A/N:

And here's the second chapter; these two were the only ones I had fully planned out, so expect any future updates to come at my usual pace (that is, rarely and slowly). This one does have that twist I promised though; I don't think it's really been done before, at least not that I've read so far, so maybe it'll surprise a few of you.

DISCLAIMER: I don't own either of the franchises used in this crossover; I do, however, own a very small Titan toy, which in my opinion is far more important.

{PLANET REMNANT}
{BEACON TOWER, CITY OF VALE}
{THIRD PERSON POV}

Pyrrha watched in shock as her thrown shield hit the arrow; rather than block it, the arrow simply reformed around the shield, her last-second gambit failing as the projectile pierced her Aura-less heel. She fell to the ground with a cry, trying and failing to stand before her legs gave out beneath her. Unable to move, she kneeled there, head bowed low in pain as Cinder walked behind her.

"It's unfortunate you were promised a power that was never truly yours," the mastermind behind Beacon's fall began to monologue, "But take comfort in knowing, that I will use it in ways you never could have imagined."

She reached down to lift Pyrrha's chin, staring into her eyes; a moment later, Pyrrha jerked her head away. "Do you believe… in destiny?"

Cinder's eyes narrowed. "Yes," she replied, standing and beginning to form a bow using her Semblance, drawing an arrow and aiming at Pyrrha's heart.

At that same moment, Ruby appeared on the roof; her eyes widened in horror at what was happening, too late to stop it.

The scene was quickly disrupted, however, as a giant robot crashed onto the roof next to Cinder and Pyrrha, knocking both to the ground from the sheer force. Seconds later, a strange smoke emanated from the robot's torso, solidifying into a strangely-armored man; he wore futuristic armor that would not have been out of place in Atlas, but with an almost cobbled-together feel that detracted from that theory. He wore a baggy, black flight suit under the grey armor, along with a helmet that had an array of antennas and, most strikingly, an almost star-shaped visor that glowed a vibrant orange.

They didn't have much time to observe him, however, as he moved; one second he was standing in front of the mech, glancing between them, and the next second he had faded into that strange mist again, reappearing next to Cinder and kicking her away with a violent blow.

{PLANET REMNANT}
{BEACON TOWER, CITY OF VALE}
{KYLE "COBRA SIX" ALLEN}

This was becoming a bit of a theme; me not expecting things, that is.

I had sacrificed myself to ensure the destruction of the Fold Weapon. That was a fact, I had felt myself be torn apart on the molecular level, and I certainly hadn't expected to survive that. So, when I opened my eyes again seconds later, still inside Sierra but now hundreds of feet in the air over what looked to be an active warzone where people were fighting against each other and shadow monsters? Well, I could honestly say that wasn't expected.

"Kyle, my systems are running on auxiliary power; at most, I have twenty-seven minutes and five seconds of operation remaining," Sierra told me.

Shaking my head to clear it, I thought over the information I had access to. Something seemed familiar about the monsters in the city, probably a long-forgotten memory from my first life, but right now I needed to establish where we would land and what I needed to do when I got there. 'Thankfully,' I thought, glancing over at the Mastiff strapped to the side of the cockpit, 'I have an ace up my sleeve, just in case.'

"Alright Sierra, can you triangulate our landing area?" I spoke, falling back on years of experience piloting Titans in similar situations to this one; Titanfalls were popular enough that the experience of falling through the sky into an active war zone was a familiar one to me, after all.

"Calculating… assuming no external interference, we will be landing directly on the damaged tower below us. My sensors indicate there are two humanoids there, but they may be faulty as I am also receiving readings of thermal and magnetic manipulations on a scale unlikely for modern technology."

"Great, just what we needed, idiots with superpowers… hopefully they aren't aliens. Sierra, can you flare your thrusters at the last minute, so we don't end up falling through the entire tower?"

My Titan was silent for a moment, before responding, "It should be possible; additional calculations are required, however."

Looking down, I could see the tower coming up quickly. "Well, you'd better hurry, we're almost there!"

And with that, we landed, throwing the combatants aside via the sheer force of our impact; luckily, Sierra had managed to slow our decent just enough that we didn't fall through the floor, but the loud groaning noise the tower made was a bit unsettling.

The moment we were stable, I grabbed my weapons and phase shifted out of the cockpit, glancing around at the people on the roof; looking at them now, they were certainly human, or at least similar, though there was something about them… the girl with the armor, the one in the dress that had been shooting fire, and even the smaller one in the distance, with the scythe…

Oh. I remember now.

Seeing the woman I now recognized as Cinder Fall begin to stand, I wasted no time; phase shifting, I rushed at her, reappearing just in time to kick her away from Pyrrha, following up the attack with an energy blast from the Mastiff. Unfortunately, the blast skittered off her Aura, not doing any noticeable damage, and by the time the shotgun was ready to fire again, Cinder had regained her balance.

She didn't bother to ask questions, instead just throwing out a series of fiery bolts at me. I'd love to say I dodged them all with skill and style, but I really just rolled to the side and phase shifted to dodge the rest, rushing towards where I last saw her. Unfortunately, by the time I arrived she had already moved and was holding out a palm to my face, hand already burning with magic.

A sniper rang out, the bullet hitting Cinder's arm and knocking her aim off just enough that I didn't die, instead taking the fire blast to the shoulder. I bit down the scream that tried to escape me, tossing the Mastiff aside since I couldn't handle it properly with one hand and drawing my Alternator instead. A quick burst of rounds from the double-barreled SMG forced Cinder away from me, allowing me the time to phase shift away again.

Reappearing next to Sierra, I traded the Alternator to my mostly-useless left arm, using my now-free right hand to throw a gravity star at Cinder's feet. She didn't bother to dodge it, having already judged the trajectory and realized it was going to miss, and it did… up until the built-in gravity generator activated, forcibly dragging her into the localized gravity field.

With her now contained, I didn't waste time; instead of trying to break her Aura, I ran forward, once again phase shifting as I did. Not stopping until I reached the gravity field, I threw out my right arm as I felt the phase shift ending, and upon my return to reality I found my forearm had pierced her chest. Thanks to the strange rules that governed the alternate dimension that phase shifting sent me into, matter could exist in the same location as the outside world; however, in reality, that was not the case, resulting in violent telefragging, one of the many reasons that phase-shifting Pilots are so feared on the battlefield.

A split-second later, the gravity field failed violently; both Cinder and I were thrown back, and I felt my ribs crack under the pressure as I slammed into one of the metal gears covering the roof. Cinder suffered a similar fate, the impact knocking the breath out of her as she lay there in shock. She wasn't dead yet, her Aura was probably working overtime to keep her alive, but everyone there knew she wouldn't survive; not without a heart, anyway.

She still tried, however. Her power began to build up, a gargled scream escaping her as she forced herself to stand, and I realized her plan; since she couldn't win, she was going to make sure the rest of us lost, probably by using some kind of eruption of power that would burn us alive.

Then I heard the whirring, and smiled; Sierra had finally managed to reboot enough systems to move under her own power, and dragged herself to her feet. I watched as crackling red lightning began to emanate from her 'eye', before finally being unleashed in the awe-inspiring beam of red energy that was a Laser Core. The beam easily seared through the debris standing in its way, and Cinder barely had enough time to widen her eyes before her Aura, already taxed from attempting to heal her, was overpowered.

When the beam finally died down several seconds later, there was nothing left of Cinder Fall; nothing except for a strange cloud of orange energy. 'The Maiden powers,' I realized, memories from my old life filling in the blanks, 'So, it seems like Pyrrha might become the Maiden after all…'

The cloud sat there for a moment, as if debating where it should go, before making its way towards where Pyrrha had been thrown by Sierra's impact. I was just as surprised as everyone else, however, when the energy ignored her, sweeping past and almost caressing Sierra's chassis before merging with her.

I watched in shock as Sierra's lights, originally blue, began to glow a bright orange; they almost seemed to radiate with energy, which matched nicely with her dark grey chassis and the, now surprisingly prophetic, flame designs I had painted on the hull. "What the hell…"

Sierra slowly looked to her hands, the robotic appendages now covered in flames, before turning to me. "Kyle… my internal sensors are registering an unknown power source has connected to my systems. I no longer seem to have a finite operating time… and, somehow, I am able to create thermal energy at an efficiency surpassing the Scorch Titan class, despite not having the modifications required to do so."

'Holy fucking shit… how?! How is this possible? I thought the requirements for Maiden power was being a woman, some kind of obscure age limit, and something about final thoughts… wait. Oh, that…' my thoughts trailed off as I realized what happened.

Sierra's AI was, at its core, female, just as much as BT was male; similarly, being an AI that was only three years 'old', she definitely fell under the age limit. Most importantly, however, she was the one who finished off Cinder Fall; with how narcissistic that woman was, of course her last thoughts would be something along the lines of cursing the thing that killed her. With all that said…

I was peripherally aware of Pyrrha's own shocked reaction as she realized what I did; Sierra, my massive mech of a partner, had become the new Fall Maiden. Yes, I can definitely say that I hadn't expected anything that happened today; alien superweapons, universal travel, and now a giant war machine turned magical girl.

And so, heedless of the pain in my broken and burned body, I fell into loud, cackling laughter.

A/N:

I'll be ending this chapter here; technically speaking, this chapter and the one before are the 'prologue' of this story, but I didn't want to ruin the flow of either by combining them. Suffice it to say that yes, the main character's Ion is now a Maiden; I probably don't need to justify the idea, seeing as how Penny became a Maiden as well, but that idea was the one that wouldn't leave me alone. After all, Titans are awesome, especially Ion, but a Titan that can also manipulate the elements (and could probably gain Aura as well, given that basically everything living except for the Grimm has a soul in RWBY) is even better.

Either way though, I'll explain my reasoning for Sierra having a soul; the topic is a difficult and controversial one, but looking at only RWBY, we know that animals and humans have souls, while Grimm do not. Penny has a soul due to her creator imbuing some of his Aura into her, doing the same each time he rebuilt her. Going by only those rules, there's nothing to really say that Sierra would have a soul; however, during Titanfall 2's campaign, you get to spend time with BT and watch as he grieves the loss of his original Pilot, slowly accepting you and forming a bond, proposing his own ideas and finally saving your character at the end, something that happens regardless of what your character says. So, we know that Titans have some form of autonomy and the ability to think for themselves; and as the famous saying goes, "I think, therefore I am." So, under that criteria, Titans have a soul; perhaps not the same as a human soul, but close enough that they can effectively emulate humanity. So, since Titans have a soul, and technically have the concept of gender (as shown by the game referring to BT as "he" and 'feminine' multiplayer Titans like Ion and Tone as "she"), they should qualify for the Maiden powers. Probably not a very high chance for them to randomly be chosen, but when the candidate directly thinks of them? Well, I'd say it makes about as much sense as everything else in RWBY.

So, there's my reasoning; like it or not, I think it'll be a fun topic to explore in-story, so look forward to the next chapter, whenever I can put it out…

Anyway, this is AWDTB, signing off.