"So. Back at it." Yang flexed her right arm, and Ember Celica deployed with a satisfying click. The tunnel under Amity looked exactly the same as it had a couple days ago, except that there were two of them walking down it this time instead of four. Others might have agonized over who to cut for their doubles match, but not Sable. Mere minutes after beating Team FNKI, before they'd even made it back to their seats, he'd bluntly declared that he and Yang would be moving on. Right to Jaune and Blake's faces. Ouch. To be fair, neither of them really seemed upset. Jaune had no expectation of being picked anyways, and Blake, as was the norm lately, gave precisely zero fucks. Yang swore she'd almost looked relieved. "Hell of a draw, huh?" She (for lack of a better word) un-flexed; her right shotgun-gauntlet collapsed back into a bracelet with a somewhat less satisfying click.

Her dark companion glared at her. "I know. You've only said it fifty times."

"It's still true!" Flex. Click. The doubles round bracket had dropped last night, and even after sleeping on it she could barely believe how things had shaken out. Flex. Click. "What are the odds?"

Sable rolled his eyes. "Well, there's sixteen teams left this round, so one in fifteen. I know math isn't your strong suit, but come on."

Yang punched him lightly on the shoulder. "Fuck off." Walked right into that one, hadn't she? The weak joke brought a small smile to her face, one that quickly faded at the thought of what was coming. Click. It was weird. She never really got stage fright before a fight. But today felt different, like there was an invisible sword hanging overhead, ready to drop on her any second; judging from the mood at breakfast, she wasn't alone. Their morning meal had passed in anxious silence, the tense atmosphere smothering their usual banter. And now that the appointed hour had arrived, the sense of foreboding was stronger than ever. Click.

Of course, considering who they were about to fight, there was a very obvious reason for that. Click. "Still think it'll be Weiss and Nora?" she muttered.

"I do." They'd talked over the situation a half-dozen times already, but Sable explained his reasoning as if it were the first. Perhaps he, too, needed something to distract himself with. "It's the rational choice. Historically, most teams send in their physically strongest member with an eye towards the singles rounds. And pairing Nora with a Dust user synergizes well—" Click. He stopped mid-sentence and smacked her wrist. "For gods' sake, would you stop that?"

"Uh, sorry." Yang's outfit had no convenient pockets to stick her idle hands in, so she settled for folding her arms over her chest instead. Yes, she reassured herself, the logic was sound. It sounded smart, and Ruby was smart. She was team leader for a reason. Plus she didn't have nearly enough ego to insist on taking the stage herself, unlike certain people she could name. "Makes sense. You don't mind if I punch Weiss's face in then, do you? Heh."

Sable narrowed his eyes at her. "Not if I get her first, you won't."

Yang snorted. "Such a loving brother." They entered the arena through the same door as last time, and were greeted by the same cheers, though this time there were some audible boos mixed in. Apparently some in the audience still held their first-round shenanigans against them. Bah. Haters gonna hate. Their opponents awaited them on the center circle. Weiss's white-clad figure was instantly recognizable, as was the redheaded girl next to her.

A redheaded girl who was very much not Nora Valkyrie.

"RUBY?!"

Ruby waved hesitantly at them. "Uh...hi, Yang..."

"So. This is sort of awkward to ask." Jaune shuffled down the front row of seats, popcorn in hand, to where Nora and Ren and Pyrrha were already encamped. Blake trailed behind him, looking slightly less depressed than usual and clutching a large bucket of fried snacks. Was that fish and chips? Weird choice but okay. "But, uh, mind if we sit here?"

Nora immediately shot to her feet, shaking her head vehemently. "Heck no! Team RRWN can't be hanging with the enemy!" She looked to her friends to back her up. "Am I right, guys?"

"Nora, don't be ridiculous." Ren sighed. He patted the empty seat next to him. "Of course you're welcome."

Pyrrha shrugged. "I don't mind either. I'm not even on their team."

Outvoted, Nora could only watch helplessly as their bitter foes settled in. Maybe Sable had been right. Maybe democracy was a mistake. "Okay. This is fine too." she grumbled. "This way, when we win I can rub it right in your faces!"

Jaune chuckled good-naturedly. "Well, it should be a close one. May the best team win, yeah?" Nora pouted harder. To assert dominance, she grabbed a fistful of his popcorn and crammed it into her maw, kernels spraying everywhere. Rather than be intimidated, Jaune only laughed harder. Dang it, she was stuck with all the mellow people here. "I'm surprised you're not down there yourself." he said.

"Yeah, Ruby actually wanted me and Weiss at first." Nora's mouth was full of corn, but every word came out perfectly clear. It had been a tricky skill to pick up, but being able to do two of her favorite things at once was worth it. "Thought I was our best shot at winning. It was tough arguing against myself, but I mean, come on!" Sometimes it was frustrating how Ruby took her own skills for granted. "Sure, hitting stuff with a hammer is cool, but she can straight-up break physics!"

"Don't most Semblances do that?" Jaune objected, pointing at various members of their party. "Like, Blake makes her clones out of nothing. And Pyrrha can control soda cans even though they're not actually magnetic—"

Nora dismissed his logical argument out of hand. Since when were Huntresses limited by logic anyways? "Pfft, whatever. None of us can, like, break ourselves apart at the molecular level though."

Jaune blinked. "Is that how it works? I always thought she just ran really fast."

"Ah, a common misconception, but close analysis shows—"

"Just to be clear, we did not pick Ruby only because she had the coolest Semblance." Ren interrupted. "The metagame was a factor as well. A lot teams are building around their close-combat specialists, but agility has some advantages over raw power. We...kind of learned that first hand." Nora felt a twinge of phantom pain in her left boob, and winced. Much as she would've loved to be down in the arena—she still owed Yang for the food fight—it was only fair that Ruby and Weiss got the chance. They were the ones who'd stopped the train and saved the city, while she was getting her butt whooped by a walking ice cream commercial. "Of course, we didn't know we'd draw you guys at the time. That makes things a bit difficult..."

"You mean awesome!" Nora corrected. She leaned over the railing, watching eagerly as the red-and-white pair lined up across from the black-and-yellow. It made for an oddly satisfying color palette. More than ever, she was convinced they'd made the right choice. Screw all that strategy talk, this was worth it for the narrative alone.

"It must be so hard for them." Pyrrha said sympathetically. "I can't imagine how having to fight your own family must feel."

Jaune turned to look at her. "Let me guess, only child?" At her nod, he gave her a knowing grin. "Trust me, it's a lot easier than you'd think."

For once, the four siblings could think of nothing to say. They stood on the center platform like statues, waiting for the signal to get this family feud started. Professor Port was giving some pre-match commentary, the usual stuff about the magnificence of violence and how they were hopefully about to see lots of it, but they barely processed his words. Around them four biomes rose up, one in every quarter of the field—a stretch of desert sand, a rocky mountain, a lush green forest, and a strange collection of floating black platforms. Weiss solemnly held Myrtenaster up to her face in a fencer's salute; Sable bowed his head and reciprocated with his own sword. Chewing her lip, Ruby twirled Crescent Rose about like a massive fidget spinner. Yang finally broke the silence, favoring her sister with a kindly smile. "It'll be all right, Rubes. Promise I won't hurt you too bad."

"Don't you dare go easy on her!" Sable snapped.

"Yeah, don't go easy on me!" Ruby puffed her cheeks indignantly and slammed the butt of her scythe against the ground. "I can take it! Punch me right in the face!" Then her brain caught up to what her mouth had said, and she cringed. "Um...actually don't."

"Three!" Oobleck announced. "Two! One! BEGIN!"

Ruby immediately dissolved into a cloud of petals. She zoomed backwards, making a beeline for the forest biome. "She's camping!" Yang called out. Team SJBY moved to pursue, only for Weiss to step in and block their way. Even with two much taller fighters bearing down on her, the heiress didn't flinch, staring them down with a determined expression on her face. A vortex of ethereal white energy swirled around her feet—

"Oh no you don't!" Sable pushed forward off a glyph, aiming a heavy two-handed slash at her. Weiss had to bring up her rapier to block lest she lose her head, and with her concentration disrupted, the mysterious energy faded away. A fraction of a second later, Yang caught up and threw a left hook for good measure. Ember Celica crashed against Weiss's ribs and knocked her to the floor. Obstacle bypassed, Sable and Yang continued their run for the forest. They scanned the treetops for any sign of where Ruby might be hiding; Yang, being more familiar with her sister's weapon, was the first to spot it. A faint glimmer of light off metal appeared amid the leaves, in the shape of a crescent moon. "Watch out!"

She'd spoken not a moment too soon. Sable hit the deck as bullets whizzed narrowly overhead, punching divots in the platform behind him. Getting shot by that horrid farm tool wasn't an experience he cared to revisit. Meanwhile, Yang raised her arms and unloaded on Ruby's unfortunate tree with both shotgun barrels. The explosive shells detonated on contact, and within seconds its upper branches were a raging bonfire. There was a high-pitched yelp as a small red shape dropped from the boughs. Ruby executed a quick combat roll to put out the flames licking her cape, then vanished deeper into the woods.

Things had not quite gone how Team RRWN drew it up, but they were far from beaten. Further back on the central platform, Weiss staggered back to her feet. She spun up a regular glyph, which launched light blue projectiles at Yang's retreating back. Still on the ground, Sable propped himself up on his elbow to return fire. Literally. Elemental beams of frost and flame collided in mid-air, sending up great hissing clouds of steam where they met. Under cover of that smokescreen, all three of them made it into to the (very dubious) safety of the trees.

A mere fifteen seconds had elapsed since the start of the fight. Everyone involved felt like this was going to be a rough one.

"No mercy! NO MERCY!" the bloodthirsty announcer cheered. Winter was trying her best to ignore the sounds coming from her subordinate's Scroll, but curiosity got the better of her. Feeling rather sheepish, she turned her head to peek at the screen. On it, she saw a girl in yellow chasing a girl in red through a forest. The red one spun in a circle, effortlessly slicing through three trees with her scythe to send them falling towards her opponent. In return, the yellow fighter struck out with her fists and reduced the trunks to splinters before they could hit her. "Do not adjust your sets, ladies and gentlemen! We've got a real barn-burner here!"

"According to our in-house historian—that being myself—this is the first time in Festival history multiple sets of siblings have fought on opposite sides." the fast-talking announcer rattled off. "All in the family, this one! Or, should I say, it's brawl in the family?"

Even over broadcast, the groans of the live audience came through loud and clear. "Barty, that's stupid." The camera switched to a feed of two figures running at each other across a clearing, one in black and one in white. Suddenly, Winter didn't want to watch any more. "Marrow, turn that thing off. We're on duty." she said, a tad sharply. Kids these days and their Scrolls. Checking out a sporting match while on mission was simply unprofessional. That was the only reason for her order. Not wanting to desperately attempt to stay neutral while her siblings fought before her eyes had nothing to do with it.

(Part of her knew she would've ended up rooting for Weiss in the end. She wasn't proud of it, but that was how things were.)

"Huh? Ah! S-sorry, ma'am!" The faunus soldier put his Scroll away, tail drooping. "I just—I've checked our defenses, like, twenty times already. There's nothing to do here!" Winter kept glaring at him, and his tail tucked itself between his legs. "Uh...not that I'm making excuses. I promise it won't happen again. So, uh, forgive me? Please?"

He looked at her with what she could only describe as puppy-dog eyes. Winter sighed. When they'd first met, she'd resolved to not judge him by his animal traits, mindful of the troubled relations between her family and the faunus race. Besides, Marrow Amin was so much more than that. Despite his sometimes immature behavior, he'd graduated top of his class at Atlas, and had compiled an exemplary record as a Grimm exterminator. Once they finished their shift in Vale, he was slated for promotion to full Specialist; being authorized to go on solo missions was quite an achievement for someone his age. His rising star might even earn him a spot in the Ace-Ops one day, should all go well. But...dear gods, did Marrow make it very hard not to stereotype him. Mannerisms aside, he activated his Semblance by shouting literal dog training commands. He'd named his boomerang-rifle Fetch, of all things, and it was basically a glorified stick that came back when he threw it.

"See that it doesn't. The worst things often happen when you don't expect them." Winter advised. Still, she couldn't deny he had a point. This was a strange mission, somehow unbearably tense and mind-numbingly dull at the same time. For the last day and a half they'd been staring at this abandoned apartment building, and at this point she'd almost be glad to see a pack of armed terrorists or a horde of Centinels. The atmosphere of this place was entirely wrong. Officially, the building had simply been evacuated due to minor earthquake damage, and posed no greater threat. To prove how non-threatening things were, the Vale Council had set up speakers that blasted relentlessly cheerful pop tunes twenty-four hours a day. Last night, she'd needed earplugs to get any sleep at all. And the kicker was, it still wasn't loud enough to block out the odd suspicious growl from underground. Even if one didn't know there was a Grimm horde of indeterminate size sealed underneath, as Winter did, it was not a reassuring image. Oh, and the fact that the building was guarded on all sides by a hundred Paladin-290s was a tad suspicious too. She was seriously questioning what the point of the cover-up even was.

"What are we even expecting?" Marrow questioned. "For the building to explode and a bunch of Grimm to come out? Like...that would be a sign, yeah, but I feel like maybe we shouldn't wait for that?"

A good question. Frowning, Winter recalled something strange Qrow had mentioned yesterday when he returned her ship. He'd been drunk as usual—whether celebrating the success of his and Robyn's secret mission, mourning its failure, or (more likely) just because, she couldn't tell. The warning he'd left her, though, had been both oddly lucid and oddly specific. "If you see a woman in a red dress throwing fireballs..." she began, feeling rather foolish. "Stop her."

This forest never stood a chance. They had been here for barely a minute, and it had already transformed from an idyllic wilderness to something that wouldn't look out of place in a PSA about wildfire prevention. Red Dust projectiles streaked through the air, igniting the grass wherever they landed. The fire Yang had started earlier raged unchecked, and now the canopy overhead was a roiling mass of flame, from which burning leaves and twigs drifted down. Weiss heard gunshots and explosions in the near distance, where Ruby and Yang were no doubt causing yet more wanton environmental damage. In other words, it was a typical Team Rainbows affair. Luckily, Weiss herself was faring better than those poor plants. She had the minor advantage of walking on two legs instead of being rooted to the ground. With a dancer's grace she weaved through the fiery rain and managed to remain unburnt. She flicked Myrtenaster in a neat quarter-circle, sending a wave of ice at Sable's position. Not quite as elegant as a giant ghostly sword, but it would have to do. As the lingering pain in her side reminded her—and as she ought to have remembered from years of failed attempts—summoning was hard. Doing it in the comfort of a dorm room was one thing, but doing it with people trying to stab her in the face was another. It was probably good to learn that now, she reflected, and not in an actual life-or-death situation.

Her brother ducked behind a boulder for cover, and the tree he'd been standing in front of took the attack in his stead. It toppled backwards with a painful-sounding creak, its midsection utterly shredded by razor-sharp icicles. Still, Weiss was able to use the brief respite to form a white glyph and launch off it. She closed the gap between them in a blink, landing atop Sable's rock and stabbing downwards. However, he spun nimbly aside from the rapier's thrust. His counter-attack nearly took her out at the knees; Weiss jumped, tucking her legs so that the blade skimmed right below her shins. She kicked off another glyph, using the momentum to propel herself forwards out of danger. Executing a half-turn in the air, she skidded to a stop on the grass, now facing Sable at a distance of two sword lengths.

They exchanged the tiniest of nods, then plunged into the fray. The familiar sound of metal on metal rang out. Weiss felt in her bones that this would take a while. Neither of them was likely to make a fatal slip. Parry, riposte, sidestep. They knew this dance far too well for that. It was one they'd been practicing since they were children beating on each other with blunted sticks. And what was a sword but a fancy stick, really? Duck, jab...dodge! Weiss leaned back as a vertical slash whooshed past her right eye. That had been close (except not really, because Aura). A scar over one eye might be dignified, but both would just look ridiculous. Her dodge had left her slightly off balance, though, and Sable noticed. He lifted his left leg and delivered a hard stamp to her hip. The blow knocked her onto her back, and he brought the point of his sword down on her.

Luckily for Weiss, she had her own dirty tricks to play. It had been drilled into her head over many years that she was meant to fight like a proper lady, but old instincts died hard. The memories of many childhood scraps, kicking and clawing at each other with no regard for poise or dignity, remained in her subconscious, and here they served her well. Her own leg lashed out, catching Sable in the gut with the heel of her boot and sending him stumbling back with a pained wheeze. A couple inches lower, and she might have jeopardized her chances of ever having a nephew or niece. That bought Weiss enough time to get back up. Her white dress was now spattered with soil and grass stains, but she paid it barely any mind. Once more into the breach. Their blades slammed together again. Sable snarled like a feral animal as they jostled for position; to her slight embarrassment, Weiss found herself joining in. She noticed his finger twitching to the trigger in his hilt, and he abruptly twisted his sword so that the point was angled towards her chest. Weiss put up a defensive glyph just in time. A jet flames ricocheted off it and combusted yet another tree with a scream of surprise—

Wait a minute. Trees didn't scream. A slightly singed Ruby dashed out of the shadows. She fired at Sable and forced him to break off his attack. He backpedaled, not liking his odds in close combat against both girls at once—Ruby's fancy stick was twice the size of his own, after all. Ruby pumped off more shots, and Sable deflected them with a series of white glyphs. Weiss took advantage of his distraction to form a red glyph below his feet. Sable was just a hair late to notice; he managed to leap away to avoid the brunt of the Dust explosion, but the shockwave still flung him to the dirt.

Before Weiss and Ruby could go for the knockout, a shadow fell over them. Looking to the side, she saw a tall oak looming where one definitely hadn't stood before. Her wild first thought was that the forest had tired of all the tree abuse and risen up in rebellion, until she spotted the blonde figure holding the bottom of the broken trunk.

Yang hefted her tree in both hands, and swung it down with all her strength. As Ruby shrieked in panic and dragged her away in a burst of petals, Weiss mused that there was always a bigger stick.

Yang's impromptu weapon hit the barren ground where Ruby and Weiss had been. The tree trunk broke in half on impact, but it had served its purpose. "You all right?" she gasped. Whew. She wouldn't say she was tired exactly, but after chasing Ruby through the woods for a few minutes, she wouldn't say no to a little break either. Sable let her help him up, brushing the odd blade of grass from his hair. "Thanks." he grunted. "I mean, I could have handled it myself but—"

"Yeah, you're welcome." Yang cut him off. Now that she had a moment to look around, she realized how badly they'd messed the forest up. Hardly a tree remained intact. Many of them had been reduced to stumps by sword and scythe and fist, and most of the rest sported deep gashes or were aflame like massive torches. Billowing smoke grew thicker by the second and made her throat itch. "Damn. This place is...not doing great." There was a loud crack from above, and a large burning branch dropped down on them. "Whoa!" Before it could hit, she blasted it out of the air with a single shot.

"We need to move." Sable agreed. He created a black glyph with a flick of his sword, which they both stood atop. It launched them up, through a gap in the canopy, to land on another glyph overlooking the treetops. It was still smoky up here, but at least they could roughly make out the lay of the arena. Sable spun around to orient himself, then pointed to the next biome over (counter-clockwise). "Over there! Let's go to the anti-gravity biome!"

Yang peered curiously at the collection of floating platforms. She'd been wondering what that was. It stuck out like a sore thumb among the other biomes, looking more like something from a sci-fi movie than any kind of real-life environment. Weirdness aside, she saw the perks. The closed-off space would protect them from Ruby's long-range shots, and she'd have a tricky time using her Semblance on those cramped platforms. There remained the question of how to get there, though. As the Qrow flew, about a hundred yards of forest separated them from their goal, most of which was on fire. "So, uh, are we just gonna walk on air or something?"

"What else?" Sable seemed genuinely baffled by the question. Another flick of the sword, and a bridge of white glyphs started to form, extending out from the one they currently stood on. "Stay close to me. And don't fall."

Yang looked down. It was an awfully long way to the ground, and those flames didn't look particularly compatible with human life. "Yeah, no. I got a better idea." She crouched down, placing one hand behind Sable's knees and one at his shoulder. Her leader weighed barely anything for someone so tall—dude could really stand to hit the gym more—and she easily scooped him up. He reacted about as you'd expect. "The fuck?!" he shrieked. He thrashed around for a moment, then looked down himself, gulped, and went quite still. "Wh—what are you doing?!"

"Staying close!" she shot back. Really, she'd only done as asked, so what did he have to complain about? He wouldn't even need to walk! Plenty of boys (and girls) at Signal would've given an arm and a leg to be in his position, cradled in her arms like a fairy-tale princess or a newlywed wife...okay, maybe this was a little weird. Like hell was she chickening out, though.

Sable groaned. "That's not—on your right!" he suddenly bellowed. In a different situation, Yang might have cheekily asked what wasn't on her right, but this didn't really seem like a good time. She jumped forward to the next glyph as bullets whistled over the one they'd been standing on. On their right flank, a mop of dark red hair and the muzzle of a gun poked out over the smoking treetops. Ah great, Ruby had found them again. Safe to say break time was over. Swearing loudly, Sable put his right hand on her shoulder and pushed himself up to return fire. She heard the telltale whoosh of Dust projectiles loosing from his sword; Ruby ducked down to avoid the barrage, and it only succeeded in torching a couple more trees. "Go, go, go!" Yang didn't need to be told twice, or even once. She was already running full-tilt down their makeshift bridge. About twenty feet to the right, an identical bridge was taking shape parallel to their own. Weiss popped into view from somewhere below, to land on it with a fancy (and, to be honest, completely unnecessary) pirouette. As she ran alongside them she twirled her sword, the tip glowing an ominous shade of blue. Sable twirled right back, and there was a loud thrum as both Schnees simultaneously let fly beams of cyan light. Yang recognized that attack; it was the same thing Sable had used on Flynt two days ago. The twin pseudo-lasers met midway across the gap with an electric crackle. Just like in the cartoons, a sphere of energy bloomed at the point of collision. Dimly, she recalled that those beams were supposedly made of condensed light; was physics was even supposed to work this way? Hell if she knew.

A red blur streaked past Weiss. Ruby took a running leap off the bridge and dissolved into a trail of petals, headed straight their way. "Oh fu—" There was barely any time to react. Sable had his hands full with his anime beam-o-war, and Yang only managed to turn so that Crescent Rose hit her in the back instead of the front. The blow sent them tumbling off their safety snowflake down towards the flames below. A split-second before they could hit the trees, though, another glyph broke their fall. The rough landing knocked Sable loose from her grip, but he wrapped his right arm around her waist and arrested his slide, dangling half off the edge. "Brace!" he yelled. That was the only warning she got before the glyph glowed black and launched them at high speed.

"HOLY SHIT!" Within seconds, they rocketed from the bottom of the arena to near the top. Yang felt as if all her organs were trying to cram themselves into her boots. Thanks gods Jaune wasn't here; his motion sickness might have improved, but this would 100% have left him spewing chunks all over the place. Sable created another glyph at their backs, which redirected their momentum and sent them hurtling forward again. The black walls of the anti-gravity biome drew nearer at a somewhat concerning rate. Now, it would be a stretch to say Yang was nervous, but she firmly grabbed Sable's shoulder just in case. She didn't quite trust his skinny arms to hold her in place. If she fell she could (probably) think up a landing strategy to avoid going splat...still, it was not a fun thought.

Oh, and they still had Ruby to contend with too. That glyph-assisted speedrun trick had left her some distance behind, but she was the fast one of their group for a reason. Still sailing through the air after her last attack, she fired her rifle a couple times to point herself the right way, then put on a burst of her Semblance. A cloud of rose petals rapidly closed in on their backs. Yang felt vaguely annoyed. Seriously, why was she the only one who couldn't pull off these fancy aerial maneuvers? "Incoming—" Sable began.

"On it!" Yang cocked both fists. She snuck a peek back at the red streak that was Ruby. Years of experience with her sister's Semblance kicked in, as she carefully timed the approach in her head...now! She fired her shotguns to the right. The recoil pushed them sharply left just as Ruby turned solid behind them. She shot past, missing by mere inches...and crashed straight into a floating platform like a bird into a glass door. Ouch. Huh, Yang would've expected her to judge the distance better. It almost looked like the wall had sucked her in at the last second. Weird!

Team SJBY continued on into the anti-gravity biome; they were conveniently headed for a gap between two thin horizontal platforms. Yang bent her knees in preparation for touchdown, but was instead pulled up by some mysterious force. Her head smacked painfully into the ceiling. "Ow!" She stood up, rubbing her noggin, though perhaps it would be more accurate to say she stood down. The burning forest was now at the top of her field of view, with smoke sinking from it. Thousands of upside-down people watched from the stands, seemingly unconcerned about falling into the bottomless sky. "What the hell?!"

Next to her, Sable jumped up/down. He flipped himself 180 degrees to land on the platform above/below, where he stood upside-down/right-side-up. "Gravity Dust!" he said, as if that explained everything.

"This is so trippy..."

One hundred and fifty-six. That was the number of female students currently staying at Beacon. Their photographs covered an entire wall of Ozpin's office, from Coco Adel to May Zedong (printed out, by the way—he could have projected them from a Scroll, but like many senior citizens Ozpin preferred the low-tech approach). The headmaster and his inner circle stared at the gallery, and three-hundred-sixteen multicolored eyes stared back (three of them were missing an eye, and one was a spider faunus with eight). Out of context, the sight of four middle-aged adults eyeing up a bunch of young women was probably quite creepy, but it was for a good cause. One of these innocent-looking girls was an impostor, a thief who held power that wasn't truly hers. Power that had once belonged to him, at that. Not for the first time, Ozpin wryly wondered what idiot had set up the Maiden system in a way that practically encouraged inheritance by murder...oh, right. Some days, he wondered if it would've been better to keep it all for himself, and just stash the Relics under his mattress or something. Magic-sharing rituals were difficult under the best circumstances, and Ozma had, shall we say, not been in clearest state of mind that day. The Story of the Seasons was a decidedly sanitized version of what had truly happened between the wizard and the four original Maidens. The basic facts were right, but it glossed over the sheer amount of intoxicating beverages and, ahem, carousing that had been involved.

James Ironwood shook his head. "Gods, so many." The general's mouth was set in a skeptical scowl. Ozpin suspected he found this whole exercise a waste of time. "Where do we even begin?" James's own ideas on how to proceed were considerably more direct—namely, he wanted to put Roman Torchwick on the metaphorical rack. A distasteful prospect, in Ozpin's opinion. In his many lives, he'd had his share of run-ins with the cruder methods of interrogation. Ethical quandaries aside, the truth of confessions obtained under such circumstances tended to be dubious; of course, having a perfect lie detector on hand changed the calculus somewhat. Robyn Hill was currently staying at a hotel in the city in case they needed her services again, though by James's admission she was unlikely to go along with that particular plan. As well she might. Their Hometown Hero, that was what they called her in Mantle, and heroes did not torture.

But you're no hero, are you? a voice whispered in the back of his mind. You know what you've done. His grip tightened on his coffee mug. Life was not a fairy tale where you could expect victory through moral superiority alone. If Robyn were to be informed exactly what was at stake here...no, no. He had not kept Salem at bay for so long by handing out world-shattering secrets like Halloween candy to anyone with a useful Semblance. "Well, we can safely eliminate Miss Rose." he said with forced levity. "That's a start."

Glynda rolled her eyes. "I think we can do a little better than that. We have three confirmed sightings now—the attack on Amber, the Dust shop, the CCT tower—and there are some consistent descriptions. A woman, obviously. At least five foot seven or so, no obvious faunus traits, fair skin."

"Can rely on that?" James objected. "She might have put on fake animal parts for her disguise. Or darkened her skin—"

Qrow snorted. "That's racist." He sat atop Ozpin's desk, sneaking glances down at the Scroll in his hand. He did a tiny fist pump of victory at whatever was happening on it. "Nice one, Yang." he muttered, then palmed his forehead right afterwards. "Come on, Ruby."

James glared daggers at the distracted Huntsman. "Priorities, Qrow. Turn that thing off, for gods' sake!"

"It'll only be few minutes!" Qrow said defensively. "I promised the girls I'd watch their matches, all right?"

"Heartwarming." James growled. He stalked angrily over to the desk. "Amber might be dead in a week, but by all means, take your time—sweet Brothers!" When he caught sight of Qrow's screen, his eyes went wide and his rant died on his lips. "What did they do to the forest biome?! That cost so much to set up!"

"I take it forests don't exactly grow on trees, huh?" Qrow quipped. "Oh, wait."

James groaned. "Are you going to contribute anything but bad jokes?"

Qrow tapped his chin, thinking. "Well. If you're going to talk disguises, are we sure we should only be checking the girls? Because some of the boys at this school..." he pointed out something on the screen. "...they look, how do I put it, a little sus?"

The general looked uncomfortable. "I—I see your point, but Winter is quite sure she's only got one sister."

"That was just an example!"

Ozpin chugged the entire mug in one go. He felt in his bones that this would be a very long day.

Ow. Ruby decided she did not like walls that thought they were floors. That was her only explanation for how she'd been unexpectedly slammed into this platform, and why she was now stuck to it like a living fridge magnet. She did not quite dare stand up, half-fearing the mysterious force would fail and send her plummeting to the ground far below. Weiss, though, had no such hang-ups. A pair of white boots touched down on the wall next to her, and Ruby was treated to the surreal sight of her partner standing perfectly sideways. Even her skirt defied gravity, hanging down around her legs like normal...ooh! Ruby quickly averted her gaze, thankful for combat skirt technology saving them from a really awkward moment. "What the heck is this place?" she demanded.

"Anti-gravity biome." Weiss said, as if that explained everything. "Gravity Dust is carefully distributed through these platforms so as to generate a local gravitational field equivalent to nine-point-eight meters per second squared, perpendicular to the surface—"

"What?"

Weiss sighed. "You can walk on walls."

"Oh, neat." Why hadn't she said that in the first place? Ruby got up, walking gingerly at first, but growing in confidence with every step she took. It was neat how fast her brain adjusted to everything being topsy-turvy. "All right, I'm over it. Let's get them."

Weiss nodded, and they set off, running to the left. With a deep breath, Ruby stepped over the edge of the platform. For a moment, she had the strange sensation of her front half being pulled one way and her back half another. Then her personal gravity flipped ninety degrees, and she transitioned smoothly from standing sideways to standing...still sideways. Eyes peeled for any sign of their rivals, Ruby and Weiss cautiously jumped from platform to floating platform. They were crossing an L-shaped block when Team SJBY struck. The only warning was a whooshing noise from above (actually below, since they were currently upside down relative to the surface of Remnant). "Watch out!" Ruby and Weiss dived opposite directions. Yang slammed down (up) fist-first on the platform between them, having jumped from the top (bottom) of the L. The shockwave was still powerful enough to make them both stumble. Weiss formed a glyph underneath (above) herself that pushed her back upright (downright?), but Ruby was less fortunate. Sable charged down (up) the wall after his teammate and—taking a page from Flynt's book—released a blast of Wind Dust from his sword.

The mini-tornado hit Ruby and blew her right off the platform. There was no need to worry, though. After all, she'd faced this precise situation before, during her and Sable's first combat class battle. Ruby extended her arms and took a carefully timed swing. Crescent Rose's tip snagged the corner of another floating platform, and her momentum swung her inwards towards the surface, where the artificial gravity kicked in and pulled her in for a happy landing. Success! She rolled into a prone position and wasted no time in firing a few shots right back.

"Damn it!" Sable had to abort his wind attack to put up a Hard-Light shield; the blue barrier rippled as bullets pinged off it. "I'm going after her!" Yang grunted in acknowledgement. She would have wished him good luck, but even in this situation, it felt wrong to wish anyone luck beating up her sister. Sable pushed off another black glyph and away, while Yang kept up the offensive on Weiss. The heiress retreated in the face of her punches, until her back hit the wall at the junction of the L. Nowhere to run, or so Yang thought. To her surprise, Weiss simply hopped up (down) onto the wall. Damn, this anti-gravity stuff took some getting used to. Yang followed after her, and the two of them raced towards the top (bottom). As she ran, Weiss blind-fired icicles over her shoulder; below (above), Yang was forced to slow down and take evasive actions. The blonde ducked under one, punched another out of the air, and vaulted over a third like a hurdler at a track meet. "C'mere, Weissy!" she called in a sing-song tone. "Quit running and give me a hug!"

"No thanks!" Weiss yelled back. As she reached the end of the wall, she jumped over to the bottom (top) of a neighboring platform, changing the direction of her gravity again. A glyph spawned above her head, and from it emerged what looked like a giant ice sculpture of a sword, measuring nearly ten feet from pommel to tip. Undaunted, Yang leapt after her, ready to smash that silly thing to bits. A big ol' ice sword might look cool (heh), but it was still made of a material prone to melting at room temperature. However, contrary to expectation, Weiss did not use her glyph to swing the blade. Instead, she made a shoving gesture with her hand, and threw the entire sword at Yang. "Eh?!" Her hastily thrown punch broke it in half, but the pieces maintained their momentum, slamming into her mid-jump. The impact sent her crashing back to the wall she'd started from. As she levered heavy chunks of ice off herself, she felt a sudden chill around her legs, and looked down to find them frozen to the platform. "Nice trick." she growled. She glared at Weiss, eyes turning red. "Better run while you can."

Weiss did not run. Instead she met Yang's glare with one of her own, cold and hard and blue. Another glyph began forming next to her, this one looking quite different from the ones she'd made before. Yang thought she could make out the pattern of four swords—

The world turned white. She was not quite sure what was going on, other that she was in a lot of pain all of a sudden. When her vision returned, she was lying flat on her back on the center platform's bare concrete floor; the anti-gravity biome floated overhead. Her Aura felt much lower than it had been a before, and her head hurt worse than after that time she'd snuck a drink from Qrow's flask. Had she somehow gotten knocked all the way down here? What just happened? The white shape falling towards her quickly provided an answer. Weiss waved her arms violently about, and Yang fully saw the form of her attacker. An enormous white sword clutched in an armored hand materialized, swinging towards her. It was roughly the same size as the ice sword from before and close to the same color, but her instincts screamed that this was something far more dangerous. It gave off the same aura as the monstrosity Sable had created at Mountain Glenn, the one that had two-shotted that giant King Tajitu. Despite her aching body, Yang forced herself up to her knees. Hair burning with the power of her Semblance, she met the summoned sword with both fists. Thankfully Weiss was using the flat and not the blade; apparently she had no desire to dismember her friend over an exhibition match. Even so, Yang felt her arm bones straining under the force. She had no doubt that the moment her Semblance ran out of juice, the game would be up.

This was ridiculous! How was it remotely fair for the mage to have the highest strength stat too?

Bang. Bang. Bang. Three shots, three misses. Sable used a glyph to push himself aside from the first, another to dodge the second plus push himself back on course, and yet another to simply deflect the third. There would not be time for a fourth. Ruby stood up, hefting Crescent Rose in her hands. Time to handle things the old-fashioned way. Just as well. It would've been kind of an anticlimax, if she'd simply shot him out of the air halfway.

Sable's boots touched down on her platform, and his sword sent out another wave of fire. Rather than try to block that mess, Ruby ran to her right, off the top of the platform and down the side (down was a relative term, but she'd lost track of which way was actually down at this point). Like a kid playing tag, Sable ran the opposite direction to intercept her, only for Ruby to pull the exact same move on him. She popped back over the top, dove at full stretch, and tagged him in the back with her scythe. She'd only been able to get him with the blunt edge, but the force of the blow was enough to send him flying. With a pained yelp, Sable fell off their platform, to land sprawled on a lower one.

Naturally, Ruby jumped down after him. However, right before she reached her target, a black glyph popped up in her face. "What—AAH!" It launched her up, so that she bashed her head on the bottom of the platform above. Another glyph pushed her right back down, then back up, back down, and for a few moments she was rapidly bounced between them like a basketball. "Ow, ow!" Ruby fired a wild shot to extricate herself from the trap. She tumbled across the upper platform head over heels, but dug Crescent Rose into the ground and managed to stop herself just short of a ledge.

Both of them were back at it almost immediately. No breaks. The viewing audience was treated to a shot worthy of a movie trailer, as the team leaders rushed each other from opposite platforms, one upside down and one right side up (who was which depended on your perspective). They leapt simultaneously and...clink! For the first time in this fight, Crescent Rose and...whatever the heck Sable's sword was called (Sharkfire? Sauerkraut? Ruby could never remember) clashed directly. Ruby and Sable floated in the conflicting gravitational field halfway between the platforms, weapons locked together. A beautiful sight—or it was, until Sable ruined it by kicking Ruby right in the face. "Gah!" After last time, she really should have seen this coming. Ruby fell downwards, banging her head for the second time in succession. Thank gods for Aura, or else she'd be short more than a few brain cells. Sable followed up by sending a flurry of sharp icicles at her fallen form, but she pulled off a quick combat roll and they narrowly missed...or so it seemed. When she scrambled to her feet, Ruby found herself yanked backwards. One of the icicles had pierced her trailing cape and pinned it to the ground, just like the Nevermore back at initiation, and there was no Weiss to save her this time. The Schnee currently present had quite the opposite intention. Sable ran up behind her, slamming his boot down on the cape and raising his sword—

She had only a split-second to decide what to do. There wasn't enough time to turn around, and her Semblance didn't work when she was obstructed like this. The obvious solution was to simply unfasten her cape, but—for some reason—Ruby never even considered that option. Instead, she chose to fire Crescent Rose straight forward. The recoil propelled her back, forcing a pained wheeze from Sable as a 120-pound red cannonball slammed into his gut. Both of them went sailing off the platform; they traveled in a straight line, until they crossed the boundary between the anti-gravity biome and the center platform. At this point, Remnant's natural gravity reasserted itself. They hung in the air for a moment like characters in a zany cartoon, then plummeted straight down. Tangled together in a ball of violence, Ruby and Sable could do little to muster an effective landing strategy. Neither of them was very good at martial arts, but they were trying their best. They wrestled over each other's weapons, flailed wildly about with knees and elbows, fought for any inch of advantage. It was hard to say whether their display was inspiring or pathetic; either way, it abruptly ended when they plowed into the arena floor, to oohs of sympathy from the audience.

The teams leaders tumbled to a stop, lying about ten feet apart with their Auras flickering dangerously. "My back..." Ruby groaned. Perhaps it hadn't been worth it at all, to risk that fall. Still, they collected their weapons and stood unsteadily. Almost immediately, they spotted the blonde figure on her knees trying to hold back a ghostly white sword. It was sort of hard to miss. "Yang!" Ruby shouted in concern, before remembering this was actually good news for her team. "I mean, good job Weiss!"

Sable was already sprinting towards his sister, sword drawn. "HEY!" Not the most original battle cry, but it caught Weiss's attention. She lifted the Arma Gigas's blade from Yang and swung it towards him instead. The mismatch was apparent to anyone watching. Compared to the massive weapon under her control, Sable's own looked as flimsy as a toothpick. It seemed he was doomed to end up as a thin smear on the ground unless something crazy happened.

As always in the cheap melodrama that was their lives, something crazy happened. There was a loud crack, like the sound of ice splitting over a frozen lake. The Arma Gigas' sword halted in its tracks. An equally white and spectral arm had it held firmly by the blade. It was entirely skeletal, not a scrap of flesh on its bones from where its shoulder emerged from the summoning glyph to the very tips of its fingers, yet somehow it matched its armored twin in strength. "Guess what?" Sable panted, grinning widely. "You're not the only one who's figured things out!"

Weiss looked only faintly surprised by this development. She nodded briefly, and cast an appraising eye over Sable's skeleton (the summoned one, to be clear, not the one inside him). "So it's the same kind of summon as the Arma Gigas." she concluded. The corners of her mouth curled upwards. "Mine's still better looking."

"Like hell it is!"

"Oh, what a turn of events!" Oobleck announced. "It appears the Schnee twins have, er...done something! Honestly I have no idea what's going on—"

"Just enjoy the show, Barty! Don't think too hard!" Port advised. The audience was making an awful lot of noise. Whether they were yelling in excitement, or in confused terror because holy shit a giant skeleton just popped out of nowhere was unclear. In the front row where the rest of Team Rainbows was seated, a group of Shade students was chanting 'spooky' over and over for some reason, forcing them to shout to be heard. "Oh my gods!" Nora exclaimed. "It's an evil spirit!"

"No, I've seen this before!" Jaune corrected her. "I think how it works is if they defeat a Grimm, they can summon it to fight for them later! That right there was the Gacha—Gashadokuro?" He stumbled over the tongue-twisting word. "The big skeleton Grimm we fought in the tunnels."

"Isn't their Semblance creating glyphs?" Pyrrha questioned. "How is this related at all?"

Blake said nothing. Internally, she felt more strongly about leaving Beacon than ever. Spending any more time around the Schnee twins would be hazardous to her health; she had no desire to be made into a summon herself should the cat ears come out of the bag. The prospect of the SDC's future leaders having an army of zombified Grimm at their command boded ill for anyone linked to the White Fang. She darkly wondered how many of her old comrades might one day die at Weiss and Sable's hands—

"Um, Blake?" Ren was looking at his fellow quiet person with mild concern. "Are you okay?"

Blake wiped a bead of moisture from her brow. "I'm fine, thanks."

Back in the arena, the titans of bone and metal continued their standoff. Well, technically they were actually made of...whatever summons were made of. That would go a long way to explain why the skeleton could go toe-to-toe (finger-to-finger) with the Arma Gigas despite lacking muscles—and, for that matter, why it could even grab the blade without its hand falling apart. It was less of an epic clash, though, and more of a glorified arm wrestling match. The summons pushed against each other, but neither gained much ground. Things were going down to the wire, with all fighters now below 30% Aura. Ruby and Yang made no attempt to interfere with the summon battle. The sisters circled cautiously around each other, apparently content to catch their breath and wait for an opening. Perhaps neither of them wanted to make the first mistake, at a point when that might well end the fight; perhaps they sensed how important this was to the twins and hung back out of chivalry; perhaps they were just as curious as the audience to see what happened next.

Weiss and Sable were in uncharted territory here. They barely dared to move, feeling that if they let their concentration lapse the slightest bit, the miracle they'd created would vanish...and that they'd get smashed by the opposing summon, which would suck. Sweat ran freely down their faces, their teeth clenched with strain, their hands balled into white-knuckled fists. Yet for all their efforts, the summons remained at an impasse. Both found themselves wondering just how much longer they could keep this up. In the end, Weiss was the first to change strategies. She raised Myrtenaster and slashed aggressively at the air. With her loss of focus, the Arma Gigas faded away, but her attack struck true. Taken by surprise, Sable was unable to dodge before she froze him in a block of ice up to his neck (seeing as this was a friendly match and he was family, she generously left his head free so he wouldn't suffocate). Despite their snowflake theme, Schnees were just as vulnerable to hypothermia as anyone else, and Sable cried out in pain as the bitter cold drained his Aura. His skeletal summon began disintegrating into white mist. Weiss moved in for a coup-de-grace; with his weapon and sword arm frozen solid, he was almost helpless to resist.

Almost being the key word. Sable was shivering violently, his face turning blue, but when eyes met Weiss's they were hard and determined as ever. The sight set off alarm bells in her head, but too late. Part of the Gashadokuro's arm turned solid again—merely three knuckles on the hand, but it was enough. Weiss had no time to do more than widen her eyes in surprise before it crashed down her.

The summon vanished, this time for good. Weiss remained face-down on the floor, and did not get back up. The elimination buzzer went off. Sable's eyes fluttered shut as he went limp in his icy grave. The buzzer went off again. It had happened so fast that Ruby and Yang took a second to realize they were the last ones standing. Once they did, the sisters half-ran, half-hobbled towards each other. There was a burst of flower petals, a flash of golden flames, a gunshot or two. Both girls fell to the ground as the buzzer sounded for a third time. No one watching realized who had won, until a red X appeared over Ruby's face on the scoreboard. It was a bit of a lame ending, to be honest, but an ending nonetheless. The audience broke into cheers (some boos as well, but less than before). In the arena, though, there were no celebrations or commiserations. The four fighters continued to lie where they'd fallen. With the adrenaline wearing off, the accumulated aches and pains of their battle hit with full force. All thoughts of tournament glory were gone from their heads, replaced by an overwhelming desire for a hot bath and a soft bed.

"Ow." said Ruby.

"Ow." said Yang.

"Ow." said Weiss. "Lucky shot..." she added sourly.

"H-help..." Sable whimpered, teeth chattering. "It's so f-fucking c-cold..."

After a short recovery period, Team Rainbows boarded a shuttle back to Beacon. It was two in the afternoon; Team SJBY's win had concluded the first session of the doubles round, and the tournament would resume in the evening. Years later, many of them would look back on this moment with bittersweet fondness. Though they were no strangers to danger and bloodshed, though some of them had seen awful things in their short lives, their school days had still been marked by a certain innocence, a feeling that everything would work out and no one would suffer lasting harm (except for all those White Fang who had snuffed it, of course). After today, that sense of safety would be broken, and even though broken things may one day be repaired, they never return to quite the same state they were before...

But right here and right now, such things were far from their minds. The sun was shining outside, the awkward pre-fight mood had dissipated, and banter flowed easily again. "How could we lose? We'll be laughingstocks! A byword for epic failure!" Nora wailed, chewing on a handkerchief with a comically sad expression. "This is going to go on my tombstone! Here lies Nora Valkyrie, eliminated from the 40th Vytal Festival—"

Jaune patted her awkwardly on the back. "Shh, it'll be okay...look, the next tournament's only two years away, I'm sure you'll kick our butts then—"

Ren rolled his eyes. "Don't worry. She'll be over it by dinner."

"—so I was wondering how summoning fits in with your glyphs." Nearby, Pyrrha was trying to strike up a conversation with the twins. "I must say, it seems really different from the rest of your power set."

Weiss frowned. "Um...it's just something our family has always been able to do?" She paused to dab at her bloody nose with a tissue. "I suppose the summon does have to come out of a glyph."

"That sounds kind of bullshit, though." Yang butted in. "Couldn't you justify anything then, so long as it's in glyph form? Like, you could have a time stopping glyph or a healing glyph or—"

"Don't be ridiculous." Weiss snapped. "All we can do is make platforms, push things, pull things, dilate time, launch elemental projectiles, cause explosions, and summon. That's it."

Yang snorted. "Oh yeah, that makes total sense."

"Look, don't overthink it. It's just how our Semblance works." Sable said hoarsely. He sat wrapped in a heavy blanket, still shivering now and then. "Besides, what else would it be? Magic?"

Pyrrha chuckled. "That would be ridiculous, wouldn't it?"

There was a bump as their shuttle touched down on the Beacon landing pads. Ruby rose from her seat and stumbled towards the exit, followed by the rest of the gang. "Well, I need a nap." she declared with a yawn. "Let's meet back here before the evening session, okay? We can all cheer Pyrrha on in her fight!"

"I think I'll pass." Sable said. "No offense, Pyrrha, but I really want to get some more practice in with the summons—"

Weiss nodded. "Me too. Sorry, it's just that we've struggled to get it working for so long—"

"—and we made some real breakthroughs today—" Sable continued.

"—so I don't want to slack off and miss the chance—"

"—to do something really special—"

"No need to apologize. I know the feeling." Pyrrha was slightly weirded out about how they had suddenly started finishing each other's sentences, but gave them an understanding smile. She remembered well the heady days after she'd discovered her Semblance. For weeks, she'd insisted on testing it out on every metal object in sight, much to her mother's dismay. "Good luck."

Weiss smiled back. "Thanks. Same to you, although I doubt you'll need it."

"Hm, you'd be surprised. I drew quite a tough opponent, actually. There's a decent chance I could lose." Despite her dire prediction, the champion's face showed not a hint of dread. There was a spring in her step as she walked down Beacon's main avenue, green eyes glittering with anticipation. "Oh, this is going to be so much fun..."

is this a motherfucking jojo reference

So, did you think something bad was going to happen during that fight? Sorry to disappoint, but the apocalypse will have to wait for one more chapter. Just wanted to give our mains one last bit of fun before things go down the toilet, and the sibling fight is an idea I've had for a while (disclaimer: author does not endorse bonding with your siblings by stabbing them in the face). I literally decided Sable and Yang would win based on a coin flip, because spoiler alert, it's not like the tournament is going to finish.

We don't really have any canon scenes of Team RWBY fighting each other, so I had to (horror!) come up with some original stuff...and may have bitten off more than I could handle. The anti-gravity stuff was something that looked really cool in my head but ended up being a pain in the butt to describe in writing. And as always when Sable fights, I am paranoid he ended up being too strong. One of the benefits of your OC being a Schnee is that you can just slap an existing Semblance onto him, and avoid the temptation to give him some crazy OP power, but I think that might've happened anyways. Glyphs are pretty dang busted.

And oh wow, I wonder who Pyrrha drew for her fight? Bear in mind, though, that circumstances are a bit different this time...

Anyways, see you at the Fall, everyone. Leave your death and dismemberment predictions in the reviews.