Djinn continued to show the plans of Salem and her minions. The scene then changed to some form of prison with a bruised looking Oscar being regularly hit by Hazel Rainart with Salem looking on and asking questions. At first the vision seemed rather confused as in some scenes Oscar seemed to be volunteering answers in Ozma's voice with very few bruises on his face while in others he seemed far more battered but was resisting interrogation or was saying I do not know using Ozpin's voice. The position was further confused because although when Oscar's voice was being used it was clear that answers were being given, the crux of the answer was not broadcast. The questions being asked made sense with the original vision being focused on who was likely to know who the Summer Maiden was, where the relic of Choice was hidden and who knew where it was hidden and where and who knew where the relic of destruction was hidden. Also, in some of the visions, Hazel was shouting about someone called Gretchen.

Ozpin explained through Oscar "I think here that we are having a mix of Salem's plan and Hazel's preferred outcome. It is more important to Salem to get answers to her questions while for Hazel it is more important to take revenge on me for the death of his sister. By the way, the reason you do not hear the answers is that Djinn views the substance of the answers I would give, if any, as revealing the future and Salem although she may suspect what the answers may be, does not know them."

Qrow said, "What did you do that guy's sister, Oz? He really has it in for you."

Oscar answered on behalf of Ozpin, "She did her duty fighting Grimm at Mountain Glenn and was unfortunate."

Raven said "Cut the crap, Ozpin. You sent her into a death trap. You used her the same way I used Vernal. You would have preferred her not to die, but you underestimated the risks of allowing Vale to try and expand Mountain Glenn. You should have known how she was likely to react to that. You may have been worse than me in that you may have knowingly understated the risks. That Grimm arm of Cinder's was a bit of a shocker for me. Mind you, I cannot help feeling that Hazel's affection for his sister was a little creepy. It makes the relationship between me and Qrow look positively wholesome."

The scene then changed to the creation of the Hound. It was helpful that Salem seemed to find it therapeutic to monologue to Tyrian while she went through the process of transforming a silver eyed Faunus into an intelligent Grimm. The nausea the process encouraged was not improved by Maria expressing the view that she had she had been lucky that when she had been in her prime Salem had only wanted to blind her.

It was not helped when the scene shifted to the Hound chasing after and catching Oscar, Ruby, Theodore and finally Glynda. The scenes showed the Hound's versatility and intelligence. Team RWBY huddled together comforting Ruby and desperately trying to reassure her that this did not happen to Summer. Ironwood asked Marrow to contact Fiona Thyme with a view to a meeting with the happy huntresses to explain the need to launch the Amity Communications Tower and why her campaign of civil disobedience needed to be paused. Ironwood ordered Clover to arrange for a flight to Vale and Vacuo to be on standby to warn Theodore and Glynda.

The interrogations followed the same lines as that of Oscar although it was clear that great care was being taken with Glynda to avoid having anything near her which she could apply her semblance to, and Hazel did not take any personal pleasure in softening up the others.

The images then shifted to Mantle where Oscar saw a man neither he nor Ozpin recognised poised over a scroll. While none of the students from Beacon recognised him, he was clearly known to Ironwood, Polendina, Clover and Winter. Oscar assumed that it must be Watts. The scene switched to Schnee Mansion where they saw Watts making an offer to Jacques Schnee to fix the election for him and Jacques accepting. Jacques seemed happy to accept a story that Watts wanted to overthrow Ironwood and humiliate Polendina.

Polendina watched the image and said to Ironwood, "Ask Scarlatina to track glitches in the surveillance network. That may enable you to work out where he is staying. As a matter of urgency, we need to review civilian security programming in the same way we did the military programming after the Battle of Beacon. If we are lucky the same fixes can be applied to keep him out. Also, I am afraid that any orders you give in relation to this intelligence will need to be given orally and not by scroll to avoid tipping Watts off."

The next scene which saw Watts using the council codes obtained from Jacques to shut down the Mantle heating grid. Ironwood added an instruction to Scarlatina's team to safeguard the utilities and to issue a warning to the heads of IT departments in the multi-kingdoms that an attack was imminent. They also saw Watts studying the blueprints for Penny with close attention and musing to Tyrian about the possibilities for sabotage if Tyrian could obtain one of the blades. The RWBY group hug migrated to Penny while Maria put her hand on Pietro's shoulder.

They were then shown the Atlas mass transit system grinding to a halt as the safety protocols failed as the Whale Grimm approached and Tyrian and Watts overrunning the communications hub.

Qrow asked, "If he is that good why is he not happily employed in Atlas? What does he have to gain from supporting Salem? I get that Callows is insane and the big guy hates Ozpin, but this man is good at what he does and surely could have written his own ticket."

As if in answer to the question the scene changed to Ironwood's office with Watts sitting at Ironwood's desk with the great and the good of Atlas kneeling before him. Genera Ironwood was pictured saying, "I admit I was wrong and that you should have been the chief scientist in Atlas and your plans should have been given preferential funding over that charlatan Pietro's. I pledge allegiance to King Arthur 1 of the kingdom of Watts and the empress Salem, supreme ruler of Remnant."

"Ok, I get it. He is vainer than a peacock and wants everyone to acknowledge how great he is."

The tableau continued with Pietro Polendina acknowledging, "I admit that I should be honoured to carry out the experiments mandated by the greatest scientist ever in Remnant and I repent of my professional jealousy and treachery to Atlas which led me to conspire with Ironwood to prevent you being appointed to your rightful position."

James said, "To be honest, the choice was quite close, but who would you prefer to deal with on a regular basis?"

The focus then switched to Tyrian Callows as he worked his way through the moderate dissidents in Mantle and then interrupted the election rally held by Robyn Hill with a view to discrediting Penny. Clover noted the identities of those who were being killed and suggested to Ironwood that surveillance of the targeted individuals be stepped up and that the Ace-Ops be tasked with bringing him down. Qrow volunteered to join them and to brief them on Callows fighting abilities.

The scene then moved to Cinder Fall monologuing to a small woman wearing a hat. Raven's initial reaction was "Oh, frack, I thought I had killed her." Raven then turned to Winter and said, "This one is best left to you and me, Ice Queen."

Ozpin had a quick internal conversation with Oscar who shrugged and then coughed. "Raven Branwen, Ozpin here suggests that you see whether your semblance allows you to locate Cinder. He wonders whether it allows you to locate people who you feel strongly about as opposed to those for whom you once cared for."

Raven thought about it and said "Worth a try. Not certain I want to do what I do with Qrow, Yang and Taiyang and surreptitiously spy on her until we are ready to take her down. Can you identify which hotel that room is in? By the way, I recognise the girl as well. She tried to kill Yang back in Beacon."

Yang said, "Do not underestimate the girl. She has an illusion semblance and is a better tactical fighter than me."

Ruby piped up, "Yes, I suggest you use Marrow if you are trying to take her down as she is fast, flexible and dangerous. She was the one who hijacked your ship in Vale, General Ironwood."

They then refocused on the images as Cinder imagined walking up to the room they were in, killing Winter and taking the power of the Winter Maiden away from Fria using the Grimm arm.

Ironwood said, "Well that is one plan which is no longer relevant. Still Winter you will need to be careful about that arm."

Raven said, "That was why I think we should both attack her. It won't give her the opportunity to focus on only one of us."

Next they saw Cinder say to Neo. "Drop off a chess piece in Ironwood's office. It will be guaranteed to make him paranoid, declare martial law and arrest anyone he does not trust. He will also send Winter Schnee to become the new Winter Maiden and we can follow her there and dispose of both of them." Neo morphed into the shortest officer in the Atlas military and saluted.

Ironwood snorted and then realised that the rest of the Atlas team were nodding away. "Clover, Winter, do you really think that would work?"

Qrow said, "Combined with what Watts was up to, of course it would."

Oscar channelling Ozpin said, "Remember Beacon. The fact that someone could enter your office unobserved and place that piece there is clearly designed to make you act irrationally."

Ironwood turned around but both Winter and Clover were clearly avoiding eye contact.

Weiss dared say something and told him, "My father used to say that the one way he could guarantee to get you to do something was to say to your cronies that you were too scared to do it."

This combined with the image of Cinder insulting his intelligence caused James to count to ten. "All I do is for the best of Atlas. However, if that makes me predictable to the enemies of Atlas I would welcome honest comments from my allies and subordinates."

They then watched Cinder imagining a rematch with Raven with the power of two maidens and then going after the final maiden. They were then flabbergasted to see Cinder imagining taking out Salem with the power of four maidens. Before that they saw her attacking the Atlas social services building and burning down a hotel. The ritual execution of the head of the Atlas adoption agency was a little hard to take, but the phrases used were clearly burnt into Cinder's memory.

Winter said, "The hotel is the Glass Unicorn."

Polendina coughed and said, "About eleven years ago there were four unsolved murders and an adopted daughter who vanished. One of the dead was a hunter Rhodes and some of his friends mentioned afterwards that he had been training the adopted daughter to be a possible huntress."

Ironwood nodded and said, "Harriet, could you get the file on that. It may be nothing, but it is a possible lead".

Qrow having passed well beyond the point of being tactful said, "What is wrong with you in Atlas? The two most effective and resentful of her subordinates come from here."

Winter said, "Is there any way of sending a recording of this to our enemies? It may help reduce their mutual trust."

There was then a vision of Mercury Black who clearly was imagining himself in charge of a film and TV company with a side-line in comics. He walked into premieres with Emerald and Weiss by his side. While there were also some visions of him killing soldiers and miscellaneous huntsmen and huntresses, they were clearly not specific.

"Well, at least it is clear that this one will not need much persuasion to change sides." said Maria.

The images then moved to Neo who was imagining fighting Ruby and killing her, but more interestingly was seeing her imagining assisting Cinder fighting Fria and/or Raven and then at the final moment stabbing Cinder in the back. There was also a scene of her stealing the lamp from Oscar and presenting it to Cinder and being congratulated for her efforts.

Ruby said, "I guess she really liked Roman."

Qrow said, "Kiddo, bad luck to have her after you but at least revenge is a motive I can understand."

Raven snorted, "She ran away as soon as I turned up on the train. Actually, I can respect someone who knows their limitations."

Elm took snaps of each disguise adopted by Neo. "Clearly Lieutenant Small should be kept under observation at all times if only so we can confirm that it is not her." remarked Clover.

Oscar asked, "General Ironwood, Ozpin wonders whether you have anyone with a dispel illusions semblance."

Ironwood replied, "Not that I am aware of."

Ruby asked, "Could I join Winter and Raven taking down Cinder. My silver eyes clearly had an effect on her at Beacon and Maria has been training me."

Maria said, "Still not certain that you will be able to unlock them at will, but it is worth a try."

Djinn then amused herself by showing the respective fates planned by Cinder and Watts for each other. Clover commentated, "I think interrogating these two will be easy. We just have to play them one they were planning for each other and what Salem was planning for Remnant and then record them monologuing."

Blake who had been musing asked, "Is there any chance we can turn the Neo girl? Ruby, if you explained that you did not kill Roman, but that a Grimm ate him, perhaps she could take it out on Grimm instead."

Raven said, "I have a vacancy for a psychotic sidekick who knows her place and reacts well to praise. I will happily take her on."

Ozpin said to Oscar, "Although we cannot ask a new question Djinn occasionally is helpful. Perhaps it may be worth saying something which suggests that it would be useful to see what they have immediately planned."

Oscar said, "Ruby, I believe that it would be helpful if Djinn showed us what the four in Atlas had planned for this evening."

Ruby being quick on the uptake or perhaps just answering honestly replied "Yes, Oscar it would."

Djinn winked and showed Neo in a waitress disguise at a charity ball, Cinder in her hotel room planning her attack on Fria, Tyrian tracking down a particular dissident and killing him and Watts going to the Schnee mansion.

For the next few hours Ironwood's HQ was extremely busy. Robyn Hill was called in and after being told what was happening agreed to assist in capturing Tyrian Callows.

A few hours later the guests at a charity ball were disconcerted to see a waitress being approached by a dog Faunus who told her to stay, at the same time Harriet fired a restraining device at her and Vine extended his arms to grab the waitress. An illusion shattered and to the relief of the Ace-Ops they had caught an angry and surprised Neo. Marrow picked up Roman's hat and she was bundled off.

At around 8.30 Jacques Schnee encountered Arthur Watts in the Schnee Mansion. Two hours before Klein Sieben had arrived with a message from Ironwood and Winter together with an extract from Djinn's answer. Jacques pretended to agree to Watts' terms but sent a message to Ironwood as soon as Watts left the room. Watts was greeted by Ironwood, Yang, Blake, Weiss, and Elm as he left the mansion and after a short fight was taken into custody. Jacques had agreed to help when it was suggested to him that if he assisted it was his best chance of ensuring that the export ban and other restrictions on business could be lifted and that if he did anything else he would be arrested for treason.

At more or less the same time Tyrian Callows was met by Qrow, Clover, Penny and Robyn as he sought to kill a Faunus rights militant. While he fought hard, the numbers game did not favour him, and he could not resist catching an exploding arrow. Qrow did not take any notice of the fact that Tyrian's aura had been depleted and Harbinger was used to full effect.

At 9.30 Cinder heard a knock on the hotel door. It was the pre-arranged knock indicating that it was Neo returning from her intelligence gathering exercise. She opened the door to be greeted by Neo disguised as an old lady. Then to her surprise the old lady spoke, "My name is Maria Calavera. You killed Rhodes. Prepare to die."

Cinder reacted quickly, but irritatingly the old lady seemed to predict exactly what she intended to do. She also hesitated to unleash her full maiden powers in case this drew attention. She then heard a portal open behind her and whirled round to be greeted by a flash of light from Ruby's eyes. Maria had arranged with Winter and Raven for her to be the distraction as she felt that Ruby was most likely to be able to use her silver eyes if she saw someone she knew being attacked by Cinder. The plan had worked, and Maria scurried down the corridor.

Raven Branwen and Winter Schnee entered the room through the portal. The surprise was almost total and with Cinder being in agony from the impact of the silver eyes, the fight did not take long, although it was destructive. It was just as well that the guests in the neighbouring rooms had gone out for the evening. Still Winter's use of ice countered the fire which Cinder relied on while Raven demonstrated the advantages of experience and ruthlessness.

Ruby was very disconcerted to find herself in some form of void with Cinder. Cinder looked exasperated and swore wholeheartedly at the gods, the universe, fate, and destiny. "I hope you get to enjoy it for even less time than me or Amber did. If I had had any time to think about it I would have transferred the powers to Emerald or even Neo."

Ruby then returned to reality with Maria and Winter looking at her with concern and Raven looking knowingly at her. "I guess I am the new Fall Maiden" said Ruby.

The allies regrouped in Ironwood's office. They still had to deal with Adam Taurus who had apparently stowed away in an airship travelling from Argus to Atlas and there was the question of how one dealt with a giant flying Grimm Whale to consider. Still, they had three days to think about that and had three maidens, the might of the Atlas military and a knowledge of the battleplan of the enemy. Ironwood had prioritised the raising of the Amity Communications tower and Raven could use her portal to contact Taiyang and bring in reinforcements from Vale. Glynda's abilities to repair damage could be of great assistance and it was possible that Theodore could arrange for the fourth maiden to join them.

This was deliberately a short story and an exercise in imagining what would happen if Ozma/Ozpin realised that Salem thought she could win this time.