We come to help and secure, we have a mission to accomplish, but in the end… We still lose, and not just once. Lose lives, lose the objective and lose a kingdom. I wanna thank "TexasRanger1996" for helping me with this idea and some parts, you have been a real help man. Enjoy reading guys.

Spells and Louds.

Chapter 643: A Mission in Remnants.

(Somewhere on Atlas.)

Tons of Grimm are flying around, as they fallen mistress, Salem has risen once more and is looking at the devastation of her forces. "This is acceptable, what matters is the relic and…"

"You're demise." Salem turns around and she's confronted by multiple people. Gyro, Shang Tsung and Pyrrha Nikkos. "Salem, you are in deep trouble and we're here to ensure you don't get away with the relic!"

Salem smirks at their courage. "You're bravery is commendable, and I do recall that last time. I beat you and you were sent, flying away."

Gyro slams his staff to the ground. "That was before! But now, I am stronger and you shall see my wrath first hand!" Gyro sends a powerful arcane blast and Salem is hit and lands next to the large rib cage of her Grimm behemoth.

Salem then scoffs, and has her own powers ready. "Are you all certain of beating me in this state? Do you have any idea what's going to happen next?" Her Grimm soon regenerate from the remains of her deceased Grimm monster.

Gyro has his staff onto his back and his hands glow blue and then red like fire. "We'll fight till the end, as long as it is to keep you down!"

Pyrrha then has her weapon armed and loaded and she's now surrounded by spectral birds. "We'll handle the Grimm, master!"

Shang Tsung summons a large fire cobra. "Leave the Grimm to us, go and deal with the witch."

Gyro cracks his knuckles. "With pleasure." He dashes forward and decimates the Grimm in front of him and then he hits Salem hard in the face with his staff and this makes her stumble back and smirk.

"So, you have gotten stronger. Impressive, but not enough to beat me." The Guardian and the Witch of the Grimm circle each other like two wolves ready for a fight, while the others handle the Grimm. "But even if you do kill me, what will you gain? I will come back and the relics will be mine."

Gyro scoffs. "You're sick, twisted and vile, and just out for revenge because you can't die from your damnation and because you lost so much, such as the one you loved, and that the brother god's were right. You can't cope with the death of a loved one, we have to move on."

"But you… You never will and I'll be sure you don't see your future!"

Salem is angered by this and dashes forward and so does Gyro and a massive glow of energy of red and blue is made and a fight breaks out of magic and grimm on the grounds of Atlas.

(Somewhere in Atlas Air space.)

Two Atlas shuttles are flying around and the folks within are busy trying to stop the other from dropping a super-sized bomb onto Mantle! Who is trying to blow it up? Harriet Bree, but she doesn't know that Arthur Watts is inside of Atlas and trying to gain control of her shuttle.

But who are the ones trying to stop her? Qrow Branwen, Robyn Hill, Vine Zeki, Elm Ederne and Marrow Amin.

But a dropship is inbound and they plan to deal with the crisis from the two shuttles. The dropship has Neil and Gwen, while a Viking fighter is inbound ahead and piloting it, is Clover Ebi.

Clover tries to go closer. "We have to… Wait, what are they doing?"

Neil looks closely and he sees that one of the shuttles is moving ahead of the one with Robyn, and the others and Qrow gets off and lands onto the other shuttle.

Neil sees someone on the shuttle with the bomb. "Vine! Clover, the bomb is active and that thing can't be stopped!"

Clover is wide eyed. "No!" He pushes the Viking fighter to its limit and goes as fast as it could even go. The dropship also tries to pick up speed, and they fly by the shuttle leaving.

Qrow Branwen, Robyn Hill, Harriet Bree, Elm Ederne and Marrow Amin. They watch the Viking fighter fly by and are shocked to see Clover inside and going towards the other shuttle. "Clover!"

Clover tries to reach Vine. "Don't do it!"

Vine sees Clover, he is surprised but he calms down. "Clover, at least you came to see this through, and we won't be able to stop this. So long, my friends." Vine then uses his semblance and expands his arms to create a barrier around his shuttle.

Clover tries to use his weapon Kingfisher to grab Vine, but he is too late, and they watch as the shuttle shielded by Vine's power, and soon the shield is gone and so is the shuttle, the bomb and…. And Vine Zeki. He's dead.

Clover is shocked, and no one is piloting the craft he's on and it begins to fall, but then the dropship flies in and Gwen grabs him. "Clover! Wake up!"

Clover then snaps out of it and he let's go of Gwen and uses Kingfisher to go to the other shuttle and he lands in front of Clover, Elm, Marrow and Harriet. The three remaining special ops look to him and they realize what just happened. "What? What did you do?"

Harriet then goes to her knees and cries, they lost their friend and how did this happen? Harriet continued to follow the orders of someone who has lost it, someone who would abandon Remnant and doom the people of Mantle.

Clover then looks to Qrow. "We need to stop this madness, we need to save the people who are still on Mantle, because it might not be Ironwood's words, but it's the word to do the right thing."

Qrow nods and he hands Clover his pin. "Glad to have you back, now we can clean up this mess.

Clover then gives it back to him. "Keep it. You seem to have figured out how to change your own semblance." Qrow chuckles at this, but then the other dropship goes to them.

"Guys!" yelled Neil. "I know this is hard to get over, but we still have people in Mantle and Atlas, let's go now!"

They all nod and the shuttle follows the dropship back to Atlas and Mantle, along with tons of other aircraft all ready to save what they can and fight off anything else.

(Somewhere above Atlas.)

The Grimm that are flying around are being shot at by fighters, of both Allied, Soviet and the Galactic Empire, and they are having a field day with these guys, and on ground level we have anti-air weapons also shooting them down, led by the Centurion Siege walker commanded by Carol Pingrey.

The Shogun's Executioner begins to go on a killing spree on every Grimm it sees, and joining it is the Grimm Megoliath, and even though it's back in Remnant, Salem's control isn't working on it.

Martin and Jack Cyber are trying to fly through this flock of monsters that are stopping them and they soon arrive to the tallest tower in Atlas. "You know, I am starting to reconsider this plan" said Martin.

Jack Cyber looks around. "True, I mean Atlas is falling and removing the Grimm from Salem's control is pointless. We should just stop and fall back, or we could resecure the stabilizers and make sure the hover transmitters stay stable for everyone else to evacuate."

Martin sighs. "Hang on." He then positions the device and the field is deployed. "There, the timer is set and when the 1 minute mark is done, then the shockwave will be unleashed and the Grimm around Mantle and Atlas will stop attacking."

Jack Cyber is impressed. "Wow! Timed weapon, nice." He then readies his thrusters. "Let's get the heck out…" Martin then sees that his friend has stopped moving, like time stopped.

"Dude, what the heck are you doing? We don't have time for the silent treatment." Martin then looks around and sees that Jack Cyber is not the only one time stopped and he sees that the Grimm, their forces and Becky fighting the Grimm have all stopped moving. "What the hell is this?"

"Martin."

Martin knows that voice. "Penny?" A bright light is made, and everything is faded to white.

(Somewhere else.)

Martin blinks and he sees that he's no longer in Atlas. "What the heck is this? Where the heck am I?"

"Salutations!" Martin is shocked to the sound of that voice and he turns around and he sees who it is. "Hello, Martin McKenzie, glad you came and sorry for this change in me too."

Martin looks towards Penny and walks to her. "Penny? What the heck is this? Penny, where are we and what is going on? What happened to Atlas and Mantle and…"

Penny then hugs him. "So glad you're here, Martin. So glad I thought of you before I have to go. Even though I have so much to tell you, so much that has changed and some of it was scary."

"Penny what are you…?" Martin is then shocked at her words, and he departs from the hug. "No… No, no. No! Penny, no! No don't… This cannot be, it just…."

Penny stops his mouth with her finger. "Martin, calm down. I know, this is hard for me too but…. But I chose this, there was no other way and it was too late. I chose this, to make sure that the powers of the Winter Maiden don't get given to the wrong hands."

"I did this to do as the mission states and the mission is to make sure that the folks of Atlas and Mantle don't get into trouble, and stay safe and the same goes with my friends…. Things have been rather hard for me, especially when I fell from Amity."

Penny then sees Martin with tears. "I'm not the same Android as I was, that is all gone now. This is a painful thing for you, but I just wanna say that…. That through everything, from the day you found and helped me come back… Thank you. Thank you Martin, and to those who helped as well."

"Thank you for giving me a second chance to life, and thank you for giving me friends who I would never forget, and don't worry about me and where I might be. Because no matter what happens…"

Martin stops her from talking. "You will never, ever be forgotten. Penny, I just…. I'm sorry. I wish I was here sooner and maybe this wouldn't have…."

"We can't always know what happens next" said Penny. She then hugs him. "We don't know what goes on next in our lives, we just need to find a way to get around them and look forward to what surprises happens next. I'm going to miss you, Martin."

Martin hugs her too. "I'll miss you too child. I love you so much, Penny. We all do." He then kisses her forehead.

Penny smiles. "Our memories will live on, within our hearts, minds and souls and we will never forget them all. I love you too…. Dad." And soon a bright light envelops them both.

(Back to Reality.)

As time goes back to normal, Becky sends the Grimm beast to the ground, and then she sees Jack Cyber going to Martin who is on his knees and crying. "Martin!" She flies over to them.

Becky lands next to Jack Cyber. "What the heck happened? Why is he like this?!"

Martin then stops and he looks to them. "Penny… She spoke and… Penny she's…"

Jack Cyber and Becky are shocked, they know what he's talking about and Jack Cyber checks for any signs of her vitals on the team trackers and he has tears. "Penny, no…"

Becky kneels down and cries with him, but then Martin gets back up and his eyes are enraged. "Martin?" The man then turns on his suit, Tech Sector is online and he takes off, Becky then flies after him. Leaving Jack Cyber alone.

"I guess it's up to me." He then sees the Stabilizers exploding and Atlas is beginning to fall. "Oh shit."

(The Vault of the Relic.)

Peter Sharp busts through the main wall and gets out of the dropship and he readies his weapon, Blood Crucible and then Jordan on her Indoraptor Dominic lands with him and they see the glowing gateway in front of the sealed vault.

"Wow. This must be what they made with the staff of creation" said Jordan. "Pretty smart though."

"Yeah, but then again…" Peter then sense something and he turns his sword into a shield and the blast is knocked away, he then sees that it's General James Ironwood. "Well, look who we got here folks."

Ironwood readies his weapon again, but then Winter Schnee fends him off and she looks to the duo. "What are you two doing here?!"

Peter Sharp turns his sword into a scythe. "To fuck this plan to shit!" He then looks to Jordan. "Kid, get though the portal and ensure that the whole team there is fine…"

Then they hear a transmission, from Becky. "Guys! Everyone, Penny has fallen! She's gone." Hearing that shocks everyone, Jordan drops her gun and Dominic roars at this.

Peter and Winter are surprised to hear this and so is Ironwood, but then he points his weapon to Winter, but Peter Sharp knocks him away. The man is in tears and is super pissed. "This is all your fault!" He yells and charges at Ironwood.

Jordan then goes through the portal gate with her weapons and suit ready and her Indoraptor ready to fight, while Winter Schnee is feeling like, something is gonna happen and something does, time stands still and she sees everything is a white light.

(Somewhere beyond reality.)

We now see Penny Polendina, waiting around and then she sees someone and greets her. "Salutations! You made it."

That someone is Winter Schnee and she looks around, confused at what has happened and she looks to Penny. "Where? What is this?"

Penny responds nicely. "I thought of you and so here we are."

Winter is saddened and she recalls what Becky had reported towards them. "Oh, Penny…"

Penny nods. "Well it seems fitting that it should be you. It was supposed to be your power after all, and you did help her and got to be her friends before she would've given you what she had." She then walks towards Winter.

Winter sheds a few tears hearing this. "No, Penny. You were always the maiden at hear, I was just… The mission and I… I was just following orders."

Penny then holds Winter's hands and the woman looks to the former android who smiles. "Winter, you were following orders, and yet deep down you knew that many things were at wrong and that there are moments to do the right thing and you did. That would mean, that you are just like the others I have come to know and accept."

"You are my friends, and it is time that you took this role." The powers of the Winter Maiden from Penny go towards Winter.

Winter nods and she smiles. "Thank you for trusting me with this…. Penny, when you're gone..."

"I won't be gone" replied Penny. "I will be a part of you, always." She's soon beginning to fade.

Winter sheds a few more tears and she smiles. "Good, I'm glad. I'll tell everyone… You're team, all about what you did."

Penny smiles. "Take care Winter." With that last thing, Penny Polendina is now forever gone.

(Back to Reality.)

Peter continues to fight off ironwood and knocks him around, then he enters Ghost Rider mode and fights like hell. Ironwood dodges and tries to evade the angry cowboy with a vengeance.

Ironwood then knock Peter Sharp away and sees Winter go down to her knees. "So, the destiny is promised to you has arrived."

Winter slowly gets back up. "No, you chose nothing." She then begins to hover with snowflakes all around her and her swords beginning to hover as well. "This is a gift, from a friend!"

Ironwood tries to blast her, but Winter sends it back and then Peter charges in and he pushes ironwood back, while also ripping off the man's robotic arm. They watch as James Ironwood falls to the bottom.

Then they see Martin fly through the hole and then through the gateway, and so Winter and Peter Sharp follow as well. The others need help.

(With Gyro.)

The Guardian continues to fight against Salem, and it seems like Shang Tsung and Pyrrha manage to fend off the Grimm. Gyro and Pyrrha are enraged and attacking with everything they got when they heard what had happened to Penny.

Salem smirks and she feels as if something is going to happen, and so she summons some Grimm to begin to circle around the group. Gyro sees Salem slowly leaving. "Get back here you coward!"

Salem smirks. "I'm not running, I am winning." She then fades away towards the Vault, leaving Gyro, Shang Tsung and Pyrrha to fight the Grimm. Pyrrha tries to shoot at Salem, but the bullet misses its mark.

Then they feel Atlas begin to shift and they hear Jack Cyber contacting them. "We can't hold Atlas for much longer! She's gonna go down!"

Then they hear Gwen. "The civilians have all been saved, but we don't know where the rest are!"

Gyro looks around and is confused, he then yells and slams his staff making a massive energy blast decimating all the Grimm from Atlas.

(Through the gateway.)

Right now we see Jaune Arc trying to fight off Cinder Fall, and also some horrible shit went down!

Yang, Ruby, Blake…. They're gone, they fell and now they're gone. Oh, and Neopolitan too. Weiss is left, along with Jaune and they try to fight off Cinder, and not too far is the lifeless form of Penny.

Jaune tries to deflect the attack from Cinder, but her sword shatters his, which shocks the teenage boy. Then Cinder pushes him to the ground. "Where did it go!?" Then she's knocked back by an ice blast. From Winter Schnee.

The two then clash against each other, but then someone else joins the fray and that would be Martin. Cinder tries to fight him, but Martin accelerates and he punches Cinder in the face, and then he tosses her to the ground, the staff also drops.

Jordan sees this and rushes over to grab it along with Dominic, but then Cinder makes a barrier of fire and she's blocked off.

Cinder then sees Weiss and Jaune and so she sends a blast of fire that Jaune deflects, but they see the fire underneath them and they're knocked away, but Weiss is knocked back hard that she falls off to the abyss, and Winter is too late to save her. "Weiss!"

Seeing what had happened, that's where Martin is pissed off. "No!" Ye then grabs Cinder by her hair and sends a powerful eye blast to her head. This makes Cinder scream, and she punches Martin off of her.

But then she's ensnared by a chain and it engulfs in demonic fire and she sees one angry Ghost Rider Peter Sharp and he grew a few feet. "Get over here!" He pulls on the chain and Cinder is sent slamming to the ground

Dominic races by and scratches at her Grimm arm and then Jordan tosses her light saber and Cinder uses her swords to deflect them, but she gets cut to her Grimm arm. Then Martin comes down and he uses all of the energy in his suit to his right fist and makes a massive dust cloud.

The smoke clears and they see Martin repeatedly beating the shit out of Cinder, he is super pissed off. Then he picks her up and brings her back to his knee and then he slams her to the ground, and then grabs her Grimm arm.

Cinder panics from what he's doing as he has his feet to her head and body and he pulls hard onto her arm. Peter and Jordan go over to help, but then Martin pulls so hard. "This is for Penny, you sick, twisted, slut of Salem!"

The Grimm arm comes off, and Martin drops it. The Grimm arm panics as it has no host and Cinder screams in pain, Martin backs up and pulls out a pistol that has the same energy as penny's blasts long ago.

"You're gonna fucking die for what you did to her!" But then something screams and they look around and realize who that was. "Salem."

"We need to go, now!" said Jaune. Winter on the other hand is ready to finish off Cinder. "You are going to pay, for everything you've done!"

Cinder then uses her good arm to grab the Relic and she speeds off. "No!" Peter throws his chain, but it misses and Cinder is through the gate. "No!" Then the gateways all begin to disappear.

They all see the gateway to Vacuo. They all make a run for it, but when they reach it they feel sucked into it. Jordan looks back. "Jaune, come on!" But she's pulled through, as for Jaune… He falls into the darkness below.

(Vacuo.)

The citizens from Mantle and Atlas there are being attacked by Grimm, and the sandstorm is not making it easy for anyone. Lie Ren is trying to get back through the gateway, but nothing.

While Nora Valkyrie, Oscar Pine and Emerald Sustrai are trying to fight off the Grimm coming towards them, they can't be able to keep everyone safe from harm. They are surrounded.

But then the Grimm are knocked back and blasted away, everyone sees Martin, Jordan and Peter and they look pissed off, and also saddened. Then comes in Winter Schnee, the next Winter Maiden.

She looks to her family, and the look she gives them is enough to make the mother cry, and same with her son. Weiss is gone, Winter then looks to the Grimm coming, and she looks to Peter, Martin and Jordan.

The trio look to her and nod, they're with her and that's enough to let her know, that this fight is far from over and all three of them engage the Grimm with all their might and strength.

A Battlecruiser warps in above, and helps bombard the Grimm, the rest of the team has arrived. Gyro above, he comes down and morphs into his demon raven form, and clashes against the Grimm, with an army of Grimm under his control.

To be continued… In the next chapter.

A/N: They lost, a lot, and that the aftermath will not be something to go by, but the rest of what has happened will be on the next chapter. This was hard to do, but it was necessary and things won't be the same for the heroes when they get home, nor for the folks who once lived in Mantle and in Atlas. Leave a review and tell me what you all think.

Date made: 3/31/21 – 3/32/31.