Troll in Reviews

As has been noted, there is a troll in reviews spamming guest reviews and trying to frame people by writing their name in the name slot. Just ignore it. It's not worth the effort of paying attention to and I'm only writing this message so people are aware.

He's also pretending to be me by writing my name in guest review slots. I would only ever review something from this (logged-in) account.

Cover Art: Mystery White Flame

Chapter 55

"Fall back! Fall back to the next line! Huntsmen hold the Grimm back!"

The call didn't come from General Ironwood but was transmitted by loudspeakers set up around the city. Jaune slammed his shield forward and charged at the closest Grimm. His feet dug down, struggling to push the hulking form back as a soldier shouldered his rifle and backed away, squeezing off a few shots to try and support him.

"Sir!" the soldier barked. "Your orders?"

"Your orders are to find someone more capable than me of giving you orders!" Jaune growled when the man looked confused, as if he couldn't think of anyone better suited. "Fall back. Do what the guy on the speakers is saying!"

"Yes sir! It's been an honour, sir!"

"Wait, what? I'm not sacrificing myself and you're not dying! Don't say something so- Oi! Gah." Jaune snarled at the Ursa trying to push him down. "Don't say something so dramatic, sheesh. I'm not dying to this." He ducked a claw. "I think. Kind of embarrassing if I did. I mean, I'm not sure what Grimm it is acceptable to die to. Maybe a Goliath…?"

The Ursa roared and swiped for his head.

"Oh. Sorry. Didn't mean to offend you or anything. It's not you – it's me."

The soldier was already retreating, keeping to an orderly run instead of a blind panic. The same took place down the line, students and adult huntsmen alike pushing forward to kill, distract or simply engage the Grimm while the soldiers fell back again – this time to the last line of ground defence, the location of the tanks and vehicles providing artillery support.

If there was one good thing to say it was that once he was in the thick of the fighting, no one expected him to make the big decisions Ironwood had to. Or maybe they did, but they couldn't find him because he was on the front lines.

Responsible? No. Satisfying? Yes.

A hand planted down on his back and pushed over, pink flickering in his peripheral vision before Neo appeared perched with one foot atop his shield and one foot on his back, stabbing over the top and into the Ursa's throat. Mr Stabby cut deep, almost as deep as her heels on his spine.

It wasn't a fetish, he would later swear.

Pushing the already dying Ursa back, Neo hopped off him and offered a cheeky smile.

"I was about to take him down."

Her eyebrow rose.

"It was going to be epic. I was gonna behead it in one swing."

The corner of her mouth twitched.

"You're just jealous because you can't reach its neck."

And just like that, her grin was wiped away. Neo snorted and flounced off to murder something, leaving Jaune the petty victor. And I don't regret a single moment. Heading the other way, he rushed to help Blake with her opponent.

He needn't have. By the time he'd reached her, she'd already cut the Beowolf down. Up and down the line, the members of Team RWBY were holding their own, along with Ozpin – or maybe even Oscar – who was having no problem pushing back a Boarbatusk.

"Do you need help?" he asked pointlessly.

"No Professor, I'm fine."

"Good. Er. Good job. Fall back after the soldiers then, and let's get ready for a proper fight." Raising his voice, he shouted, "Fall back slowly! Look after one another!"

Calling their defence a line was probably inaccurate. It was actually a circle, or maybe a square. The central point where Atlas had set up its final stand – and even that was misleading, the final stand being on the floating portions of the city – was a large, open area not quite in the centre of the city. With so much heavy ordinance and tanks to place, they needed space, not tactical importance.

The students began to fall back on his command. The professional huntsmen did as well but slower, taking the brunt of the attack so the students could retreat, and only then doing the same themselves. As a so-called professional himself, that meant he had to stay as well or damage Beacon's reputation.

Come on…

Swing with Crocea Mors, push the shield up. Slide back. Stab. Hack. All those fancy swordplay montages he'd watched as a child meant nothing to the Grimm. There were no flourishes or pirouettes, no gentle slashes across a throat that would send a foe tumbling to the floor. Grimm were hulking masses of muscle and bone, which meant you had to hack, slash and grind them down like a feudal lumberjack.

And he'd wondered at first why most people had such heavy-duty weapons like Ruby, Nora and Cardin. The answer was obvious now. Except for why and how Ren got away with tiny knives against huge monsters.

Whoo. Is all the adrenaline going to my head or something? I feel kind of scatter brained right now…

He had the presence of mind to check himself for blood or an unnoticed injury as the huntsmen line slowly backed away. It would be just his luck to not realise he was bleeding to death. Luckily, his aura was holding firm at around seventy per cent and there were no serious injuries to speak of, just a few cuts and bruises.

Shells whistled overhead and Jaune brought his shield up, gritting his teeth a second before they landed. Grimm were torn apart by vast explosions, granting them a brief moment to break formation and run. Grabbing Neo and yanking her up over his shoulder, he hurried back to the lines, her legs kicking angrily in front of him.

Up ahead, the next and last fortified line appeared before him, Atlas soldiers resting their guns atop the barricade. "Fire!" someone shouted. Gunshots whizzed by overhead, scything down the Grimm behind as yet another gun battle ensued, this time with no expenses spared. Bombs rained, grenades were thrown, and the tanks were deafening.

"Arc!" General Ironwood roared. For once it wasn't with fury but just because he wouldn't have been heard otherwise.

Jaune pushed forward, drawing the man's attention, and earning a huge scowl. That might have had something to do with Neo's butt being in Ironwood's face. He put the girl down, let her slap him upside the head and flounce away, then turned to address Ironwood. "You wanted me?"

"We're running out of time, Arc. Is she ready?"

"Glynda and Cinder have been training her as best they can. It's going to take time."

"We don't have time! Is she ready?"

"No." He saw Ironwood's teeth gnash. "But I think she can at least do something. Throw some tornados or lightning around. Glynda says she's indiscriminate due to lack of control. If you don't mind the property damage…"

"I'll take it. Come."

Ironwood led him through the last camp, up past the tanks and the AA onto a building in the centre that had been commandeered and turned into a command post. Soldiers saluted as they came, more than a few showing him respect he really didn't deserve. From the rooftop, they had a decent view over the battlefield, even the city itself. Its streets were teeming with Grimm.

"All the Grimm are within the city now," Ironwood said. "The Ace-Ops stand ready with the air force to cover any that seek to escape." The battleships couldn't fire on the city for obvious reasons. "We have them corralled into narrow streets and chokepoints. Now is the perfect time to sweep them all up. We won't drive them from the city. We shall annihilate them completely and ensure every citizen of Atlas rests easy."

Jaune let out a long breath. "I'll talk to Glynda."

"Do so." Ironwood handed him his own scroll. "It's now or never. I have Winter speaking to the Winter Maiden. Between the two of them, they should be enough, even if they're inexperienced. So long as they can throw their power in the right direction, it'll do."

Jaune dialled in Glynda's number and held the device close to his ear. The noise would be too much to hear anything otherwise. It took only a single ring to be answered. Everyone was tense, and Glynda providing last minute instruction to Pyrrha was even more so for being out the action.

"I'm here." she said. "What's the situation?"

"We've fallen back to the final line. Ironwood wants Pyrrha out here now."

"She isn't ready!"

"I am ready!" he heard Pyrrha argue. "I can do this."

"You have no stamina. You cannot pace yourself an-"

"Glynda." He cut her off, pit opening in his stomach. "We're not going to have much of a chance other than this. Once we're all up top, the Grimm will find a way to deal with us and then we'll be in trouble. Pyrrha doesn't have to wade in alone. If she can just throw attacks in the right direction, you and I can keep her safe."

He hoped so, and Ironwood would have a vested interest in protecting her as well. The General was nodding silently, confirming it as best he could. Anything to have Pyrrha down and fighting with them instead of training up top.

"Miss Goodwitch, I have to fight," Pyrrha said.

"She isn't ready."

"Were any of us?" he asked. "I certainly wasn't."

"Pyrrha isn't you!"

"No. She's better than me, and probably more prepared for this then I ever was." He listened to Pyrrha continue to try and convince Glynda she was ready. "Get her a hood and a cloak," he ordered. "We want her identity as the maiden kept secret. If anyone asks, we'll say it's a powerful Semblance."

"Yes headmaster. I'll have her brought down."

The scroll hung and Ironwood took it back with a smile and a respectful nod. "We will not allow harm to come to her," he promised. "And her identity will remain a secret in my reports. Atlas will not forget this. We may have fought in the past, Arc, but for now we are allies." Ironwood held out his hand. His human hand.

Jaune took it, and for once didn't feel his hand being crushed to a bloody pulp.

/-/

Pyrrha was ashen faced but determined. He could see it in her every movement. Where she'd failed to stop Cinder in the attack on Beacon, she was now ready to succeed a second time as the fall maiden she was intended to be. Jaune was proud to see her team stood around her, Nora and Ren guarding and Velvet with a hand on Pyrrha's shoulder.

From what he understood, Amber had always been alone with her power, whether that be by choice, loss or some other unfortunate circumstances. He was pleased to see Pyrrha wouldn't face that same fate.

The hood and cloak she wore didn't really do all that much to hide her. You couldn't tell who she was unless you were close, but a cursory look up of her teammates would provide answers. Then again, no one was really focused on them.

"I can do this, sir," she told him. "I'm ready.

"Miss Nikos is not ready," Glynda chided, "But she is perhaps as ready as she can be. I'd caution against wandering too far from the encampment." She addressed both him and Ironwood, saying, "She has a tendency to expend all her energy quickly and falter, even pass out."

"I shall have a team tasked to do nothing but monitor her," he promised. "If she falls, they will extricate her before any harm comes to her. Additionally, she need not travel far. The Grimm are closing in all around us. She will be given a highway, a direction and jurisdiction to use as much force as she wishes. Placing herself in danger is not necessary."

Glynda looked relieved, as did Team RVNN.

"The plan is simple," he continued. "We have remote mines in locations around our current position." Ironwood pointed, signalling several buildings. "These will bring those buildings down to create a funnel. Grimm are mindless and will take the path of least resistance if it means reaching their prey. Rather than waste time climbing, they'll swarm around, pouring into four chokepoints, four direct routes to our defences."

The camp's position suddenly made a lot more sense. As Ironwood pointed, Jaune noticed they were in a crossroads of a large road. He hadn't thought it odd before because of course they needed flat ground for the tanks, so a road made sense. Now, however, the potential for funnelling the Grimm was obvious.

"The maidens shall take two of those each," he said. "The one they do not start with will receive artillery support – the last of our ammunition – delay the Grimm until the maidens can finish with the first two and move over."

"Maidens?" Pyrrha asked. "Plural?"

"It is a well-kept secret, but we have the Winter Maiden here," Ironwood boasted. It wasn't a secret, nor was it well-kept. Jaune supposed it may have been to the average person. "Winter Schnee is speaking to her now. She's in advanced old age and has little time left to live, hence why she hasn't been involved in the battle thus far."

"Oh." Pyrrha's eyes drooped. "I would have liked to meet her."

In a rare show of emotion, Ironwood closed his eyes. "I apologise. Had I thought, I might have realised a new maiden would appreciate the wisdom of an older one. I'm sorry the chance was not afforded to you. Our main concern was her security."

"No. I understand."

"Thank you." He opened his eyes and was back to business. "Miss Nikos will take the north and the east. Winter shall take south and west when she arrives. There's no need to leave the barricade. Use whatever you have and whatever you can. Atlas will cover all damages. Go." He waved them away. "Get ready. You will not be able to miss the signal."

Jaune waited for General Ironwood to leave before approaching Pyrrha. Ren and Nora made way for him without being asked, allowing him to peer into her hood. Her eyes sparkled green, nervous yet determined, eager yet afraid. Afraid to fail. Afraid to have everyone rely on her and to not be good enough. A pain he knew all too well.

"I'm okay, sir. I can do this."

Could she? He knew the same doubt he felt every day had to be running through her, and yet he'd have felt no better for having someone point it out. It was silly, but there were times he had to hold tight to the lies and embrace them.

"I know you can." He grasped her shoulder. "Because you're Pyrrha Nikos."

Her lips quirked bitterly. "Invincible Girl?"

"No. Student of Beacon. Huntress."

Pyrrha's smile grew honest, her eyes firming. They flickered gold for a second as she embraced her power. Immediately, the coattails of her cloak began to flutter in a breeze that had until that moment not existed.

"Don't think of the numbers or the weight of the task," Glynda told her. "Your job is simple. All you need do is focus your attacks down the road. That's all. Don't think how many Grimm there are. It doesn't matter. There is only the one road."

"One road. One big attack. I… I can do that."

The Grimm were already at the barricade. Yang punched one back and blew a hole in its head with Ember Celica. Ruby slipped under her arm and sliced up at another, cutting it from waist to shoulder in one blow. Soldiers fired, tanks boomed, and huntsmen hewed their foes down. Still, Ironwood held back, waiting for the most Grimm possible to funnel into the four major roads. Or waiting perhaps for Winter to arrive.

"General Ironwood!" a soldier screamed. "Grimm! Grimm are coming from the ocean!"

"WHAT!?"

All eyes turned to the west, out toward the open sea. The Grimm could not be seen but the massive spray of surf could – a mass of white dotted with black specks. Grimm. Amphibian Grimm who had dodged the Ace-Ops by coming around to the coast.

"Get the battleships out there!" Ironwood roared. "Don't let them land! I want them-"

The wave of approaching Grimm buckled suddenly as a large plume of water shot up, as though an explosion had struck the waves and imploded underwater. The Grimm were thrown into disarray. Soon after, sleek vessels cut across the water toward them, tracer fire from weaponry cutting into the monsters who were still in the water.

"Who?" Ironwood gasped. "Vale? Mistral?"

"It's…" A soldier holding a pair of binoculars rubbed his eyes and looked again. "It's Menagerie…?"

His confusion was warranted. Menagerie lacked an army, so it obviously lacked a navy – but it did have fishing vessels aplenty, plus the resources of the White Fang. No one had ever seen Menagerie go to war however, not since the faunus wars.

"Menagerie. How?"

"I don't know, General, but they're flying another flag too. It's… Beacon…?"

Jinn, I could kiss you! Then, because she'd know he had just thought that. Metaphorically, I mean. You know – oh, who am I kidding. You're the Spirit of Knowledge. Of course you know what I mean. Good job.

Menagerie, using the White Fang's weaponry and ships, were dealing with the Grimm out to sea. General Ironwood had questions, he could tell, but a more pressing matter took his attention. Frost crept over the outpost, reaching out from a singular cloaked figure that had fallen to one knee but now rose, eyes shining gold from under her hood.

It's happened, Jaune thought. The winter maiden has died.

"Winter!" Ironwood had seen it as well and bellowed in victory. "Take the South and the West roads! Now! Blow the charges!"

Winter nodded and hurried off, great gouts of frozen air pouring from her hands, more rising beneath to lift her feet off the floor in an incredible display of control, the likes of which Pyrrha could only hope to emulate.

Explosions rocked the city. Large buildings tumbled, four to six in total, crashing down at the diagonal points of their encampment, carefully planted to fall outward and crush the Grimm. Smoke billowed up and the noise was deafening. Jaune and Pyrrha hit the ground, him holding onto her and Pyrrha shielding her eyes.

"The Grimm are streaming through!" Glynda warned. "Those that survived."

They were indeed. Like water, they poured toward the barricades, but much like water they flowed around the now inaccessible terrain, ignoring it in favour of the open and smooth path the main roads provided. What had already been a mass of Grimm became a teeming throng pushed shoulder to shoulder, back to chest. Tens of thousands piled into a narrow corridor of asphalt.

"Now's your chance!" Jaune shouted. "One attack. One big attack. I know you can do it!"

Pyrrha nodded, stood and threw both hands in front of her. "Brace me!"

Jaune slammed into her back. Velvet did the same beside him, both of them digging their feet back and pressing their shoulders into hers, trusting there was a purpose. Velvet seemed to know what that was.

Eyes flaming and fire and wind flickering to life around her, Pyrrha opened her mouth and screamed – the sound immediately followed by the howling scream of a hurricane that blasted from her hands, tinted with flame.

The force of it would have flung her back if not for Velvet and him. Jaune gritted his teeth and pushed back, fighting to keep Pyrrha upright. He couldn't see that was happening, but he could hear it. The howling wind, the screeching Grimm and the fire that crackled and burned all around him.

Also the distant cries of shocked soldiers and huntsmen witnessing what he hoped was untold devastation of the Grimm horde.

When Cinder had used the power, she had the control to use varied attacks, fly and even alternate between fire and wind. Pyrrha had none of that. Be it time, experience or just desperation, she was less in control and more throwing the power outward. Pyrrha was a turret hurling magical death at the enemy where Cinder had been a surgical knife.

It wouldn't matter. They didn't need control, only power.

Pyrrha's heels slid back. They did too. The sheer force pushed Velvet and him and forced them to dig their feet in harder, hunching low to keep her upright lest the attack spiral up into the open air. Come on, he hissed, digging into every ounce of strength. I can do this. This isn't going to fail because I was too weak to hold her up!

He worked his hands to Pyrrha's shoulders and leaned into her, pressing his chest into her back. It let him see over her shoulder for an instant, to witness the inferno raging over the Grimm, wind filled with fire splashing down the street, licking up the bodies of the Grimm and hurtling on and on, bouncing around in the city like a tornado turned sideways and twisting out of control.

Semblances could achieve incredible things, but this was the first time he'd really understood the difference between them and a maiden. Cinder had always been so subtle with it, so careful, that he hadn't realised just how much raw force was present in it. Fighting on a roof and then in a vault hadn't allowed her to really cut loose.

The Grimm didn't stand a chance, but that was still only a quarter of the Grimm in the city.

"Enough!" Glynda roared. "That's enough! Pyrrha, end it! Cut it off!"

Pyrrha ended it with another cry, this time sagging forward. Ren and Nora had been waiting and surged forward to catch her, letting her head fall forward as they braced her body. The road was on fire, the asphalt itself burning and turned half to liquid, melting around the Grimm bodies decaying away. A few had survived, those who had either arrived too late or been shielded by their fellows, but those numbered in the hundreds. They would be cut down.

Looking back, he watched the Winter Maiden floating high above the southern pass, hurling ice down at both it and the west road at once. Great icicles spiked down and exploded among the Grimm, shattering and showering them with shards razor sharp. Gusts of frosted air exploded down from her hands, struck the ground in front of the barricades and bounced outward, travelling down the roads like a tidal wave, freezing the Grimm in the front ranks into ice statues. Those either fell and exploded or were callously thrown aside by the other Grimm.

General Ironwood roared his approval, directing his shellshocked soldiers to keep firing. "With her!" he bellowed. "Drive them back! Open fire! Show them what Atlas is made of! The White Fang could not take us, and the Grimm won't either!"

It's working. The Winter is driving them back.

"Only one road left!" he said. "Pyrrha, can you-?"

"She's unconscious!" Nora yelled.

His heart turned to ice.

"I warned you!" Glynda snarled, angrier at the world itself than him or Ironwood. "It hasn't been enough time for her to learn control. Once she opens her power, it pours out of her." Raising her voice, she yelled. "No matter. There's only one concerted push left. We'll fight them back the old-fashioned way if we must!"

Right. They could do that. "Team RVNN, get Pyrrha to safety. Team RWBY with me!"

All four of them were accounted for and safe. They hurried up, smeared with soot and sweat but ready to fight. Fortunate, since the Grimm coming from the north had all been forced into a choke and were swarming forward like a black tide. Soon, there would be no room to swing a weapon. Combat would be a mass of bodies pressed into another mass.

Their best bet was, as bizarre as it sounded, to form a shield wall and just hold them in place, letting those with more explosive means do damage over the top. The only problem was he might as well be an endangered species for still using a shield.

"Use all the explosives you can. Weiss, we're going to need every spec of dust. Ruby, do not run into that mass or we'll never see you again."

Glynda used her own Semblance to pick up some of the debris that had fallen from the buildings, hurling it into the mass to crush numerous Grimm at once. The shells continued to rain down, blowing chunks out the formation. He looked back but the Winter Maiden was still busy. Her power was just as destructive as Pyrrha's, but she was pacing herself, so it was taking longer.

With any luck, she'd have some juice left over.

"Huntsmen in front!" Jaune yelled. "Students behind." He didn't have a speech prepared like Ironwood. "This is it. We finish this now!"

"Hah!"

"For Vale!"

"Mistral!"

"Atlas!"

"Beacon!" the students roared. "Beacon!"

Jaune hopped down, flanked immediately by Qrow and Roman. They looked worse for wear and pissed at the whole situation, Roman gritting a cigar between his teeth. "If I survive this, I'm demanding a raise." he growled. "I was safer working for Cinder!"

"Quit bitching. This is what we're here for!"

"Speak for yourself, you bloody drunk."

Jaune managed a quick smile and then the Grimm were upon them. He raised Crocea Mors, bellowed a war cry and swung.

The Grimm exploded.

D-Did I do that…?

Another blew to smithereens, the acrid tang of ozone wafting over his nose along with burned fur and charred flesh. Another blast shook the street and this time he saw the blinding flash of white light, heard the resounding crack of thunder come a fraction of a second later.

Lightning struck up and down the road, cracking down one after another, isolated to the street, ripping up the road, the Grimm and even the nearby buildings. The unnatural storm rolled in a moment later, smashing into the Grimm and knocking them flat, only for three more lightning bolts to streak down and clap the street, evenly spaced out along the road.

"A third?" they heard Ironwood shout. "Is that Spring-?"

The storms couldn't be anything but. Jaune looked up, as did Qrow and Roman. There, on the edge of a tall apartment block, a single figure stood. A silhouette against the sky, but with long, wild hair and skirt visible, along with a long sword sheathed on her hip.

"You fucking kidding me?" Qrow rasped. "Since when did she grow a spine?"

The Spring Maiden, Raven Branwen. Lightning roared its way up and down the street, incinerating the Grimm on the northern pass, decimating their numbers such that the defenders could pour fire into those remaining.

He watched as Raven turned and swept the air before her. A portal opened and she stepped through, abandoning them at the last, but with the mountain of the work already done. He couldn't find it in himself to complain.

"Maybe she did it for Yang…"

"Unlikely." Qrow spat on the floor, trying not to look pleased. "More likely she figured if Atlas fell, that'd be one less distraction between her and Salem. It's in her best interests the enemy are kept busy. Or she figured transporting all the civilians back would be another fat paycheck."

He didn't think General Ironwood would fault her it, and neither would he. The lines were already cheering, finishing off the last of the Grimm and screaming their victory. And it was one, wasn't it? The Ace-Ops had reported no reinforcements, Menagerie had intercepted those at sea and the civilians were safe in Vale.

Jaune held up a hand and grinned as Ruby yanked him back up onto the platform she'd been sniping off. Her face was split by a wide smile as she looked to her team, all alive and well. General Ironwood was also standing proud, staring out over his city as the soldiers threw their helmets in the air and cheered.

Beyond him, Winter Schnee rushed forward, face uncovered, body uncloaked and clearly not having been involved in the fighting. Jaune winced and slipped away from Team RWBY.

Maybe it was time to make himself scarce.

/-/

"General Ironwood!"

"Winter!" James turned with a laugh, throwing aside propriety to sweep her up in a large hug. No one would comment on it, not with the victory they'd achieved here. "Fantastic work!" he boomed. "You're a credit to Atlas, no, a credit to Remnant."

"Sir-"

"The Grimm have been driven back. The last will be rounded up. News of this will spread across the world, speaking of our victory – our stand. The world shall watch and know that humanity stands tall. That Atlas will never falter."

"I know, sir, and that's wonderful, but-"

"And you. You shall be at the head of it, Winter. I can understand your concern and the reason for the cloak, but you need not hide as Miss Nikos wishes to. You have my support, the support of the military and your mother's. Don't hide away and let your heroic actions today go unrewa-"

"I'm not the maiden!"

Ironwood's words died in his mouth. He laughed. A sharp, fragile sound. "E-Excuse you?"

"I'm not the maiden," she said again, cringing. "I-I spoke to Fria. I pushed. She said she knew and accepted it was her time, b-but when she let herself die, she said she would be sparing me a pain and I didn't realise I was accepting."

"B-But the Winter Maiden," he stammered.

"It didn't go to me, sir. Fria – Fria said she'd found another."

"Found? How? She was in isolation the entire time! She could not have met another person!"

"I-I checked the doors, sir. Someone had been entering. We didn't catch them because we were busy with this and Fria never brought it up, but someone visited her. Someone convinced her to pass the power onto them instead of me."

"Someone? But the only ones who would even know are myself, you and Ozpin…" His eyes grew wide. And if Ozpin knew, that meant a certain someone else would also know. Ironwood's hand snatched out, snagging a certain student of Beacon, a Cardin Winchester if his memory served. "Boy!" he snarled. "Where is your headmaster?"

If the boy sensed the venom, he didn't comment. Chances were that he was too high on victory to even notice. The overlarge smile suggested as much.

"The headmaster? Oh, I saw him running off a few seconds ago. He basically made a break for it the moment it was over. I think he was dragging Cinder Fall with him." The boy laughed. "Crazy how he managed all this, isn't it? He weakened the White Fang, managed to get Menagerie to save our bacon, then got Pyrrha and Cinder to do all this. He saved Atlas! He's a damned hero!"

General James Ironwood was not a man prone to bouts of anger or unrestraint.

But in that moment, he felt he could be forgiven for screaming at the top of his lungs.

"AAARRRRRCCCCCCC!"

But what about Salem's whale?

Can't believe I'm saying that with a serious expression right now. Ahem, Salem is occupied. You'll see. This marks the end of the invasion of Atlas, though not, as Cardin pointed out, the fallout – or rather the fallout of the PR.

As to how Cardin knows it's Pyrrha, well, at this point anyone a student of Beacon has probably noticed, since they'll all know which teammates were guarding her. They wouldn't know she's a maiden or what that is of course, and to be honest I think Pyrrha kept her Semblance secret enough that people could just believe this was it. Maybe she didn't use it in tournaments because it's so blatantly hard to control and wears her out.

Omake:

"This feels like a very bad idea."

"Ahem," the woman in blue – not dressed in blue, but literally in blue – behind the wheel coughed. "This feels like a very bad idea, what now?"

Ghira Belladonna sighed. "This feels like a very bad idea, Captain."

"Arghh. That's right. Captain Jinn – terror of the high seas. Shark of the open waves."

Jinn span the wheel and caused the ship to lurch to the left. Immediately, all the other ships in the armada did the same, following their lead one, a stolen and repurposed fishing vessel-turned-gunboat that the Albain brothers had probably planned to unleash on Atlas traders at some point. They'd liberated quite the cache of military hardware after the fall of the White Fang.

"Are you sure we're headed in the right direction?" he asked.

"Three questions have been asked this century." Jinn scowled. "Damn it. He knows that already! Stop making me say it!" That demand was directed toward the heavens. "And excuse me, Ghira, do you remember who you are talking to?"

"Right. All-knowing being. Sorry. I just don't know why an all-knowing being is now captain of our navy."

Jinn would have liked to explain, but it wasn't the next century yet so she couldn't. It was fairly simple, though. Thanks to her restrictions, she couldn't tell them where the Grimm were coming from, how many or even that Atlas was about to be attacked by Grimm at all. The God of Light had made sure of that.

One thing he apparently hadn't thought of, however, was the fact that she had a body. Opposable thumbs. Hands. She couldn't tell them where the Grimm were, but if she just so happened to steer the ship into them and the faunus followed, well, what a coincidence that'd be!

"First mate!"

"My name is Ghira. And I'm the Chieftain of Menagerie."

"First mate beef-buns," she repeated, and Ghira paled at the secret nickname Kali gave him. He rushed to comply with her demands before the crew could ask what Jinn had meant. "Tale the wheel. Keep her on an even bearing."

Ghira grabbed the wheel and shot her a look. "Where are you going?"

"Is it the next century yet?"

He sighed. "No."

"Exactly! Then stop asking!"

Jinn moved over to one of the machine guns on the starboard side of the boat, pushing a young faunus out the seat and taking it for herself. It was a ramshackle thing made by a drunk White Fang member who had at the time been trying to impress a girl he liked. He never did score with her, and really, did every member of the White Fang have a crush on Blake?

No, it turned out. But a solid twenty per cent did. Creeps.

"What are you doing, Captain?" the boy asked. "There are no enemies there."

Jinn ignored him, aimed the machine gun and opened fire. Light blazed out and the seat rocked perilously, making her vision flicker. It was loud, brutal and strangely empowering for a being that had been stuck in a lamp stuck inside a vault for several hundred years.

"Bwahahahahahaha! DIE!"

The faunus watched in worry at first, then awe as a large leviathan-class Grimm floated to the top of the waves, riddled with bullet holes. Thankfully, not everyone was inept enough to not realise what that meant.

"Grimm to starboard!" Ghira shouted into his scroll. "Open fire! Open fire!"

Machine guns, canons and other weapons cut into the waves, and soon the Grimm were fighting back, roaring and screeching as they attacked the Menagerie fleet. Being functionally immortal and also essentially having perfect awareness of all things around her, Jinn snatched a harpoon out the nearest barrel, gritted it between her teeth, picked out another to hold in her hands and leapt off the side of the boat.

"Shark overboard!" someone yelled.

"Ignore her!" Ghira shouted. "Keep firing!"

"Shark swimming to Grimm!"

"IGNORE HER!"

"Shark dual-wielding harpoons? What? How?"

Ghira banged his face on the captain's wheel. Jinn was a good thing, he had to remind himself. She'd helped clear out the White Fang, she'd helped prevent an assassination. He would not plan ways to get rid of her before she drove him insane.

"I heard that!" Jinn shouted from the monstrous sea serpent she was riding on.

"I didn't even say it," he muttered under his breath.

"Still heard it!" Jinn stabbed a harpoon into each of the monster's eyes, twisted them and then yanked them out in a spray of gore. "Hahahahaha! I am the shark that rules the ocean. I am the apex predator! I am Jinn, and I have come for your head as a trophy!"

She's an idiot…

"Heard that!"

"Just because you can read my every thought, doesn't mean you should…"

He had no response to Jinn harpooning the final Grimm in such a manner that she just happened to find a chink in its armour, piercing its brain. Or when she began towing the giant thing back toward the ship, manic grin saying she fully intended for them to tow it to Atlas like a fisherman with a prize catch.

"What have you unleashed upon me, Kali? What did I do to deserve this?"

Welp.

Next Chapter: 23rd April

P a treon . com (slash) Coeur