dance.

Oh, well of course she could've gone up to nearly any boy in Beacon and they would've been frothing to go to the dance with her, but that would interfere with her purpose here tonight—to keep an eye on the guests and inform Cinder if any of them left the dance.

Case in point, while Emerald wasn't worried about Arc or Nikos leaving early—they looked too much like a dumb lovestruck pair—if the Atlesian General… Ironwood, she thought, chose to leave, then she would sound the alarm. It wouldn't do for the night to be spoiled.

-]l[-

Amber glanced out her window for the fifth time that evening, taking advantage of her room in Beacon's Tower to get an overview on the area. People were still streaming across the pathways toward the dance hall but what had begun as a wave was now slowing to a trickle. Soon it would be time.

She glanced at the door. It was unguarded, she knew, having scouted it out earlier that night, and there was no way Ozpin would be in position to stop her once she got underway. Besides, she would only need a few minutes in the CCT to find Natalie's scroll number—Ozpin had refused to give it to her—before she would return to her room, with no-one any the wiser.

Soon.

-]l[-

Cinder ducked around the corner, careful to keep to the shadows and let her dark-colored catsuit to the hard work of concealing her. The dance had kicked off close to half-an-hour ago, and Emerald reported that all the VIPS were present and accounted for. There was nobody in position to stop Cinder before she could complete her mission, even if an alarm was triggered.

Now it was only a matter of crossing the last few hundred feet until the CCT.

-]l[-

Ruby let out a yawn, barely covering it with a small hand, before flopping back against the stone wall of Beacon's auditorium. Out of the few times she'd been there, tonight was definitely the most boring—to the point where leaving was preferable to merely sitting around on the sidelines with Neptune and the other students who didn't have dates.

She kicked her legs into the air and watched with boredom as they drummed against the bench upon which she sat. Maybe she could head back inside and resume her conversation with Lance about the prices of various materials he claimed to have access to. Pfft. Dark matter. That was barely even a theory in the minds of some of Remnant's smartest scientists. Ruby only knew about it 'cause of a footnote in an article on new types of Dust. No way Lance had any of it.

She let out another lengthy sigh, and rolled off the bench, falling on the ground and staring off into the night. From where she lay on the concrete she could just barely see the outlines of the greenhouses way off. Much easier to lay eyes on was the main tower—where Headmaster Ozpin had his office and the CCT was located—due to the lights around the entrance casting shadows of the two guards who stood by the doors.

Must suck to be them. Even if they didn't want to go to the dance, it probably would be better than standing in the cold all night long.

"I spy…" Ruby began, having failed to find any other ideas to expel her boredom and reverted to one of the simplest games she knew. She cast her gaze around the area, taking special note of the darkness, shadows, darkness, shadows, and that one person slinking through the shadows.

Wait, what?

-]l[-

Cinder settled the second guard on the ground mere inches away from their partner. Ozpin, the poor fool, had made the mistake to only protect the CCT entrance with a pair of guards—without Aura, even. To his credit, he had made it nearly impossible to bypass without engaging in combat, as the only way inside the CCT was with keycards the two guards held (or Ozpin's personal card, but Cinder wasn't ready for that fight quite yet)—knowledge that Emerald had gathered last week.

Tangent aside, the point was that Cinder was forced to knock out the two guards. Irritating, but ultimately unavoidable.

She scanned the two cards on their respective scanners, and slipped inside Beacon Tower as the doors hissed open. It was a short walk through the lobby—though a walk that resulted in several more unconscious guards—to the elevator which, conveniently, was already waiting at the ground floor.

She stepped inside, and tapped the button for the third floor.

-]l[-

It was time.

Amber opened the door to her room with a click, the faux-bronze handle twisting easily and the wooden door sliding open without so much as a creak. Stepping through the doorway, she walked confidently down the carpeted hallway, called the elevator, and waited.

And waited.

Aaaaaaand waited.

Finally her ride arrived with a quiet ding, and the doors slid open. Stepping inside, she tapped on her preferred floor, and settled into the corner to wait.

-]l[-

James, I'm worried that Amber might be a bit bored tonight, unable to attend the dance and all. Would you be able to check up on her, maybe talk for a bit?

—Ozpin

James frowned at the message that had forced him to end his evening early as he strode through the shadowed Beacon courtyard toward the Beacon Tower. The decision to monitor Amber's room had been one he had made, but he had never expected to be interrupted on this night. And right when his dancing with Glynda was getting good.

No matter. As a general and member of Ozpin's resistance, he would be ready at any time. If it involved checking on a perfectly functional adult woman to make sure she didn't trip and die in a freak accident, then so be it.

-]l[-

Ruby let out a quiet gasp as she caught sight of the guards laid out on the ground. Taking a moment to check for a heartbeat, she was relieved to find that both were still alive. She hurried inside, thankful that the doors had yet to close, and was just in time to see the elevator doors closing.

Frowning at the sight, she pulled Crescent Rose off her back and held it by her side, ready to unfold at any moment, as she took up a waiting position in front of the elevator.

Any minute now and it would be coming back down.

Any minute.

-]l[-

"Ironwood has left the dance."

Cinder nodded, though her contact couldn't see it, and murmured back, "That's fine, we're done here."

She picked up her 'appropriated' scroll, and tapped the power button to her terminal, beginning the shutdown process.

Just as she was rising from the keyboard, she heard the hiss of the elevator doors opening. She turned, and watched as a brown-haired woman stepped out of the lit elevator car.

Getting caught sneaking into the CCT tower would already be an issue. Thing is, Cinder knew the woman who had just walked into the room… and she was supposed to be in a coma.

"Hello!"

-]l[-

Amber hummed tunelessly to the song playing in the elevator as it descended, idly playing with her hands.

Her plan was set. She would enter the CCT room on the third floor—where information was stored, compared to the second floor for communication—access one of the terminals using passwords from before she was attacked, find out in which dorm Natalie lived and her scroll number, and then return to her room.

She was running the plan through her head when the doors opened, revealing a black-clad woman bent over the nearest terminal already. That's awkward. Oh well, she would just have to use the next one down.

Still, just because she was in a hurry was no reason to be impolite, so Amber turned to the black-haired woman—was she wearing a mask?—and waved. "Hello—"

She was cut off by the woman's eyes widening under her mask before she waved a hand at Amber and released a blast of fire.

-]l[-

"Finally," Ruby muttered, as the display showing the elevator's current floor resumed counting down. "How many people can possibly be using it right now?"

-]l[-

Amber ducked to the side, years of training with Ozpin's most trusted Huntsmen having honed her instinct to a fine edge. The fire impacted with the closed doors behind her, nearly melting through it in a single hit. Her opponent tracked her movement with the blast, and Amber was forced to duck beneath one of the long rows of terminals to escape.

'That was… that was the same as my fire. That was my Maiden power.'

This was going to be a tough fight.

On one end of the room, standing close to the half-melted elevator doors: the intruder, an unnamed black-haired woman who had attacked Amber three years ago, and who currently held half the Fall Maiden's power.

On the other end of the room, ducked beneath a row of terminals and moving while crouched to stay in cover: Amber, the current Fall Maiden, albeit at half her previous power.

Clenching a fist and gathering her power about her, Amber acted. Vaulting over the table she was hiding behind, she immediately waved a hand at the intruder, encasing their outstretched hand in a block of ice and stopping them from releasing another blast of fire. Kicking off the ground, Amber flew toward the intruder with a kick, launching them into a wall.

Grunting, the intruder stood, shaking off the remainders of the ice as she did so. She had blocked Amber's attack with her frozen hand, shattering the block. She reached behind her back, and quickly retrieved a pair of swords. Pointing one at Amber, she said, "I won't pretend to know how you're even awake right now, but I'll take full advantage of the chance to—" She cut herself off, throwing one of the swords toward Amber and following it up with yet another blast of fire as she began advancing.

Surprised at the sudden interruption, Amber was slow to dodge, and the blade scored a cut on her cheek for its efforts, though it was blocked by her Aura. Leaping into the air to dodge the fire, Amber waved a hand, launching an array of icicles at the woman. She dodged and responded with yet another burst of fire, but Amber was ready, using a gust of wind to launch herself out of the way.

Amber had fought this woman before, nearly two years ago, but last time she had had A: her Dust-tipped staff, and B: her entire Maiden power. Now that the two of them were evenly matched power-wise and Amber was fighting after two years in a coma?

It was to be a worryingly close fight.

Amber straightened, summoning a staff made of ice on one hand, and gazed at her opponent. They were about to exchange attacks, likely fire, yet again, when the elevator doors rumbled open, melted metal braying as it was forced from its position by the hydraulics.

And in stepped a red-cloaked, black-wearing girl who immediately unfurled her mecha-shift weapon to reveal a scythe.

-]l[-

The moment James saw the unconscious guards he pulled out his scroll and was calling Ozpin.

"Oz, someone broke into Beacon Tower. I'm heading in myself."

"Understood. Stay safe. I'll send help as soon as I can."

-]l[-

"Um… hi?"

Ruby wasn't sure what the heck was going on in the CCT room. Fires raged throughout the room, casting their flickering shadows on the wall and illuminating the combatants. Closest to Ruby stood a brown-haired woman holding… a staff made of ice? Across the room from the first woman was another one, black-haired, wearing a feature-covering mask, and releasing a blast of fire straight at Ruby.

She hadn't even gotten around to figuring out which one was the good guy, and the decision had been made for her. Activating her Semblance with a thought, Ruby sped toward her attacker and swiped at her with Crescent Rose.

It was caught by a black blade of a type Ruby didn't recognize, the black-haired woman displaying a remarkable amount of strength to not even be moved by Ruby's attack. The woman reached out grabbing a hold of Crescent Rose as if to rip it out of Ruby's hands.

Suddenly, Ruby heard a burning sound. Frantically searching for the search, Ruby realized that where the woman was holding Crescent Rose, the scythe was melting. Frantically ripping her weapon away, Ruby spent a few moments examining her baby for damage—moments that her opponent used to her advantage to land a savage slice to Ruby's sternum. She flew through the air, her Aura flashing orange, before crashing through a row of terminals and coming to a stop near the brown-haired woman.

"Are you alright?" she asked Ruby, stepping in front of her and holding her staff in a ready stance.

"I'm fine. Just surprised."

The woman nodded, deflecting an incoming blast of fire with her staff. "We'll have to work together to take her down. Stay behind me and support from a range if you can."

Ruby nodded, already shifting Crescent Rose in its gun form. She would've changed the ammo type to something more effective against the fire her target was slinging around, but alas, due to the dance she only had a single clip on hand.

Settling into a crouch, she aimed with her ironsights, settling her breathing in preparation for firing. Beside her, the brown-haired woman kicked off the ground, cratering it, and flying toward their opponent with her staff outstretched.

Waiting until the two were about to connect, Ruby squeezed Crescent Rose's trigger, releasing a shot straight toward her opponent's face. The black-haired woman waved a hand, engulfing it in a blast of fire, but the short distraction was enough for Ruby's ally to land a brutal sweep with her staff, knock the black-haired woman to the ground, and follow up the sweep with her own blast of fire.

Watching as the black-haired woman sprung back to her feet and fended off her ally, Ruby tracked the pair's movement across the room, releasing shots only when she thought they would provide openings for her ally. It was clear that she was the weakest fighter here, even from the short exchanges she had seen, so it was a better use of resources to help than attack directly.

This stalemate continued for half-a-minute, with Ruby intervening every time it looked like the black-haired woman would take the upper hand, but she was woefully aware of her quickly depleting ammo supply. One or two more shots and she wouldn't be able to help from a range anymore.

Though, as she heard the elevator doors grind open to her side, Ruby hoped that wouldn't come to be.

-]l[-

James already had his weapons drawn when he entered the room. It took less than a second to take in the scene—Amber and one of Ozpin's students against an intruder—and then he was firing.

Given the destruction already present in the room, James expected the intruder to stay and fight. She was clearly skilled, if able to fend off a Maiden and a skilled Huntress-in-training for this long. Contrary to his thoughts, the moment James entered the fight and she caught sight of him, she turned and ran, headed for one of the windows.

Frowning, James whipped out Due Process, firing off three shots from his revolver as he tracked the intruder across the room. All three were perfectly aimed, yet the intruder managed to block them—as well as a bullet from Ozpin's student and blast of fire from Amber—using a black sword.

"Stop her!" James ordered, drawing and firing his other revolver to give him a boost of momentum, sending him flying toward the window. He had almost made it before the intruder, but she took a hit from Amber and used the momentum to outpace James' Gravity Dust–assisted movement and break through the glass.

Dashing to the shattered windowsill, Amber and the student not far behind him, James stared out into the night, searching for where the intruder could have escaped to. Luck was not in his favor, as the moon was covered by clouds and no light penetrated, leaving most of Beacon cloaked in obscuring shadows.

Growling, James stepped away from the window and pulled out his scroll, surveying the damage to the room as he dialed Ozpin's number.

"Oz," he began, careful to keep in mind the civilian in the room. "The intruder escaped."

A pause, then, "Understood. I'll be up in just a few minutes."

"So uh…" the student, who James now recognized as Ruby Rose asked, "what do we do now?"

"We wait. And then we debrief you. You saw too much tonight."

She let out a quiet shriek at that.

-]l[-

Cinder staggered toward the small table that made up the sole piece of furniture in the warehouse. She was in one of Torchwick's old hideouts while she healed, and she had a call to make.

Pulling out her scroll and propping it on the table, Cinder tapped in a number long-since memorized. She had never bothered to learn how Salem had managed to subvert the network to allow communication like this, but suspected it had something to do with Watts.

Normally communication to Salem was handled via the Grimm Seers, but sneaking them into Vale—and more importantly, Beacon—had been considered too much of a risk. So scrolls it was.

Irregardless, after a few seconds of ringing, her call was picked up, and the screen changed to a video of Salem's throne, the white-skinned and red-eyed Queen of the Grimm staring coldly at her subordinate.

"Cinder..." she murmured.

Cinder swallowed. "My lady. We have a problem."

Salem raised an eyebrow. "Oh really? What do you believe this problem to be?"

"Ozpin has found a way to heal the Fall Maiden. I engaged in combat with her mere hours ago."

"I see." Salem paused. "If Tyrian is unable to bring success, then I shall begin moving forces. Beacon must fall, and if Ozpin has healed the Maiden, our window is rapidly shrinking."

"What would you have me do?" Cinder asked.

"Lie low. Let Tyrian and the White Fang make this next attempt, and, should it fail, be prepared to act during the Vytal Festival."

"I understand."

The call clicked off, and Cinder slumped in her chair, groaning slightly at her abused muscles.

Time was short, but this next show was not Cinder's. She was interested in just how much damage a serial killer with the support of the White Fang could cause.

-]l[-

Anyways, sorry this chapter took so long to get out. I took a two month long break to read Evangelion fics, and got kind've addicted. But I'm back, through the power of actually reading RWBY fics. You can thank Sympathy for the Devils by October Daye and Technician by Myareska for that. Also I started reading Relic just a few days ago- about halfway through, so I'll be caught up soon. Good fics, all three of them.

I'm not too confident in this chapter- there's parts I like (Mercury, Anna), but so much of the chapter is built on the entertainment of the rapidly switching PoVs, and I'm not sure I pulled it off all that well. Oh well, it was a fun experiment anyways. Besides, better to get the chapter out, then to stress over it for months on end.

As we get further into the fic, I'm realizing more and more the issues that come from not having seen the four most recent seasons of RWBY. Namely I have no idea of the motivations for like… Cinder, Hazel, Lionheart, Tyrian… Adam, any of them. And to be fair, I'm probably not going to research beyond wiki-browsing, no matter how much I may wish to understand what the fuck is happening in S8. So here's that warning: characters are almost certainly gonna be OOC from here on out- in greater ways than Ozpin's crack from earlier. Sorry, but that's the way it's gonna be.

Anyways. Amber, amirite. She's bored. Her days consist of talking to Ozpin, and nothing else. She also, afaik, had like no personality in the original show, so I'm completely justified in doing whatever the hell I want here. That's my excuse and I'm sticking to it.

Final thanks to Eternal Escapist for a bit of beta help on the chapter.

Chapter nine will be out before the turn of the decade. I promise there'll be an omake next time.