Just a heads up, I'm preparing to return to college all this week (packing and then driving), so next weekend's chapter might be a bit late.

Now then, time for the fun!

If you wish to support me and my college tuition, please check out my P a treon for future chapter summaries, story ideas and more: p a Treon.(c om) (backslash) themaster4444

Beta-ed by xenosaiyan

"Alright, ready Wendy? Carla?"

The Sky Dragon Slayer nodded, her hands still over her eyes. "We're ready, Ruby."

"Is all this really necessary?" Carla asked. "We know you're going to show us your float."

"No, you don't!" Ruby squealed. "I mean, it could be that. But it also might not be. You don't know, it's a surprise."

Wendy chuckled. The huntress had brought them down to the Fantasia Parade's staging site only a few days before the Harvest Festival, after Team RWBY had spent several days and nights desperately cobbling together their various contrasting ideas into a single vehicle compatible with Weiss' initial design. It wasn't that hard to come to the same conclusion as Carla, but she didn't want to ruin Ruby's fun.

"Alright. Open your eyes in three, two, one… now!"

Wendy dropped her hands, her eyes widening immediately.

"Well," Carla said. "It is certainly… a surprise. Unique, indubitably."

"I know, right!" Ruby cheered.

Team RWBY's float was, like their weapons, a complete hodgepodge. The base was a standard black frame, but with a massive dark tablecloth covering it that would blow back in the breeze once the vehicle started moving. A giant arch stood framing the back, painted a full rainbow of colors with red, white, black, and yellow streamers strewn across the steel. Below the structure was a pair of mechanical generators meant for some unknown purpose. And mounted on both sides were…

"Are we allowed to put cannons on our floats?" Wendy inquired. "That doesn't seem entirely safe."

"Eh, any weapon could be dangerous. That's the entire point of a weapon," Ruby shrugged. "But Alzack wouldn't have given them to me if he didn't think I could handle them. He's a dad, they're usually way too overprotective about this stuff."

"They are?"

"Well, mine is at least. Seriously, he's all, 'no Ruby, you can't send Zwei out to Uncle Qrow on a rocket. You have to use the mail'. Why do we have to waste time with the postal system? Zwei could totally handle a rocket!"

Wendy raised an eyebrow. "Zwei is your dog, right?"

"Yup. He's a corgi."

"I presume he has his aura unlocked?" Carla inquired. "Otherwise, I question why you think so highly of his durability."

"Eh, Uncle Qrow said he once dropped him from the top of Beacon Tower. Apparently, it took Ms. Goodwitch hours to fix the damage. That's better than any of me or Yang's records for taxing her semblance. And he says dad was able to get even better back in the day. Before he got all parent-like and everything."

"So, raising you to be sane?"

Ruby smiled fondly. "Yeah. I mean, he was a bit out of it after mom died, but he's always tried his best to keep me and Yang out of trouble. Even if we don't always make it easy for him."

The red hooded huntress let out a soft chuckle, her smile slowly disappearing. "He's probably going out of his mind right now."

Wendy put a comforting hand on her friend's shoulder. "Not for long, Ruby. I promised you, remember? You will get back to Remnant."

"I know. But we've already been gone a month," Ruby looked over their float. "We've been getting stronger, but we've also just been relaxing and making awesome floats."

"You can't train all the time," Carla advised. "You'd go mad."

"But everyone back home has no idea what happened to us. It could be months or years until we're ready to go after Tartaros, and we don't even know if they'll have any information we can use. There were two other symbols on the book's cover after all. For all we know they might have just provided parts!"

"Parts?" Wendy replied, tilting her head. "For a magic book?"

"Don't start learning to tease me now."

"Teasing?"

"You really should know better than to think she'd do that," Carla mentioned.

Ruby sighed. "Sorry. It's just… I like making a float. I like learning magic and getting into barfights and having slumber parties. I love being part of Fairy Tail. But every minute I stay here, having the greatest adventure ever, is another minute everyone back home has to think I disappeared into thin air. Losing mom nearly broke dad. If me and Yang disappeared without a trace…"

"Oh," Wendy muttered. "I… I didn't think of that."

"I'm sure he'll be alright, Ruby," Carla softly comforted her. "It may be a heavy blow, but like you said, he'll still have Zwei and your uncle. He won't do anything drastic."

"I hope," Ruby muttered. "But even if he doesn't, every day we spend here is a day we miss what happens on Remnant, or maybe more, we don't know if there is time shenanigans between dimensions. What if we're here for four years and our classmates have all graduated? What if we're here for ten and they're all married with children? We're experiencing wonders more amazing than anything I could have ever imagined but we're also missing so much. I'm happy, every day… but I'm not sure I should be."

Wendy looked down, feeling so small in the face of her friend's problems. It was a familiar sensation. For all she specialized in support magic, for all she'd improved as a fighter, she always felt useless to everyone else, a burden to be protected. She didn't have Natsu's power, Erza's strength, or Gray's mind. Everyone else always seemed to know just what to say to help, but she floundered even in that.

But Carla was silent and no one else was present. Ruby's previous glee had disappeared in favor of a morose frown. If she did nothing, that sadness would persist. Perhaps it would disappear later, with her team and the rest of the guild present, it was practically a certainty. But she didn't want her friend to despair a moment more than she could help.

And so, even if she didn't know exactly what to say, she had to say something.

She gently took Ruby's hand in her own, the silver-eyed girl glancing back at her.

"I've never been the best at searching for Grandeeney," she started slowly, not exactly sure where she was going with this story. "Natsu is always keeping a lookout for any new clue to find Igneel, and Gajeel has pretty much given up looking for Metalicana, but I've always just… not really looked. I want to see her again but… I just don't know how I would go about it. And it's always there, in the back of my mind, wondering what happened to her, if she's alright, but at the same time… there is nothing I can do about it."

"What are you saying?" Ruby asked. "That I should just be… okay with it? With causing trouble for everyone back home?"

"Not okay with it," Wendy clarified. "Just… aware of it. You're doing everything you can to get back home, pushing yourself more than you already are will just be harmful to your body. Be aware that you're not intentionally causing them to worry, and that, if they did know where you were, they wouldn't want you to make yourself miserable over them. It's okay to feel happy here, Ruby."

"Is it?"

"Can you just decide to stop being happy? Would any of your friends back home want you to?"

A small smile tinged itself over Ruby's face. "No. I guess not."

Wendy mirrored her happy expression, squeezing her hand for comfort. Out of the corner of her eye, she caught Carla grinning proudly at her. She guessed that meant she'd said the right thing. Great! That meant she'd helped her friend.

"You know, Wendy," Ruby muttered. "If… when, we find a way home, maybe we'll be able to go back and forth between Remnant and Earthland. If we can find a book on this end, I mean, there won't be anything stopping us from just using both. You guys can come and see our home."

"That sounds nice," Wendy said tentatively. "But what about the Grimm?"

"Well, yeah, there is them," Ruby admitted. "But, there's so much more to it. There's comics, and tv, and more kinds of cookies than you could imagine! There are bullheads, they're sort of like magicmobiles but they fly! There's dust and… uh… okay, actually now that I think about it, this place not having Grimm is pretty great."

"Indubitably," Carla noted.

"But Remnant still sounds like a great place," Wendy quickly said. "I'd love to come visit you guys there, once you find your way back. It'll be nice to go to another world without planning to fight an entire kingdom."

For some reason, that statement just made Ruby's smile widen. She tugged on her and Wendy's joined hands and pulled the Sky Dragon Slayer into a deep hug.

"Thank you, Wendy."

Wendy smiled and returned the huntress' hug. "I'm glad I could help. I know I'm not that strong or smart, but if you ever need anything, or even just want to talk, I'm always here to listen."

For some reason, that caused Ruby to chuckle a bit. "Not that strong? I don't think I've seen a Fairy Tail wizard who 'wasn't that strong' since I got here. And you're certainly smarter than a lot of people I've met, here and on Remnant."

"I'm really not," Wendy muttered.

"You really are," Ruby declared. "Trust me. It may not seem like it now, but you never know what you're capable of until you're really tested. When the day comes when you can't fail, you won't. You'll find the strength to do what you need to."

Wendy's brow furrowed. She thought of all the fights she'd gone through with Fairy Tail: The Oracion Seis, Edolas, Tenrou Island, the Eclipse. All of them were harrowing battles, but with the exception of her match with Sherria in the Grand Magic Games, she wasn't sure if she'd ever truly gone through a trial. After all, she'd always been able to count on the others to help her whenever her own meager strength proved to not be enough.

"Have you been tested yet?" she asked Ruby.

The huntress shrugged. "I'm not sure. I guess being sent here counts, but I'm not sure how well I've managed it. I keep breaking down to you and Erza. But I think Team RWBY is succeeding. So far at least. I guess I can only prepare and hope we pass whatever comes next."

"You will," Wendy assured her. "We both will. Whatever comes next, we'll get through it together."

Whatever it took, whatever she had to do, Wendy wouldn't let her friend be harmed if she could help it. Maybe someday soon they'd been separated by an interdimensional barrier, but until that time came, she would help Ruby survive whatever life threw at her.

That was the Fairy Tail way.

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It was odd that that conversation would pop back into Wendy's head after so long. But then again, her old friend had appeared right before her eyes, so perhaps she could be forgiven for being distracted from the moment.

It had been over two years since she had last seen Ruby Rose, the girl from another world leaving with her team on a mission for the royal family the same day Wendy and the rest of the Strongest Team had left to meet Sir Warrod to begin the adventure that would take them to Sun Village. She'd been worried when her friend had not been at the guildhall when they'd returned, but soon after Tartaros had made their move and after so very long, she'd been reunited with her mother, only to lose her once again. Then the guild had disbanded and with Team RWBY still nowhere to be found, she'd had to move on, as had the others.

She'd been through so much since then. Her time with Lamia Scale, the restoration of Fairy Tail, the War with Alvarez, the One Hundred Year Quest, the Five God Dragons, and… and the White Witch.

Oh gods, where were the others? Were they alright? Natsu had barely been breathing and Sitara had tried her best to keep him alive, but she was a better healer and she'd been… wait, how was she even still alive?

"Well, well, well, isn't this an unexpected surprise."

Wendy and Carla whirled around from Ruby and the redheaded girl she was crouching over and turned to face the source of smooth, mocking voice. It was a woman in an elegant crimson dress, with long black hair and blazing golden eyes. Behind her, hovered a black dragon-like creature with a gigantic bone mask over its face.

"It's Wendy Marvell, correct? The Enchanter?" the woman asked. "My name is Cinder Fall. I believe I know someone who would very much like to see you again."

"What? No!" Ruby shouted. "Wendy, don't do it, she's evil!"

"Wait, what?" Wendy exclaimed, her head whipping back and forth between Ruby and the other woman.

"For gods' sake!" Carla screamed, her own eyes wide with confusion. "What is going on?"

"Short version?" Ruby panicked. She pointed to the black-haired woman and the black creature. "Cinder's trying to kill us…" She pointed to the unconscious girl behind her. "And Pyrrha needs healing! You do that while I hold her off!"

"What?!"

Ruby didn't respond to the befuddled squeal, instead dashing forward towards the black-haired woman, Cinder apparently, flames already racing from the woman's hands. Unless Cinder was the dragon creature behind her that felt like a spirit for some reason?

Whatever the case, Wendy staggered up onto her feet and stumbled over to the unconscious girl, Pyrrha. Though she still had no idea what in the world was going on, it was clear that the person before her needed medical attention. Ruby's endorsement only meant that whatever weak doubts she might have had were silenced even faster.

She pressed her hands lightly onto Pyrrha's side, a blue glow emanating from under palms and flowing into the injured girl, beginning to stitch her wounds back together both inside and out.

Carla came to her side, glancing worriedly over the broken girl, her black burns barely being pushed back. "My god. How in the world is she still alive? Even Natsu doesn't normally take this much punishment."

Wendy cringed. She'd certainly seen worse, Erza having nearly every bone in her body shattered after their battle with Irene came to mind. Pyrrha only had perhaps half of hers broken, plus some severe internal bleeding, a concussion, and a cut Achilles tendon. If she didn't receive medical attention immediately, there was no chance she'd survive.

Fortunately, Wendy was there.

"I can help her," she told her partner. "But I need time. A bit to get her stable and a lot more to actually heal her."

"Well, Ruby is certainly doing her best to get us that," Carla muttered worriedly. "Wendy, where are we? How did we get here? The last thing I remember was Lucy putting us in a Fairy Sphere, but this certainly isn't Magia Dragon."

Wendy frowned. "I don't know, Carla. I don't know what's going on, but we can't not help—"

"Ah!"

Both human and Exceed whipped their heads back around to the battle behind them, if something so one-sided could be called a battle. Heat rolled off Cinder in waves that even Natsu might have found impressive before he'd trained to hunt Acnologia. The black-haired woman summoned up stream after stream of flames, sometimes blasting them at Ruby from her hands, sometimes summoning them from blazing sigils burned into the metal floor of the tower they were all on. Ruby's weapons were constantly battered out of her grip and though she dodged as best she could, bursting into rose petals to avoid the onslaught, whenever her body appeared in full a pale red energy field crackled over it. Her aura was reaching its limits.

At last, Cinder swept her hand out and a round of explosions erupted from beneath the huntress. Ruby activated her semblance to dodge, but the other woman was already charging forward on a jet of flames, a glass sword forming in her opposite hand. Just as Ruby had finished fleeing from the explosions, Cinder's sword slashed her front, her aura breaking completely. Her crimson armor kept her from drawing blood, but the lithe huntress was still forced back to the edge of the tower, a cough of sputtering out of her mouth from the sheer force of impact.

Cinder raised her open palm. "Goodbye, little fairy."

A gargantuan wall of fire surged out of her hand, far too wide for Ruby to avoid without her semblance, not at that close range. If she dodged to either side, she'd be incinerated, and she couldn't nearly jump high enough to avoid it by leaping above the attack. Even summoning Tulip's Aegis or a similar defense was useless, as even if she still had enough magic remaining to use the shield's full power, the black dragon, which Wendy was slowly become worried was a Grimm, was moving into position to launch its growing fireball at the huntress from above.

Of course, Ruby being Ruby, an impossible position was just an excuse to come up with an even more ridiculous solution to escape it.

Thus, it came perhaps as less of a surprise than it should have when the red hooded girl tipped backward and tumbled off the edge of the tower, Cinder's flames streaking right over her.

"Carla!" Wendy shouted.

"On it!" her partner answered. The white Exceed dashed forward and dove off the edge of the tower, her wings sprouting as she raced through the open air, a bright light of transformation magic flashing over her form.

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Once the air had startled whistling past her ears, Ruby wondered just when things had deteriorated to the point that falling off a building had been her best option. Sure it was better than being incinerated, but without aura, she couldn't use her semblance to arrest her fall, and Crescent Rose's recoil would tear her arms off if she tried to use it the same way she had when she'd fallen from the battleship. She needed the reinforcement of the energy of her soul.

Honestly, she was amazed she'd even survived Cinder's slash. Her aura shattered as soon as the attack landed and whether her armor prevented the sword's edge from touching skin or not, it could only cushion the impact so much. And when said impact came from a person with bucketloads of both aura and magic backing them up, it was no surprise that the areas of her chest and stomach surrounding the struck flesh currently felt like they'd been dunked in lava.

So yeah, between agonizing internal bleeding and plummeting to her doom, her attempt to avenge/protect her friends hadn't exactly gone according to plan. With any luck, Weiss would catch her… and Weiss wasn't in the plaza. Why wasn't Weiss in the plaza? It was littered with waves of black ice impaling at least two dozen slowly fading Grimm, but her snow colored partner was nowhere to be seen. And while Ruby could appreciate that she was probably trying to find some way up the tower to help, she really needed her on the ground to catch her—and she suddenly wasn't falling, why was that?

She felt a pair of thin but strong arms swiftly decelerate her fall, reducing her former breakneck speed to a hovering halt over a long enough period that she didn't break her neck from the whiplash. The process still made her bones and muscles shriek in pain from the whole thing, but she wasn't dead. And it wasn't too hard to figure out who had saved her.

"Thanks, Carla," she said turning her head to face the Exceed. "That was a close… one?"

Her eyebrow rose as she was greeted not by the white-furred cat she had expected, but a white-haired cat faunus with… Carla's eyes… and, Carla's suit…

What the heck?

The girl responded to Ruby's befuddled expression with a pleased smirk that would have been right at home on the Exceed's face. "I've learned a few new tricks since we last saw each other."

Since we last… wait…

"Carla?!"

The girl—the Exceed—nodded.

"How?!"

"Magic."

… Ruby didn't know what she expected.

Carla grinned. "This form gives me a strength boost and a slight enhancement to my magic power. It's not as fast as my natural state, but I couldn't carry you with armor without it."

"Sorry," Ruby cringed. She glanced back up the tower. "I don't suppose…"

The two began climbing before she'd even finished her sentence, a grin breaking out over the huntress' face as the wind began to accelerate through her hair.

"I've spent enough time trying to talk you lot out of doing idiotic things to know that I'm wasting my breath," Carla said. "At least this way, you'll be close enough for Wendy to put you back together before you push yourself too far."

"Aw, you do care," Ruby smiled. "Thanks Carla—fireball! Fireball! Fiery fireball!"

Both girls' eyes instantly widened, the Wyvern's maw wide open and angled straight down at them, a radiant and hellish storm of flames raging within its jaws. The beast reared its head back and released the unholy maelstrom down to obliterate them.

Carla's gaze narrowed as they rocketed up towards the blaze, sweat pouring down their brows as the heat bore down on them. At the last second, when the titanic inferno took up their entire vision, the catgirl yanked them to the side, twirling over themselves through the air as the flames rushed past them and smashed into the plaza below. Ruby was suddenly very glad Weiss hadn't been there. But also…

"You can barrel roll now?" Ruby exclaimed, the two of them setting down once more at the tower's peak. "That's awesome!"

Carla cocked an eyebrow. "What in the world is a barrel—down!"

She grabbed Ruby and dove to the tower floor, a rush of flames flying over their head, trapping the two on the ground. The red hooded huntress glanced up and caught Cinder bearing towards them, a cocky smirk on her face and a blaze surging from her hand.

Then, she raised the other one.

Ruby's eyes widened. If they moved, they'd be torched by the blaze surrounding them. But if they didn't, the follow-up blast would incinerate them. Either way, they'd be toast. And then there would be no one to distract Cinder from going after Wendy and Pyrrha.

"Come on, Weiss," the huntress muttered desperately. "Where are you?"

Too late. Wherever her partner was, Cinder thrust her second hand forward and her second storm of flames burst towards the helpless wizards.

"Sky Dragon's Wing Attack!"

Twin whips of wind rushed into the path of the flames dispersing both blasts as a rush of cool night air washed over Ruby, the heat of the fire cast away. She looked up to find a familiar figure before her. Not the one she had hoped for, but a welcome one nonetheless.

"Wendy!" Ruby called out, both she and Carla staggering to their feet. "Is Pyrrha okay?"

The other Fairy Tail wizard nodded, her magic not dissipating despite the end of her counterattack. "She's stable, but I can't get her into fighting shape without more time. Is there anywhere nearby she can get medical attention?"

"Um, the docks. They're to the east," Ruby replied, confused.

"Good," Wendy declared. "Carla, get her to safety. Ruby, that dragon thing feels like a spirit, I'll need you to handle it."

"Um, okay," Ruby said hesitantly. "But what are you going to…"

She got her answer when Cinder strode through the smoke leftover from the previous clash, her eyes alight with orange light as magic rolled off her body in waves.

"No," Ruby whispered fearfully. "Wendy, she's too powerful. You won't stand a chance."

She looked back at her and smiled. "I don't know how long it's been for you since we last saw each other, but it's been quite a while for me. Don't worry. I can handle this."

"But she—"

Her worried words ere cut off as Cinder unleashed another surge of flames, far too close for Wendy to have enough time to fire off a proper counterattack.

But even still, Ruby felt something change in the air. The ethernano in the atmosphere suddenly felt damp, thick and heavy with power, yet clear and serene at the same time. The air churned like a river parting for a great boat, cutting through the thickest of nature's power and harnessing that very same primordial strength for its own ends.

"Dragonforce," Wendy whispered.

All at once, as if she were simply releasing a held breath, a great wind rushed out of the blue-haired wizard as she threw her head back and released a mighty roar to the heavens.

The change was instantaneous. Her hair, previously perfectly combed and tied into orderly twin tails, burst out into a wild mane streaming down past her waist, now a pale and striking pink. Pure alabaster scales adorned her wrists and ankles like elegant armor, a pair of especially large ones even branching of her back as miniature wings. The air swirled around her, humming with like a maelstrom waiting for the first crack of thunder, as if on her slightest command it would erupt into an invincible and unending cyclone, the sky bowing to its queen and rushing to annihilate the enemies of its dragon.

Ruby's jaw proceeded to drop. She felt that was the appropriate response. Even Cinder had paused in her assault to gape at the sight before her.

Wendy thrust out her hands to either side of her, an emerald magic circle suddenly shining from beneath her. "Deus—"

An incoming fireball, courtesy of the Wyvern, interrupted whatever spell she was casting, forcing the Dragon Slayer to leap away, an easy wind supporting her jump and easily carrying her to the other side of the tower, the Grimm having to take a few seconds to reorient itself, Cinder already turning to follow its attack.

"Ruby!" Carla shouted, the catgirl rushing for the still unconscious Pyrrha. "The monster!"

"Oh, right!" Ruby replied, finally roused from her wonder. She carefully raised her head to the Wyvern and began to funnel power into her throat as her eyes shined silver.

The titanic beast, before so terrifying, now gaped at her in horror. A desperate fireball quickly charged and fired from its throat, streaking towards the silver-eyed huntress. She barely fired off a blast in time to dissipate the blazing orb, the monster flying off a bit farther in the sky to reclaim a superior position.

Ruby scowled, her initial assault defeated. Out of worry, she spared a glance at the rest of the tower. Carla heaved Pyrrha up into her arms and took off for the dock, her wings skillfully surfing the buffeting winds cascading out from Wendy and Cinder's battle. Honestly, every blow those two struck aggravated the wounds plaguing Ruby's inside forcing her to drop to one knee from the pain even as they tackled each other off the tower.

Unfortunately, the Wyvern had not been idle while her injuries had staggered her, another fireball already launched her way. And this time, she hadn't already been gathering power to stop it.

Though, the sudden chill in the air reassured her that she needn't have bothered.

"Ice God's Vacuum Aias!"

A large cube of black ice sprouted in front of Ruby, the fireball smashing into the front and melting a thin layer from its face but going no farther.

Ruby turned around to see her partner running towards her, shooting the heiress a wry smirk. "Thanks. But where the heck were you?"

Weiss scoffed even as she helped her leader to her feet. "I was climbing up the other side of the tower so we could catch Cinder in a pincer attack. Excuse me, if my glyphs only let me use normal superspeed instead of your insane double version."

"As leader, I will overlook your deficiency, just this once," Ruby teased, her joking tone an effort to ignore the growing pain inside her. "Now then, let's kill us a Wyvern."

"Wait a second," Weiss said, glancing around. "Where's Pyrrha? What was that light a few seconds ago? And who's that girl fighting Cinder?"

"Carla's taking her to the docks, I'm pretty sure a Fairy Sphere, and Wendy."

"Wendy?" Weiss exclaimed. The heiress gazed out into the turbulent sky, her mouth gaping as the clouds churned with power and tornados descended to ravage the air. "That's Wendy?!"

"I know," Ruby grinned. "I didn't think she could pull off pink hair either, but she really makes it work. Now then…"

A monstrous roar reminded both huntresses of their current problem, the Wyvern soaring around the tower to shoot around Weiss' shield, fire building in its maw. The white-haired huntress slammed her sword pommel into her open palm, black frost weaving before the metal.

Ruby clutched her side but maintained her smile. With her friends by her side, they had control of this battle.

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Cinder was rapidly trying to figure out when she'd lost control of this battle. She'd gone from toying with a Fairy Tail wizard, to really testing the limits of her new powers against one.

Granted, she really shouldn't have expected any less. The only person Salem wanted more than Wendy Marvell was Lucy Heartfilia herself, and that was only due to a combination of what she could lead them to and the Ophiuchus's personal interest in the Celestial Spirit Wizard. The Mother of Grimm spoke glowingly of the girl's enchantment abilities, believing that her skills would enable them to take a massive step forward towards destroying their ultimate enemies. To that end, she would have to be taken alive.

Of course, in all those talks, her mistress had never once mentioned that the girl had Dragonforce!

Cinder was more than familiar with the heights a Dragon Slayer could reach, but from what she understood accessing their ultimate state required outside assistance. Had the girl somehow learned to enter it at will? What kind of intensive training and study had she done to accomplish that?

Whatever the case, she was proving herself far more of a handful that Rose and Nikos. The two of them tumbled through the air, locked in close combat. Cinder thought she would have the advantage in such an arena, after all, the girl had no aura or armor to prevent Cinder's swords from cutting into her. Instead, she found Wendy needed no such protection, the girl ducking and weaving around her slashes as they fell, her small fists racing into whatever openings she could find in her opponent's guard. A fierce gust accompanied every punch the diminutive wizard threw pushing forward even when the nascent maiden dodged, ripping a chunk off Cinder's aura with each strike whether it landed or not. With the damage she had taken during her duel with Ozpin, her defenses wouldn't last long under such an onslaught.

It was infuriating. She had the maiden's power. She was stronger than this! She had killed Ozpin! She shouldn't have been being pressed so much by a measly child!

Another hammering burst of wind to her stomach reminded her exactly who that 'measly child' was. A full-fledged wizard trained by a creature of myth even among magic and tested by some of the mightiest beings the world had ever seen. Salem did not hold many in high esteem, and those who were there had very well earned their place.

Of course the girl could handle the maiden's power. It would be quite the disappointment if such a mythic figure couldn't even hold their own against the first steppingstone in Cinder's evolution. Once she had completed her ascension to the Gates, she could brush the Sky Dragon Slayer aside just as she could any other who would dare earn her ire.

But to reach that next stage, she would have to return to her mistress, Relic in hand. It wasn't in the vault, so she'd need to search the rest of the school, which meant dealing with her opposition. And she would only be rewarded further if she brought Wendy back to the Grimmlands. Teacher would be so proud!

Cinder kicked both her legs below her, summoning up a rush of fire from her feet to arrest her fall, her swords reaching upward from her stationary position, coming at her foe from slightly different angles due to the sudden cessation of movement. Wendy reacted quickly, throwing out her hand to the side and firing of a blast of wind, the blowback pushing her away from the glass blades. She smashed her fist against the surface of the tower, creating enough of a dent to use as a handhold to hang off.

Even still, a thin streak of blood dripped along the side of her chin.

Cinder smirked. So even a dragon could bleed.

Wendy outstretched her available hand, an intricate emerald circle glowing beneath her form on the tower. "Deus—"

Cinder didn't give her a chance to finish, cupping her hands together in front of her. A massive ball of ignited all around her and a bright beam of concentrated heat erupted from her palms, streaking towards the tower. Wendy abandoned her attempted spell and leapt higher up the tower, smashing a new handhold. The fiery beam smashed into where she'd been before, the metal it touched melting into molten slag the moment it made contact.

Keeping up the pressure, the new Fall Maiden narrowed her eyes as she followed her foe, her attack tracking her all of the tower, leaving a molten trail in its wake. As long as the Dragon Slayer was kept on the defensive, she had time to prepare the rest of her offensive.

The greatest strength of the maiden's power was its limitlessness. It would constantly supply her with ethernano, so much so that she would never run out of power so long as she was in good enough shape to use it. Of course, that also meant she had to be careful how much she used at any one time. If she used too much, she could tear her human body apart, even with aura. That wouldn't be much of a problem once she was a Gate, but for now, it was a restriction she had to be careful of, one she was fortunate she'd had practice controlling when she'd only had half the power. She'd hardly pressed herself in the battle so far, but it was becoming quite clear that she'd have to go to her limit to keep up with the Dragonforce wizard.

So, as she continued her assault, she slinked the anchors of her power into the clouds above. It was a maiden's right to command the forces of nature and the heavens above crackled at her will, electricity flickering through the rising storm.

Wendy danced up the tower, the heat beam following her from below as she jetted from impromptu smashed handhold to handhold. Her speed was truly exceptional to consistently keep ahead of the blast, but she was trapped on terrain that gave her no advantage and her foe gave her no time to fire back a spell that could strike Cinder at range.

And her enemy's trap was about to be sprung.

As Wendy fled upward, the heat beam following from below, the crackling clouds finally unleashed their payload. Two bolts of sapphire lightning crashed down from the sky on either side of the Dragon Slayer's upper flank, a cloud of smoke surging up from their impact, the sight of the Fairy Tail Wizard coming to a sudden stop, the last thing Cinder could see, the heat beam reaving through the area she'd been trapped in a second afterward.

Cinder smirked, recalling the heat beam, but maintaining her spherical barrier of flame around her. She rose higher into the air, sinking the magic of her previous assault back into the clouds, their black vapor churning with power. With the tower's structure damaged by the areas she'd melted, she would unleash an attack that would topple it entirely—

"Deus Corona! Deus Equs! Il Arms! Il Armor!"

The smoke was suddenly blown away, a bright green light shining from beneath Wendy's feet, her previously suppressed magic power flaring back to life.

For a moment, Cinder was boggled by how she'd survived her pincer attack, only to notice a deep black burn on the wizard's right forearm.

"She couldn't dodge it, so instead she used her speed to rush through the edge of the beam before the trap could fully close, ensuring only a glancing blow," the maiden muttered, amazed. The amount of precision needed for such a maneuver, this girl wasn't just powerful, like Nikos she was skilled. Only with the strength to be truly dangerous.

Cinder thrust out her hands and let loose a fire blast, but by that point Wendy's head was already reeled back for an attack, her cheeks puffed with air.

"Il Vernier! Enchant!" the slayer shouted, throwing her head forward. "Sky Dragon Roar!"

A raging cyclone soared out of the girl's mouth and slammed into the fire blast. The flames were ripped asunder as the rushing wind-torn through the blaze. Cinder wisely chose to abandon the failed assault and rose higher into the air, the enemy breath attack streaking under her shield, the force of the strike rattling her bones.

The Dragon Slayer seized her foe's moment of weakness. Wendy bunched her knees and shot off into the open air, cloaked in ethereal emerald light and with the wind itself as her steed. With every step she took, a miniature cyclone surged beneath her soles, boosting her further and further into the sky so fast that Cinder could barely follow her.

But she didn't need to. After all, she knew where she was going. The girl was attempting to get back into close range, make use of her newly enchanted physical abilities to knock Cinder out of the sky. She must have thought her sphere of flames was the maiden's only defense, and that with enough wind she would be able to penetrate it. Perhaps she was even correct.

But she'd never make it that far.

Cinder reached up into the clouds and with a mighty shout, called down a trio of titanic tornados from the heavens, each one crackling with magic and lightning. The lead one crashed down right on top of Wendy, consuming the lithe wizard and sending her barreling toward the ground.

The Fall Maiden let out a relieved sigh as she felt the girl's power begin to fade. She really should have known better than to have ever mistaken the wizard for weak, she was a compatriot of the Ophiuchus after all, but she hadn't been so pushed by an opponent since she'd confronted Amber. Truly, Salem had good reason to want her on her side even if she wasn't a candidate. Which hopefully meant she'd survive the landing. She could pick her up after everything had settled down and take her back to the… why was the tornado disappearing?

Indeed, the raging mass of wind and electricity suddenly stopped its ferocious spin cycle, instead being sucked downward by some unseen force. Once the dark clouds were torn away, the culprit was revealed to be the still airborne Wendy, the cyclone rushing into her mouth even as she spasmed from the electricity, the errant sparks scorching her flesh.

How… how was she… argh! Irrelevant! She was doing it, and that meant Cinder had to act fast to counter her before she regained momentum.

She scowled and threw out her hands, moving the remaining two tornados away from buffeting the crumbling tower to surround the Dragon Slayer, both of the spires ravaging the Beacon grounds below as they got into position.

They put the wizard equidistant between them, each of their gales, individually strong enough to rip houses from the ground, pulling her in opposite directions, which should at least slow her down, combined with the multitude of burns covering her body. Especially as lightning lanced out from both cyclone and streaked towards the pink-haired girl. With all the damage she'd been piling up, it'd only take one more solid shot to put her down for good.

"You are truly a credit to your guild, Dragon Slayer," Cinder complimented, for once quite sincere. "But a maiden's power is without limit."

She cupped her hands together and another heat beam, this one twice the size of the one she'd used to kill Ozpin, blasted toward the wizard, the tornados' lightning acting as a vanguard.

But none of them would ever find their target.

Wendy rocketed straight up into the air, faster than she'd been on the tower, each of Cinder's attacks streaking harmlessly underneath her. The girl flew forward and vertical, taking the high ground from her foe, streaks of white wind gathering all around her.

Cinder moved to realign her attack when the girl thrust out her hands. All of a sudden, the maiden's dark tornadoes were obliterated, the raging wind within them sucked away to form a rampaging white typhoon, radiant and blinding in its purity, the shining wall of air surrounding both combatants.

Wendy glared at her foe with the savage eyes of a dragon, her wild pink hair flapping behind her.

"I hear the rush of the wind. I feel the pulse of the atmosphere. I know the touch of the air, from the softest breeze to the fiercest hurricane," she declared. "I know them because they are mine! This space is mine to protect! I am the Maiden of the Sky, and you should not have hurt my friend!"

The Fairy Tail wizard twisted her hands, each blazing with magic. The gargantuan typhoon suddenly collapsed in on itself, streaking towards the Fall Maiden like a spear thrust by a god.

"Dragon Slayer Secret Art! Shattering Light: Sky Drill!"

Cinder's eyes widened, a clod, blinding terror flashing through her mind. She brought her hands up and fired off a heat beam, but it was instantly smothered but the stampede of wind. The cyclone smashed into her outstretched arms, her aura holding for a solid three seconds before it shattered into nothingness as the bones in her hands snapped into a thousand pieces. She thrust her legs out beneath her, flaring out massive jets of flames, but all that did was slow her descent. Nothing could stop it.

No! No, no, no, no, no! She would not be beaten! She would not be weak! She would not… if the maiden's strength wasn't enough, then she would unleash her own—

She realized what she'd been about to say, the magic already trickling from her eyes to her throat… and struck the ground before she had time to be properly furious with herself.

Dust and smog rose from the impact, the pavement shattering into chunks as her body laid broken in the crater, a warm trickle of what she suspected was blood dripping down her forehead. Her vision began to darken as Wendy hovered above her in the sky, mocking her…

Why wasn't she coming down to finish her? In fact, why was she glancing all about as if she couldn't see…

A familiar head of pale green hair entered her fading sight, accompanied by dark skin and red eyes.

Oh. So that was why.

Good little minion…

The last thing she felt before her vision when dark was Emerald heaving her onto the thief's back, departing from the battlefield.

The last thing she'd thought was that she'd lost.

She'd lost again.

RWBYRWBYRWBYRWBYFTFTFTFT

Wendy glanced about the dust and rubble left by her attack, her eyebrow raised in confusion, as her body shuddered in pain. She was far from critically injured, but the many black burns across her skin felt free to make their presence known. It was impressive really, if a bit frightening. She hadn't encountered many wizards outside the guild capable of matching her in Dragonforce, and it was always as astonishing that they'd managed to acquire such power on their own as it was terrifying to have to face someone of their strength. If she hadn't had the chance to cast her enchantments… she thought she still could have won, but she likely would have been far more injured before the battle.

It was a shame that someone that powerful wanted to use their abilities to hurt people, but since Cinder had done so, she needed to find her and turn her over to proper authorities of… wherever she was.

Except, as the dust cleared, the red-dressed woman was nowhere to be seen. Wendy could smell her just fine, along with another person she didn't recognize, but at so high up, that only gave her the general area. And according to her nose, that general area was right below her. Except according to her eyes, there was no one in sight.

Was it some sort of illusion magic? If it was, she didn't have the time to search through it. Unlike Carla or Happy, she couldn't fly per-say, even in Dragonforce. She had to constantly and consciously push wind magic out from her feet to act against gravity. It was a straining technique that required constant calculation, and outside of Dragonforce, she didn't have the power to pull it off. She couldn't stay airborne for long, even with the boost she got from devouring Cinder's tornado. Especially since the ethernano in the atmosphere around her had suddenly become frighteningly thin, worse than anything she had ever seen.

"Ice God Gleipnir!"

"Silver Spirit Wail!"

Wendy's eyes darted over to the tower. The Grimm dragon unleashed another fireball at the peak of the tower, only for it to smash into a giant cube of ice the wizard recognized as Weiss' Vacuum Aias, a technique she developed after observing Natsu and Gray's scuffles one too many times for her liking (and getting into a few with Yang herself). The cube, though completely solid when initially formed, was designed to have various sections within dissipate after the outer shell was formed, leaving behind seven layers of ice interspersed with seven vacuum-sealed areas. Thus, even if flames were able to burn away one layer, they would simply fizzle out within the airless vacuum. No matter the power, fire was still fire, and it could not burn in a vacuum.

Granted that just caused Natsu to start using Lightning Flame Dragon Mode against Gray in their daily spars, but that was beside the point.

After the fireball fizzled away, gigantic black chains of ice lashed out from the block and lashed themselves around the beast's wings. Predictably, it was able to pull against the strain, even lifting the cube, but it was substantially slowed. And that left it wide open for the pillar of silver light that erupted from the tower's peak a moment later. The Grimm roared its last defiance as its body turned to stone.

Wendy grinned, thrilled that her friends had emerged victorious. Only to pale in terror as the monster's corpse, easily weighing several dozen tons crashed into the side of the tower. As soon as the carcass struck, the building's upper half, already structurally compromised from Wendy and Cinder's duel, began to tip over the side, plummeting towards the ground.

The Dragon Slayer instantly shot off towards the peak of the crumbling tower, Cinder's confusing whereabouts forgotten. A surge of white wind acted as her chariot as she soared along the length of the metal stronghold, careening and weaving through a rain of rubble as she went. Fortunately, midway into her flight across the ruin, she ran into her targets, Weiss assisting a pale Ruby as the two huntresses dashed up a line of glyphs.

"Wendy!" Ruby called, reaching her hand out into the sky.

The pink-haired wizard dove with both arms outstretched, scooping up her friends and soaring away from the collapse, immensely grateful for Dragonforce's substantial boost to her physical strength.

The tower struck the ground with a booming crash, an ocean of dust rippling out from the crater, throwing off Wendy's control of the wind for just a moment. The wizards hurtled from the sky, the Dragon Slayer cringing as her hair flickered back to blue.

What was going on? She should have been able to maintain Dragonforce longer than this! Why was the ethernano in the air so thin? There wasn't nearly enough to recharge fast enough to keep up the state's cost and pausing to eat air with Weiss and Ruby weighing her down would make them drop like stones. She couldn't keep them airborne!

"Wendy!" Weiss shouted. The huntress waved her hand, a set of shining glyphs appearing at scattered points in front of and below them.

Instantly understanding her friend's intention, Wendy dove downward, turning helpless flailing into a controlled fall, periodically striking each glyph to slow their momentum.

At last, the trio smacked into the pavement, groaning, but very much alive.

Wendy rubbed her head as she and Weiss sat up. The huntress looked over the once more blue-haired wizard. "Huh. It really is you."

"Hi," Wendy waved shyly. "It's good to see you again."

Weiss smiled. "You too, circumstances aside."

"Yeah, guys…" Ruby mumbled. "We can do it… toge… ther…"

The red hooded girl's arm fell, her eyes going closed as she sagged on the ground. Wendy and Weiss immediately crawled over to her, turning her over onto her back.

Wendy quickly ate a few gulps of the surrounding air and put her hand on Ruby's stomach, blue light glimmering beneath her palms.

"Is she going to be okay?" Weiss asked fearfully.

"There's a lot of internal bleeding, but nothing I can't handle," Wendy assured her.

"Good, good," the heiress muttered. After a few seconds of silence, she spoke again. "Wendy, how did you get here?"

She shrugged. "I don't know, Weiss. The last thing I remember was Lucy putting Carla and me in a Fairy Sphere. I don't even know where here is."

"Oh," Weiss replied, her eyes wide. She gulped and pointed upward. "I can answer that at least."

Wendy's cocked an eyebrow and raised her head to the sky, her eyes widening. The clouds summoned by her duel with Cinder had been pushed aside, the dust storm of the collapsing tower beginning to settle.

Revealing a shattered moon shining in the heavens.

Ah, I'm feeling really good about that Dragonforce transformation. I think the rest of the fight is pretty good as well, but Dragonforce, especially Wendy's, always invokes something special in my heart (maybe because it looks like Super Saiyan 3?).

Anyway, thus concludes the Fall of Beacon. A lot of foreshadowing here, and slowly but surely we will be following up on those threads as this story spreads out into Volume 4.

An extra huge thank you to my patrons: ArcherMcMuffin, Gregg Tracton, Keith Traction, StabKingPro, Annaya Chan, Nora Okonus, Paula mandel, and Carl Li.

Thank you for Reading! I hope you enjoy what comes next!

Go Forth and Conquer!