AN

Oh, we're back.

I've got a plan for this epilogue, now.

I'm going to define some terms though - as (with all things) this kind of got away from me.
See, what you're about to get is the epilogue I'd... Well, not had *planned,* but the one I'd conceptualized since the beginning of the story. The one I'd known the broadest strokes of.
It'll be four parts - three beefy-ass epilogue chapters, and then the 'The Record' chapter I hinted at wanting to publish a while ago.

That, is what I planned. If you prefer, that is canon.

Well, as 'canon' as one can get for a fanfiction based on another property - but I digress.

The fun part is that, as I always do, I played with my toys while I was setting everything up, and realized I had an interesting opportunity with the framing device I was using to tell the epilogue, one that - should I choose to use it - would turn this little three/four-parter into an epilogue in the Red Dead Redemption 2 "practically a game unto itself" style.

Buuuuuuuuut I can foresee some divided reactions, as what I came up with in the end, well - it's definitely something.
I think I can effectively summarize what I'm going for with two words:

John Wick.

Now, see, a lot of you may pay that surface-level attention and just go 'Oh shit we're in for a badass show'.
And, well, we are.

But if you've actually watched those movies and paid attention to their themes and specifically Wick's character arc... And then you keep in mind how I've played this story... Yeah if it goes even half how I expect it to we're in for some shit.

But, again, given exactly what will happen in this second half of the epilogue, this is what I'll do:
The first half of the epilogue - everything up to The Record - is canon. No question about it.
Everything after that?

Well, you can take it or leave it. If you like it, you can consider it canon. If not, call it a 'what if.'
And speaking of 'what if's...

There's a phrase in fiction - if you'll allow me to butcher it, as I can't seem to find the exact wording, it's something along the line of 'Every story is based on one big lie.' The easiest way to explain this is to look at science fiction - the big lie there is insert method of Faster Than Light Travel here. From there, the story is built and explores the consequences of that lie.

Ever since finishing TPATS, I've had an itch - I've wanted to explore those alternate endings I determined couldn't have occurred due to in-universe character reasons. To wit: The Gods Arc could never happen because there was no way Aldric would just let them live if he had the ability to literally do whatever he wanted... Even though I kinda/sorta had him imply he in fact did let them live in his dialogue with Cinder and Ozma ('Some tests shouldn't be cheated on' and 'let them').

And thus: The lie.
I want to play with those toys, and explore those possibilities.

So, following the conclusion of the epilogue (Remember: Everything up to 'The Record' posted in full), that's what I'll be doing. No set schedule, no guarantees, not even sure if I'll post it here or create a whole new story just called 'TPATS What If's' or something the like.
I'll tell that little lie so I can explore alternate endings. 'What if's, in which we tell a small fib and explore the consequences of that falsehood.

The first one will follow the epilogue I've established here, and again can be taken or left as canon. But the ones after that?
Oh we're gonna get wild.

But that's for later - right now, I've got a story to right and properly finish.

So let's do that, shall we?

Oh, wait - one last thing - I'm working on my next story, too. Still cooking, as though I know the story I want to tell, I need to find a way to properly execute its beginning, but I know I'll have a fun time with it. This one will be an Overlord story (some folks recommending it to me during the course of TPATS' publishing and the similarities between Ainz and Aldric was what got me into it), another OC/I (though not like TPATS), and the last of the 'great experiments' I want to run before I publish something wholly original.

So if you're into me, and not just TPATS, keep an eye out for that.

Anyways: On with the show.

Epilogue

1

Leaving the bullhead was a bittersweet experience this day. Sweet in the sense that Ruby Rose, for however long, would be reunited and be able to spend time with friends she hadn't seen at all in years, let alone seen with regularity, but bitter in the sense of what she knew was coming. She alone was the only one among them who knew what was on its way to meet them - specifically, who, and she had chosen to pull strings and call emergencies and beg for help because for all the decisions she'd made leading up to this, she knew she had to try - she had to try to do it herself, to spare the only one of her friends with whom she hadn't exchanged a single word ever since Beacon. The tortured soul she'd forced to return to the world due to her inadequacy, due to her lack of strength.

But by calling him, by hearing his voice for the first time in almost a decade, she thus was able to learn exactly where the man who had shattered the world's tenuous peace was going to be, and at what time. Obviously, this was her old friend's plan - attracting him to one place so they could do battle, so he of another world, who had honorarily been declared 'human' by the man who hated the entire species, could do battle with the only enemy he had allowed to run free. Not according to the plan, however, was that Ruby would assemble her old team - and that of their closest allies - to try and curtail this battle before it began. Though they didn't know her underlying reasons - only one of them shared her opinion of her old friend, even after so much time had passed, the wounds had healed - they did know the main one:

Adam Taurus had to be defeated.

Cut the head off the snake, and the entire army he'd assembled, the army that had been wrecking one kingdom and terrorizing the other three for two years, would disassociate - and from there the Kingdoms would have their best chance at turning the tide, at ending the war before it got uncontrollably bad.

Unfortunately, while they may not know for certain how she'd managed to pull it off, how she'd acquired her information, they all suspected - and it was clear on their faces, so different from how she remembered. Ren and Nora, though their visages were considerably brightened by the rings on their fingers, each held neutral expressions - Ren ever the stoic, and his wife ever so eager to follow his lead. They had been the closest of everyone to actually accepting the tortured soul's actions and the reasons behind it, but the extreme dichotomy between the friend they knew and the man he truly was, was so powerful and so unimaginably vast that they couldn't truly reconcile it. Ren had simply taken to treating them as different people, and as with all strangers, he treated the tortured soul with neutrality, and his friend, with respect. Nora would at least talk about it in private, and when separated from her husband, but her opinion was clearly influenced by his - better, and easier, to consider them as two different people. Given Ren's own intelligence, rarely though it was actually displayed due to his characteristic silence, Ruby had realized he'd caught on almost instantly that the only way she could have been able to predict exactly where and when Adam Taurus would be, is if she'd been in contact with the object of his apathy, so as much as he disliked so quickly falling back into that man's game, he knew that the benefit - of ending the threat of Taurus - was worth it. Thus, though his face was set in a neutral frown, and his eyes flicked about the craterous, rocky land around them, searching for either the alien or the Faunus, and briefly locking onto the hammer that gave this area its name, he was set with determination: Mistral was his adopted home, recommended highly by his two closest and oldest friends, and it had been Taurus' first target - and he could protect it no better than if he were to fight Taurus here, and end him as a threat. His wife, meanwhile, wore a less dour expression, but brightened up when she saw Ruby - and gave her a wave, as though they hadn't seen each other thirty minutes prior.

Ruby returned the wave, as the next person from JNPR's bullhead exited the vessel. He had undergone perhaps the most dramatic changes of everyone present - and was one of two people who still bore an artifact of the object of so many of their mutual hatreds and disgust. Though he had repainted it to resemble his family colors and replaced its more esoteric details with his family crest, he still wielded the indomitable heater shield his once friend had given him in hospital - it was just too good a defensive implement to throw away out of spite. He had grown several inches since the end of the War of the White Witch that had given all of them their world-renown names, and his hair wasn't as long anymore - either out of practicality or because if he let it grow out at all it would remind him of the man he still held contempt for. He wore far less armor than he had during their time together - having determined that the tradeoff in protection was worth the addition of mobility, and given that he had an unnaturally large amount of Aura even for a huntsman as experienced as him, he could usually take whatever damage was necessary, if it actually managed to bleed through his shield. Instead he wore something that almost resembled a suit, and it would have actually looked rather dashing, if his expression wasn't halfway between frustration, anxiety, and resignation. For all the battle experience he'd acquired these last seven years, his ability to think in the abstract hadn't quite progressed as far - and he'd probably only realized the exact circumstances of their situation in the minutes before they arrived, either informed by Ren and Nora, or by the final person to exit their craft.

Pyrrha had weathered the five years of peace and two years of war beautifully, especially given that of them all, her workload was only comparable to Ruby's own. Owing to the fact that she was alone with Ruby in believing in the genuity, if not the righteousness, of the man the rest of them would have preferred to never think of again, she was the only other of them to carry a relic of his influence over all of them. Polished to a perfect shine and meticulously cleaned and kept up with, the red white and blue shield rested proudly on her back, a symbol of unfettered, unquestionable good borrowed from another world and given meaning here. Pyrrha had done her level best to live up to what she had both been told and had seen it meant to the man who had given it to her - and it was both this and her continued belief in the man that had given it to her that led to her being one of the few people to enter this soon-to-be battleground with anything resembling hope on her face. Ruby suspected that she had actually seen him before today - just as she suspected Yang's year and a half absence had also led her to him - and that she still wanted to see him again meant the world to Ruby - it meant that there was still at least one person out there that believed in him.

The same could not be said for Ruby's own team, and as she exited the bullhead, she turned to face them. Blake was the first she saw, although she couldn't actually see the woman. Being the sole voice of dissention against Adam Taurus, and leading the only faction of Faunus openly opposing him, she'd had to make a great many decisions that had influenced how she carried herself to this day - none more obvious than that she, in a line of reasoning reflective of her ideological opponent, had taken on a symbol to elevate herself above being just a woman, just a person. She wore a felinid helmet that encased her entire head, hid her entire face - providing both protection against the weapons so frequently raised up against her, and a symbol with which she could be instantly recognized by friend or foe alike. Ruby hadn't learned what her old friend had done to Blake until some months after their last encounter at Beacon, and with Blake so keen on shutting the world out, she couldn't see the expression that painted her face - though she could imagine it was disdainful, influenced by both the carefully nurtured hatred of Adam Taurus and all that he represented, as well as the loathful realization that, if she failed at killing Adam - or even if she succeeded! - she ran the incredibly likely risk of running into the man who had nearly killed her almost a decade ago.

If Ruby wanted to see emotion, however, she had to look no further than her own sister. Ruby remembered the unbridled shock of seeing that she'd actually cut her hair after she'd returned from a nearly two year absence following the end of the War of the White Witch, and the continued shock that Yang actually kept up with it - she'd known Yang and her long hair for so much of her life that it still made her do a double take to see it so short. Fully recognizable, however, was the scowl on Yang's face and the red glow to her eyes. Ruby knew Yang regretted not killing him during their meeting all those years ago, and all that regret was rearing its ugly head as rage, now - if it were somehow possible, Yang seemed angrier at him than she did at the man who had started a race war out of pure malice. Ruby had genuinely hoped that her opinion might either change or calm down in the intervening years, but she realized now she had underestimated her sister's pride - that Ruby had invoked the very man who had maimed Yang, killed her mother, and almost killed her sister, was proof positive to the brawler that she'd failed, that she wasn't good enough to keep the world stable enough that it wouldn't need him. Yang was so angry that Ruby genuinely wondered if she might not be able to take Adam out in one shot, as long as she actually got it.

Finally, stepping out from the pilot's canopy and the last to exit their bullhead, was Weiss - her military uniform neatly pressed and perfectly fitted. If there was one person that actually understood him, it was Ruby's closest friend. Maybe it was the diplomat in her, maybe it was the politician that had been carved by a lifetime of leading a public life and a representative-by-proxy of a megacorporation, or maybe she really did believe in him, but whatever the case, even as much as she didn't agree with him, Weiss was the only one who seemed to understand him. For this reason, the brightly-dressed woman was the only one besides Ruby and Pyrrha to not be wearing a dour expression - though unlike Pyrrha and Ruby, hers wasn't painted by anything even resembling hope, but rather consummate professionalism, and of course it was - given her position in Atlas' military, her service record, as well as the multiple legacies she had to live up to, Weiss had fallen all too easily into an evolved form of the role she'd played before their time at Beacon. She always had to look in charge, she always had to know what she was doing, she always had to be perfect - if only so there was just one pillar that others could cling to.

It was the first time that so many of them had been in the same place at the same time - and Ruby just wished it could have been under better circumstances. Or earlier, even - Ecru had had a kid! Wouldn't that have been a wonderful time to reunite and celebrate?

But no, they had to come together to do their jobs: They had to be huntsmen, and huntresses. Protectors of the common people, defenders of the world. Allies to good, and enemies to evil.

And this evil made his approaching presence known with a characteristically ostentatious display: He brought an entire warship with him. It was so big that even as it crested over the horizon and started to approach, even in the wavering heat of the midsummer morning, RWBY and JNPR could see it clearly. Like all of the ships he'd acquired, it had been garishly repainted from the colors and iconography of the home nation from which it had been stolen, now bearing the symbols and colors of the White Fang. Ruby shifted her cape and ran her fingers over her scythe, gulping when the ship came to hover a few miles away, and a shuttle departed it. As it came to land on the far side of the rocky field - on the other side of the hammer - she knew time was up.

Adam Taurus exited the bullhead, accompanied as ever by Null, his right-hand-man. They both wore the Grimm Masks so representative of their faction, though Adam's only covered his eyes - Null's masked his entire face. Adam wore a regal, military-style coat that ended just above his heels, whereas Null was covered in armor that looked like he'd scavenged it off of his kills rather than had it fashioned for him personally. She could see Atlesian and Mistrali origins in some of the plates, and it just made her sad, knowing that the people who had worn that now had their armor perverted in such a way.

Taurus, when he noticed the assembled teams, tilted his head, a confused frown playing at his lips, as he and Null exchanged glances.

"Wasn't expecting to see you all here." Said Taurus, as he turned back to them, and then, after singling out Blake, he bowed. "Blake." He said, smoothly. "Is he really using you all to soften me up?" He asked, straightening back up and resting his hand on the hilt of his blade. "I always thought he had a soft spot for you eight." He sneered.

Weiss was the one to respond, stepping out in front of them all, her blade in hand and its cylinders spinning, ready for action. "Adam Taurus, by the authority invested in me by the Atlesian Military, I'm placing you under arrest and ordering you to stand down. Compliance will earn you proper treatment in accordance with the rules of war... Failure will be met with hostility."

"Ah, Schnee. You know every time you show up on the battlefield and kill more of my people, their desire for your head grows higher than it already is." Said the savagely grinning Faunus leader. "I'll make you the same offer -" He said, nodding upwards, "- because I promise you, today will not end the way you think it will."

Even as he spoke, though, everyone on Ruby's side readied their weapons. Blake called out, "we have you outnumbered four to one! You're not walking away from this, Adam!"

Taurus shook his head, "no... No that's exactly what I'm going to do." He said, slowly shifting his hand to gripping the hilt of his blade, as he continued speaking, "see, I knew I'd be running into him sooner or later. It was just a matter of time. I just had to bide that time until I was ready - and it took me five years to find what I'd need to fight him." He said, looking to Null and nodding. "Good thing is that this particular weapon works just as well against the rank and file as it will the Master."

Null, in response to the unspoken command, removed his mask, revealing first a pair of wolf-like ears from the top of his head, and second - the thing that would doom everyone present:

Silver eyes.

Now Ruby realized what Taurus meant - both in implication and in statement: He'd only let five years go by without conflict because he had needed all that time to find a Faunus with silver eyes, all in the efforts of having a living weapon to bring to bear when the the Master inevitably fought him. Someone who could nullify his second greatest strength - his powers. For all that her old friend was intelligent, she'd never seen him go up against someone like her before - and given that Taurus had clearly planned their inevitable encounter, he wouldn't have any time at all to adapt to the situation. He would be depowered, brought back down to normal human levels, fighting against two immediately superior foes, with access to both their aura and their semblance.

Locking her own silver eyes onto Null, Ruby gulped - she had one chance, just one, to ensure they didn't lose control of this. She didn't even know if it would work, but if she could nullify Null's own powers, then they could keep their numerical advantage and take away Taurus' trump card.

If not, then this would get very painful, very fast - and everyone here could die.

Including, when he arrived, Nebo Aldric.

"Hit 'em." Said Taurus - sounding the call.

Peace was not a word often used to describe the state of Remnant during its history. If some kingdom wasn't fighting some other kingdom, or for a brief period of time one planet fighting another, then the whole of Humanity was in a war for survival against the emotionless Creatures of Grimm. Entire periods of history were defined by the triumphs, failures, and actions of an age - but almost all of them had something to do with a conflict going on at the time.

When the War of the White Witch had ended, when Beacon and Haven academies magically reconstituted themselves out of thin air, when General Ironwood and the then-investigator Ozma announced the why of things, some dared to hope that 'peace' could finally enter the lexicon. After all, with huntsmen and huntresses out there like teams RWBY and JNPR, and with a noted decrease of Grimm activity globally, things had to be better, right?

Maybe it would have been, in another time, in another place.

But it hadn't.

It didn't even take a year for the hard questions to begin getting asked, and for the answers previously supplied to be questioned again. Things like the true origins of the Terrans, the truth to the enigmatic 'Grimm Queen' and why after thousands of years there was no hint even as to her existence. People asked why the Towers just put themselves back together, why people the world over just magically appeared out of thin air, back in their homes, with their husbands, wives, and families. On and on the questions went, and any answers provided by Ironwood and Ozma's 'official' investigators just caused more to pile on.

Perhaps in isolation, they could have been dealt with, in time - after all, given the arcane nature of the things that had happened, unless one wanted to chalk it all up to magic, or divine intervention, could any explanation but guesswork and theories be presented? Could anything less vague than the simple unknown nature of the Grimm and the doubly unknown nature of their Queen be posited? If the stories were to be believed, absolutely everyone fighting that day had turned to dust, and then reappeared from that same dust at their homes. The Terrans vanished as suddenly and without warning as they'd arrived, and were doggedly remaining hidden to the increasing number of overland flights purposed to locate them and their kingdom, and both Beacon and Shade towers just put themselves back together minutes before the entire CCT network just switched itself back on and news reporters had to sprint into place to provide what little information was trickling into an atrophied system suddenly brought back to life.

In isolation, 'We don't know' may have been accepted. Theories, may have been tolerated.

But the world - or worlds, depending on which side of the argument one was on - doesn't work in isolation.

Remnant, in particular, had a lot of moving parts, and a lot of problems it had to fix even ignoring - as so many often tried to do - the Grimm.

Case in point: The Faunus.

Just because the Grimm Queen had been killed, and all of the damage her campaign of annihilation had caused had been put back together, didn't eliminate the systemic abuses these demi-human races had suffered throughout all of recorded history, and it certainly didn't do anything to change the fact that now? For the first time in history?

They had a hero.

Adam Taurus - the masked bull faunus whom everyone at Salem's castle had seen leading his White Fang from the front - had, as time went on and more and more stories were collected and corroborated, become messianic to the animal people. Already possessing a reputation of a reformed terrorist, who had done what even Vale's own armed forces either couldn't or wouldn't do - and fought the invading Terrans head on - as time passed and people began to realize how instrumental the man had been in coordinating the ground war around Salem's castle from within the maelstrom of combat, such that teams RWBY and JNPR could assault the Queen herself, he rapidly rose through the ranks of the White Fang. Bolstered by his popularity both pre-existing and newfound, as well as the weight of Ozma, Qrow Branwen and, in a not entirely unexpected reveal, the post-pardon Roman Torchwick, Taurus soon found himself in the position once occupied by Sienna Khan: The High Leader of the White Fang.

Many who had remembered Taurus' earlier days, who were suspicious of the reasoning behind his reforms, who didn't believe in the stories he'd spun about being tapped by Salem at a young age and having to play a role so he could ingratiate himself as a double agent, were wary of this newfound shift in the geopolitical landscape of Remnant - especially given the sheer amount of stock vast amounts of the Faunus species was putting into this one man. They found themselves, however, surprised - for three years, all Taurus did was use his cult of personality to rally his species around himself. He took stock of what little Menagerie, the Faunus, and the Fang, had, and managed to put it all together into something that was more than the sum of its parts, taking the nation that was hanging on by its nails and turning it into a self-sustaining powerhouse that ever more Faunus began to flock to, as they realized their choices were either the Four Kingdoms, who were clearly okay with upholding the pre-Salem status quo, or going to Menagerie under Taurus and finally feeling not just like a person, but like a person who could take control of their lives. Taurus had done such a good job that he'd even brought some humans around to his way of thinking, and after the third year of his rule as High Leader, he was the first leader ever to bring themselves to the inter-Kingdom meetings, who was not the leader of a formalized Kingdom himself.

Many have come to believe that was the beginning of the end. Many believe that was the turning point that made the fall to what came, inevitable - as now Taurus not only had power with his people, but he had created for himself a platform on the world's stage with which to preach and debate, and thus gave him the eyes and ears of everyone - Human and Faunus alike. Anyone who had not heard of him yet, heard of him now.

Unfortunately, given the already chaotic nature of the goings-on at home, the four Kingdoms sought little more than to maintain the status quo. They allowed Taurus the right to participate in these meetings for little other reason than he gave them no other choice, and once he had his foot in the door, once he had his chance to speak out and demand reforms for those Faunus who, as was their right, wished not to leave their pre-established lives and families in the Kingdoms, the inevitable happened: They refused. There was too much going on at home - too much they had to handle, all of the discord, all of the investigations - just too much to deal with to put the worries of the faunus on their plate. Taurus had his own proto-kingdom, he'd have to handle that.

With the benefit of hindsight, those detractors of Taurus, those that hadn't believed in the genuity of his heel-face turn, cited that this was a part of his master plan - specifically for what came next.

Two years, of growing tensions - the fires of which were stoked constantly by Taurus being repeatedly refused and treated as either second-class or not as important by his fellow world leaders. Two years of ignoring this fire such that they could put out the ones they were already dealing with, and every time he was refused? Every time he was laughed out of office or dismissed with a wave of the hand? He went back home and made sure everyone knew what had happened. Menagerie, slowly but surely, became radicalized - and worse was that with the lack of any change to the status quo from beyond Menagerie, a great deal of the kingdom-living Faunus began to chafe under this, and they too grew restless and angry. Here was a man fighting tooth and nail, playing the Humans' game, to change things objectively for the better, and the Humans were instead focusing on trying to answer questions that for years now had eluded any attempt at being answered.

Conflict was brewing - a war to make the Faunus Rebellions look like a playground scuffle in comparison, but no one wanted to pull that trigger.

It began, as did many, with a poor decision.

After being trashed twice by the Hidden Kingdoms of the Terrans, and dealing with Salem's coordinated Grimm attacks, and the War of the White Witch, the four Kingdoms were war-weary and still in pain, healing and rebuilding. Menagerie, meanwhile - and Taurus chief among them - was most decidedly not hurt - not damaged and not reeling from the costs of so many back-to-back conflicts. The only thing it was suffering from, despite Taurus' best efforts at modernizing the nation and revolutionizing its infrastructure, was space and resources. With so many Faunus flocking to what they viewed as their nation, Menagerie rapidly ran out of space, and even more rapidly ran out of those critical resources necessary to keep themselves afloat, and with two thirds of their landmass comprising of desert, they couldn't just settle the rest of the continent.

So Adam Taurus made the call - and led an army to the southern tip of Anima. Leading from the front as he always did, he and his White Fang led one of the first coordinated assaults against the Grimm in centuries - and the first large-scale assault against the Grimm in Wild Remnant since Salem. He and his Fang drew a line on the map, and systematically killed every single Grimm inside of that line, in a conflict that lasted three months, and whose ending created Animafauna - on the one hand a poetic choice for those that followed him: They were the animal people, and their first colony would thus be named after they themselves; but on the other hand, a dire foreboding for those who found themselves the subject of Taurus' masked gaze - a declaration that, in taking the name Anima from the continent of Anima, they were symbolically 'taking it back,' as it were.

The Humans did as Humans do: And considered it a threat. Even though Animafauna was so far away from Mistral that it was closer to Vale than it was Mistral, Anima was still the domain of the Mistrali - and thus Taurus, despite choosing wild and unsettled lands, was seen as either taking that which didn't belong to him, or worse, positioning himself to do just that with an eventual strike against Mistral. So they issued Taurus an ultimatum: Return the lands he'd stolen, or face repercussions.

Taurus, the shrewd leader he was, rightly proclaimed that the lands he'd claimed were both unclaimed and unsettled by the greater Human population and the four kingdoms - they, simply, had no right to them, so he would not budge. Animafauna was Fang territory, a sovereign state of Menagerie.

Depending on one's point of view - or, more specifically, how they viewed Adam Taurus - one could see Mistral's response to this as either playing into his hands and giving him the conflict he wanted, or as a justification for what he himself did in response to their actions. Mistral blockaded Animafauna, forcibly turning away any and all cargo and trade ships that were giving the colony the supplies it would soon desperately need just to survive, let alone to continue to build. Taurus, in response to this, attacked the blockade with his greatest warriors - and not only broke it, but stole the ships that had created it, in effect giving the Fang a navy.

With this act, the Second Faunus War began. The five years of tenuous peace broke, and two species - for the first or second time, depending on one's personal view of the Terrans - engaged in bloodsport.

Rosemary Ashmore was a part of that war - but not necessarily the part one would expect. She wasn't one of the conscripts from Vale's already beleaguered and shattered military, nor one of Atlas' legion of superhuman Huntsmen. She wasn't one of Vacuo's night-stalkers or plainclothed soldiers, and she certainly wasn't one of Mistral's Ronin. Ashmore was an Vale war photographer - it was her job to report on the battles, to capture them on film and to write about them on paper, such that future generations, no matter the victor, would never forget or be allowed to misremember the realities of their past.

She only wished she could actually have done some war photographing.

A great deal of the fighting was happening in Mistral at the moment - the two years since the beginning of the conflict had seen the Fang steamroll over Anima, completely conquer Argus, surround Mistral, and build hidden fortresses in the wilderness where no Human would dear to tread, islands of Grimm-free land in an otherwise hellishly hostile environment. All four Kingdoms had dedicated some part of their war machine to Mistral after the disastrous failure at Argus, and all they were succeeding in doing was stalling the Fang's relentless advance - the general sentiment was that Mistral's fall was inevitable, and was soon, that even Shade Academy's headmaster wouldn't hold the line forever, especially given reports that he'd engaged Adam Taurus no less than three times, and had failed to emerge victorious each time.

See, all the other photographers and journalists, were attached to Atlesian units and were reporting from Mistral.

But Ashmore?

She was stuck in Vale, the best thing she was able to report on was that the VAF had - for the first time since its fall - managed to clear the Grimm out of Mountain Glen, and the VAF Corps of Engineers were working around the clock to turn it from what had once been an extension of the city and kingdom itself, into a military city-state whose sole purpose was building the VAF back up as fast as physically possible. The only thing she was able to do was report on that, and while obviously noteworthy, this wasn't really going to do anything for her.

After all, she had to look at the big picture: As good and powerful as Taurus and the Fang were, they were one proto-Kingdom going up against four full-fledged Kingdoms, one of whom had never left the war footing they'd been set on ever since the Terrans. This meant that Taurus' defeat was inevitable, and she had to think of her life after the war as well as her life during the war, and just providing some pictures and articles on Mountain Glenn that only sixty eight people had read to date? That wouldn't cut it.

Hell, even doing a piece on Hammerfall had only given her a passing glance from one of the major news distributors.

So, sitting on the edge of an abandoned building at the edge of a formerly abandoned colony, looking up to the dull gray mid-morning sky, Ashmore huffed, thinking about the excitement elsewhere compared to the drudgery of here, and the unknown of the future.

As her thoughts drifted to fanciful dreams of being the one to either prove or disprove the 'Remnant Terrans' theory - and, importantly, get pictures of what their kingdoms looked like - she noticed an oddity: A duo of bullheads flying out from the city. While such a thing in and of itself wasn't strange, what provided the curiosity - the tickle to the back of her mind that she was seeing something significant - was that instead of flying towards Mountain Glenn, they were heading in a more northeastern direction. Were it any other vehicle, Ashmore wouldn't think much of it - that was the direction of Hammerfall, after all, and it had become something of a tourist spot ever since a CCT video went viral of these drunk college kids tying the hammer to the back of their truck in a vain attempt at pulling it from the ground.

But these weren't regular bullheads - these were military craft. One could tell from the sleeker and more angular surface, designed to lower the air resistance the ship felt and, when combined with its stronger engines, increase its speed and effective range. Furthermore, peeking through her camera, Ashmore could even see the autocannons on the ships - they were full-fledged military bullheads.

So why were there so few of them? And why were they headed in Hammerfall's direction? There was nothing there but a modern art piece, and ever since the war had begun, all military flights were done in formation - no fewer than five ships in a group, and preferably with a frigate or something bigger to provide fire support if necessary.

Interest piqued, Ashmore pulled out her scroll, and with a click of a button, fired up her drone. She waited a couple minutes, spending that time both checking the drone's cameras and keeping an eye on the bullheads - and once she confirmed that they were, indeed, heading to Hammerfall and were beginning their descent, she let the drone loose. She'd probably spent much more on the thing than she ever had a right to, especially given her finances, but little gadgets like this were things she could never pass up - and for what it was worth, it did make her job easier, allowing her to triple up on the pictures she took and even a hard drive large enough to record troves of video and audio footage. She'd gained a whole two extra readers per month once she'd made the purchase!

Little did she know, she was about to make everything worth it, for she was about to witness history in the making.

Piloting her drone through the scroll, she watched it zoom off in the direction of hammerfall, growing smaller and smaller the more distant it became, until it was but a dot on the horizon, and then vanished from sight entirely. When it arrived at its destination, she saw that the two bullheads had already landed some dozen or two meters from that which gave Hammerfall its name - the supposed 'Hammer from the Heavens' that had, as the stories had told, fallen from space itself, torn the gouge in the earth in its wake, and come to a halt there at the edge of its crater. Ashmore didn't quite believe in all that - she was more of the theory that it was just a modern art piece that someone of, were she to be kind, 'alternative thought,' and if she weren't to be so kind, outright idiocy, had decided to go plant outside of Mountain Glenn after a meteor had done most of the work for him. Add in an electromagnet to make sure it wouldn't move anywhere, and a stupid little poem on the side of the hammer itself, and suddenly one had an urban legend, fame, and fortune just waiting for the enigmatic 'Thor' to lay claim (and proof of said claim) to making it.

Ashmore pointed the drone's camera away from the hammer, having taken probably too many pictures of it to begin with, when she'd written her piece on it a few years ago. Instead she pointed it to the twin bullheads, and saw just as the last of their occupants left them - and her eyes widened when she beheld who exactly they were. Initially, it just looked like some generic Huntsmen - she saw a faunus girl disembark first from one shuttle, and then a long-haired, green-garbed huntsman from the other, and they were soon followed by their companions, and Ashmore was just about to recall the drone, when she saw it:

Old Glory. The shield wielded by Ash Etiolate, and bequeathed to Pyrrha Nikos upon his death at what historians and scholars had agreed was the 'beginning' of the War of the White Witch. Sure enough, the person upon whose back that star-spangled shield rested was indeed Nikos herself, the revelation of which floored Ashmore, because as far as she knew, Nikos was supposed to be in Mistral, alongside the rest of her team! She was perhaps even more instrumental to that kingdom's defense and morale than Shade's headmaster - her shield had become a rallying symbol for the entire city! Legends were being told about the Invincible Girl and her Indomitable Shield, legends that ran the gamut of believable to outright fantasy, but with the consensus being that if there was one person above all who was the reason Mistral had lasted so long against the Fang, it was Nikos.

So what was she doing here? She was practically on the other side of the planet! Why had she left Mistral to fend for itself?

Snapping pictures of Nikos exchanging words with the rest of her team - and confirming indeed that all of the world-renowned Team JNPR was present in one place - Ashmore shifted her camera over to the other team, and realized that she recognized them too! The scythe was a dead giveaway, but what should have tipped her off, and what she couldn't believe she hadn't recognized to begin with, was that the faunus woman she had seen initially was none other than the Blake Belladonna! That she was here was even more of a surprise than Nikos abandoning Mistral - Belladonna was the lone voice of reason among the entire Faunus species! She had been at Taurus' side from the beginning, the lone voice of dissention against his - in her words - antagonizing the rest of the world, had become the leader of the only faction of Faunus fighting against the White Fang, and hadn't been seen in public since the founding of Animafauna! Let alone with the rest of Team RWBY!

And RWBY was here - for the first time since the postwar celebration at Beacon, the entirety of Ruby Rose's team was in the same place at the same time! They hadn't lasted nearly as well as JNPR had after the war - Yang Xiao Long had just vanished for a year and a half after the war had ended, Weiss Schnee had returned to Atlas at the behest of Ironwood, Blake had as mentioned returned to Menagerie to try and balance out Taurus, and Ruby Rose had practically crusaded around the planet, becoming a one-woman Grimm slaying army, assisting the lone villages and islands of humanity not assisted by or affiliated with the Kingdoms.

That both teams were here, together, at the same time?

Ashmore may have just stumbled onto her career maker.

But the question remained:

Why?

Why were they here? What were they here for? It couldn't be the hammer, could it?! Ruby Rose was well known for being a little childish, sure, but there was no way in hell she'd torn away her team and Pyrrha Nikos' from the warfront just to entertain some idiot modern artist's trick.

Ashmore could do little but watch and record - her drone's cameras were good, but if she wanted to get audio from them, she'd have to get so close to them that they'd see the drone and probably shoot it down. So the best she was capable of was keeping it a few kilometers up and trying not to move it too much, lest it get spotted.

She remained there, eyes glued to her scroll, for several minutes, before she noticed, as one, RWBY and JNPR all turn to the east, their bodies stiffened and their expressions stern. Switching to one of the drone's other cameras, she realized why: Another bullhead was approaching.

And when it landed, Ashmore felt fear grip her heart - as out from it came Adam Taurus, and some lieutenant of his, a man whose name Ashmore didn't know, but whose appearance she did recognize - Taurus was never seen without him, especially in combat. Taurus, upon locking eyes with RWBY and JNPR, exchanged a glance with his lieutenant, his masked visage expressing just enough to Ashmore to let her know that he hadn't expected to see the two legendary Huntsmen teams here today.

Words were exchanged that she couldn't make out - Belladonna appeared to start yelling at one point, but it was clear that if RWBY and JNPR were trying to get Taurus to stand down, he under no circumstances would, and after a few minutes, weapons were drawn and combat began. Ashmore was beside herself with glee, as she made sure to set each camera to track a different fighter and recorded everything she could see - and what she saw was glorious. She'd only ever seen Huntsmen and Huntresses fight in the tournaments in Vale, but never experienced, veteran ones fighting each other for real - to the death.

Ruby Rose tried to take the lead alongside Pyrrha Nikos, charging headlong at Taurus, some silver wave of energy drawn from her semblance surging forth at the Faunus leader - but his lieutenant got in the way, and his own semblance shot a larger wave of similarly colored energy right back at her, and before Ashmore could even realize what had happened, Ruby Rose's sole attention was being occupied by this lieutenant. As one could predict, the rest of Ruby's team backed her up - save Blake, who, like team JNPR, engaged Taurus.

Given the reputations of the two teams, given the fact that they were the ones who landed the killing blow on Salem, and given the extreme numbers disparity on display, Ashmore expected this to be an open and shut case: The war was about to end here and now.

But that wasn't what happened.

Ashmore watched with rapt fascination - and growing horror - as the two strongest and most legendary teams on Remnant were completely cancelled out and even surpassed by two lone Faunus. Taurus was using his sword as a blade and a shield, absorbing every attack that came his way and throwing it right back at his attackers, as though he were fueled by it - and the blade itself appeared so indomitable that she was ready to swear when it was charged by whatever it was he was taking from them, that it cut right through Aura as though it wasn't there! And that even when its killing power wasn't amplified by Taurus' semblance, it was impossibly sharp and durable to begin with - taking a full-on strike from Nora Valkyrie's hammer without so much as bending, and even appearing to be the only thing on Remnant to actually penetrate and cut through Old Glory!

That alone was terrifying to see - the indomitable shield finally meeting its match - but on the other side of the battlefield? Where Taurus' lieutenant took on three quarters of RWBY alone? It was even worse! Whatever this man's semblance was, it appeared to nullify the semblances and auras of those he was fighting! It was an almost constant display, him blasting RWBY - and, if he had the chance, JNPR - with his aura-nullifying semblance! This gave him and Taurus an immediate and outstanding advantage against the two legendary teams, as they soon and quickly began to take on injuries as they continued fighting even without their defensive aura or offensive semblances. Whenever they would appear to be getting their power back, they would be blasted again, and as the battle grew on, the stone quarry around them soon began to be flaked and painted in blood as their injuries stacked up and they fell down.

One by one, each of them fell, until at the end, it was just Pyrrha Nikos.

Ashmore felt like she was watching the world end, as this brave huntress tried their best - but against the raw strength of Taurus and the immutable skill of his lieutenant, against two fighters who still had all their power, while she and all of her allies kept losing access to theirs, they just couldn't hold up, and after a brief but mighty struggle, she, too, was on the ground, defeated.

Ashmore wanted to look away - she didn't want to see what came next, the killing to follow the fighting, or worse, them being captured and brought back to the warfront to be paraded around, but she would, in later times, be glad that she didn't - because that didn't happen.

Instead, Taurus and his lieutenant both were blasted back by something slamming in to the ground in between her and the prone Nikos, forcibly separating them from the shockwave of its impact.

This new arrival's entrance got a reaction from Taurus, who held his arms out to the side and called out to him, as though he were the one he'd been expecting, not RWBY and JNPR.

The man didn't say a word though, he just shedded his overcoat, ran a cybernetic hand through his hair, and reached down to pick up Old Glory. Ashmore watched in shock as the man waved his dark metal hand over the shield, and it fixed itself right then and there - appearing after a moment as all the world knew it: A single, unblemished, round disc of unimpeachable metal.

Taurus spoke again, but the man didn't appear willing to respond - simply tossing the shield back to Nikos and the others, and pulling something from his hip.

When he ignited it, when Ashmore recognized the weapon in the man's hands, she gasped - and zoomed in the camera on his face, to find that she, indeed, recognized him as well.

He was haggard, and almost ten years older than the last time anyone had seen him. He had scars all down the left side of his face, as though he'd been horrifically burned, but it was him.

Goud Etiolate - the Hero of Vale, and the first major casualty of the War of the White Witch - was alive.

And he threw down.

Literally seeing her career be made right in front of her, Ashmore watched as Etiolate engaged Taurus and his lieutenant - charging them headlong, she watched as, in minutes, he did what RWBY and JNPR weren't able to do in almost an hour, executing it with such fluidity that it looked almost as though he'd done nothing but plan out Taurus and his encounter in the years since he'd apparently died. Taurus and his lieutenant ganged up on him just as they had everyone else, but where everyone else tried to avoid the lieutenant's semblance, Etiolate embraced it - and when he was inevitably sent hurtling back from a charged strike from Taurus, that was when the magic happened.

Ashmore watched the footage over, and over, and over again for days. She poured over every single picture she'd taken, every single second of video, and had practically memorized the entire battle, but she still couldn't understand even the barest facts of how Etiolate managed to do it - she couldn't even begin to understand first what he had done, second how he'd even done so, and third - how he was even alive to begin with.

Despite all of this, however, all she was able to understand was what her eyes told her:

Goud Etiolate not only was alive, but he'd cut the head off of the snake.

She absolutely had to figure out how he'd done it.

She absolutely had to figure out why.

She absolutely had to tell this story.