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The last time Oscar had witnessed the memories of Ozma, his past life had been in the prime of his life. He'd been laughing it up in a packed bar, having songs sung about him, and smiling like the sun would never stop shining on him. Even when Leo and Virgo had recruited him to defeat the mysterious Underworld King, he'd proven himself every bit the knight in shining armor he was said to be, marching into the demon's lair without an ounce of fear.

Now, he was running for his life.

"Shit, shit, shit, shit!" The staff-wielding wizard, now missing a good chunk of his armor and bleeding from a cut above his left eye, muttered frantically. He dashed through halls of black stone, grisly gargoyles casting shadows that seemed to reach out and claw at the mage. Every few feet, a pack of rabid demons leapt out from them and actually did.

Ozma ducked under the beasts' fangs, lashing out with his staff and knocking the creatures away. He somersaulted to gain some distance and tugged his weapon back.

"Flashforward!"

His emerald, chipped and missing about half the mass it had possessed in the last memory, screeched through the hall. Just like before, it split into a thousand different jewels and tore into the horde of demons, shredding them into chunks of decaying meat.

Just as they did, heavy rumble sounded from the down corridor. A massive tangle of thorns surged into the hall, stone crumbled from the sheer size of the bramble. Ozma's emeralds set to work, smashing through the wicked plants as fast as they could but unlike the ones outside, these vines were too thick, the smallest of them as big as a horse was long. This was healthy foliage, green and strong, capable of crushing a man's spine if the opportunity presented itself.

Which meant it was quite a shock when Ozma charged them head-on. He bobbed and weaved through the dark green storm, finally jumping up and slamming his hands against the stalk.

"Wither!" He screamed, his palms dancing with magic.

Sure enough, at his command, the vines began to lose their luster. Where but a moment before they were vibrant and green, now they instantly shriveled into dry, brown husks. The emeralds ripped into them and tore the decayed thorns apart.

Ozma landed on his feet, breathing hard, but not panting. He glared ahead, heavy footsteps approaching from down the hall. A long shadow stretched across the stone.

"Mard Geer despises this wretched business," a smooth, oily voice slinked across the walls, as if inspected a speck of dirt caught in its fingernail. "Dealing with humans is beneath my kind. No etherious with any dignity should deem to play with such insects."

"Oh, so humans are insects, but Celestial Spirits are just fine?" Ozma taunted, regaining his breath. "You demons sure have strange standards."

"They are radiant beings, as are their Umbral counterparts. Inferior to us, but not completely without merit. Your kind on the other hand…"

The shadowed figure stepped into view and Oscar gasped. His legs trembled, so much so that if he was actually present before the demon, he doubted he could have remained standing.

The creature was tall, larger than Ozma by at least three heads and covered in nightmarish black armor. His mask was set in a haunting expression, his mouth fused shut with piercing dark eyes staring out from above. From his back, a pair of chipped purple wings flanked the rest of his body, his hands hidden within a pair of clawed gauntlets. If death, horrid, panicked, ruthless death, had a face, the devil before them would more than suffice.

Even still, the monster was not uninjured. He'd strode down the hall slowly because his right knee was bent near backwards, so far that he must have been putting himself through agony by standing on it, even a constant sickening squelch indicated that it was already healing itself. His leathery wings were peppered with holes about the size of Ozma's emerald while the tips of his gauntlets were thick with rust.

The demon glared at the time wizard. "… you are vexing to the utmost."

Ozma shrugged, cracking a cocky smile. "You're not exactly a pile of sunshine and rainbows either, you know. And unlike you, I don't have an army of minions to throw at whatever's scaring me. Or a fancy second form."

"Mard Geer does not fear an ant."

"Of course you don't. But what does that make you then?" Ozma taunted. "After all, I've killed enough of your kind to know Zeref was human, for all the crap people talk about him being immortal. You're a human's creation. An ant's creation."

The demon, Mard Geer, hissed. A ghastly flash of white light sparked across his armor, the wail of a dying scream seeping through the air.

"Our lord, our father, created us with a single purpose. To return to him," he declared, the sound's pitch only rising. "You human wretches laze about without purpose, without drive. But we have duty, destiny. Every action that I take, that any true etherious will ever take, has been to return to Zeref and see his final wish done."

"Return to him?" Ozma hefted his staff into a combat stance. "I can arrange that."

"You will not live to do so," Mard Geer sneered. "Memento Mori!"

The flash of light exploded off of his armor. Hundreds of dark spirits erupted out of the glow and rushed through the hall, their ghostly wails tearing through Oscar's eardrums. A putrid yellow gas seeped from the demon completely consuming the hall.

"This is the ultimate curse! Derived from the sealed power of E.N.D. that will burn even gods to ash, this power will not just kill you, you arrogant insect. When it is through with you, not even your soul will remain. Your existence will be erased from eternity itself."

"I take it that's what it's supposed to do?"

"What?"

"Flashforward: Decay."

Ozma raised his staff and the emerald danced, tracing a shining magic circle through the air in front of him. The glowing sigil blazed a beacon of hope in the dark castle hall, the hellish mist halting immediately when it touched the light. In barely an instant, the gas faded away.

"How long have you been working on this? A few months? A year?" Ozma snorted. "Take it from someone who made his own magic, pretty much every spell needs a few trial runs before you use it in the field. Just to make sure the ethernano holds together right, does what you want it to do."

"This is not some degenerate magic given from bastard gods! This is a curse!"

"Call it what you want. At best, this thing would have paralyzed me for a few minutes," Ozma chided. His face suddenly became as hard as stone. "Besides, whether magic, curse, flesh, metal, or stone, everything fades to time eventually. And I can make that moment come a whole lot sooner."

Mard Geer snarled. "Including your own."

The demon moved, or at least Oscar thought he did. All the boy saw was a vivid shadow and suddenly Ozma had crashed through half a dozen walls, Mard Geer's claw around his throat and his other hand raised to carve out his heart.

Fortunately, the emerald whipped through the air and slammed into the demon's eye, causing his grip to falter for the briefest of moments. Just long enough for Ozma to draw a haggard breath.

"Arc of Time: Double Accel!"

The emerald wizard's body blurred with vibrations and darted away from Mard Geer, his jewel streaking behind him. The demon roared and gave chase.

Oscar's surroundings ran together and before long he was standing in an enormous throne room, bordered in suits of demonic armor and draped in resplendent banners and finery. However, even in such a grand auditorium, there were three objects stood out above all. To the left of the throne was a giant purple crystal, a field of crackling energy spreading out into air, likely powering the dome surrounding the castle. To the right of the throne was a large mound of churning thorns, surrounded by complex machinery that the farm boy had no hope of understanding. Still beneath the vines, a strong but suppressed golden glow pulsed from within, a woman's voice incessantly chattering from under the cocoon.

Yet, despite everything in his mind screaming at him to keep his eyes on the vines and the ungodly reservoir of power suppressed beneath it, he couldn't help but glance at the throne itself. And the eldritch tome that sat upon it, three golden letters staring back him. E.N.D.

The door to the throne room smashed open. Oscar whirled around just as his past life stumbled into the room, a hand clenching his chest over his heart.

"Great plan, Ozma," the time wizard muttered. "Use the spell that you haven't gotten to work without shaving off your lifespan. Why not just take your own advice?"

He staggered across the throne room, making for the violet crystal, but Mard Geer rushed in from behind. The demon snatched the great and powerful hero by the throat and rammed him into the floor, summoning a mass of thorns that finally restrained his opponent's floating emerald.

"Did you really think I would let you destroy my lacrima?" the monster gloated. "The Celestial Spirit King shall never enter this castle. His daughter is my daughter now, my creation that will serve Lord Zeref with all her soul."

"Quite the interesting plan," Ozma choked. However, he flashed a cheeky smile a second later. "One problem though. Just like you demons have your singular purpose to serve your daddy or whatever, I take my job as a hero very seriously, despite outward appearances. And the job wasn't to destroy the lacrima."

Mard Geer cocked his head to the side before his eyes widened. He whirled around to the mound of vines, noticing the plants severing bit by bit, the other half of the emerald that had been missing since Oscar arrived shearing the thorns apart. The golden light had been contained within began to grow brighter and brighter.

"No!" the demon roared.

"Thanks for going on that merry chase with me," Ozma grinned. "Gave my spell time to work."

Mard Geer brought down a claw on the time wizard, but Oscar's past life raised his staff and a dome of emerald energy crackled around him. The demon's gauntlet cracked against the defense, repelled. He might have done something else, launched another attack that would have been repelled or summoned some scant remnant of his minions that hadn't already been slain, but the cocoon of thorns completely shattered before he had a chance.

The golden light blazed from within, the cut vines crumbling to ash under its wrathful glow. Its source rose soon after.

Oscar held his breath, and out of the corner of his eye, he saw Ozma do the same.

It was a woman, ragged and wounded, but beautiful nonetheless, her flowing blond hair spun like gold even with the dirt filling her locks. She shot to her feet, clothed in a tattered white robe, the brilliant shine emanating from battered skin. Her light blue eyes, the color of the sky on a sunny day, narrowed at Mard Geer, the wrath of a storm churning within them.

"Sitara!" the demon shouted.

The woman thrust her hands forward, the golden light coalescing into thousands upon thousands of miniature stars. Veins of pure darkness etched themselves over her face.

"Meteor Metria!"

Mard Geer's eyes widened with terror and the blinding light consumed Oscar's vision.

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Oscar shot up in his bed, panting hard. Sweat poured down his forehead.

"I told you not to go looking through those memories," Ozpin scolded them. "You'll eventually absorb them all, but intentionally seeking them will do you no good."

"Sorry, I just wanted to some of the Arc of Time in action," Oscar explained. "It was amazing. You were amazing. You were toying that monster."

"And because I toyed with, I nearly died," Ozpin lectured him. "I was reckless, childish. The Arc of Time cannot be used directly on the human body without straining the heart. It is a foolish technique that will at best shave off your lifespan."

Oscar raised an eyebrow. "What do you care about that? No offense, but it doesn't really matter how long I live to you."

"It matters to you. Therefore, it matters to me."

The farm boy wasn't sure how to respond to that. But he had enough of a mystical connection to the old wizard to know his words were the truth. Somehow.

"Who was that woman?" Oscar inquired, just to change the subject. "That Mard Geer seemed more scared of her than you."

…

…

…

"Ozpin?"

"She is long dead. I suggest you forget about her."

"What does that—"

"Oscar! Professor Ozpin!" Pyrrha's voice chimed in through the door, her knocks resonating through the wood. "Are you up? Mom has breakfast ready!"

"Oh, look at that, we must go get the pancakes and forgo this conversation immediately."

Oscar scowled. "We are not done with this conversation."

"Pancakes, my boy. If you won't drink coffee, you can't deny them."

"Ugh. You're not wrong."

"They have strawberries."

Oscar sighed and hopped onto his feet, briefly pausing to stare at his own body. He'd never been unfit, farming was not easy work, but four months being personally trained by Pyrrha and Scarlet had left him more muscular than he'd ever dreamed. Not buff by any means, but a lithe and defined physique with plenty of strength.

The Nikos family may have believed that he really was Ozpin's reincarnation, but they were still being more than generous. Four months of room and board (he'd brought maybe three shirts with him to Mistral and they'd given him a closet big enough for fifty), and all they'd asked for in return was magic lessons, which was really the former headmaster's area of expertise. Oscar did his best to help around the house and earn his keep that way, but he still couldn't help but feel like a freeloader. Granted, they were training for a war, so he'd be paying them back in the future, but far-off life and death struggles didn't really fill his current feelings of being a parasite.

Still, wallowing in it wouldn't help anyone. He threw on some actual clothes and opened the door to his room, ready to start the new day.

Only to find Pyrrha leaning against the wall, bags under her eyes and a yawn on her lips. The up and coming wizard huntress hadn't even put on her combat armor, still decked out in baggy Pumpkin Pete pajamas.

"Morn… morning," Pyrrha yawned.

"Morning," Oscar said. "Are you alright?"

"Huh? Oh, yes, I'm fine," Pyrrha assured him. "I just stayed up a bit later than I probably should have. I think I've got Grand Chariot down though. We can try it out later today and then move on to Altairis—"

"Pyrrha!" Scarlet's voice shouted up from the first floor. "Are you trying to convince your professor to teach you that spell I told you that you're not allowed to learn?!"

Pyrrha paled. "Um, no mother! We were just talking about… um…"

"Taking the day off!" Oscar finished. "We've been working so hard lately and we really should make sure we don't push too hard!"

"An excellent idea!" Scarlet concurred. "I'll make double the pancakes to start it off!"

"Thank you, mother!" Pyrrha called, before immediately sighing. "She's going to be the one to eat those extra pancakes."

"Probably," Oscar agreed. He might have been a growing boy, as his aunt insisted, but Scarlet Nikos devoured more food in one sitting than he ever could. Especially if that food included strawberries in any way. He turned to Pyrrha. "You really should take the day off though. You look like you barely slept."

Pyrrha shot him a reassuring smile. "I told you, I'm fine. Just a little…" Another yawn interrupted her.

'I sensed her magic for hours after you went to bed,' Ozpin informed him. 'I've never seen anyone learn a spell on Grand Chariot's level so quickly, but she's going to burn herself out if she keeps up this pace. Suggesting a day off was very wise of you.'

Oscar sent a mental thanks for the compliment but kept his focus on Pyrrha. "Why do you want to learn Altairis so badly anyway? From what Ozpin told me, it's a pretty nasty spell."

Which was an understatement if there ever was one. Altairis was primarily a Heavenly Body Magic spell, but it also contained hints of Death Magic, enough to have been forbidden in Ozma's time. If done improperly, it was a vortex of death that could spawn a minute black hole, and even when performed correctly, the spell became an unstoppable sphere of destruction that crushed anything in its path.

Scarlet had been present when Ozpin had told Pyrrha about it and had immediately forbidden Pyrrha from learning it. When the Invincible Girl had protested, the discussion had devolved into the first outright argument Oscar had seen between the mother and daughter. However, Pyrrha's inexperience with being against her parent and Scarlet's surprising vehemence on the matter had led to younger Nikos dropping the matter.

Oscar wasn't exactly sure why Scarlet was so against Pyrrha learning the spell. She'd had nothing against Grand Chariot and that could level a house. Perhaps it tied into the mysterious Fairy Tail tattoo she had on her arm. Ozpin seemed to have a lot of theories about that he was keeping to himself, only once asking her if the name Erza Scarlet meant anything to her.

It hadn't.

Either way, when Pyrrha had returned to the headmaster behind her mother's back and requested to be taught the spell anyway, Ozpin had agreed, though he'd insisted she at least be able to control Grand Chariot first before then even began. The inventor of the Arc of Time was knowledgeable enough about Heavenly Body Magic to teach it and was eager for Pyrrha to become as strong as possible, but he wasn't blind to the risks if his champion lost control of such a spell.

Pyrrha flinched and glanced down at her empty hands. "It's powerful. Salem's forces could show up any day. I can't ignore a weapon that strong."

"But your mom—"

"Means well. But she wasn't at the Fall," Pyrrha whispered, clenching her fists. "Cinder killed Ozpin. I couldn't do anything against her. And that was when she was just a maiden. Now she's probably a Gate, an Eclipse Etherious. I can't let her hurt anyone else. Not again. Never again."

Oscar gulped; a bit frightened by his friend's unusual intensity. He'd seen what a regular Etherious was capable of in Ozma's memories, so he knew there was plenty of merit to her worries, but still. It was unsettling to a girl who was usually so calm and pleasant filled with so much anger.

'Ms. Nikos experienced something extremely trying at Beacon,' Ozpin soothed him. 'It is natural that such an event would bring her focus.'

"I'd call wanting to use Death Magic a bit more than focus."

'True. We will have to take care that her drive does not become an obsession. She will not be able to help anyone if she becomes reckless.'

"That's what you're concerned about?"

'We are at war, Oscar. It is what I must be concerned about. Pyrrha is not wrong. Salem's forces could appear at any moment and if we are not prepared, millions could die. She must remember to measure herself, but her drive is not unwarranted.'

He wasn't wrong. But Oscar couldn't help but wish his mind companion took a bit more of their friends' welfare into account. After all, his aunt always said it didn't matter how determined a dog was to keep wolves out of the chicken coop if it gave itself rabies in the quest.

Guess he'd have to do his best to temper his friend's determination. She was teaching him how to fight. The least he could do was help her remember she didn't always have to.

"Well, we should head down for now," Oscar said, pulling Pyrrha along. "Salem's not going to attack until after we've eaten the pancakes."

Pyrrha chuckled. "Let's hope mother's left us some."

Oscar smiled. The battle with Salem was their responsibility, but for now, it wasn't their fight. Her forces might have been causing chaos somewhere else on Remnant, but they couldn't do anything about that. All they could do was eat their breakfast and pray for the poor souls who did have to deal with her madness.

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"Oniyuri?" Wendy read off the ivy-covered signpost. She turned to the rest of the group. "Do you guys know anything about this place?"

Ruby, Jaune, and Nora shook their heads, while Ren glanced away from them.

Qrow sighed, scratching the back of his head. "This place was pretty much Anima's version of Mountain Glenn, kid."

Carla raised an eyebrow. "And what is Mountain Glenn?"

"Right, you wouldn't know…" Qrow realized, facepalming. "Let me put it this way. On Remnant, outside the kingdoms' capitals and a few crucial trade checkpoints like Argus or Higanbana, there aren't a whole lot of settlements. And those that do exist are usually small villages. More people means more negativity means more Grimm."

"Which means more resources are needed to defend people from them," Wendy finished. That seemed simple enough. They'd passed through plenty of towns on their journey, some populated and some… devastated. None of them had come close to being anywhere near the size of Crocus, or even Magnolia.

Qrow nodded. "The kingdoms, well, the kingdoms except for Vacuo, have periodically made attempts to establish larger cities. Some of them, like Argus, succeed. Others… most, don't. Mountain Glenn was Vale's most recent attempt. This place was Mistral's."

"Not exactly."

Everyone turned to Ren, though the green-robed huntsmen couldn't bring himself to face them. Instead, he staggered over to a listing garden gate. "Oniyuri didn't have any support from the kingdom. A group of Mistral's richest citizens lost faith in the council after a popular member was assassinated by the others' supporters."

"Right, I remember that," Qrow mused. "Ben Autumn, right?"

"Maybe. I was too young to remember," Ren said. "I suppose it doesn't matter. The dissenters created multiple settlements. Oniyuri… Kuroyuri, others like them. They'd hoped that one day they might become their own kingdoms, a brighter future for Anima. At least, that's what my parents said. Before it came."

"It?" Carla noted. "Singular?"

"I thought it took a horde of Grimm to overrun a settlement," Wendy said.

"Usually," Qrow stated. "Not always."

"The Nuckelavee," Jaune muttered.

"A what?" Ruby said.

Nora's eyes widened. "Where did you hear that name?"

"A guy at Higanbana," Jaune revealed. "He said it had been ravaging the countryside for years. Could one Grimm really survive that long?"

"If it was a Nuckelavee? Easily," Qrow scowled.

Ren brushed the dirt off the top of the fence, revealing a set of vicious claw marks. His hand clenched into a fist. Nora rushed over to him and placed a comforting hand on his shoulder. Their gazes met, and for a moment the tension in Ren's body seemed to lessen. But only for a moment. Then, the ninja shifted his partner's hand off and turned away, his knuckles white with rage.

Nora's face fell. She opened her lips to speak, but no words came out.

Wendy frowned and looked all around. The town was huge, nearly half the size of Magnolia. But where her home was vibrant, full of flowers and shining buildings of stone, Oniyuri was a ghost town. Some of the buildings were destroyed or damaged, but most were just unfinished. Empty. As if the people who had been building them had just vanished one day. Only the scattered bloodstains suggested otherwise.

It was only at that moment that Wendy finally understood what kind of world Remnant was. Earthland had darkness, it had despair and treachery, but there was always a sense of hope, of light. Even at their darkest, even when she'd thought she was about to die destroying FACE, things felt like they would get better, that all their struggles and sacrifices, no matter how painful, would be worth it. That their guild, their family, would live on.

That feeling did not exist on Remnant. On Remnant, people hid behind natural boundaries and built walls to keep out monsters that would slaughter them all on instinct, not even aware of the witch masterminding it all. And when they tried to push forward, to improve their world for generations to come? Those same monsters slaughtered them, without fail. Leaving behind only empty houses and traumatized children.

There was no hope on Remnant. Only the fight.

"Let's get out of here," Jaune said, stalking away. "This place gives me the creeps—"

An unholy shriek pierced the air. A flock of ravens followed the cry with a chorus of caws as they fluttered into away into the grey sky.

The party fell into ready stances. Ruby deployed Crescent Rose, Qrow and Jaune drew Harbinger and Crocea Mors, and Wendy strapped her bucklers to each wrist.

Ren and Nora however, froze, their backs ramrod straight. Nora had enough sense to deploy Magnhild, but her partner's pink eyes were wide with dread, his entire body shaking.

"Not again," he muttered. "Not again."

"What again?" Ruby asked.

"Ah!"

Wendy whirled around. "Carla!"

Her Exceed partner had fallen to her knees, her eyes wide. Both she and Qrow rushed to Carla's side.

"What's wrong?" Wendy asked.

"I see… I see," Carla muttered. "No. No, that's not possible!"

"What's not possible?" Qrow inquired. "Did you see a future vision?"

Carla raised her head to speak, but another shriek ripped through their ears first, everyone flinching away.

An unfinished house at the edge of the plaza suddenly exploded, broken plaster and splintered beams flying everywhere. And from the cloud of dust, it emerged.

All the Grimm Wendy had seen so far looked somewhat like creatures she'd encountered before. A Beowolf was a wolf, a Geist was a spirit, even the Wyvern at Beacon had been a twisted version of a dragon. The monstrosity before her now had no such similarities. It was a twisted fusion of rider and horse, the lower beast ten feet tall with stout legs and ribcage of open bone. The 'human' half was lanky, almost lackadaisical, but every few moments seemed to twitch in just the wrong way to get the Sky Dragon Slayer's stomach churning. Its gaping crimson maw, the source of the horrific screeches, was stitched over like the bars of a jail, a prison that no victim could escape from.

The Grimm locked its eyes on them all, its hoofs nervously shuffling under it.

"That's a Nuckelavee?" Jaune asked.

Qrow nodded. "That's it. Ugly looking bastard. Be careful. This thing has taken down huntsmen teams before."

"But it's never faced wizard huntsmen," Ruby boasted, her eyes already beginning to glow. "This'll be over quick."

"Wait," Jaune said, narrowing his eyes. "Why isn't it attacking?"

"AAAAAAAAHHHHHH!"

Ren's roar startled them all, the green-robed huntsmen charging blindly towards the monster. He didn't even bother drawing Stormflower, just setting his hands ablaze with white light, Crash Magic flooding from his palms.

Nora threw out her hand as if to catch him, but beyond his reckless rage, Wendy wasn't sure what the problem was. Ruby's magic might have had a lot more ethernano to work with and a natural advantage over Grimm, but Crash Magic was one of the most versatile yet brutally powerful magic there was. If Ren got his hands on the Nuckelavee, it wouldn't last long.

Which made it all the more horrifying when a gunshot cracked through the air and smacked Ren to the ground. He went tumbling across the stone, lightning spasming over his body.

"Ren!" Nora screamed, dashing forward.

Unfortunately, whatever was holding the Nuckelavee back disappeared as soon as the shot was fired. The monster's gangly arms thrust forward, forcing the redheaded huntress to lunge to the side to avoid the assault. However, another round of bullets rained down upon her while she was off-balance, obliterating the surrounding stone and battering her with rubble.

"Where's that sniper fire coming from?" Qrow roared, hefting Harbinger up to shield Ruby. "We need to take cover before—" His eyes widened, and his head whipped up to the sky.

Wendy felt it too, her gaze following his to the clouds. Building up in the heavens was an enormous mass of magical energy. One that she recognized the signature of all too well.

"Get down!" she shouted, her hair busting out of its twin tails and transforming into the wild pink mane of her Dragonforce. The others darted for cover as she'd ordered while the Dragon Slayer took in a deep breath.

She'd need every ounce.

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Wendy had gone Dragonforce. How interesting. His partner had mentioned that she'd used it against Cinder, but that was when she'd had a maiden's leakage to feed of off. He wasn't sure she'd be able to do it with only Remnant's scant ethernano. Nonetheless, it wouldn't last long, the form increased her magical output, but that, in turn, required more fuel, and she couldn't eat air while defending against him.

That was the thing about snipers. Put them in the right position and they could hit everything on the battlefield while nothing could hit them. And given he could fly higher than any of them except maybe Ruby could shoot, he could practically rain down potshots with impunity. His favorite type of fighting!

But he wasn't fighting to kill them. If he was, he wouldn't have bothered luring the Nuckelavee here from its lair or letting them know he was there at all. He would have just put a lightning dust round right between Qrow Branwen's eyes before he even knew he was under attack. No, his partner wanted to test Wendy, Carla, Ruby, and their friends, see what they were capable of on Remnant.

Fortunately, one of the things he'd learned to appreciate on Remnant was that practically everything doubled as a gun. Sometimes more than one. The Buster Sword the Queen and Watts had custom made for him certainly could.

Already, his weapon was transforming into its second, far more impressive form. No longer a sleek sniper rifle, now he held a gargantuan artillery piece, a mass of black energy massing at the end of its barrel while a sizable lacrima rested on its butt. While powerful, it would take his rifle a minute to shoot again and this function would need a half hour to recharge, but it was nothing Fairy Tail wizards shouldn't have been able to handle.

And he very much wanted to see another Fairy Tail wizard again.

"Jupiter Magic Cannon," he smirked cheekily. "Fire."

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Ruby could barely see the black speck in the sky that Uncle Qrow and Wendy were so terrified of, but she certainly felt the gargantuan mass of energy gathering around it. When her friend had gone Dragonforce and commanded them to flee, she'd had no objections. She and Carla had dashed over to the battlefield to grab Ren and Nora while her uncle had held off the Nuckelavee.

The stockpile of energy above gave way and an enormous black beam of power plummeted towards them.

Wendy pulled back her head, her cheeks puffed with breath. "Sky Dragon Roar!"

The cyclone shot up into the sky, colliding head-on with the pitch-black beam. The wind raged, splinters of static flaring off the clash, the shockwave shaving the roofs off the higher buildings, plaster and wood flying all over Oniyuri.

However, the stalemate could not last. Despite her will, Wendy had only the ethernano around her to call upon and that was nowhere near thick enough to keep up the necessary power. Her Dragonforce flickered out, her wild mane falling into a curtain of aqua hair as her tornado was cut down to a third of its full glory.

The black beam, showing no such weakness, plowed right through it.

"Wendy!" Ruby screamed.

"Holy Barrier: Quartet Refraction!"

Ruby's eyes widened and her gaze glanced towards Jaune, who stood side-by-side with Wendy. His hands were thrust towards the sky and he conjured four of his shining ankh barriers in the black beam's path.

At first, the red hooded huntress wondered what he was thinking. His barriers were pretty strong but not enough to hold out against something that could stalemate a Dragonforce powered blast. He wouldn't be able to halt the attack.

But then she noticed that he wasn't trying to. He hadn't positioned his shields as a head-on defense to tank the full force of the attack. They were positioned at the edges of the blast, all of them set at a steep angle. It was like the armor Atlesian Paladins used, not meant to weather a shell's strike, but to redirect the force away from it, allowing thinner armor to stop more power than thicker defenses could head-on. And since the beam must have already used a decent chunk of its power already, maybe—

Her hopes were dashed instantly. The beam struck Jaune's shields and blew through them as easily as Wendy's roar, nodes of wind and light scattering through the air.

But the added defense was not without boon. While the holy barriers hadn't stopped the beam, they had slightly altered its course. The blast that would have struck and obliterated them all was instead diverted and landed behind where they were positioned, closest to the pair that had defied it.

Unfortunately, an attack of that size wouldn't go quietly. A massive shockwave erupted out from the point of impact. Wendy, Jaune, and the rest of the huntsmen group were sent flying, and even the Nuckelavee was thrown off its feet. The unfinished houses crumbled to dust, a cloud of plaster and stone sent rippling out into the forest as the remains of Oniyuri were leveled.

Ruby groaned, her ears ringing from the blast. She forced herself to her feet, taking care to shield Nora beneath her.

"Ugh," the hammer-wielder moaned, leaning against her weapon. "Wha… what happened?"

"I don't know," Ruby panted, frantically glancing around, failing to locate her uncle, her friends, or even the Nuckelavee through the smog. "Magic, somehow."

"From the sky?" Nora asked. "Why didn't we hear it? A bullhead should have made more noise."

"Because there was no bullhead," Carla declared, her transformed form stumbling towards the girls, Ren leaning on her shoulder. The pseudo-faunus girl's eyes were wide and confused. "That was a Jupiter Cannon. Why would he fire at us?"

"He?" Ruby noted. "Did your vision show you who it is?"

"Me."

The four whirled around to the new voice, a black blur cutting through the dust cloud, moving faster than they could track. Suddenly there was a towering cloaked figure among them, his gigantic crimson and grey sword streaking for Carla and Ren.

The huntsman and Exceed dove to the side, the steel barely sliding over their heads. Nora growled and swung Magnhild around, her hammer screaming for the attacker's chest.

There was a puff of magic and smoke and the hammer struck only empty cloak, its target now significantly smaller, as was his weapon.

A set of black bat wings spawned from the tiny figure's back in a manner Ruby found eerily familiar. With a single flap of his wings, the figure zoomed behind Nora, bursting back to its original size and bringing down his sword, a Buster Sword, on the huntress' back.

Ruby activated his semblance and burst into rose petals, catching the sword strike on Crescent Rose's shaft.

The figure smirked, sparks flying from their clashing steel. "Good to see you again, Ruby. Glad to see you haven't lost your touch."

The huntress' eyes narrowed, noting the dark blue fur covering her foe's hands and the lower half of his face. "Your wings, your transformation. You're an Exceed. But, you're putting out more than magic. Something… wrong, like Kyouka. Who are you?"

The figure sighed. "You figured all that out, but not the final stretch? Guess I'll have to push you a little further!"

He shoved Ruby back, slamming her into Nora. Yet, instead of continuing his attack, he shrank back to his smaller size and jetted back, the fog parting from his sheer speed.

Ruby scrambled to her knees. When she saw where the figure had gone to, her eyes widened.

Wendy and Jaune were laid out amidst the rubble, both badly battered with their eyes closed. And the figure stood above them, his sword hanging ominously above them.

"Are you fast enough?" he challenged.

"No!" Carla screamed. "Don't!"

"Wendy!" Ruby yelled. She burst into petals, but the blade was already falling, its tip streaking for the Sky Dragon Slayer's chest.

Only to bounce off the shield of Crocea Mors, thrust in its path at the last possible moment.

"Oh?" the figure remarked, a wide smile crossing his face at the sight of Jaune, battered and barely able to even kneel, lunged protectively over Wendy. "Your purpose is as strong as he'd hoped."

Whatever else he might have said was cut off when Ruby emerged from her semblance, Crescent Rose swinging for his head. The figure raised its sword to meet the strike, the collision of metal ringing through the air.

Ruby grunted as they both struggled for purchase against the other but smiled when she caught a flash of white flying over her shoulder.

Carla's foot smashed into the cloaked figure's face, her flying kick forcing him to stagger back. The faunus looking Exceed's eyes were livid, quickly unleashing a flurry of follow-up strikes, her legs raining down blow after blow on the other cat.

Unfortunately, their attacker was fast, very fast, even in his larger form. In the time it took Carla to pull back one leg to let the other strike, he'd already raised his sword and caught her new strike on the flat of his steel.

But those sparse few instants were all Ruby needed to jump in again, this time with a familiar white glow spreading over her scythe. An instant later, Tulip's Aegis appeared on her left arm. The figure moved his sword to defend against it, but the shield's shorter-range allowed Ruby to better leverage its weight and bash the sword aside. Which left her opponent wide open for the weapon she'd summoned to her right hand.

Waning Thorn, a short rapier with a heavy spiral blade, more a spearhead without a shaft than a mere sword, thrust towards the figure's face. His body might have been able to shrink back down in an instant, but his head had to remain in the same place, or he'd choke himself whenever he changed. She'd strike him right between the eyes and deal a devastating blow to his aura.

However, while he did shift to his smaller body as she'd expected, she hadn't accounted for the fact that his head shrunk slightly in his new form. His more compact skull and neck allowed him to duck out of his cloak entirely, Waning Thorn plunging right into the fabric and ripping it apart.

The Exceed dashed away into the smoke, standing right at the edge of their restricted vision. He landed on his feet, no worse for wear, his face finally revealed in full.

Ruby's eyes widened. She glanced at Carla, only to find her frozen as well, her hands trembling.

Nora and Ren came up beside them, protectively hovering over Jaune and the still unconscious Wendy.

The Exceed clapped, genuinely applauding them. "Amazing! Truly amazing! It's been so long, but you, my dear Carla, have only become more graceful and beautiful. I would have gladly waited another fifty years to see you again."

Nora raised an eyebrow. "Do… do you guys know him?"

The Exceed rolled his eyes. "Of course they do. After all," he turned around, revealing the green Fairy Tail mark etched into his back, "we're family."

That was the final confirmation. The fur was several shades darker, his teeth sharper, and he had curse energy mixed in with his magic. But his face was exactly the small and his tattoo undeniable evidence.

Carla's vision, her disbelief… the proof had come all too soon.

"Happy," the white Exceed muttered in horror.

The dark blue cat's smirk grew to split his face in two. "Aye, sir!"

Ah, this is one of the moments I was really looking forward putting to page when coming up with the story. It changed a bit from conception, but that final moment and line were exactly what I was hoping for.

Side Note, it was really interesting to write Mard Geer three hundred years before we see him in Fairy Tail canon. He's younger, more brash, less calculating, though much more physically powerful as he's been fighting more often. And yet, the Memento Mori curse he made, which by the Tartaros Arc was an instant kill on anyone who wasn't a Devil Slayer and still paralyzed Gray when he protected Natsu from it, is still in its development stages, allowing Ozma to pick it apart with ease.

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

Go Forth and Conquer!