Harry sat in the stands of Amity Colosseum once again, this time alone, as he waited for the match between Pyrrha Nikos and Penny Polendina to begin.

The rest of the team were in position at various locations in preparation for when Cinder tried to kick off the invasion, which was set to be when Emerald tricked Pyrrha into accidentally killing Penny. Assuming the bad guys' plan remained the same, of course.

The team had been hoping that stopping Emerald from tricking Yang into attacking a downed opponent would lessen the severity of the negative emotions that were running throughout the crowds, thus lower the amount of Grimm that would be attracted during the attempted invasion. Unfortunately, it appeared that Cinder'd had backup plans.

The first incident was a team from Atlas severely beating up a human man and his faunus girlfriend, both civilians. They were being decried as violent racists, especially by the faunus community, but the team swore up and down that they'd seen two White Fang terrorists planning to attack a human and had intervened. Security camera footage disproved those claims, much to the teens' shock, and Ironwood was forced to place them under arrest pending an inquiry back in Atlas where expulsion was a possibility. It didn't matter that he knew they'd acted in good faith and had been tricked, he had no proof, and he couldn't act against public opinion and make things worse.

The other incident involved a student from Shade getting in a fight with a student from Haven that had resulted in an almost absurd amount of property damage (one of the students had a rocket launcher, the other a chaingun with HE rounds) and several injuries in the middle of a busy street. When interrogated on what had begun the fight, both gave conflicting statements, and when asked why they busted out the heavy ordinance in such a crowded location they said there'd only been a few people and they'd made sure to aim away from them. People were angry with their recklessness, and they had both been put on suspension.

Both incidents, Harry knew, were aimed at making the civilian population distrust the hunters and the academies along with increase their negative feelings. And going by the gossip he could hear around him, it was working.

The talking of the crowd changed to cheers as Pyrrha and Penny walked out onto the arena, the redheaded champion resplendent in her armor, looking like a warrior out of the Iliad, while the perky android bounced happily, excited for the upcoming fight.

The crowd roared as the battle began. Harry sat back as he watched the two girls clash in an incredible display of supreme skill and power he knew he'd never be able to match without tapping deeply into his powers, fidgeting with an object in his hands. People around looked at him oddly when they saw what he was toying with, but generally shrugged it off to pay attention to the fight.

He was nervous. The next part of the plan needed to go off perfectly, or a vibrant young woman's life would be ended prematurely and messily. As he watched the girls clash over and over again he let out a deep breath when he saw the climax of the fight approaching.

Penny was preparing to strike with all eight swords she had at her disposal, which were controlled with wires to dance at her command. As the ginger android launched the blades forward, Harry saw Pyrrha's eyes go wide, her face panicked, which told him she was now being affected by Emerald's illusion into thinking there were far more blades heading for her than there actually were. In a panic, the redhead let loose a magnetized shockwave using her semblance, Polarity. The weapons were launched back at Penny, who's eyes widened in surprise.

The retaliation was too swift for even Penny's prodigious processing power to react, and the thin yet incredibly sturdy metal wires that allowed her to control her swords began wrapping around her body. Harry hurriedly motioned with his hands as, due to the force of their momentum, the wires cut into Penny's synthetic body. The crowd could only watch in horror as her body was cut into by her own weapons, the wires slicing her limbs and torso into pieces, letting everybody see the metal and sparking wires that lay underneath the synthetic skin. Harry sighed as Penny's lifeless eyes gazed out vacantly.

There were shrieks of shock and horror from the crowd as the announcers, Professors Port and Oobleck, began to exclaim their own disbelief of what had happened as well. None of that compared to the look on Pyrrha's face as she fell to her knees, face as white as a sheet as she beheld what's she'd unintentionally done.

Harry got up out of his seat and began walking up the stairs of the colosseum, pocketing the object in his hands as he prepared himself for what came next, a portal opening before him once he was out of sight which he promptly stepped through.

As everybody was still trying to get over the shock of what had just happened a woman's voice spoke over the system, her voice being broadcast not just in the stadium but to everyone watching throughout Remnant.

"This is not a tragedy. This was not an accident. This is what happens when you hand over your trust, your safety, your children, to men who claim to be our guardians, but are, in reality, nothing more than men." Cinder smiled as she spoke into her scroll from atop a rooftop. "Our Academies' Headmasters wield more power than most armies, and one was audacious enough to control both."

Ironwood sat calmly in his seat at the colosseum despite the looks he was beginning to be given. He had faith in their plan, and he would play his part.

"They cling to this power in the name of peace, and yet, what do we have here? One nation's attempt at a synthetic army, mercilessly torn apart by another's star pupil." The mastermind continued, her words cutting and riling up the crowd. "What need would Atlas have for a soldier disguised as an innocent little girl? I don't think the Grimm can tell the difference."

Outside of the walls of the kingdom, the Grimm began to approach, drawn by the growing negativity they could sense emanating from humanity's bastion against them.

Back in the arena, Pyrrha's eyes watered as she continued staring at the face of the girl she'd killed, robot or not, all while the woman continued to speak. "And what, I ask you, is Ozpin teaching his students? Such a wanton murder of a seeming innocent? Huntsmen and Huntresses should carry themselves with honor and mercy, yet I have witnessed neither." Ruby was sobbing at the loss of her precious friend, kneeling on the ground as tears fell from her silver eyes. "Perhaps Ozpin felt as though defeating Atlas in the Tournament would help people forget his colossal failure to protect Vale when the Grimm invaded its streets. Or perhaps this was his message to the tyrannical dictator that has occupied an unsuspecting kingdom with armed forces. Honestly, I haven't the slightest clue as to who is right and who is wrong. But I know the existence of peace is fragile, and the leaders of our kingdoms conduct their business with iron gloves."

Cinder smiled, about to finish her speech, striking fear and uncertainty into the hearts of the entirety of the world, when the screens showing the tournament, which had displayed an overlay with the symbol of a queen chess piece during her interruption, suddenly changed. Now it displayed a blue background with an unfamiliar symbol that only Cortana and Master Chief would recognize as being the Forerunner symbol for humanity. A new voice came over the speakers, one which made Cinder's eyes widen in shock at the familiarity despite the obvious differences.

"Such pretty little poison, Cinder Fall." The voice said, making said woman recoil in shock. "Oh yes, we know who you are, Cinder. We know your plans. You are the one that's been behind Torchwick and the White Fang's dust robberies. You masterminded the Breach in order to undermine the kingdom's defenses and the trust of its people. You arranged those incidents involving the students by using the Semblance of your compatriot, Emerald Sustrai, to make them see things that weren't there. You then did the same thing to Miss Nykos, which culminated in this incident." The crowd was once again shocked at what they were hearing, Team JNPR looking up from where they'd moved onto the arena to support Pyrrha, anger in most of their eyes. "Speaking of which, Miss Polendina is fine, Miss Nikos." Pyrrha's eyes widened as she saw 'Penny's' body suddenly turn to dust. "We used the semblance of one of our agents to replace her with this simulacrum at the last moment. Apologies, but we needed to draw Fall out." Pyrrha let out a sob of relief onto Jaune's shoulder.

Cinder was staring in shock at what her screen was showing. How? How did they know who she was? How had they been able to predict her moves? There should have been no way for that to be possible!

"Where was I?" The newer voice said. "Ah yes. You also put a virus in the CCT system in order to control the kingdom's defenses. You even managed to infect the Atlesian system that controls their mechs and ships. It's purged now, by the way. You're a few thousand years too early to get one passed me with such a rudimentary program. Whoever made it was decent… for an idiot."

Far away from Vale, a man with greying hair and an impressive mustache narrowed his eyes at the insult to his skills.

"All of this, for what? To draw the Grimm into Vale and allow them to attack with impunity with the help of the ones you've already snuck in here with the help of Adam Taurus' radical faction of the White Fang, bringing the kingdom down. I'm sorry to tell you though, Cinder…" Suddenly the sounds of artillery began to ring out, the kingdom defenses suddenly activating and taking down the approaching Grimm with uncommon accuracy, the Atlesian ships floating overhead adding to the fire, taking out airborn Grimm easily. "…that's not going to happen."

In several areas of the city, faunus soldiers of the White Fang looked at each other nervously, cages full of Grimm nearby.

"Don't worry though, Fall." The voice continued with an undercurrent of laughter. "We'll be hunting you down soon enough. …I'd suggest running, not that it will help." She laughed outright now.

"Who are you!?" Cinder asked with fury, glaring at her screen, not expecting her voice to still be broadcast, though it was.

"Us? We are guardians. We protect the people, no matter what. We could stop you, so we did. It's that simple." Nobody could see Cortana, but they could hear the smile of pride in her voice. "These Huntsmen and Huntresses dedicate their lives to the welfare of the people. It's only fair they get some back up." The tone became teasing. "Now, shouldn't you be running?" With a final laugh, the screens turned back to normal.

Back in the colosseum, the crowd was shouting at each other over what they'd heard, shocked beyond belief that someone had tried to bring the kingdom down in such a way. Unnoticed to most, Mercury and Emerald were trying to slink away while they could, but they were confronted by Alice, Lara, Glynda and Qrow. They didn't have a chance.

Down in the arena, Pyrrha clung to Jaune as Nora patted her back. "I didn't kill her. I didn't kill her…" She kept repeating, tears of relief falling down her cheeks as her partner held her reassuringly.

"No, you didn't. And it sounds like Cinder is going to get what she deserves." The blonde knight said with an audible growl in his voice.

"I say we break her legs." Nora said viciously. Ren, for once, nodded in agreement.

Jaune began guiding Pyrrha to the exit. "C'mon, let get back to the dorms so we can all rest. It doesn't seem like we're needed anymore." The others nodded and followed him out of the arena, the redhead of the group leaning on him for support, emotionally exhausted.

Meanwhile, with Ruby, her team had quickly rushed over to her once they found her. "Ruby, are you alright?" Weiss asked, worried.

Ruby looked up at her friends, tears still in her eyes but a smile on her face. "Penny's alright…"

Yang knelt down and hugged her sister. "C'mon sis. Let's go back to Beacon. I think we could all use some hot chocolate and some rest."

Weiss nodded. "Yes. We can let Ozpin and whoever that was over the system deal with Cinder."

Ruby got up, wiping her eyes. "I can't believe Cinder was behind everything. She seemed so nice…"

"That's why they say you shouldn't just trust a pretty face." Yang said with a smile before noticing that Blake looked agitated. "You alright, Blake? What's up? You look like a spooked cat."

Blake fidgeted. "It's nothing… Just… something that the second woman got to me, that's all."

"About the White Fang?" Ruby asked, thinking it was pretty obvious that was what was affecting Blake, since she used to be a member.

"…Yeah."

Yang wrapped an arm around her partner and pulled her close. "Don't worry about it. Sounds like it's well in hand." Blake hesitated, but nodded with a sigh. "Great! Now let's go. I could use a cat nap."

The other three groaned. "Sheesh, that's worse than usual." Weiss grumped.

"Aw, you just don't have any sense of humor."

In one of the many buildings throughout Vale full of White Fang members guarding cages of Grimm, Adam Taurus was seething. Damn Cinder! Somehow the stupid human bitch had let the kingdom discover the plan, and now everything was ruined.

"What do we do, Adam?" A faunus with antlers on her head asked.

The bull faunus turned to her, and she shivered slightly at the rage he was radiating even with his mask hiding his face. "Have everyone release the Grimm as planned. Things might still be salvaged if we can do enough damage." He stood up and began heading for the exit. "If nothing else we'll show the humans that they aren't as safe as they thought they were." He gripped his sword's sheathe tightly. "I'll use the distraction to take care of some… business."

The antlered woman nodded and spoke into her radio. The large doors of the building they were in opened, and the White Fang let the Grimm out, quickly getting away from them as the monsters moved out into the streets, ready to kill anything they came across.

Adam and his subordinates were surprised, however, when the Grimm were gunned down mere feet from the exit. They looked around in alarm, finding a large amount of Atlesian mechs surrounding the building, their weapons firing into the Grimm till the beasts fell and began to dissipate. One of the mechs began to speak with the voice that Adam recognized from what they had just seen online. "White Fang, you are all under arrest for attempted terrorism and intentionally releasing Grimm into a populated area, among other crimes. Come quietly and none of you will get hurt." The mech that was speaking turned its face to look at Adam, the woman still speaking through it. "All the locations you'd had Grimm stashed have been raided and neutralized. You've lost, Taurus."

Adam saw red. He'd been so close to getting revenge, both on humanity and Blake, and now everything was ruined!

Well, he wasn't going to stop now. He was going to get at least one out of two.

Cortana, seeing through the eyes of all the mechs in the city (she really needed to thank Ironwood for granting her permission to conduct the operation), could clearly see Adam tensing and getting ready to make a break for it. She immediately directed the mechs to fire, but even with her controlling them and boosting their processing capabilities, their hardware couldn't keep up, and they just missed hitting the terrorist as he took off, leaving his subordinates behind.

Cortana sighed and contacted the team. "Taurus has escaped from me. He's either leaving the city, or…"

Cinder raced to Beacon, avoiding the patrols of mechs that filled the streets, keeping an eye out for any trouble. The Grimm at the walls were being pushed back somehow, and the ones being kept captive either weren't being released into the city, or something had gone even more badly than she'd thought.

She no longer had the benefit of the distraction of an invasion to cover her entrance into the vault beneath Beacon where her quarry was located, but she knew too well the price her mistress would extract for failure, so at the very least she needed to get some intelligence on what was there before fleeing, no matter how much she'd prefer to leave the kingdom entirely immediately, something that would be monumentally more difficult now that everybody and their dog would be keeping an eye out for her.

However, she stood a better chance if she managed to take the rest of the magical powers of the Fall Maiden. She'd only managed to steal part of them before, but with access to the full amount of power, she stood a much better chance of surviving.

Thankfully, there didn't seem to be much security in the school. All the faculty must be out dealing with the fallout of the night's events. With any luck they assumed she'd try to skip town rather than continue her original objective.

Hiding from a couple of passing students, she made her way into the elevator at the base of Beacon's tower. Then, as she was about to figure out how to get the thing to take her down, everything went black.

Teams RWBY and JNPR had met up on the airship to Beacon, and they'd all agreed to head to the dorms to relax after the stressful hour they'd just had, especially Blake, Pyrrha and Ruby.

Yang was cracking bad jokes and puns, trying to keep everyone's spirits up, while both Ruby and Pyrrha were thinking about asking Ozpin to let them see Penny. Blake, on the other hand, was still worried after hearing that Adam was in Vale. She dreaded the thought of running into him, and could only hope that he'd already been captured.

Alas, it was not to be, as her sharp hearing caught the sound of a blade hissing through the air as the teams were walking through one of Beacon's grassy areas, Blake walking slightly apart from the others. She immediately reacted by dodging away, leaving a clone of herself to take the hit, one of its arms coming off as the razor sharp blade went through it.

Blake knew what she'd find when she looked for where the attack came from, but she still stumbled back in shock as she saw Adam's masked visage step out of the shadows of a tree, crimson hair seeming to glow in the moonlight. "Hello, Blake."

The teams moved with commendable quickness, Pyrrha, the only one armed at the moment, and Yang and Ren, the best hand to hand combatants, all moving forward to cover the others.

"A-Adam…" Blake stuttered out, her gaze shaky and fearful as she looked at him.

"You know, I didn't believe it when they told me. Blake Belladona, consorting with a bunch of humans? With a Schnee, one of the worst faunus oppressors on Remnant?" Adam's grip on his weapon tightened, showing the calm rage he was experiencing. "Is that really who you left me for? Are you trying to hurt me?"

"Hey, asshole, who the hell do you think you are?" Yang asked, her fists raised and ready to pound this guy's face in.

"Yang, don't!" Blake pleaded. Then she turned to Adam. "Adam, I'm not trying to do anything dealing with you. I'm just trying to live my life."

"With a SCHNEE!?" Adam growled loudly. He got into a iaido stance, ready for an attacking draw. "You left me, Blake. You hurt me." His tone turned even more menacing. "Now I'm going to hurt you in turn."

Pyrrha got into a fighting stance with her eyes narrowed, Yang and Ren at her sides as the others began calling for their gear from the rocket lockers. "You aren't touching her."

Adam's response was to dash forward to attack. Pyrrha blocked his strike with her shield, immediately retaliating, eyes slightly wide at the ferocity of the attack. Adam easily took the parry on his blade, dodging backwards as Yang's fist appeared where his head had been, her eyes narrowed as she tried to hurt the person who had attempted to injure her partner.

Adam slashed at Yang, who barely dodged back, his speed with his blade greater than she expected. Ren made his appearance then, having snuck up on Adam and hit him with an aura enhanced palm strike to the back, making the bull faunus grunt before turning to slash at the teen's neck. He was intercepted by Jaune, who'd leapt forward, his shield in front, tanking the hit.

The others, now armed, surrounded Adam, wary but ready to give him a beatdown. Their opponent sheathed his blade, once again shifting into a iaido stance, ready to counter the first person to attack.

"Please, Adam, just leave…" Blake pleaded, Gambol Shroud held in a white knuckled grip.

Adam didn't say anything, simply adjusting his grip on his weapons, studying his opponents. His gaze locked onto Weiss, who was standing ready with her eyes narrowed at the terrorist. Without warning he dashed at her, drawing his blade to remove the heiress' pretty little head. Weiss stepped back, her rapier being brought up into a guarding position, just barely keeping him from decapitating her.

Ruby intervened to protect her partner, Crescent Rose whirling to rip into Adam, who managed to dodge back, parrying a strike that came especially close to cutting him open. The attack pushed him out of the circle of students, and he prepared himself to take advantage of not being surrounded. Once again sheathing his sword, he began another drawing slash to at least push Ruby back… till the moment that he was smashed in the side by a green bison that appeared out of apparently nowhere, sending him flying.

Everybody was left speechless, staring at the green animal that stood where Adam had been, looking smug. "…Wat?" Nora asked, for once being the one flabbergasted by some bit of insanity.

To their surprise, the bison suddenly changed into Beast Boy, who they had all seen around the school. He turned to look at them, a cocky smirk on his face. "Hey guys, you mind if I cut in? We've been looking for Broody McBroodPants for a while."

Yang scratched her head. "Well, you did just charge in. Might as well." She smiled at Weiss' murmur of 'That wasn't even a pun'.

Beast Boy nodded as he watched Adam come rushing back in. "Good. You guys stand back. Let me show you how a professional does it."

Jaune's exclamation of 'You've got to be younger than Ruby' was ignored as Adam charged with a bellow, drawing his blade at Beast Boy, who was still grinning.

As Adam slashed, Beast Boy suddenly shifted into what appeared to be a cloud, making the terrorist stumble as he overbalanced slightly, confused. Then they realized what happened when the swarm of Japanese hornets that Beast Boy had become began stinging at Adam, making him yelp in shock. He jumped back, and the green insects shifted into a frog, which leaped at the redhead. Adam slashed again, but with another shift BB became ram, hooves pushing off the blade to increase momentum, bashing his horns into the bullish man's own. As Adam reeled back from the hit Beast Boy immediately shifted into a large silverback gorilla and slammed his fist into Adam's gut, launching him away once again.

All this had happened in a matter of seconds, leaving the teens that were watching the fight staring in shock and awe. As Beast Boy shifted back to human form, his fists up and ready for any attacks, Yang felt the need to speak up. "Holy shit."

Beast Boy chuckled, his gaze never leaving Adam. "There's a reason my code name is Beast Boy." He immediately shifted again as he saw Adam lift Blush, the sheathe/rifle portion of his weapon, and begin firing. The large tank that was the green hippopotamus Beast Boy had shifted into was taking the hits easily, the flickers of green aura showing how little effect the shots were having. If a hippo could look smug, Beast Boy did. Then he charged, his massive bulk moving with deceptive speed, a mouth capable of crushing melons with contemptuous ease without the use of aura opening cavernously wide in order to treat Adam's torso like one of said melons.

Adam immediately sheathed his blade, Wilt, before drawing it again in an attack, aiming for Beast Boy's open mouth.

Of course, he missed again, the changeling shifting into a hummingbird that flew upwards at high speed before shifting again, this time into an elephant that began to fall feet first. Adam quickly leapt out of the way as the massive animal landed with an impact that made the ground shake.

Adam was seething. He didn't know who the green boy was, but his ability to shapeshift made for an infuriatingly random fighting style, leaving Adam practically disoriented. He gripped the hilt of Wilt angrily before his gaze shifted to the teens, Blake especially. He had two choices now. Retreat from a fight he might not be able to win if the teens joined in, or try to get back at the girl that betrayed him while she was distracted by what she was seeing with the others.

It wasn't really much of a choice.

Adam suddenly dashed at Blake, already drawing his blade in order to cause grievous harm. The teens, not having realized what he was plotting since his mask had kept them from realizing he was looking at them, reacted just a hair too slowly. Yang, being right beside her partner, moved in Adam's way, determined to protect the black haired cat faunus, bringing her arms up in order to protect herself as best she could even as the others leapt into action, everyone able to see that they wouldn't make it in time despite their proximity, his attack had been so sudden.

Just as Wilt's blade was about to impact with Yang's guarding arm and from there her neck, Adam suddenly recoiled, screaming in pain as his arm was sliced off without warning by a blade that came out of seemingly nowhere. A familiar blade, attached to a wire.

As Adam fell back, blood pouring from his severed arm, the others turned to find Penny standing nearby, her arm outstretched and an uncommon expression of anger on her face. "Adam Taurus! Stay away from my friends!"

"Penny!" Ruby cheered in happiness.

Suddenly the green gorilla was back beside Adam, who hadn't noticed due to the shock of the sudden amputation and the pain that came with it. Beast Boy palmed the faunus' head with a large hand and brutally drove his face into the ground. Then he delivered a vicious punch down, driving Adam's head into the dirt and likely fracturing his skull. The bull horned young man went limp, though they could all see he was still breathing, if shallowly.

Yang fell on her ass, her knees slightly weak due to the near death experience now that the adrenaline was leaving her system, her eyes a bit wide. Blake and Ruby immediately knelt back beside her, Blake looking especially shaky. "Yang, are you alright?" Her sister asked.

Yang swallowed. "Yeah. Fine Rubes. That was just… a bit closer than usual."

"You shouldn't have done that." Blake said shakily. "I'm not worth your life, Yang."

Yang's eyes snapped to her partner before she suddenly wrapped the other girl into a hug. "Shut up, Blake. You're being an idiot."

Blake began to shake at the close encounter with her past and the possibility of losing one of the most important people in her life, wrapping her arms around the blonde like a lifeline.

Pyrrha frowned. "We should have done more than just stand around." Her voice was full of self-recrimination, considering how close they'd apparently been to losing Yang.

Jaune sighed, running his fingers through his hair. "From the looks of it we would have gotten in the green guy's way. He seemed to have it under control."

"Plus it was just weird." Nora said bluntly.

Ruby dashed over to Penny and threw her arms around her. "Thank you, Penny. I'm so glad you're alright. How did you know we needed help?"

Penny hugged Ruby back happily. "Miss Cortana downloaded an information packet explaining the situation into me, then told me I should find you and the others to make sure you were alright, just in case."

Pyrrha hesitantly approached. "Hello. I, ah, I just…" She stuttered.

Penny brightened up when she saw Pyrrha. "Are you alright, Miss Nikos? You aren't hurt or anything after that nasty trick they pulled on us, are you?"

Pyrrha swallowed but shook her head. "No. I just… I'm sorry!" She bowed, tears in her eyes. "I almost killed you!"

Penny frowned, not sure what to do in this situation, but Ruby guided her over and whispered in her ear. "It's alright, Miss Nikos. It wasn't your fault, and I'm fine." Then she scuffed her foot slightly. "I guess you know I'm not human now, though…"

"That doesn't matter." Pyrrha said. "You're obviously alive. It still would have been a death on my conscious."

Penny hesitantly reached out to touch Pyrrha, a small, happy smile on her face. "Thank you, Miss Nikos."

"Pyrrha." The redhead said firmly as Jaune stepped up beside her, a comforting hand on her shoulder. "Call me Pyrrha." Penny nodded as Ruby watched with a smile.

Blake approached Adam's body as Beast Boy finished expertly tying a tourniquet to his missing arm in order to keep him from bleeding out. "What are you going to do with him?"

BB looked up at her as he pulled out his scroll to call for assistance, eyes gentle. "He's gonna have a nice, long life in a tiny little cell." He brought his scroll to his ear. "Cortana. I've got Taurus subdued. He's going to need medical attention if we want him to survive. Get someone down here to take him off my hands, will ya? …Yeah, they're here. Yeah, I'll keep an eye on them. …Okay, I'll tell them. Later." After putting the scroll away he looked back up at Blake, who had been joined by Yang and Weiss, both giving their teammate their silent support. "The attack is completely foiled. The Grimm at the walls have been driven back thanks to the extra defenses we set up, and the White Fang in the city have been neutralized. It was pretty much bloodless, with only some injuries among the ones that wouldn't stand down."

More than one sigh of relief was released at that, and the students smiled at each other, happy that disaster had been averted.

Cinder's eyes slowly opened as consciousness returned to her. When she realized she was bound to a chair she became much more aware of her surroundings, eyes darting around frantically.

She was in a large room, the ceiling high above. Directly in front of her was some odd machinery, a couple of what looked like cryo tubes from sci-fi plainly visible. And in one of them, she could make out her target, the Fall Maiden, in a coma since Cinder attacked her and stole part of her power.

A hand suddenly appeared in front of her face, fingers snapping to draw her attention. A young man with odd markings on his face and raven hair streaked with white stood in front of her, emerald eyes narrowed as he stared down at her. Glancing to the sides she saw a large, imposing person in futuristic olive green armor standing at the ready, an odd rifle aimed unwaveringly at her head. At the boy's other side stood Ozpin, his hands on his cane as he looked down at her, looking tired.

"Do I have your attention, Cinder Fall?" The young man asked.

Cinder glared, shifting as she tested her bonds, calling on her Maiden powers to start melting the zip ties that bound her, though she immediately stopped when the giant of an armored man shifted, finger obviously curling around the trigger of his rifle in silent warning.

Instead she looked at Ozpin. "How did you know?" She asked without preamble, glowering at the silver haired man angrily.

Ozpin sighed. "I doubt the knowledge would help you, Miss Fall. However, I suppose you could call it divine intervention." The boy snorted, amused. "In any case, you are here for one reason. We are offering you one chance to, if possible, relinquish the power you stole and return it to its rightful owner. If you do so, you will live a long life in a cell."

"And if I don't?" She asked with a sneer.

"You die. Right here, right now." The tattooed boy said, speaking once again. "Those are your options. Personally I'm partial to the second option. It'll keep you from being a potential problem in the future if Salem decides to do something about you, but Ozpin thinks there's a chance to get the powers back without further bloodshed and insisted we give you a chance."

Cinder's eyes darted among the three people in front of her. "You wouldn't kill me in cold blood like that. You're the 'good guys'. The heroes."

"Heroes fight monsters, Fall." Was the reply she received. "I'm not happy about possibly having to take you out, but you just tried to murder an entire city full of people and are keeping a potentially powerful asset for our side out of play just by existing. With so many lives on the line, I can't afford to let you live just because I don't want to dirty my hands." He crossed his arms, emerald eyes hard. "What's it going to be?"

Cinder trembled in rage, her teeth gritted so hard her gums bled. Everything had gone to hell, and now she had no options. If she somehow gave up the power of the Fall Maiden, she would be weak once again, a concept she detested. She'd sworn long ago that she wouldn't be weak again. Not only that, Salem would have her killed for her failure, no matter how much security they put her behind. And Salem would make sure it wouldn't be quick.

On the other hand, if she didn't comply, these three would kill her. She wasn't strong enough to take all three on alone, a fact which added to her rage. She was outmaneuvered and outclassed, and she couldn't do anything about it.

She was the queen, yet she was the one in checkmate, and apparently had been all along.

Her gaze fell on the woman in the life support chamber, the current/previous Fall Maiden, Amber. If she could just kill Amber, finishing the job she'd begun months before, she'd have the full power of the Fall Maiden, and more than enough strength to destroy all three of her captors. If she acted quickly enough, her aura should protect her long enough to get the killing blow in.

She looked at her opponents, eyes narrowed, before she suddenly launched herself forward, the zip ties melting away in an instant from the flames she produced. She moved with all the speed she had, a blade of glass appearing in her hand from the Dust lacing her clothing. She snarled, eyes wide and bloodshot with fury… only to gasp as a gunshot rang out and she felt agony in her abdomen.

She only had a split second to realize that the bullet had somehow penetrated through her aura without even noticing it before one last shot was heard, killing her instantly as the bullet blew her brains out in a burst of gore, the last sight she ever saw being her comatose victim.

Ozpin sighed as Cinder fell to the ground, quite obviously dead. Streams of orange/red light immediately emerged from Cinder's body, streaming into Amber's form. Amber gasped, brown eyes going wide as her body tensed, the power that had been stolen from her filling her body once again.

Ozpin quickly moved over to the chamber, hitting the controls to open it. Amber groaned as the cover of the chamber slid out of the way, turning to look at the man. "Ozpin?" She croaked.

Ozpin smiled gently at her. "Welcome back, Amber."

Behind him, Harry sighed with relief. Finally, with Cinder taken out, the would be Invasion of Vale was officially over.

So… Hi?

Yes, it's been a while since I updated anything, but it's been due to a combination of good and bad things.

Good thing: My family decided to go on a weeklong trip to celebrate my birthday and the last bit of freedom my parents had before work started up again (they're teachers). I obviously wasn't going to be writing much at the time. I've also had to do a bunch of stuff to get a loan for a new computer. It was approved just a couple of days ago, and the computer has been ordered.

Bad things: I got pretty sick, so couldn't do much of anything. Then when I did write, just as I was almost finished with this chapter, my computer got wiped and I lost everything I'd written in the last four months. That bummed me out and killed my motivation.

Another factor is the latest season of RWBY. While the lore it revealed was a big help to 'Survival of the Fittest?', it actually did the opposite to Brightest. It screwed up what I had planned to happen later in this arc. Now I'm scrambling to find some way of making everything work out to the goal I was aiming for that would lead to the next universe to visit. So that's a problem.

There's also the fact that when I was almost done with the chapter (again) I decided to scrap almost all of it. Originally it had the actual invasion happen like in the show, Grimm Dragon and all, for an action set piece. Then I realized that didn't fit with the team's personality. They resolve issues before they can get that bad, or at the very least try to do so. Having them let an event that could kill thousands go on just doesn't work. I was shoehorning the invasion in for the sake of something cool.

So I replaced that with what we have now. It's not my best work, but I think it'll do to keep going. Hope you all liked it.

Despite all my delays during the last month, I do want to assure everybody that, if nothing else, I will get my Patron Sponsored chapter out each month. It would take something out of the ordinary to keep me from doing so, and even then I'd give fair warning when possible. Unless I get hit by a car or something, in which case… Sorry?

In something more upbeat, this fic has now surpassed 1k reviews! *trumpet fanfare* Holy crap that's awesome. I never thought a fic of mine would reach such a milestone. It really helps make this all worth it. Here's to another thousand!

I think that's all I had to say… Please leave a review, and don't forget my Pat A Ron: dotcom /athanmortis.

Till next time!

PS. I've discovered I suck at puns. D'oh.