Sparks Among the Stars

by Lorithomar

At the fall of Beacon, Ozpin enacts a final, desperate plan. Now, the sparks have been lit and scattered throughout the Blind Eternities. Meanwhile, the former headmaster finds himself on a plane that he thought he would never see again. However, he is not alone, for alongside him is another soul; smaller, but more honest...

1. Chapter 1

DISCLAIMER 1: I own neither RWBY nor Magic; The Gathering. If I did, then Pyrrha would still be alive, and Mirrodin would not have fallen to New Phyrexia.

DISClAIMER 2: Spoilers for parts of RWBY volumes 3-8

Xxxxxxxx

Ozpin

Beacon Academy

Kingdom of Vale

Eastern Sanus

Remnant

Chapter 1: Lighting the Sparks

The ding of the elevator signaled their arrival into the Vault.

As they filed out into the cavernous room, He turned to the boy.

"Mr. Arc. I want you to guard the entrance. No matter what happens, do not let anything through. Am I understood?"

Jaune Arc looked as if he wanted to say something, but the look in his headmaster's face smothered any argument in its cradle. His face then set itself, and he drew his sword from his shield.

Good.

There was no time to waste.

The vault shook from an explosion, and the Headmaster of Beacon let loose a weary sigh as he started up the machine, the screens flaring to life as it started to hum, the sound oddly soothing in the current turmoil. Almost like a beacon of order amongst the chaos.

Beacon.

He remembered the day he had helped to establish it, after the end of the Great War, alongside its sister academies in Vacuo, Mistral, and Atlas. He had trained at each of them, those brainchildren of his, time after time after time. Still, Beacon had always held a bit a special place in his heart, truth-be-told. And how could it not?

As the first academy, it stood as a beacon of hope and safety that helped to beat back the darkness, hence its name. For eighty years, that beacon had shone brightly its light, training generation after generation of children to become heroes that would take a stand against the soldiers of the true forces that threatened humanity… and against the villains that some of those children and heroes had ended up becoming, to his regret.

One regret among many, of course.

Eighty years. Eighty years of grand triumphs, solemn failures, and happy festivals… and it was all going to fall within the span of a single night.

All because he had grown complacent, and had failed to see the viper hiding in the shadows until it was too late.

As the fighting and explosions from above continued to shake the vault, the man who was known to the world as Ozpin wondered where it had all gone wrong, even as he continuously fiddled with the transfer machine's controls.

But it was a bit of rhetorical wondering. He knew perfectly well where it all had gone wrong, for him, and for the world; the day he had heard the tale of a helpless maiden, locked away in an impregnatable tower by her wicked father…

How many would have lived, had he not played the hero that one time?

Ozpin blinked rapidly for a moment as if to banish that thought from his mind. There was no time for such things, such ruminations of his regrets. He had to focus.

Besides, there were already far too many of those.

As the machine continued to whir to life, the transfer started, and the bright orange glow of Autumn filled the darkened vault. The glow surrounded Amber's comatose form and traveled up the connecting tube to Pyrrha's pod. As the glow began to creep over her, the Invincible Girl began to scream.

Ozpin steeled himself against her pain as he kept the controls working. Ironwood and Pietro had been most assured that the process would not take too long. Only a few minutes.

Just a few minutes.

Still despite himself, he looked towards the comatose Maiden, and then towards the screaming champion. "I'm sorry," he said, and he was not sure to whom he really meant it.

The meter on the dashboard then began to slowly rise, and a dispassionate, mechanical voice began to read out each percentage.

10%.

24%

38%.

49%.

57%.

Through it all, Pyrrha Nikos continued to scream. It was one of the sorts of screams that he had heard all too often, sadly. But it would all be worth it. It would.

It had to-

The sound of footsteps signaled Jaune's approach. "I told you to guard the entrance, Mr. Arc," Ozpin yelled. "Get back to your post! There is nothing you being right here will be able to do to help her!"

88%

IN the back of the vault, the door dinged open.

97-

There then came a hissing sound and a whoosh as something flew through the air.

Before Ozpin could do anything, a long, narrow arrow the color of volcanic glass embedded itself through Amber's pod, and straight through her chest and heart.

No!

The Fall maiden's eyes shot open in pain as she let loose a gasp of pain. Then those wide eyes started to grow dim, as she let out a final, ragged and rattling exhalation.

As the orange glow faded and Pyrrha's screams died down into brief senselessness, a floating mist, like living fire, slowly rose from Amber's still body, as if born by a gentle breeze. The magic that it contained all but filled the room with its fire. It then shot out through the damaged pod and towards the outstretched palm of the woman who had just murdered the Fall Maiden. The puppet's face had a look of such poisonous glee upon her face that it would have killed an entire city… such as she was doing right now.

Ozpin then heard Jaune Arc give a yell of defiance, and charge towards the intruder.

It took three heartbeats for him to get within range.

The woman casually dodged his swing and then extended her left hand, wreathed in flame, to catch his sword by the blade. Her other hand, which soon became wreathed in a large claw of obsidian and flame, shot out and gripped his shield arm in its entirety. As the metal began to swiftly heat up and collapse to slag on the floor and over his arm through his aura, Jaune began to hiss in pain. Then with a chuckle, the woman, flossed her fist, twisted and bend.

CRUNCH. CRACK. SNAP.

As Jaune screamed and the smell of burning flesh and blood filled the air, that same fire-and-obsidian-wreathed right hand let go of his arm and shot forward to grip him by his chest plate, lifting him clear off the ground as he flailed helplessly. Her claws promptly burrowed through his aura, through the chest plate, and into his flesh. Jaune's screams then increased tenfold.

Meanwhile, the hand that held the sword tightened, and in a burst of fire and shriek of metal, the blade shattered in two. The top half of the old blade clattered to the floor with an oddly audible clang.

The woman simply smirked as Arc continued to scream and thrash about in her grip, which was then joined by her free left hand.

Behind him, Ozpin could hear Pyrrha pound on her pod's door as she screamed out Jaune's name.

One heartbeat later, there was a flash and small explosion in the Fall Maiden's hands, and the Arc boy was then sent flying back into the now useless transfer machine with another scream of pain from his worn throat. There was smoke trailing from his body amidst shards of obsidian glass and burns. His armor was a burnt ruin, his shield destroyed, his left arm smoldering and limp, and his simple sword, still clutched in his right hand, had been broken in half.

A moment later, Pyrrha tore off her pod's door with a burst of her semblance and a loud CRUNCH of twisting metal. Then with a snarl of pure rage, she readied her weapons and began to charge forward… only for Ozpin to block her rush. "No," he said. "She's beyond you now. Take Jaune and run! Find Glynda, Ironwood, anyone, and bring them here! Go!"

Pyrrha looked at him in shock, but then her green eyes fell upon Jaune's smoking form. He was dazedly trying to get to his feet, but his aura had already been shattered, and a good bit of blood was dripping from his mouth as he groaned.

Pyrrha looked back at Ozpin, and he shook his head at her. His message was clear; she would only get in the way.

With that, Pyrrha pulled her semi-conscious partner to his feet, slung his good arm across her shoulders, and the pair ran/ hobbled out of the vault.

The new Fall Maiden watched them go with disinterest as the fiery glow in her eyes vanished. Then she looked about at the vault, at Amber's corpse, and then at him. She looked at him, and shook her head almost… disapprovingly, like a parent who had caught their child with a hand in the cookie jar.

"All this time," she said, as her fiery eyes continued to scan the room. "Hidden right beneath our feet."

She then scoffed. "She was right about you. Your arrogance truly knows no bounds."

Then, she smiled, and her orange eyes became alight with horrid and sadistic glee. "Still, now that it's just you and me, Ozpin," Cinder Fall said. "I'll make you a deal; you give me the relic, right here and now, and I'll promise to kill you quickly. In fact, as a bonus, I'll even call off the attack. Let all your precious little pawns and brats live to die another day."

As fire and power gathered around the woman's hands and cruel eyes, and she lifted into the air, Ozpin shook his head. "I will give you nothing. Nor will I demean myself by begging for a life that you have no intention of sparing to begin with. Besides, I know for a fact that you hold no sway over the horde tearing this city apart. If you did, then you would not have truly needed such horrid theatrics as you had displayed tonight. Oh no. You're just another one of her powerless puppets, and once she has wrung from you every last bit of use, she will toss you aside, broken and battered, just as she has so many others."

The floating woman let out a laugh that, on the surface seemed unshakable. But Ozpin had lived long enough to detect a hint of uncertainty ringing its edges. "Your pathetic words won't dissuade me, old man."

"I am more than cognizant of that," he replied. "She sinks her claws deep into her puppets, so deep that they think they are still in control, that they hold their own strings, even as she makes them dance and die for her."

He then flipped the Long Memory's handle in his gloved hand. "But, for what it's worth…" he continued, as the cane's stick extended from the handle with a slight whirr of gears. "I mourn this monster that you have become. You could have been something wonderful."

As he spoke, Ozpin raised his empty hand and called upon the mana, such as he had not done in a long time. It responded to him and gathered around his person in a swirl of red, black, green, blue, and white. "Like so many of the other fools and broken things that she's corrupted, like so many of the other sparks that she has snuffed out, you had the potential to be so much more… Cinder Fall."

The woman's smirk fell from her face, and her eyes widened in shock at his knowledge of her name.

Then, those eyes narrowed in anger, and the room was set alight with fire… and magic.

Xxxxxxxx

Pyrrha

Pyrrha and Jaune made their way out of Beacon Tower as fast as they could, though the sounds of battle from below followed them with every step they took.

On the surface, it was not that much better.

The sounds of screams, both dying and fearful, mixed with the sounds of gunfire, sliced flesh, and roars of pain and rage. All of that then combined with the various smells; the smells of gunpowder, of spent dust, and of blood. The latter was almost overwhelming, even from here. It was all coalescing into a cacophony of horror.

Pyrrha felt herself slowly stop running, as her eyes darted about at the madness all around. It was like something out of a diseased mind, what lay before her and Jaune.

A man with antlers and an old ax screamed and flailed helplessly as a pack of Ursas tore him apart; faunus in White Fang uniforms gunned down a student with purple hair, and then brutally hacked her to pieces; a child was crying, and then the cries abruptly cut out.

On and on, and on.

On an academic level, Pyrrha understood the existence of death and violence. This was a world where you were taught to fight humans and monsters that fed on negative emotions. As such, she understood, from that academic view, that people died. Sometimes against the grimm, sometimes against other humans or faunus, and sometimes from any number of other things. She had fought grimm, and she had shed a good bit of blood during her four years in the Mistral Regional Tournament, though nothing that was ever truly life-threatening.

She thought she had seen horror when the Grimm had swarmed through the breach last semester, even as most of the city had retreated to behind Beacon's walls and shelters. She had understood that, from an objective standpoint, people had still died in the attack.

But this?

Now that she was truly, truly seeing death and destruction first hand?

The Invincible Girl came to the realization that she, and so many others like her, knew nothing. This was not a few lines of history in a textbook, a hunt in the forest, or a televised, spectator's sport; this nothing but utter madness, and chaos personified.

What was the point of all this death, all this destruction?

"Pyrrha?"

The familiar voice, now somewhat gravelly, drew her out of her stupor. She blinked and turned to look at her partner's face. A bit of color was returning to his cheeks, but there was still some dried blood dripping from his mouth, as well as some scratches and cuts and minute burns on his face that his aura had not yet healed.

The rest of him did not look any better though. The worst was his shattered left arm which flopped about with the wrecks of his now melted shield, and the massive, hand-shaped burns on his chest, with the ten finger-points, still oozing small rivers of blood down Jaune's burned chest.

Pyrrha Nikos steeled herself and allowed the Invincible Girl took the lead once more. "Come on, Jaune," she said, as she pulled him along as gently as possible, given the circumstances.

She had to be strong. This was not the time for weakness, for action without purpose.

This was not the place or time for Pyrrha Nikos. Not now.

She needed to be the Invincible Girl.

Xxxxxxxx

Qrow

With a flick of his wrist and a slash from Harbinger, Qrow gutted the tin can in a shower of wires, bolts, sparks, and other parts that he was not machine-savvy enough to name.

Yeah, this was just another reason why he hated the damn things. No soul, and nothing stopping some asshole with a computer or souped-up scroll from just hacking into them and turning them against you.

Though, in that regard, maybe it didn't make them that much different from most people… or sisters.

The sounds of screams and roars and gunfire filled the air all about them.

It made a small part of Qrow wonder if things were only this bad because he had come here.

Behind him, Glynda made ample use of her semblance to toss aside and crush plenty of grimm into dust and paste.

They were even soon joined up by the tin-man himself, which gave Qrow a bit of an uncomfortable reminder of just how much Jimmy had lost in both that accident and over the years in the struggle against Salem. It almost made a few of Qrow's own not-so-few scars ache.

Damn, but they were all getting old (even Glynda had started to dye her hair), weren't they?

Qrow hefted Harbinger onto his shoulder after cutting down a griffin (the lead up to which had been Ironwood thinking Qrow had been about to attack him) and looked at the General and Glynda.

"So, what now, General?" Qrow asked.

Jimmy let loose a sigh and then straightened up, while Glynda patted him on the shoulder. "Someone's done the impossible and gained control of my machines. Meanwhile, that enormous Grimm seems to be fixated on the school."

He turned to Glynda. "Glynda; form up with any and all local huntsmen that are still standing, and establish a safe zone here in Vale. Our main priority is to evacuate Beacon, which I'm leaving to you and my men, Qrow."

The tin man then looked up at the night sky. "I still need to get to my ship, and shut down the machines."

The moment he said that almost as if on cue, the aforementioned bucket-of-bolts suddenly dipped down out of the sky, and proceeded to crash into the city less than a mile away. The collision knocked up a huge cloud of smoke and dust and debris.

Despite the situation, Qrow could not help but smirk. "Not gonna be much of a walk, I think," he snarked.

Without further ado, they all headed off. Qrow just hoped that his nieces were okay…

Xxxxxxxx

Weiss

It should have been an exhilarating affair, the moment she managed to use even a portion of her semblance.

Like out of a fairy tale, the arm of Arma Gigas emerged from the summoning circle, and bisected the rampaging paladin with its ethereal blade. Weiss's own personal white knight…. Or at least a portion of it.

It had been exhilarating, for a bit, truth be told. But, as the screams and roars continued throughout the city, Weiss was keenly aware that it was not over; that things were far from over.

That, and the tiny fact that there was another paladin, and it would not fucking go down, no matter how many bullets and slashes they heaped upon it!

She, Ren, Nora, Neptune, Sun, Velvet, Coco, Yatsuhashi, and the others; all of them were bruised, battered, and getting tired. It seemed like the machine knew it, too. But, still, they were not going to let it add to the carnage that was already in full throttle.

As the walking tank made ready for another charge, everyone readied their weapons.

It came closer, and closer, and… then sparked, twitched, and collapsed in a lifeless pile of scrap.

Everyone felt a bit gobsmacked for a moment, while Weiss bent down low, leaning on Myrtenaster, breathing heavily.

Dammit, but she was really going to have to work on her stamina and endurance after this.

Then, Sun, almost predictably, broke the confused silence. "Well… that went better than I expected."

Weiss resisted the urge to look at him with incredulity. She would later, but now she was focused on catching her breath.

"Weiss!" came a familiar voice, accompanied by a familiar pair of footsteps. "You're okay!"

Yes, she was, but still too winded to try and look up at the moment.

"Have you heard from Ruby?" Yang asked, worry clear on her face.

Still panting, and still bent over, Weiss shook her head. "Well, what about Blake?"

Wiess finally collected enough of her breath to rise up and reply. "She went after an alpha," she said, pointing with a shaky hand. "And some members of the White Fang."

Yang looked off in the direction for a moment, and then back to Weiss. "You look for Ruby. I'll go find Blake."

"Hang on, I'll come with you!" Sun said as he hurried after the fiery blonde.

All Weiss could do was give the pair a thumbs up. Then, after a few more deep gulps of air, she straightened herself up and raised Myrtenasteras high as heroically possible. "Alright, everyone," she called out. "There are still people and other students in the school, so we can't afford to just stay here. Let's get in there and get them out!"

As everyone let out a shout of agreement, they all headed back into the city; tired but determined nonetheless. As they did, they found themselves breaking off into groups, and soon Weiss found herself with Neptune.

Oh well. Once more into the breach…

Xxxxxxxx

Ozpin

Fire and magic of all colors danced and flew and flashed about the interior of the vault.

Flash.

Flash.

Flash.

He flourished and slashed and stabbed and jabbed with the Long Memoryas one would a sword, calling up several lifetimes worth of sword techniques learned and relearned, over and over and over again.

But Ozpin knew for a fact that he could not last forever. Though he did his best, and even discounting his flagging aura, the simple truth was that he was not as strong as he had been in his prime; not in this life, and especially not when compared to his first one.

Case in point, when Cinder finally managed to get past his defenses with a well-timed ball of stone and fire, which soon collided with his stomach.

He was sent hurtling to the floor, smoke rising from his burnt coat, and from the smoldering floor around him.

He grimaced as he tried to sit up, pain enflaming all of his working nerves. That last blow, it had definitely broken at least three ribs, he was sure, along with who knew what else.

"You've put up an adequate fight, Mr. Wizard," Cinder purred, as she floated slowly towards him. "But this was never in doubt. You can't beat me, not as diminished as you are now. Do you regret it, giving birth to this power, the power that will now end your life?"

"One should never curse a thing for being born, only for how it is used," Ozpin retorted, as he struggled to his feet and slowly stumbled backward.

"How eloquent of you. Any last words, any final requests?"

"Actually… yes."

That caught her a bit off guard, and she raised an elegant eyebrow as if she had not been expecting a victim to take her up on it.

"I know she is watching this, here and now," Ozpin said as he rose to his feet, and the woman continued to saunter forth, fire and ice circling around her like moons around a distant planet. "Looking through your eyes as a voyeur might look through a peephole. She has always done it, with those she takes a special interest in. So, If I am to die, then let it at least be speaking to the monster that has caused all this misery in the first place."

Cinder looked at him with a furrowed brow and narrowed eyes. Then, she tilted her head, as if listening to a voice only she could hear. She looked as if she wanted to argue, only for the unheard voice to cut him off again. Finally, she nodded and closed her eyes.

A moment later, the very air itself grew cold, and thin trails of black, viscous fluid started to leak down her cheeks like running mascara. Then, she opened her eyes. Instead of haughty amber-orange, two pools of black, offset only by a circle of crimson, stared back at Ozpin.

Her posture then changed, like she was a puppet upon strings. She seemed to grow taller, more… otherworldly, at that moment. It made Ozpin grit his teeth.

Through her puppet… she was here.

Salem smiled through Cinder's ruby lips, as the pitch-black-and-red eyes continued to slowly leak dark fluids. "As you called, so have I arrived," she said in a mocking tone.

Those dark eyes looked him over, and she let loose a theatrical sigh. "I look at you now, and I cannot help but think on just how far you have fallen; how much you have degraded from the great and mighty thing you once were," the monster said. "It's almost pitiable."

"I could say the same about you, Salem," he hissed. "But I would be wasting my breath. Every day, when I think you could not possibly fall any further, that there was some line even you would not cross, you prove me wrong. Every day that you exist, you only sink deeper and deeper into depravity."

He clenched his free hand in a fist so tight blood started to leak from between his fingers. "Does all this give you joy, all this death, and destruction that you have wrought for against me and humanity for countless millennia? Does it make you happy, the countless graves that you have filled with the blood and bodies of the innocent? Does such knowledge fill the empty pit where you once had a heart, Mother of Grimm?"

She was silent for a moment.

Then, in less than a blink, her puppet's hand was around his shirt and neck, and the pair slowly rose into the air, a fiery corona surrounding the two- no, the three of them. "So quick to judge, beloved," the Mother of Grimm said, the smile on Cinder's face gone, replaced with a look of condemnation, while the puppet's eyes were narrowed in wrath. "So quick to forget your sin, that which made the world what it is today; a quivering mass of pathetic, short-sighted wretches that you keep placid, under a shield of hope and ignorance. You try and help them, guide them, and all the while they continue to tear each other to pieces.

"Your sin," she continued, "that which made me what I am today… the day you killed our daughters, the day you stood against me. You, the fools you've sought to protect… and the Brothers who saw fit to blame me for their own failings. All of you, so eager to blame me for your own shortcomings in this wretched world of ours."

Despite his current predicament, Ozpin could not help but roll his eyes. "Ah, there… it is," he wheezed, as he dangled from her hand. "The deflection… the redirection of blame. Everyone… else is to blame for your sorrows. All save for you, right? Poor, blameless Salem, the woman who's still locked away in a tower… Cursing the gods… Cursing the universe… cursing everyone for her misfortunes and mistakes… Everyone but yourself."

Before she could say anything else, a ball of mana quickly gathered in his hand, and he slammed it into Cinder's stomach. When the orb detonated, the puppet lost its grip on his throat and was sent flying backward. At the same time, he used the resultant kinetic energy to propel himself further back as well… to a very specific part of the floor, past the wreckage of the transfer machine.

Salem quickly righted Cinder's body upon its obsidian heels, and smirked, as fire pooled once more in her puppet's hands. "An amusing little spectacle, Ozpin, but it will do you no good in the end. You've lost, just as you always have, and always will, against me."

She let loose another mocking sigh. "It has never ceased to amaze me, your continuous defiance in the face of the inevitable. You know you can't win, that the task given to you out of boredom and malice was one of sheer impossibility. The Gods knew it when they gave you that charge, and you have learned well enough. And yet, still, you defy me. And still, you never learn."

She gestured about. "Take your construction of this academy; large, grandiose, and oh so inviting. But all of this, just to guard the Relic? You never realized that you were just painting a great, big 'attack me' sign in your shortsighted arrogance, didn't you? Oh sure, its walls are thick and mighty, and perhaps its hunters are great and grand…But what good are thick and mighty walls that can crumble from the inside at the slightest pressure? What use are great and grand defenders that can be torn apart by greed, misery, and mistrust, long before the claws of my grimm set upon them?"

She took a step forward, and the expression on her face was like that of a goddess about to render divine judgment. "You put your trust in the wrong things, just as you always have. So, once again, you are going to die here, Ozma, as a failure. You will die once more among the ruins of your own hubris and idiocy, just as you have so many times before. Then, after I take the relic, Cinder will burn the rest of Beacon and the city to the ground, and there will be nothing left but yet another monument to your failures, you old fool."

Everything hurt, but despite that… Ozpin could not help but laugh. The pained, chortling sound made Salem quirk Cinder's head in confusion and made the smile disappear, and it was replaced by indignant confusion, like a child who did not want to understand why they got a question on a test wrong. "What's so damned amusing, Ozpin? What are you laughing at?" she demanded.

He continued laughing for a moment as he slowly got to his feet, leaning heavily upon the Long Memory. "I am laughing at you, Salem. For all of your power and all of your knowledge, Mother of grimm, you've always had a habit of never seeing everything that there was to see about something. Only what was most obvious."

"What are you babbling about?"

He spat out a small mouthful of red saliva. "It's quite simple. What you never realized, Salem, was the true, underlying purpose of Beacon's construction, or rather… in Vale's construction and founding.

"Yes, for the most part, it was to guard the Relic of Choice, and to provide what I hoped would be a safe haven for future generations to grow and prosper and be forged in, just as the other kingdoms and academies were so founded… but in addition? It was because this area, this segment of Sanus, is quite unique. For you see… it is situated right where all of Remnant's leylines seamlessly converge into a healthy helix of pure, uncorrupted mana. Thus, with the right amount of power…. It can allow me to do this!"

With a mighty yell, he slammed the Long Memory into the carved groove in the floor and clenched down on the knuckle guard.

As the kinetic energy and magic stored within, accumulated over dozens upon a dozen lifetimes, was release, Lines of passionate red, orderly white, individualistic black, reasoning blue, and encompassing green blazed to life all around them in an orb of rotating colors. Faster and faster did all these colors and energy spin, all of which then merged together into a colorless miasma of power. With the sound of a clear and clarion chime, the orb expanded outwards, through the vault, causing the very ground to start shaking once more….

Xxxxxxxx

Jaune

Growing up with seven talented sisters, Jaune could say that, for the most part, he was somewhat comfortable, and secure, in his masculinity. This more often than not translated to a weary acceptance in getting his ass kicked by women on multiple occasions (Saphron especially, and she was often considered the nice one!).

In other words, he was not ashamed (for the most part) that he had gotten beaten handily and completely by a woman who could shoot fireballs and glass arrows from her eyes and hands. He was only ashamed at how little time it took for the aforementioned woman to kick the crap out of all of his six-foot-one-inch frame of useless, and now Pyrrha had to lug said six-foot frame around like a sack of flour.

Some hunter-in-training/ partner he was.

As they made their way away from the tower and through the wreckage of Beacon, they came to rest for a moment by an empty rocket locker, which Pyrrha leaned him against.

He could stand, but damn it, but everything really hurt. He couldn't really feel his left arm (aside from the burning sensation), and it also hurt to breathe a bit. On top of that, he felt a bit… weird. But the pain was bearable at least. Man, that scary woman with black hair had really done a number on him.

Pyrrha looked at him, and then at his dangling left arm. He was pretty sure that arms were not supposed to dangle like that.

Also, as said earlier, he was pretty sure that there was supposed to be feeling in the said arm.

Still, not like he could really do anything about it at the moment.

He took a few painful breaths, and then looked at his partner, her beautiful face alit with worry. He managed a shaky grin. "Hey, don't worry about it," he said, with a gravelly voice. "If I can survive Weiss landing on my back, and getting slammed into a wall by Ruby's food hurricane, then this… this is nothing. Am I right? Besides, it's just an arm. I think I have a spare, see?"

To demonstrate, he waved his remaining arm.

Despite how stupid the joke was, it managed to put a momentary smile on Pyrrha's face.

It soon vanished when Jaune started to cough and spat out something red, and so the worry returned.

That... that wasn't good.

Fuck.

Right though, time to focus. "Alright, I'll try and call Ms. Goodwitch or one of the other processors. Let me just get my scroll."

He slid Crocea Mor's remaining half through his belt (dad was going to kill him for this), and shakingly reached into his pocket for the scroll and…

Came away with a handful of broken bits and wires.

Dammit!

Pyrrha reached for her own. It was still in one piece, but it was non-functional. The CCT must have been shut down completely.

What were they going to do now?

Suddenly, Beacon Tower (which was glowing?) was rocked by some sort of interior explosion.

Jaune and Pyrrha watched it with wide eyes before Pyrrha then looked at him. He could tell what she was thinking because it was practically what he was thinking as well; he doubted that the tower would be rocking with so much fire if Ozpin had defeated that evil-seeming woman.

Then, Jaune watched as Pyrrha looked back towards the rocking, glowing tower, and her face became set with a determined, steely gaze in her emerald eyes, one that was mixed with more than a bit of frustration.

He recognized that look all too well. He was her partner, after all.

"Pyrrha," Jaune said. "Don't! You can't!"

"I have to!"

He hesitantly reached out and grabbed her arm. "No, you don't! You saw what she was capable of! This is not a tournament battle or even some big grimm! What kind of partner would I be if I just let you-"

Then, before he knew what was happening, she leaned in and…

She kissed him.

She kissed him.

As they kissed for what seemed like an eternity and only a second or two, the glowing tower then exploded in a great burst of fire and sound, everything started to feel as if it were moving in slow motion.

Pyrrha slowly pulling away as she put a hand on his chest; him noticing something emerging from the inferno that was now Beacon Tower, and floating in the air in a familiar pattern and… then a fireball, hurtling right at them.

Still feeling as if he were underwater and like everything was moving at a fraction of its normal speed, Jaune reacted.

Will all his remaining strength he pushed her. It was more surprise than anything that allowed the shove to send her hurtling and stumbling back as far as she did. He shoved Pyrrha backward and out of the way as the fireball collided with the ground. Her emerald eyes were wide and full of fear and shock… but at least she would be alive.

Wasn't that how the fairy tales ended? The hero sacrificing themselves for the fair maiden? Guess this time, the roles were reversed.

Ah, but that would have made her laugh, but there was no time to tell it.

All he could do was flash her a smile.

Then, as the heat started to envelop him, and the last bits of his flagging aura shattered to pieces, he heard something else… it was the ringing of a clean and clear chime, and then he felt the weird sensation from earlier grown and overflow and combine with the rapid beating of his heart and… the world folded, and there came a bright flash of light and a wild barrage of colors…

Then there was nothing.

Xxxxxxxx

Pyrrha

As Pyrrha stumbled and fell backward from Jaune's push, even as she had been about to shove him into the locker, she could only reach out a hand uselessly. She could only reach out as the fireball enveloped Jaune in a flash of light, and consumed him.

Jaune, who had been the only person she had met who had not wanted to know her only for her accomplishments; Jaune, with his endearing smile and bumbling, earnest demeanor; Jaune, who unashamedly came to the prom in a dress; Jaune who could make her laugh with even the silliest of jokes.

Jaune, who was now dead. Jaune, who was just burnt to ash.

No reason, no purpose. He was just dead.

She looked upwards, towards his floating murderer, who even now was aiming another ball of fire at her.

Before she could do anything else; before she could cry or scream in rage or defiance or sorrow… before she could even ready her weapons… she heard something. She heard the sound of a clean, clear, and clarion chime, and she felt something odd and grand, deep in her chest and… the world folded, and there came a bright flash of light…

Then she saw nothing but a night sky, full of twinkling and glowing stars….

Then darkness.

Xxxxxxxx

Weiss

Hindsight being 20/20, maybe rushing back into a city infested with grimm while tired and weary had probably not been the best of ideas.

She was also running a bit low on dust for Myrtenaster.

Still, Weiss was a huntress-in-training. This was just part of it. Sometimes, you had no choice but to rush in, especially when the lives of civilians were at stake.

With some expertly-placed gravity glyphs, Weiss sent a pack of beowolves slamming into a nearby building. Meanwhile, Neptune covered her flank with a generous burst of lighting blasts from Tri-Hard.

They were making some headway, but a small part of Weiss was doubtful that it would last for long. Besides, even if they made it, there was still that huge grimm circling in the air, and Weiss was quite certain she did not have enough dust for that. Of course, the current situation was not really giving her enough time to think that far ahead.

It was also not giving Weiss all that much time to process why Beacon Tower was glowing.

Or where the strange pulse that made her and Neptune stumble briefly had come from either.

None of that was of any import at the moment. They just had to make it through the night.

Weiss then twirled and stabbed an ursa through its skull, her speed enhanced by her glyphs. She let her mind go to that strange, formless place that it always went when she was doing her best not to let anything distract her from trying to stay alive in an active warzone… or in combat.

A moment later, the grimm in the immediate area were dust. And she and Neptune were only getting more tired.

"You okay?" Neptune asked, panting hard as he methodically reloaded his weapon.

Weiss wiped away a good bit of sweat from her brow. Whether it was from the heat of burning buildings, or her own slowly-encroaching exhaustion, she was unable to say. Still, she managed a reply. "Oh, but of course. I am perfectly fine. Never been better."

That got a chuckle out of him. "Cool. Good to know. Me, I can do this all night. Just not sure about you, is all."

She sent a small glare his way, not really in the mood for flippancy. She had still not entirely forgiven him for how he had acted in the tournament.

He had the decency to wince. "Right, probably still pissed at me. That's fair. So, since I know a mere apology won't really help that… maybe if we both make it through this, we can grab a bowl of noodles? I'll buy, and you can cuss me out as much as you like? Deal?"

Despite the ash and bits of blood coating his person, his smile still managed to be charming… and it brought to Weiss's mind that night of the dance.

So… maybe there was also a reason she had entirely not not forgiven him either.

Before she could reply with anything, even a single word… Beacon Tower exploded.

The resultant shockwave sent them both stumbling. Then, a moment later, above the roars and gunfire and screams and shouts, Weiss heard it; Ruby, screaming in pain and heartrending agony.

At that moment, Weiss wanted to do nothing more than find her juvenile, naive, bubbly, and optimistic leader, stand in front of her as a wall would protect its residents from the elements, and slaughter whatever it was that so dared to cause her such pain.

As the scream rang out, and the sky and everything filled with silver, and before she could move another step… Weiss heard something else… she heard the chiming sound of a bell, clean and clear and crystal as a cool Atlas wind. Then, the world folded in a bright flash of light and colors that spun about like the spokes on a great wheel that all but stole her breath, and then…

All went dark.

Xxxxxxxx

Yang

Jab, jab, haymaker, uppercut, kick, blam, blam, blam, blam, reload

Admittedly, it had been a long couple of days for Yang; accused of attacking someone after their aura was depleted, watching your sister's friend (who was a robot) get torn to fucking shreds and wires by your other friend, and then having an endless swarm of grimm and White Fang assholes attack her school and friends and the city.

To be fair, Yang had always been a 'take-things-as-they-came' sort of person. Each day was something new, why bother worrying about what might or might not happen, or what already did? Just go with it, go with the flow, and things work out as they are supposed to.

You have more fun, and less stress, that way.

So, now here she was, accompanied by Sun as they ran through the ruined school searching for their friend, all the while plowing through any asshat or grimm dumb enough to get in their way. Any other person would have been a bit of a wreck right now, but Yang was holding it together. Just one foot in front of the other, and take it as it came. Just be sure to punch them before they punched you.

Duck, jab, uppercut, blam, blam, blam, reload.

"Blake!" she called out.

Besides, she and Sun were trying to find her partner. That was what mattered at the moment. Finding her, and then finding Ruby.

Sun yelped out a wordless warning, then laid out three White Fang that had been about to flank her with a leap, twirl, and several blasts from his staff.

"Thanks, monkey boy!" she called out with a smirk that swiftly disappeared. "Blake! Where are you!?"

They then heard loud gunshots and more screams from the direction of the mess hall… which was also on fire.

Slowly, but as quickly as they could, Yang and Sun made their way to the mess hall; Yang went left, while Sun circled around to the right.

Yang continued to call out Blake's name. "Blake!"

She saw Blake on the ground, clutching her arm, while some tall dude was standing over her with a bloody sword… and plunged it through her stomach!

As the world crawled to a halt at that moment, Yang's eyes went wide.

Then, Blake her. She reached out for Yang and mouthed her name, as the masked bastard smirked, and…Yang saw nothing but red and rage.

She ignored Sun's cries of warning as she dashed forward like a fiery comet. She would make the bastard who hurt Blake pay, ram her fist through his stupid masked face!

Too late did she see the horned faunus smirk, and too late did she register Blake and Sun's cries of alarm and…

In the distance there came the sound of a massive explosion and a great burst of color and…

There was a slight pulse in the air.

The White Fang Asshole gripped his sword…

There was a prickling sensation on her arm and...

Wait.

Why was she suddenly tumbling on the ground? Why… why was she on the ground on her side? Had she tripped? Why were Blake and Sun screaming?

Why did she feel so light all of a sudden?

Almost languidly, as if she were underwater, Yang fell onto her back, turned her head to her right and… Huh. That was odd. She could have sworn that her arm was lying on the other side of the room.

But that made no sense. She could still feel it, attached to her shoulder. She could feel her fingers and her wrist and… why was there so much blood?

Oh, and it hurt. It… hurt.

It hurt. It hurt. It hurt. It hurt. It hurt. It hurt. It hurt. It hurt. It hurt. It hurt. It hurt. It hurt. It hurt. It hurt. It hurt. It hurt. It hurt. It hurt. It hurt It hurt It hurt It hurt It hurt It hurt It hurt It hurt It hurt It hurt It hurt It hurt It hurt It hurt It hurt It hurt It hurt It hurt It hurt It hurt It hurt It hurt It hurt It hurt It hurt It hurt It hurt It hurt It hurt It hurt It hurt It hurt It hurt It hurt IT HURT IT HURT IT HURT IT HURT IT HURT IT HURT IT HURT IT HURT IT HURT IT HURT IT HURT!

IT HURT! IT HURT! IT HURT! IT HURT! IT HURT! IT HURT! IT HURT! IT HURT! IT HURT! IT HURT! IT HURT! IT HURT! IT HURT! IT HURT! IT HURT! IT HURT!IT HURT! IT HURT! IT HURT! IT HURT! IT HURT! IT HURT! IT HURT! IT HURT! IT HURT! IT HURT! IT HURT! IT HURT! IT HURT! IT HURT! IT HURT! IT HURT!IT HURT!

As she started to scream and flail about clutching at her… stump and darkness closed in on the edge of her vision… she heard the sound of a clean bell's chime, and felt something odd, deep in her chest and… what sounded like Ruby, screaming… why was she screaming? Her little sister should not be screaming like that, she had to…

As she reached out with a shaky, bloody hand towards someone, anyone, the world folded, and there came a bright flash of light and colors and…

Then she saw nothing but stars, and then darkness…

Xxxxxxxx

Blake

Blake screamed in terror and rage and sorrow as Yang's body disappeared in a flash of light. A moment later, Adam, who had watched it as well, was then sent stumbling back from a barrage of bullets slamming into him and his aura. A moment later, Sun jumped down by Blake's side, with his reformed staff in hand, and he gently got her to her feet.

She barely acknowledged that. Instead, Blake felt consumed by horror, sorrow, and… confusion. Adam's semblance, Moonslice didn't disintegrate anything it cut. It simply redirected absorbed energy through his weapons.

Sun looked just as confused, though his eyes were kept firmly on Adam, who had recovered from Sun's barrage, and was now advancing back towards them, murder and malice alight in his masked eye. He was not going to be caught off guard again.

She looked at Sun, who looked back at her with a bit of fear as Adam slowly approached. Wilt's crimson blade, it shone like a predator's eye in the dark; ready to pounce and rend and tear.

"Why must you always hurt me, Blake?" Adam said though it seemed only partly to her. "How many must you make me hurt before you finally understand?"

No.

She knew what was coming next. He always said that right before it got violent and before he got angry…

She turned to Sun, who held his staff before them as you would a torch to hold back the darkness while keeping her upright with his other arm. Though his eyes still seemed to hold his customary bravado, it was overshadowed by another emotion; fear, tinged with resignation.

They could try to flee, but Adam would hunt them down. They wouldn't get far, and her aura, now shattered, would not recharge fast enough in time for it to make any bit of difference. She knew it, Sun knew, and she held no doubt that Adam knew it as well.

She was going to die here, and Sun would too if he didn't do the smart thing and leave.

But, as Sun had once told her jokingly, brains were not his strongest suit.

She looked him in the eye, and they both nodded, and then turned to face the approaching Adam.

Maybe they would be able to take him down with them.

Then…

She heard it, the sound of a clear and crystal chime and… Ruby. Screaming. From Sun's own perking of his head, it seemed as if he heard those sounds too.

As the sounds rang out, Blake felt something odd and grand, billowing up from deep in her chest like a geyser of water and gunpowder and… the world folded, and there came a bright flash of colors…

Then, there was nothing but… Sunlight… and then darkness.

Xxxxxxxx

Nora

Nora would be the first to admit that she had lived an eventful seventeen years thus far, perhaps far more eventful than it should have been, in a happier world. Now, there were a great many things that had happened in those seventeen years that she would be happy to live through over and over again; meeting Ren, getting struck by lightning, finding a home, creating Magnhild (and then smashing her first grimm head with it) making new friends, getting accepted into Beacon, that awesome dream about the ursa rugs, and plenty of other awesome things.

But, of course, there were also many events that she would have been happy never having to live through again, and would have been even happier never having experienced at all; being abandoned by her mother to live on the streets of Kuroyuri, the long cold nights in the wilderness, the having to scrounge for food from trashcans, watching people she cared about die, plus a host of other moments too horrible to dwell upon.

But, now, it seemed that she would be forced to live through the most horrible experience of all once again; losing her home to the grimm, amid the screams and roars.

She shook her head as she crunched a beowolf's head into a paste. No, she could not afford to focus on that right now. All she had to do was smash, smash, shoot, and smash some more until she and Ren found Jaune and Pyrrha; then, she would smash even more, and get them out of the city.

Behind her, Ren fired off several bursts from his StormFlower pistols into a pack of boarbatusks, slashed away a griffon, and then dropkicked a White Fang grunt in their throat.

Bdrrrp. Bdddrrrp.

Crunch. Crunch. Thunk.

It was going to be okay. They just had to get find their friends. If Nora just kept smashing and laughing, then they would be able to find Jaune and Pyrrha, and everything would be okay. Everything was going to be okay. Everything was going to be okay.

Just keep smashing and shooting. Just keep smashing. Just keep…

An invisible pulse swept through, making her and Ren stumble.

Then, eventually, they made it to the main courtyard where… Beacon tower was glowing and... She saw Jaune and Pyrrha.

She and Ren saw the Jaune looked terrible, but that he and Pyrrha were still alive; they saw Jaune and Pyrrha kiss, and a small part of Nora could not help but cheer.

A moment later… Beacon tower exploded. Then… more fire flew out, and it was so hot that she and Ren had to duck behind a building and then when it subsided and they ventured out…. They were gone. Jaune and Pyrrha were gone, burnt to ash.

She was not sure who cried out first; her or Ren. Maybe she had collapsed to her knees, or was that Ren too? Not that it mattered.

They were gone. Her friends were... dead.

As the remnants of the glowing Beacon Tower collapsed from the explosion, Nora heard something horrible, and she could tell that Ren heard it too; it was the sound of Ruby screaming out in pain. It sounded like her and Ren's own screams. That, and there was the sight of a silver color filling the sky and then…

Then Nora heard something else… she heard the sound of a crystal chime, as cold and clear as ice water, and as loud as the roar and crash of thunder. She instinctively reached for Ren as he reached for her and… the world folded in around her in a corona of colors and light and it extended outwards like the branches of a tree and…

Then… there was snow, all around them…

And then she saw nothing...

Xxxxxxxx

Taiyang

Taiyang Xiao-Long had always been the kind of person who held no illusions about his failings. He owned up to them, and that was that. It was why, even after all this time, after years of laughter and good times and forgiveness, he still thought of himself as a failure of a dad.

What kind of fuckup allowed his five-year-old-and-toddler-age daughters off alone into the woods? Grief was no excuse. If Summer had been alive, she would have kicked his ass for that. But she wasn't, so Qrow simply did it for her.

That day, it had been a real wake-up call (along with the ass-kicking from Qrow), and he had promised to change. Being a dad came first, before everything else… even grief.

So, when he had seen what had happened with Yang and that silver-haired kid, he had promptly packed a suitcase full of random stuff (and cookies), grabbed Zwei and then headed out to find the first boat to Vale.

By the time he had finally arrived, the city was under attack.

So now, here he was, pummeling and punching and crushing any grimm or White Fang that he came across. He had no problem with faunus, they were people, same as him. But if they were terrorists, human or faunus? Then they stopped being people, and simply became grimm that could walk, talk, and kill.

And, when faced with grimm, you took them down first.

Besides, they were between him and his girls. So, they had to get out of the way.

Zwei had run off, but Tai was not too worried about him. The little furball once headbutted an ursa into dust, after all.

Zwei would be fine, but right now, Tai had to get to his girls. He would not fail them again.

All of a sudden, he stumbled. It felt as if he had been hit with some kind of pulse. Dammit, that was not important. He had to keep moving. He had to get to his girls, and by any and all gods above and below, he was going to let nothing stop him!

All of a sudden, Beacon Tower (which had started glowing?) exploded in a roar of noise and fire.

A moment later, he heard something, something that no father, fuckup or not, ever, ever wants to hear; it was Ruby, his little rose, and she was screaming in pain.

His eyes narrowed. Right, whoever was responsible, whoever had just made his little reaper cry, they were already fucking dead.

But first, he had to get to her. That was all that mattered. He had to-

Then, as the sky filled with silver, he heard something else… he heard the chime of a bell, crystal and clear and loud, like the pronouncement of a god. Then, the world folded in a barrage of colors and light and…

And then all he saw were stars… and grass… and then he fell unconscious...

Xxxxxxxx

Qrow

As Qrow cut through grimm after grimm (he had stumbled for a minute from some weird pulse, but maybe he was getting old), Beacon Tower (which had started glowing for some reason) then exploded and crumbled in an outburst and pulse of color and fire. The resultant shockwave shook the very ground, stronger than any earthquake, any stomping of a goliath.

Qrow found himself grinding to a halt and he watched as the Beacon Tower turned into a towering inferno with wide eyes. It was disheartening a bit, seeing something that had stood strong since he had been a student here just be destroyed in one night. But then, he remembered that Oz had planned to take the Nikos girl there, to hopefully get Amber's power. He also could guess that, if they had succeeded with the transfer, the tower would not have exploded.

Which meant…

Oh no.

Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit, shit!

If it was true, then Beacon was perhaps done for. Dammit! Right, no time to fucking wallow. He had to get to his nieces and get them the fuck out of here, back to Patch. He had to get to them, he had to-

Suddenly, he heard… a scream. A familiar one and it was the sort of scream that any honorary uncle worth their booze-soaked salt never wanted to hear coming from their niece.

It was Ruby, and…

No, there was no time to waste. He had to get to her and…

Suddenly, the sky lit up with a familiar shade of silver, a color he had not seen in such a long time, and then he heard something else, above that heartrending scream.

He heard the sound of a crystal and clean chime, like that of a church bell, calling worshipers to prayer and… then, the world folded in a collage of light and colors…

Then, all he saw was shadow…. and then he lost consciousness.

Damn it, damn his luck…

Xxxxxxxx

Ruby

Ruby ran through the streets, Crescent Rose flashing and slashing through grimm after grimm.

Even after what happened on the ship, Ruby knew that it would all be (relatively) alright. They would survive this, kill all the grimm, and things would get better. It had to. Torchwick had been wrong. Maybe the real world was sometimes unfair, but that was no excuse for not trying to do the right thing. Besides, it always balanced out in the end.

Overhead, the giant grimm roared, and the sight of Penny's mangled body briefly flashed before her eyes.

She rapidly shook her head and blasted away an ursa. She couldn't worry about that right now. She had to find her friends and team. She would get through this. They would get through this.

Also, why was Beacon Tower glowing? And what was that strange pulse she had briefly felt?

ARGH! No, not the time. Questions later! Find her friends and sister first! Then deal with big questions.

Even if the grimm seemed endless and…

No! No despair!

Eventually, she made it to the main courtyard, to Beacon Tower, and there she saw Jaune and Pyrrha and they were near a discarded rocket locker, and Jaune didn't look so good and then…

She saw Jaune and Pyrrha move closer to one another.

She saw Jaune and Pyrrha.

She saw them kiss.

Then she saw the glowing tower explode into flames, and from then… from the inferno emerged a familiar figure, floating in a ball of fire. The figure then unleashed a wave of… fire, and it flew straight down at Pyrrha and Jaune, just as they started to part… and it enveloped them.

It was too bright, and she closed her eyes as the heat from the explosion washed over her, with her aura the only thing keeping her unharmed.

When it subsided… she could only stare in shock.

They were gone. They were… dead.

Her friends… they were dead. Burnt to ash. In their place was nothing left but fire and molten stone and…

Her.

Cinder, the girl she had thought had been so friendly when their teams had met in the hallway. Cinder, who was wearing the same red dress, glass anklet, and high-heel shoes that the shadow-shrouded woman had been wearing in the Bullhead the night of Torchwick's dust robbery.

Cinder, whose face had appeared on the coliseum screen the moment after Penny's death, and had mocked her for it.

Cinder.

Cinder.

Cinder looked in her direction… and smirked, just as she had when Penny had been… destroyed. Then, Cinder began to walk towards her, and somehow, Ruby could hear the click-click-click of her heels, even over the screams, the roars, the gunfire, and crackle of flames.

At that moment, all Ruby could do was fall to her knees, Crescent Rose limp in her hands. Cinder, with that smirk still on her face, materialized a bow and arrow of fiery black glass and aimed it right at her.

It was same black glass as the masked woman had used the night of the dance… when she had installed that virus, the one that was now causing the knights to go amok, and the ships to rash and kill so many people and-

Her. Always, everything that had happened… it all just kept circling back to her!

Cinder.

Cinder's bow creaked as she pulled back on the string, and, at that moment, the girl from Patch just could not take it anymore. As tears streamed down her face, she felt her hands grip Crescent Rose tight, so tight that it felt as if her palms had started to bleed.

Cinder!

Cinder!

CINDER!

Shaking, and with tears streaming down her face, Ruby threw back her head and she screamed. She screamed from the all pain in her heart. She screamed from the pain of all that she had seen, from Penny's death, and to all the destruction that she had borne witness to. She screamed for all the people that this night had seen the death of, including her friends, and even Torchwick, as he had fallen off the side of the ship to his death.

But, as she screamed, everything in her vision suddenly became enveloped by silver. Distantly, she heard Cinder cry out in alarm and pain and…

And then…

She heard the ringing sound of a clear and crystal and clean chime, louder than her scream, and she felt something odd and grand, deep in her chest and… the world folded in a collage of silver and color and hurt and pain and wonder, spreading its wings wide like a dragon's, and there came a bright flash of light and…

Xxxxxxxx

Ozpin

A few minutes earlier

Cinder's eyes grew wide as Salem reeled in shock, both here, and no doubt back at her fortress in the Grimmlands. "What… WHAT DID YOU DO!?" she screamed through Cinder's lips. "WHAT HAVE YOU DONE!?"

Ozpin felt as if he could barely stand, and he leaned heavily upon the Long Memory as its gears, and the gears that were hidden deep within the Tower's foundations slowly ground to a halt, and yet… he started to laugh once more. But this laughter, unlike before, held a slight, demented edge to it. It was the sort of laughter that one let loose when they knew they were about to die but had still managed to ensure that, even as they died, the one who killed them had lost everything as well. "I have… ensured that... for the first time in a long time…. You lose, Mother of grimm. You lose, Salem. All the sparks have finally been lit and set free from this wretched plane. They're free of you and your beasts, you monster still trapped in a tower. They are free and you lose!"

As she processed his words and contorted her puppet's face into a visage of pure, demonic rage at his triumph, Ozpin felt the last dregs of his strength leave his body. A moment later, he all but collapsed to the floor in a heap on his knees. The Long Memory was the only thing keeping him upright. But he kept laughing, great big guffaws that hurt his chest and his cracked ribs and throat.

Even as he spat up another mouthful of blood, he just kept laughing. He was going to die here, that was a certainty. But at least the sparks now had a chance, and he would be damned if he would not just keep laughing. Finally, a victory over the monster. They had a chance; a chance to finally grow beyond the confines of this wretched-

Wait.

An odd feeling then suffused his being. It… it was a feeling he had not felt in such a long time.

Salem's stolen eyes widened in shock, the rage on her puppet's face briefly gone. There was no doubt that it matched his own, just as there was no doubt that she could feel it as well. The monster's senses had only grown in the past countless millennia. Then, the rage returned, tinged with desperation and fire gathered beneath Cinder's feet. In a burst of flame, Salem propelled her forward, arms outstretched like hungry claws as if to stop him and rend him apart with fire and fury.

She was fast, but, at that moment… as the spark reignited, deep within his soul and being… it was as if everything was in slow motion….

With an instinct that he had thought long forgotten… the world folded around him, and all was but a flash of many colors, spread wide and chaotic, like the countless fluttering wings of an unkindness of ravens…

Then… then there was nothing.

Xxxxxxxx

Salem

Within her Sanctum, Salem recoiled as Ozpin vanished in a flash of light. With a snarl, she severed the connection and gave back Cinder control, along with orders to continue burning Beacon, and Vale, to the ground.

Her hand tightened upon her throne's armrest, so much so that the material began to fracture under the pressure.

No. No. No, no, no, no, no, no, NO NO NO NO!

With a scream of rage, she let loose a burst of magic and blasted a hole in the throne room. It was soon followed by several more such blasts, each accompanied by a guttural scream of primal wrath.

This continued for several minutes, the castle regenerating each blast as quickly as she made it. Then, as her rage subsided for the moment, Salem slumped back down upon her throne. This was unforeseen.

She needed to reevaluate. Everything had been thrown into chaos.

She then clenched her hand so tightly that streams of dark, viscous blood ran down her palm. The rage was still there, just as it had always been… but she could not afford to just let it control her. It needed to be focused.

It would seem that her plans would require some… alteration.

Damn him. Damn Ozpin! DAMN HIM!

Xxxxxxxx

Ozpin

He was not dead. Of that, he was more than certain. After all, he had died enough times to know the distinction between being dead, and simply being in a large amount of agony with your eyes closed.

That, and there was also the fact that someone was gently shaking him on the shoulder.

He slowly opened his eyes to find that he was propped up against a wall, and then he looked into a smaller pair of silver ones. These eyes were rimmed red from crying and also tinged with worry. They were very familiar.

It was Ruby Rose.

"Professor Ozpin," she said. "Are you okay? I found you like this and… well, are you okay? You don't look so good."

"I'm fine, if also in a good bit of pain," he said, as he slowly struggled to sit up, and did not quite succeed. "But I think I'll survive, if only just. Are you alright, though? That is more important."

She blinked and swallowed. "I mean, I guess, but I think something's a bit weird?"

"Oh, how do you mean-"

He then blinked and looked around. They were in a bustling city, and the first thing that he caught sight of was a…

A burly creature with the features and horns of a bull stood several feet away, and she was dressed in an armor of red and gold and white with a large sword sheathed at her side. She was currently gesticulating furiously and arguing with a slender person with pointed ears, glowing eyes, and whose second pair of chitin-covered arms each ended in large, crustaceous claws. Between them stood a towering and bulky grey-skinned figure sporting an elephant's head, clad in green and white robes who was attempting to settle the argument peacefully. All the while, a fourth observer in blue-and-silver armor watched the scene play out dispassionately while her helmet lay cradled in her armored hands. This one would have seemed the most normal, save for her azure skin and hairless head.

Their clothes and gear; all were emblazoned with symbols he had not laid eyes upon in a very, very long time, not since his first death, and imprisonment by the brother Gods.

He was quite sure that the shock upon his face could have been seen from the other side of a planet.

Still, he could not be sure if this was nothing more than a hallucination, and so, perhaps dreading what he would see, Ozpin slowly, slowly looked up, through the buildings, and into the sky above.

Ruby followed his gaze.

Staring back down at him and ruby from the night sky was a bright, full, unbroken moon, round and pale. More than that, a twin hung serenely by the celestial satellite's side.

Oh, so he had not been imagining it after all.

Ruby made an audible gulp, drawing his attention away from the pair of unbroken moons, and tried her best to look unafraid. She was only partly succeeding. "Uh… I don't think we're in Beacon anymore, are we, Professor?"

Ozpin looked at his student with tired eyes. She resembled her mother to an almost startling degree, this girl. From her red-and-black hair to her silver eyes, and her bright, pure soul.

Slowly, he shook his head. "No, we're not."

No, they were not in Beacon, in Vale, on Sanus, on Remnant, or even on Remnant's plane.

They had planeswalked. He had planeswalked. He had regained his spark, after countless millennia and deaths, and now?

Now they were on Ravnica.

Xxxxxxxx

A/N: New fic time! So, I will not lie, I was inspired to write this fic from not only reading "Through the Eternities" by Unseen Lurker, and "Fairies of the Shattered Moon" by The Master4444. I was also inspired by my enjoyment of RWBY and MTG's grand lore.

So yes, in this story, Ozma was a planeswalker, and now he has regained his spark. Meanwhile, a host of other characters have had their sparks lit, and are scattered throughout the multiverse. If you can guess where they have all gone, then you get a cookie and a jar of pickles (that may or may not be dill)