Why does Coeur Al'Aran shorten 'Not this time, Fate' to NTF rather than NTTF. Which T is the one still here? Not This Fate? Not Time Fate? It makes no damn sense to me.

A Battle Fantasy in Remnant

Chapter Nine

Off the Rails

-]l[-

Salem stood on the balcony of her castle and stared into the setting sun. Spreading out before her were the Grimmlands, as the people of civilization had named them.

She stood, and she thought.

Self-reflecting was not a common occurrence for the immortal. No, she had gotten most of that done millenia ago. The only occasions she spent thinking was when Ozma acted out, or some new and unexpected piece entered the board.

The last time the latter had happened was over two decades ago, when Ozma had granted two of his followers some of the last scraps of magic he had.

And it had just happened again. New, strange pieces entering play.

Team MALN. Matt, Anna, Lance, and Natalie. Just another team of orphans formed at Ozma's academy, and yet this one was especially vexing. Even more so than team STRQ had been.

After all, STRQ had managed to deal more damage to themselves through infighting and the death of Summer Rose then they would ever have been able to deal to Salem.

So when a team of four unknowns showed up and started slinging around magic? That was cause for concern.

Salem had felt it when that Nevermore had died. She never felt the deaths of Grimm, not like that. It had hurt. Not more than, say, cutting your finger at the dining room table, but any pain was cause to be worry when it was the first such occasion in millenia.

And so Salem had accelerated her plans. Not everything had gone well—the incompetence of Cinder's pawns, in particular, had thrown a wrench into things—but with Tyrian in Mountain Glenn, Hazel and Watts on their way to Vale, and increased Grimm attacks around the country...

The cold war between her and Ozma was soon to be heating up.

-]l[-

"You'll do it?"

Matt nodded at Ozpin, rolling his eyes at the headmaster's question.

"Of course. It's a quest, and quests mean loot and good fights. Don't understand what's so hard about convincing some lady to talk to you though."

Oz frowned, taking a sip of his cup. "The difficulties with contacting Raven are many—not the least of which being that she very vocally hates my existence and has vowed to 'rip out my guts and feed them to me' if she ever sees me again."

Matt scowled. "That just means you aren't trying hard enough."

Beside him, Natalie shook her head and smacked him in the arm. "I'm sure she has her reasons. Still, Matt and Lance will at least be able to let her know you want to talk... though actually convincing her of that would be better left to anyone but these two."

"I just need the message delivered. I don't expect you to be able to change Raven's mind. There is a Bullhead waiting for you at the docks, if you're willing."

Matt nodded, and turned from the desk to face his friends. Lance was, as always, decked out with various weapons, while Anna had chosen to leave her bow in their room and Natalie was dressed in the school uniform for once. Matt, for his own, had Sapphire Saint slung over his shoulder.

"Shall we?" he asked Lance, the redhead glancing up from whatever he was tinkering with.

"Sure."

Exchanging quick goodbyes with NoLegs and the girls of the team, Matt led Lance past Ozpin's desk and toward the glass door at the back of the room.

"Eh, Matt," Lance muttered from behind him. "That ain't the elevator."

"I know."

Behind them, Ozpin stood from his desk, his cane making distinctive tapping sounds as he walked somewhere.

"If you know, then why are we headed to the balcony?"

"Well, Lance," Matt said as he stepped through the pair of swinging doors and onto Ozpin's balcony. "I always did want to go skydiving."

"...Want a parachute?"

"Nah. More fun without, don't you think?"

"Oh hell no."

And then Matt stepped off the balcony.

-]l[-

Jaune waved at Ruby as she led her team down the pathway toward Ozpin's tower just a few dozen meters away. Beside him sat the other members of team JNPR, all sprawled out on the grass to bask in the sun.

"Good luck, Ruby!" he called out.

"Thanks!" came the response. A moment later there came the distinctive sound of her Semblance activating and she was standing over Jaune, blocking the sun and casting a nice shadow on his face. "Wait, didn't you guys already get your missions?"

"It was canceled," Ren answered for him from where he was meditating, Nora's head laid on his lap. "False alarm. We'll be staying at Beacon for the time being until something else comes up."

"Sucks to be you!" Yang called from the main walkway, still heading toward the tower. "Sounds like we'll have all the fun to ourselves."

Jaune snorted. "Have fun, Yang. Good luck, Ruby, Blake, Weiss."

Ruby shot a smile back at him before disappearing in a swirl of roses and returning to her team, leaving Jaune unshaded and forcing him to close his eyes. To his side, Pyrrha reached out and clasped hands with Jaune, who blushed slightly.

Eyes still squeezed closed, Jaune noted that he was once again covered by a shadow. Grunting in disagreement at the cloud, he opened his eyes to see how long it would take to pass.

"That's not a cloud," he commented a moment later. "Looks like… Matt?"

Squinting up into the air, even while Pyrrha joined him in looking, Jaune was able to take in more of the sight and confirm it to be his on-and-off tutor.

"What is it with everyone in this school and having absolutely no fear of heights?" he bemoaned, hopping to his feet and taking a couple steps back, out of Matt's impact zone. "Am I the only one who has issues with plummeting to my death?"

Thoom!

Matt had crossed the remaining distance to the ground faster than Jaune could track, and his landing was accompanied by a loud thumping sound, a quiet grunt, and a large cloud of dust that erupted to engulf the entirety of team JNPR—except Ren who had the foresight to step even further back, leaving Nora on the ground coughing.

"What was that, Jaune?" Matt asked, waving his sword and emitting a large gust of wind to clear the dust.

"...I was wondering if anyone here takes normal ways down from things like Bullheads or the CCT."

Matt tilted his head, thinking about it. "Yeah, I'd say so. Just look up!"

Following the instructions, Jaune glanced back into the sky toward where Matt had come from. Previously obscured but now easily visible against the clear sky was Lance, a parachute unfolded behind him that slowed his descent.

"I see. Now, if only it wasn't the only person in Beacon more insane than you, then maybe I'd feel a bit better about it."

Matt had the gall to laugh at him. "Please, it's not a contest. And even if it were, I would win. Anyways, Lance and I have a Bullhead to catch and a mission to complete. Laters."

Jaune sighed. "It's like JNPR is the only team without a mission. Nora is going to be insufferable without anything to do."

"Hey man." Matt turned toward him and placed a hand on his shoulder. "Now that you've said that you're practically guaranteed some action. Better stay ready!" Matt grinned, before ducking underneath a tree and dashing toward Beacon's docks.

"...What?"

"Murphy's Law, Jaune," Lance muttered, alighting quietly next to JNPR and heading toward the docks—albeit much more calmly. "Murphy's Law."

-]l[-

"So we break through the sealed off tunnels with the Dust Torchwick stole and let the Grimm flood into Vale. We just gonna leave that hole open?" Mercury asked.

Adam Taurus nodded from his chair at the head of the table. "Correct. We're here to send a message, not prove their claims that we want the destruction of everything. With how close Beacon is there's no chance that this breach goes out of control. Recruitment will be up, Vale will recognize the potential dangers we pose—yet also that we could have made it worse. Win win."

"I don't entirely understand. We're still causing the first Grimm incursion in a major city in nearly forty years, yet we could have made it worse?"

"I forgot to tell you the most important part. After the breach, the White Fang will be fleeing the scene. If we stick around we'll not only be easier to capture, but also obstruct the defense effort and closing of the hole. Genocide is not our goal, merely a bit of terrorism."

"Coulda fooled me."

-]l[-

"So this is Mistral, eh?" Matt asked, as he and Lance stepped out of the Bullhead and onto a large concrete dock, similar to the one at Beacon.

"Technically," came the response from his friend, "it's Mistral, Mistral."

Matt tilted his head to the side. "What?"

"Whoever settled these kingdoms had the genius move to name the capital after the country… or vice-versa. So Beacon is in Vale, Vale, Haven in Mistral, Mistral, and so on."

"That's weird."

"I know, right? And to make things worse, they could've even fixed it. Atlas—that's the country to the north—used to be called Mantle, with a capital of Mantle. But, after a 'great war', it was renamed 'Atlas'. And then they decided to make a new capital and call it Atlas!"

"I see. Wait, no I don't."

Lance scoffed. "Try paying attention in class sometime, idiot."

"Like you actually care about what the doc is teaching us," Matt retorted.

"Of course I care. Some dude said, 'if you know your enemy, you need not fear the result of a hundred fights.' I'm just learning about my possible enemies."

It was Matt's turn to scoff, and he did so with great gusto, before snatching Lance's Scroll from him and swiping it open. "Let's see here…" he muttered as he navigated to the mail app and opened up Ozpin's instructions for the pair. "Go to Mistral… blah blah blah… find Raven Branwen. All right, Lance. Any idea where to find Raven Branwen?"

Lance spun on his heel and snatched his Scroll back, glaring at Matt as he did so. "Not a clue."

"To the bars it is then!"

-]l[-

"Boss!"

Adam Taurus came to a halt at the call, spinning in the small hallway he had been striding down. Running up behind him was a masked member of the Fang, one that Adam didn't recognize off-hand. "What is it?"

"We caught an intruder. A girl—a teenager. Mul and Sino have her right now."

"What the hell is she doing all the way out here?" Adam muttered, pushing his way past the messenger and down the hall following an outstretched hand. "Is she a Huntress?"

"She didn't have a weapon on her, but—" the messenger cut himself off as Adam emerged into a larger tunnel to the sight of two masked soldiers dragging a young girl between them. She was wearing a black dress, with various red highlights across the outfit, but what stood out to Adam was the overall quality of the outfit. It was made for fighting in, not to look nice. The latter was just a side-effect.

"Damn it," he growled. "You two, come with me—and for god's sake stop dragging her." He turned to the messenger still standing behind him. "And you, go find Black and tell him to prepare the assault—this girl is a Huntress, and her team won't be far behind. We can't risk them finding out about the operation, not when it's ready to go."

All three nodded in response, and they split. Adam led the two soldiers carrying the Huntress through several hundred feet worth of tunnels, before arriving at a set of dark and grimy rooms, each with a chair set in the middle and a bundle of ropes.

Adam frowned at the sight. He had known they were low on supplies, but seriously, anyone who thought ropes could hold a Hunter was out of their mind. However, there was no time to get anything better as Adam could hear the girl waking behind him and they were too low on time to knock her out again and still interrogate her. "Tie her up."

"Yes sir!"

Within a minute the Huntress was tied up, the two men were standing outside the room as guards, and the girl was waking up. Adam sighed, then he tightened his mask, placed one hand on Wilt's hilt, and stood to his full height to tower over the girl.

"Ahhh… Zwei… Yang?" the girl murmured sleepily, shaking her head from side to side. A moment later she settled down and opened her eyes, glancing up at Adam. "You're not Yang."

Adam didn't react, staring down at her through his mask. He kept his face impassive—a skill he had learned from Blake of all people to help with intimidation—and asked, "Where is your team?"

"Uhm…" For a moment it seemed like the girl was considering answering truthfully, until she glanced down and took in the ropes binding her. "I uh, won't tell you."

Damn. So they were nearby. A non-answer still gave Adam enough to go on. If this girl's team was nearby, then the whole operation was at risk. He'd give it one more try to get any useful information, while he still had some time.

"If you answer my questions truthfully I'll let you go," Adam tried.

"Nope."

Adam tilted his head toward the girl, forming a sneer. "Are you sure about that, girl? Last chance before things get bad."

"I won't tell you anything!"

Idiot. God damn idiot.

Adam let out a heavy sigh, before drawing Wilt. Its blood-red blade swept through the air and Adam watched as the girl's eyes tracked it, fear appearing within them. He frowned at the sight. He had never been one to kill children… but needs must. Besides, he thought, it wasn't like he had any moral high ground anymore given the plans he was party to.

Still. "I'm sorry," Adam muttered to the girl, drawing Wilt back for a strike.

Just as he was about to begin the attack, the girl's fear reached a crescendo, resulting in an ear-piercing scream from her. At the exact same moment, a series of explosions rang out from somewhere in the distance. Adam froze briefly, spinning to look toward the hallway where the explosions could be faintly heard coming from.

It was just a moment that he was looking away from the prisoner before he realized his mistake, but it was enough for the young girl, and by the time Adam turned back to the girl to finish the job, she was gone, a fluttering silhouette of rose petals all that remained.

Adam growled, the noise beginning deep in his throat, before turning to the two guards that had been unable to stop the Huntress. "Head toward the fighting—I need to see what's taking Black so long to get that damn train started."

-]l[-

"And just what the hell you do two think you're doing, sneaking around here?" a yell came from the bushes lining the trail, startling Lance and Matt mid-conversation as they walked down what felt like their fiftieth dirt trail in three hours.

"We're not exactly the ones sneaking around, are we?" Matt commented, taking another step forward and glancing around at the underbrush. "Anyways, we're looking for Raven Branwen. Some dude at a bar told us to look around here."

The voice scoffed. "They should know better than to tell just anyone about the tribe."

"Oh, yeah. We bribed him with beer."

"What is your business with Raven? Answer well and I might just take you to see her."

Matt rolled his eyes at the comment. "We just want to talk, I think. Well, specifically we want to tell her that someone else wants to talk."

The bushes rustled on the left side of the trail, and out of it stepped a tall blond-haired man. He was dressed in ripped and torn grey clothes and carried a small pistol in his hand, which he pointed at the pair of students. "It's not exactly cheap to get an audience with Raven, ya see. What'cha got to convince me?"

Lance stepped up beside Matt and stared the bandit in his grey eyes. "We'll let you live."

"Pfffft. You think you can—"

The bandit was silenced by the report of a pistol—and not his own. When he recovered from his shock, he realized that the weapon he had been holding in his hand was now lying in pieces at the roots of a tree, and surrounded by a moderately-sized crater.

"A-ah-on second thought, let me take you to Raven right now!"

-]l[-

A tall man, clad in a brown coat, sat crouched upon one of the many beams lining the White Fang's underground hideout. He watched the chaos beneath him. To one side, dozens upon dozens of the White Fang's finest, armed with the latest weapons stolen from Atlas and the Schnee Corporation. On the other side, three trainee Huntresses and the good Doctor Bartholomew Oobleck of Beacon.

Oh yes, he recognized that man. For a while back in the day, he had even been a possible target—albeit only if he had ever made it to Sanus. More importantly, however, as Oobleck was a member of staff at Beacon, it could be assumed that he was a member of Ozma's court, and, as such, a kill that his Queen would reward him greatly for.

And he might just get the chance today, though not just yet. And so, he left the scene of the battle, leaving the White Fang in their futile attempts at stalling.

Tyrian Callows had a train to catch.

-]l[-

"I heard you wanted to speak with me?" a tall black-haired woman addressed Matt and Lance. She was dressed in red and black, in an outfit more reminiscent of Matt's samurai outfit than anything else, with a large full-face mask in the style of those Grimm that everyone else on Remnant was so worried about.

"Yep," Matt answered. He and Lance were standing in the middle of what he assumed to be the Branwen tribe's camp, in the center of a large circle of packed dirt. They were surrounded by a a few dozen bandits, but none of them looked especially interesting. Across the clearing from them was the largest tent in the area, and, standing in the opening, presumably Raven Branwen.

"Very well. State your case and I might just let you leave with your freedom."

Matt raised an eyebrow at her words and shot Lance a quick glance, only to see that the older boy wasn't paying the slightest bit of attention as to what was going on, instead reading the latest issue of some magazine.

Sighing, Matt turned back to Raven. "So basically this Ozpin guy wants to talk to you but you hate him too much to care so he sent us to tell you that he wanted to talk to you."

"No."

"Ah. Damn. Are you sure? I'm not sure if we get loot if we fail the quest."

"What? Never mind. I couldn't care less about what Ozpin wants—he'll find I won't bend to his will so easily."

"I don't suppose I could just fight you to get you to talk to the old man? It always works in the games, y'know."

Raven… well, Matt assumed she was staring at him, but the mask made it hard to tell. "You would fight for Ozpin? Why?"

"No reason really. He's weird, but the good kind, y'know?"

"You're insane," Raven said flatly.

"Certifiably! Anyways, about that fight?"

"Ha! If a pair of Beacon students wish to challenge me out of some misguided notion of reward from Ozpin of all people, who am I to dissuade you. If you win, I'll speak to Ozpin. When I win, you give me your weapons, your clothes, and I let you walk with your life."

"Deal," Matt answered instantly. "Oi, Lance. Budge off."

The black-haired boy glanced up from his magazine to take in the situation, before shrugging and taking several steps backward, joining the circle of bandits that surrounded Matt. "Have fun," he added, as he stepped away.

"Thanks." Matt also stepped back, leaving space in the now-expanding circle for Raven to stand in. Reaching up, he took hold of Sapphire Saint's handle, and, with an exaggerated motion, swung the massive blade off of his back to impale it into the ground.

Across the circle from him, Raven didn't even pause in her advance, which already made her a more worthy opponent than anyone else Matt had fought. They all insisted on being shocked and surprised at the simple things Matt did. Raven? Not so much.

Raising the blade from the dirt, Matt pointed it at Raven. "Whenever you're ready."

-]l[-

Ruby dashed through the corridors with an unrivaled urgency. If any of her friends from Signal saw how serious she was right now they probably wouldn't believe it to be the same 'nice quirky girl', as Jaune put it, that they knew for procrastinating homework and stealing extra cookies at lunch.

Getting within two seconds of dying does that to someone. Makes them more serious.

She had a mission, and alongside that, she had a plan.

Well, it was a work in progress plan.

Step 1: find her team, and hopefully also find Crescent Rose.

Step 2: stop whatever the White Fang is up to.

Step 3: ?

Step 4: Cookies

After six seconds of running, Ruby came to a halt. In the past tenth of a minute she had covered several hundred feet, gone through three dozen different corridors, and maintained use of her Semblance for longer than ever before.

Again, almost dying did that to you.

She leant up against the closest wall, wincing at the cold metal, and caught her breath. As she did so, she heard explosions in the distance. Well, no reason for the White Fang to be blowing things up in their secret base, she reasoned, so the plan stayed the same as all the other times she was separated from her sister:

Follow the explosions.

She traversed the next corridors quickly and quietly, sans-Semblance. It wasn't until the fifth turn that she came across her first White Fang grunt. Sneaking up behind him wasn't hard given all the noise—which now included the stomping of footsteps as people ran through corridors worryingly close to Ruby—and she was able to knock him out with a high-speed chop to the back of the neck, courtesy of her Semblance applied to her arm. As the guard crumpled, Ruby caught him and lowered him to the ground carefully before moving on.

After another minute of travel, Ruby came across a closed door which was shaking in its frame. Beyond it, she could hear explosions, shouting, and gunfire.

"This is it," she muttered to herself, before pushing open the door.

Beyond the small opening was a massive room. It was rather more open that it probably should be, thanks to the holes in the ceiling, and filled to the brim with White Fang soldiers, all firing toward the same place. Ruby made for a nearby pile of rubble and began climbing to get a better view of the area, as she was too short to see quite what was happening at the far end—and more importantly, where she needed to run to.

After reaching the top of the rubble some five feet up, Ruby had less than three seconds before a voice nearby yelled out a warning about her location, but that was all the time she needed.

On the far end of the room, some three hundred feet away, a group of four was pushing their way through the White Fang men, leaving their bodies scattered behind like petals in the wind. And, just as Ruby had suspected, it was her team and Doctor Oobleck.

She glanced to her side at the soldier who had yelled at her just as he raised his gun towards her.

And then she was gone.

A trail of rose petals was left throughout the room, spiralling its way across the battlefield until it ended up right behind Yang Xiao Long.

Then Ruby was there.

"Hey, Yang," she murmured.

"Ruby!" came the cry in return, swiftly followed by a bone-crushing hug. "You're safe!"

Reunions were quick due to the battle raging all around them, and soon Ruby was reunited with Crescent Rose. Unfolding it, Ruby stepped up next to her partner.

"They're planning something," Ruby said, firing off a shot. "I'm not sure what. But it sounded bad. They're in a hurry, and I think I heard something about a train."

"I may have an idea, Ms. Rose," Doctor Oobleck announced suddenly. "Tell me, young ladies. Have any of you heard of the Mountain Glenn Project?"

-]l[-

Seeing no reason to delay his loot-getting, Matt made the first move. Bringing Sapphire Saint back toward his body, he kicked off the ground and launched himself into a spin, the massive blade of Sapphire Saint like a cyclone as he flew through the air at Raven.

To her credit, she blocked the first attack with relative ease, catching Sapphire Saint's blade with her own blade—a katana, or odachi, or whatever—held in one hand. Surprising, and the sign of some sort of gimmick. No one else had been able to stand up to Matt in sheer strength in this world so far, and he doubted graduating college would change that.

Eh, whatever. While he had been thinking, Raven had kicked his sword into the dirt and was in the process of trying to cut his face up, the deep purple blade of her sword whipping through the air faster than most could process.

Matt was not 'most'.

The choice between taking Sapphire Saint and risking a cut on his face versus leaving the blade and dodging safely was an easy one, and Matt yanked his sword free with a single hand, throwing it upward and into the way of Raven's attack in a spin. As the blue blade spiralled up, Matt leapt backward and held his hand out, two fingers pointed toward Raven. A few inches forward from his hand appeared a stylized red circle—Matt's magic circle.

"What the hell is that?" Raven asked.

Matt smirked, and the magic circle disappeared.

In the air behind Raven, a large white semi-transparent circle appeared. Writing in a language Matt didn't know filled the space within the circle, before it flashed a bright white and a massive blade erupted from the center, traveling through several more similarly-designed circles and building up speed each time until it was traveling faster than a bullet. And it was much more dangerous than a bullet.

Credit where credit was due, Raven reacted nearly immediately to the attack from her blind spot. She was moving fast enough to blur slightly as she ducked out of the way of Seiken's way as the attack traveled the few feet between its spawnpoint and Raven. More importantly, Raven didn't stop moving once she was out of the immediate line of fire, no, she moved another dozen feet away until she was just a few feet away from the encircling wall of bandits.

Good choice from her, given how the resulting crater from Seiken landing was nearly a dozen feet across itself.

Nodding in respect to the woman, Matt summoned yet another magic circle as he made his way to where Sapphire Saint had landed. Halfway between Matt and Raven, a large grey bullet appeared, it's red-painted tip flying straight toward Raven through rocket-power.

And by large, Matt really meant that it was larger across than his torso. Possibly taller too.

Raven stared in what was probably shock—Matt was becoming adept at recognizing the expression from every time he or his friends did anything—before sheathing her blade.

Giving up? No. That's good, Matt knew Raven was too good to be surprised by something as mundane as summoning a giant bullet.

When the bullet was just a couple feet away, Raven took a step forward, drawing her sword in the same motion, performing iaijutsu and slicing the bullet down the middle. Her attack didn't stop there, and Matt was forced to divert his attention from watching the explosions on either side of Raven to instead block her oncoming attack: a wave of ice that rushed toward him across the ground.

Stabbing Sapphire Saint into the ground in front of him, Matt used another of his skills, and a large rock spike erupted from the ground in the way of the ice. It wasn't rock alone, though, as it was accompanied by a large wave of water that crashed on the ice to send both droplets of water and shards of ice throughout the clearing.

"Your Semblance is bullshit," Raven said, straightening from her pose and pointing her sword at Matt.

"Your sword is blue now," Matt observed in return. "Also, not my Semblance."

"The fuck is Ozpin feeding you kids these days?"

"Dunno. The chefs went on strike not too long ago, so not all that much. Anyways, you're pretty good."

Raven paused at his compliment. "Thank you. For a student… you're strong."

"Thanks! Now, I think I'm going to take this fight a bit more seriously." Focusing briefly, Matt held his sword out in front of him as he channelled his magic. Floating in the air behind him, a set of seven golden circles began forming.

Just as the tip of a blade began poking out of the first golden circle, Raven suddenly froze, and raised a hand. Matt paused his imminent attack and tilted his head in confusion. "What?"

"I need to leave, right now." Raven didn't wait for an answer, simply turning around. She swiped her blade through the air and… opened a portal, Matt supposed. Cool!

Then she stepped through the red swirling portal and was gone.

"Did… did she just ditch the fight?" Matt asked, stabbing Sapphire Saint into the dirt and turning to look at the crowd. "Seriously? What the hell could be more important than getting to fight me?"

"Literally anything."

"Shut up, Lance. No one asked you."

-]l[-

Yang flew across the train car, letting out an involuntary grunt from the force of the hit. She flipped as she flew and fired Ember Celica into the air to slow her momentum, allowing her to land on her feet. Immediately she fired off a pair of shots at her opponent, hoping to slow his advance, but the masked man caught them both on his red blade without slowing his steps.

To her side, Ruby laid unconscious after receiving a particularly vicious kick to the head from their other opponent, a grey-haired, grey-wearing teenager. Weiss and Blake were doing their best to hold him off, but things weren't going too well for them either.

And of course, that left Yang with the full-fledged Huntsman to deal with. Probably shoulda been the doc's job, but they lost him three cars back to some creep in a trenchcoat.

Her opponent's stark black suit cut a striking image as he walked across the train car toward her, but she didn't pay it too much attention, instead thinking wildly for any way she could turn this fight around.

After a moment, all she could come up with was to hit the man harder. It was all she was good at, really.

With a flash of light and flare of heat, Yang's hair ignited via her Semblance, and she knew her eyes had just shifted to red as well. She glared at the man and growled, "Just you and me, bud."

Then she was off. A pair of shots from Ember Celica propelled her into his guard and Yang fired off a quick punch at his knee. He caught the strike with his sheath and retaliated, but she had already ducked out of the way of his katana slash.

Using her second gauntlet to launch her into the air with recoil, Yang twisted on her axis and threw a two-legged kick toward his masked face. Surprisingly enough, it landed, sending the man skidding a few feet away.

"Yang!" Blake called from the other side of the car. "Are you all right?"

"Just peachy!" she shouted back, taking the chance to check the ammo in Ember Celica.

Across from her, her opponent paused in regaining his feet, and his face twisted into a scowl. "You… you took her away from me!"

"The hell are you talking about?"

He spat on the floor. "Of course she didn't tell you. Enough with this farce. I'll start with you."

Yang frowned. Looked like that break wasn't going to last very long after all. "Weiss…" she yelled, taking in the other fight. "Boost me!"

Hoping that Blake would be able to handle their opponent for the few seconds it would take to help, Weiss, who had just been knocked back by a heavy kick, nodded in understanding and stabbed Myrtenaster into the ground, its chamber cycling quickly. A moment later, a white clock spun into existence beneath Yang, numerals lining the inside.

Yang let out a savage grin as she prepared to attack. Beneath her was Weiss' time dilation glyph, and, while Yang's own perception of time seemed to be the same, if she looked closely, everyone else in the train car was noticeably slowing down. Any moment now and the effect would be at its strongest—

—Now!

Yang kicked off the ground, and fired Ember Celica twice in the time it took for her to leave the ground. A quarter of a second had passed, and already Yang was moving faster than anyone else in the car. Another half second, and Yang was halfway to her opponent. She couldn't see his eyes through his mask, but his body language made it clear that he was surprised by her sudden burst of speed. Nonetheless he was bringing his sword up as if to block Yang's attack.

Not that it would work—Yang would punch right through that red blade!

Her fists, encased by Ember Celica, met the flat of his blade with a loud crash, and—it didn't budge? Yang roared a challenge in response, but noise was no match for her failure, and Yang recognized that fact. Firing off her gauntlets one last time, she threw herself back, and—why was her opponent glowing red?

"Thanks for that," he growled, taking three steps back and settling into a runner's stance. Then he moved, dashing toward Yang just as fast as she had attacked him. And that was just too fast for Yang to do much more than recognize that she could do literally nothing. Distantly, she heard Blake shout out her name, and she managed a weak grin in response as the man drew closer. She closed her eyes, unwilling to watch any more.

Then there was a clash of metal, flash of sparks, the sound of boots settling on a ceramic floor, and Yang realized that she had been saved. Opening her eyes, she took in the black skirt immediately in front of her. Raising her gaze, there was a black and red shirt, and long black hair.

"Who—Raven?" Yang asked.

The woman scoffed and ignored her. Further ahead of Yang and her—mom, savior—the White Fang Huntsman had retreated a fair distance and also had stopped glowing. The woman held a long, blood-red katana in her hand, mirroring Yang's opponent.

What didn't mirror her opponent was when her savior's blade ignited in flames. "Go help out your friends," she ordered Yang. Her voice was…familiar. It reminded her of something long-forgotten. And it reaffirmed her suspicions.

"All right." She would deal with her mom later. For now, Yang pushed herself off the ground, stumbling slightly as the train hit a lurch, and dashed across the car until she stood side-by-side with Blake. "Let's do this, Partner."

Blake gave a small smile. "Yes. Let's."

-]l[-

"So uh… Do we just wait here until she comes back? Will she come back?" Matt and Lance sat side-by-side in the dirt, with the bandits still surrounding them—albeit looking very nervous. That probably had something to do with the fight they had just witnessed between their leader and this Beacon student.

"I guess," Lance answered. "She still hasn't given us an answer. I hope it won't be too long, though. I have things I need to do, y'know."

"Like what."

"Not be near you."

-]l[-

Adam was fighting for his life, and he was losing. Whoever this woman in a Grimm mask was, she was good—worryingly good.

Every strike of Adam's that would have landed against the students, or hell, even against most graduated Huntsman, the woman caught with ease. The difference in power between him and her was the same, no, greater than that between him and the girl she had saved.

A turn of good fortune for him, as Adam's Semblance was practically built around defeating those stronger than him.

He caught another one of her strikes on Wilt, bracing his sword with his offhand, and took a moment to gauge his stored power. Not enough. Not nearly enough. One more solid hit, and he could do it, though.

"Tch," Adam spat at the situation, ducking under another of the woman's strikes, only to be caught in the chest by a palm strike and thrown back several feet. All he could really do here was stall—either until Black finished with his prey on the other side of the car, his own attack was charged, or Tyrian finished… whatever it was he was doing.

Or, Adam supposed, the train car hit Vale and they all died in a fiery explosion brought about by the remainder of the dust from Torchwick's heists.

He'd just have to hope the fight didn't last that long. He had things to do, people to prove wrong, equality to claim. Dying early wouldn't serve his plans very well at all.

Across the car from him, the woman had sheathed her sword for the third time this fight. This time, when she drew it, the telescoping blade was a pale white color—Wind Dust. It had taken until she had drawn her Fire Dust blade for Adam to realize just how her sword worked, but now it was simply a matter of keeping a close eye on the color of her blade to realize the type of Dust in use. That and staying far enough ahead of her to not be sliced in the moments before he could identify the blade.

Carefully controlling his urge to activate his own Dust-infused blade, Adam reached down to rest a hand on Blush, raising it off his hip and taking a hold of the trigger mechanism–cum-handle. The moment the woman moved, he flicked Blush up and fired off two shots, forcing her to weave between them, giving Adam just the extra second he needed to ready his Semblance.

Her blade blurred white, nearly-visible wind streaking off it near the tip and she spun into a rapid series of blows. Adam did his best to block them where he could, but even with the absorption from his Semblance he was pushed back until his back was against the wall. Startled, he was unable to block the final of her slices, and took a vicious cut to his chest, the blade leaving a deep wound on his abdomen, unable to be blocked by his Aura due to him channeling it all to his Semblance.

Adam grunted at the pain, stumbling to the side and still leaning on the wall. Just a few feet away, and the woman had already replaced her blade with one of deep green. That was her mistake. She shouldn't have given Adam time to steady himself after landing that blow.

Adam's Semblance had three traits. The first and most important allowed him to absorb energy with whatever he held in his hands after focusing his Aura into it for a few moments. It was with that stored energy that allowed him use of the other two traits.

The first of these was that he could channel that energy back into his body, allowing him a form of afterimage similar to Blake's clones, albeit much shorter lasting. These afterimages were physical, and greatly increased the amount of power Adam could project in a fight, albeit for just a moment.

Adam pushed himself off the wall with Blush, before transforming it into its shotgun form and firing off a shot at the masked woman. As he did so, he drew the energy stored in Blush back into his body. Then he moved. He ducked under the first of the woman's strikes, barely noting the leaves that trailed behind it, and activated his Semblance.

His first strike came at the woman from her side, forcing her to block it with her sheath. At the exact same time, Wilt, now trailing fire, came down on her other side, only to be met with the flat of her green blade.

And then, and only then, did Adam activate the final part of his Semblance.

As both of his afterimages occupied the woman's weapons, Adam pushed as much of his Aura as he safely could into Wilt, and cut the blade down toward the woman. The moment the tip of his sword and her chest were in line, he released all of the stored energy within the sword and fired it off in a single crescent wave toward his opponent.

For just a moment, the world was painted with red, black, and white. Everything seemed to freeze, the sheer energy of the attack drawing the attention of everyone in the car.

Then time unfroze. The returning energy of dozens of the woman's own brutally strong attacks flew through the air, a solid red wave of energy that ripped through the air.

And then somehow, despite the fact that both of her arms should've been tied up by two simultaneous attacks, and that this was the single strongest attack Adam had released in over a year.

She blocked it.

But not without cost. She caught the wave with a crossblock of her sword and sheath, but the energy of his attack was still enough to blow her easily through the back of the train car and into the open air.

Adam barely had time to catch sight of Tyrian tackling the woman mid-air before he collapsed against the wall, exhausted. He took a moment to focus his Aura around the wound in his chest, and then he forced himself back off the wall. His wounds were of no issue when compared to the risk of Blake's team stopping the train.

-]l[-

"My Bullhead is leaving now, General. I'll speak to you once I arrive."

"Understood Winter. Good luck."

James removed his hand from his earpiece and disconnected the call to his subordinate and friend. Standing from the park bench he had been sitting on, James considered the situation.

Things were going well. Atlas' fleet had arrived a few weeks earlier, and the servicemen were settling into Vale nicely; Ozpin, despite his general habit of saying not enough and leaving more mysteries than James would like, had become enjoyably more talkative; and, while Winter was on a mission to help out one of Oz's teams, James trusted that the Ace-Ops had things well in hand back in Atlas.

All in all, James was feeling pretty good about the upcoming Vytal Festival, and, beyond that, the long term war against the Grimm.

That was when the ground beneath his feet exploded in an eruption of fire, ice, and everything in between.

-]l[-

(Omake after AN)

Ah man. Well, first things first. As of the posting of this chapter, I will be leaving for a summer camp for about 3 weeks, and will not be able to see nor respond to any feedback on this chapter. Once I return to having reception, I'll do my best to get back to everyone who left a comment or review.

With that news out of the way, let's talk about this chapter. First, it was supposed to be 2-4K words longer, but then I ran out of time to write and had to end the chapter here to get it out before I left. That means there's a not insubstantial amount of Chapter 10 written already, so hope is that it doesn't take too long to get out once I return. Sometime in mid-August, I hope.

In terms of general chapter content, I realize I'm sidelining the main characters of the story a bit, which is a Bad Thing, but hey, fuck it. This is really more of an ensemble cast which I labeled a crossover 'cause I'm insecure and didn't want to write a pure RWBY fic.

(That comes later)

Anyways, next chapter has a clever title, and covers the events of Breach, and maybe more things if I feel like it. Who really knows anymore.

Also, how the fuck does Moonslice (Adam's Semblance) even work? How does any of what we see in the Black trailer and V3 suddenly mean he can create afterimages? I did my best the BS up an answer here, but like seriously.

In unrelated news, I was browsing the RWBY wiki earlier and learned that there is a RWBY and Justice League crossover. Why? Also, I guess now I can have Clark Kent as a vaguely canon character if I really wanted to. Really, any wiki browsing is just making me question decisions—like how Ironwood's Semblance exists and is stupid.

Not sure about a few parts of this chapter—namely Salem's intro and Adam's interrogating of Ruby, but I wanted to get this out instead of procrastinating another month, so I hope they're not that bad.

Anyways, that's all I have for ya'll today. Favorite, follow, leave feedback, write a Reddit post about how this RWBY crossover fic is terrible, do whatever you feel like doing.

-]l[-

Food Shortage

(Inspired by Silver by ImYoshi, I think)

"Are they still on strike?" Yang asked, leaning back on the cafeteria bench. The 'they' she was referring to was, of course, the cafeteria staff. Following the disastrous food fight just a few days previous, almost all of the cooks had gone on strike, citing 'If you don't enjoy our food, why should we make it' as their reason for departure.

The result was that all of Beacon had been left eating cereals and dried or packaged food for the past three days.

All of Beacon, that is, except for team MALN.

The five-person team had commandeered their own table on the cafeteria and had covered it with piles upon piles of food and drink.

And when Yang said 'piles upon piles', she meant that when she went up and asked Lance how much soda they had he informed her that they had 'more than six hundred bottles of cola'. And that wasn't even mentioning the beer, energy drinks, fruit juice (only orange, oddly enough), or coffee. All together, the five of them had enough food to feed a small army.

So naturally Lance had set it up as a distribution center.

Given the student population's distaste for the dry cereals that were being served, such a plan should have worked out wonderfully. Team MALN could offer food at a markup, and the students—too lazy to head into Vale and buy their own—would flock to the table like ants to a spilled Dr. Piper.

There was only one issue with that plan. The fact was that the markup that team MALN chose wasn't exactly reasonable.

"Ten hamburgers left—only ten-thousand Lien each!"

Yang scoffed at Matt's call. There had been ten hamburgers left for the past three days- nobody had bought a single item from the store-not at the absolutely insane markup they were being sold at. For the price of that hamburger that Matt was selling, Yang could go into Vale and buy over five hundred at a regular price.

Granted, the hamburgers were the fifth most expensive item on team MALN's 'menu', with only a slice of pizza, box of fries, single pepper, and cup of espresso costing more, but even the cheap items like a slice of pumpkin were still sold at nearly a 500% markup.

And someone had still bought one!

Some second-year student had walked up yesterday, handed Lance a dozen Lien cards, grabbed a pumpkin, and just taken a bite of it. And then, a few minutes later after she had finished it, she just muttered something about it being 'pretty average' and then walked off?

Even with all of that, the worst part was that Ruby of all people had actually bought some of the food! Ruby, her cute little sister, had spent a good 70% of her monthly allowance on buying a single watermelon. And she refused to tell Yang why.

Agh. Idiots, the lot of them.