For those of you who received a message about an 'update' eariler this week, there was none. I just finally deleted the Emergency Author's Note that was taking up the official Chapter 2 slot, and the site went fritzy for a bit. It should be fine now. If the fact that Chapter 48 is now in the site's Chapter 48 slot causes any problems in giving reviews for this chapter, please just leave your reviews as Guest Reviews under your Pen Names and I will PM respond to you as normal. Thank you!

Beta-ed by xenosaiyan

"Are you gonna be alright?"

Blake flinched at her partner's worry, her entire body bruised, battered, and caked in blood. Ren helped her sit up on one of the few remaining intact bleachers, while Yang used a thin flame arm to support her there, looking on like a mother hen.

Though, the blond was hardly in any better shape, even if she was standing. It said a lot about how close they'd come to dying that Ren, who was still limping from his near-drowning experience, had probably gotten off the easiest of the three of them. And their friends were still facing off with two other Gates just as dangerous, plus Happy. And End.

"I'll be fine," Blake assured her partner. "But I don't think I'll be much help in another fight."

"I don't think any of us will," Ren sighed. "The others aren't weak though. We have to have faith that they can handle themselves until we're well enough to support them. When we… kill the other Gates…"

"You did what you had to do, Ren. Who knows what he would have done once he hit the water," Yang frowned, taking a deep breath and letting it out slowly. "Blake, what about your transformations? Do the Grimm have any sort of healing factor that could get you back to fighting strength faster?"

The cat faunus winced. "No healing. My endurance is boosted, but that's just because a Grimm's instincts under Seram's Madness puts their mission above everything, including their own well-being. I'm not actually in any better shape."

"Seram's Madness?" Ren queried.

"That doesn't sound fun," Yang remarked.

"It's a long story, too long for right now. Let's just say it's why they come for us," Blake explained, a haunted emptiness glistening in her amber eyes. "To a Grimm, the need to kill their lord's enemies is the same as our need to eat, to drink, to breath."

"And I'm guessing this 'lord's' enemies are humans and faunus?" Yang said, glancing at the stump of her right arm. "You can control it though, right?"

"If I only manifest individual parts? Easily. But a Full-Body Takeover? Honestly, the best I can do is aim it, twist the desire to kill his enemies into killing my enemies," Blake elaborated. "And if none of those are around…"

"It ain't a party trick," Yang surmised.

Blake nodded. Guess that wasn't a way to speed up the healing process. Nothing to be done then. She had to do what she had to do.

"Lord? As in male?" Ren mused. "I guess that means Salem isn't the Grimm's master after all. Strange. Ozpin explained that she can't control them worldwide, but why bother saying she was their master at all then?"

The cat faunus frowned. "That is part of the long story."

"It'll have to wait," Yang declared, spinning on her heels and marching up the stairs towards the entrance to the stadium. "Ren, watch over her. Make sure no one tries to jump her while she's hurt."

"While I'm hurt?" Blake gasped. "Yang, you're not looking much better. And with your aura still broken-"

"It'll recover soon enough. Besides, with this much ethernano in the atmosphere, my magic will be back before that," Yang replied, her flame arm growing back to its robust girth to prove her point.

For some reason, that just made Blake gulp. "Your left hand… why did they take it from you?"

Yang frowned. "They didn't. I cut it off."

"You what?! That's what you meant by 'I chose this'?!"

"They had me chained up. I needed to warn the others about a trap," the blonde justified, trying to ignore the pangs of agony still pulsing through her cauterized stump. "Wasn't even a question. Any of you would do the same for me."

"Yang…" Blake whimpered. "You're rushing again."

"You can't fight everyone yourself," Ren advised. "Just rest up for a few moments and get your strength back. Don't let everything build up, or you'll burst—"

"There's no time!" Yang insisted. "Blake, you had Regulus. That means Lucy is here, right?"

Blake cringed. "I found her Fairy Sphere on Menagerie. But she's stronger than she was before. You don't need to worry about her."

Yang's heart sang at the confirmation. Whatever was going on with End, at least one of her mentors was on Remnant, no mysterious demon alter ego required.

But if she was fighting in the battle, that meant she would eventually come to-face-to with him. And given how much he looked like Natsu, who knew if she'd be able to fight him.

"I do," she refuted her partner. "Trust me. No one is strong enough to fight End alone."

She didn't have any more time to discuss the matter, ran off down the hall, ignoring Blake's shouts behind her.

Every second she waited was a second more for End to blow through her friends. She'd felt the heat of his flames, and she was a Fire Devil Slayer. The others would be roasted alive the moment he lost control. He'd been distracted enough for Raven to escape by how much he enjoyed their fight, so it stood to reason that other emotions could cause him to waver in his moderation. Just because he didn't want to kill them didn't mean he couldn't do it by accident.

Yang wasn't dumb enough to think she could beat him alone, but she knew her friends couldn't either. Her magic was made to fight him. It hurt him, even if it didn't do as much as it should have, it hurt him. Just like targeting Mercury's legs had been key to defeating him, that would be a crucial piece to taking down The Ophiuchus.

Her friends were here. The finish line was in sight. Together, they could do this. She just had to push through a little more pain.

She forced her legs to stop limping and climbed higher towards the sounds of battle.

RWBYRWBYRWBYRWBYFTFTFTFT

Ruby really hated fighting an enemy with the high ground. And that went double for an enemy that could fly.

Happy may not have had the smoke cover he'd used at Oniyuri, but he was also ridiculously fast. His magical wings enabled him to cut through the sky swifter than any bird. Crescent Rose easily had the range to hit him, but she couldn't get a bead on him.

Fortunately, that handicap went both ways. With her Reaper's Rose Armor on, she had more than enough speed to dodge the demon Exceed's shots. A veil of rose petals burst over the rooftop as volley after volley of lightning dust rounds pierced down into Haven's main hall. A few small bushfires sparked up over the ruined lumber, but without fire dust to exacerbate the blaze, Happy couldn't use it to corral her and nullify her agility.

That bought her time. And time bought her rose petals. Of course, when she thought of her building ammunition, it prompted a stray thought on the course of the battle, one that could prove crucial to her victory.

After all, Happy's Buster Sword had a similar magazine capacity to her sniper-scythe, and he was firing way more shots than she was. Which meant, sooner rather than later, he would have to reload. A skilled gunman could finish the magazine changeover in only a few seconds, but that would still be a gap in the rate of fire that Ruby could exploit. She'd have to put everything she had into her assault.

Part of her was hesitant, worried that the silly talking cat with wings she knew back at the guildhall would be seriously hurt if she unleashed her most powerful attacks. Despite everything that had happened at Oniyuri and how he helped End kidnap Yang, Ruby still had a hard time thinking of her old friend as an enemy. However demonic he may have become, she still caught enough glimpses of the goofball she knew underneath to make her hesitate.

How had it come to this? She promised Wendy that she'd find a way to reunite her with the guild, to get her home. But so far, all she'd managed to find was a Natsu and Happy that worked for Salem, and an Erza that didn't remember who she once was. How was she failing so drastically?

Then she heard the sounds of battle emanating from all around her, the clash of steel from Uncle Qrow manhandling the White Fang, the desperate pattering of Oscar and Nora below her, and the roar of End's blaze. She steeled herself, readying her magic to do what she needed to do.

She was the leader. She wasn't allowed to fail.

At last, there was a pause in Happy's barrage, the Exceed's paws flickering to change his rifle's magazine. Ruby didn't waste her change, flashing magic through her to get the only other weapon in her arsenal with the range to reach her opponent's height.

"Requip!" she shouted, white light flooding over her arms. "Full Magnolia!"

"Oh, not good!" Happy panicked.

Ruby grimaced, the enormous autocannons manifesting atop her shoulders, silver light fraying at the edge of her vision and surging into the lacrima within the artillery. Her old friend knew how powerful her ultimate guns were, how they could tear apart fortifications with ease. If she hit him with the full force of its firepower, there was no telling if he would survive. But with his speed, it was the only weapon she had with the range and rate of fire to have a reliable chance at hitting him before he forced her to change positions and readjust her aim.

She… she had to do it. She'd sent Jaune into a fight he couldn't win to buy time for them to beat the rest of their enemies. She couldn't waste a chance to finish her fight and go help him!

"Gun Magic – Argentum Salvo!"

The barrage of silver meteors soared through the air, the thunderous roar of cannon fire shrieking in Ruby's ears. Happy spiraled through the sky, darting out of her path, but the red hooded huntress could tell that not even he was fast enough to dodge them all. Her rounds traced the heavens, zeroing in on his location—

And then his location shifted. Happy shifted to his smaller form and disengaged his wings, firing off a round beneath him to launch his body into a sudden incline with the recoil. It was a trick Ruby had used herself many times before, but so far she'd only seen the Exceed use his larger state to fire stable shots. The unexpected shift in tactics threw her, but her experienced gunmanship enabled her to quickly adjust to his new position, aiming for the peak of his new movement arc.

Unfortunately, Happy knew her fighting style, and seemed to follow her line of thinking. Thus, the moment he reached the peak of his arc, he restored his wings and blasted away, his speed even greater now that he was in his smaller form.

Ruby whipped around to reorient her aim, but the Exceed took advantage of her flub and flew right overhead of her. The red hooded huntress couldn't aim straight up from her current position because the ammunition containers on her back would clip the roof before she reached the vector she needed, and darting to a new position would give Happy another opening now that he'd reloaded. She could dodge, but with Full Magnolia out, the sheer weight of her weapon would wear down her stamina.

She'd have to switch back to Crescent Rose, harry Happy until she'd built up sufficient rose petals to use her armor to its fullest. But the time it took to do that would just give her opponent more opportunities to strike her. As long as he had control of the skies, she was at a disadvantage.

"Star Shot!"

Huh?!

Ruby's eyes widened, a feeling similar to Cinder's new mystical signature suddenly spiking up on the pillar on the opposite side of the great hall from where Jaune was fighting End. For a brief moment, terror shot through her, the nightmarish thought that Cinder had already returned from within the Vault, and what she must have done to Pyrrha and Raven in the process, coursing through her.

But then she saw that Happy's face had gone pale. And then she registered whose voice she'd heard above the clang of battle. And then she grinned like a maniac as half a dozen golden arrows streaked through the sky.

Happy acted immediately, shifting his weapon into its sword mode and using its flat to block the bolts as they homed in on him. From there, his focus turned to the pillar that stood alongside Haven, Ruby's eyes following his gaze.

Carla dropped Lucy off at the column's balcony, the white Exceed glaring at her dark blue counterpart. But even if Ruby was thrilled to see her flying friend, her attention was drawn to the Celestial Spirit Wizard, both because she had no idea how the heck she'd gotten there, and because the girl who'd always opted out of the guild's hourly brawls was now wearing a lavish green super combat skirt and brandishing a golden energy bow at the winged demon cat.

"Oh no," Happy murmured, fearfully glancing over to the other side of the main hall, where blue flames were rising up from his partner's battle. "No, no, no, no…

"Happy! If that's really you, let's settle down and talk about this!" Lucy shouted, three more energy arrows conjured on her crackling string. "You're outnumbered and we don't want to hurt you—"

Happy instantly swapped out his magazine for a different one, whirling on Haven's roof and unloading a salvo.

"Let me finish telling you off, you stupid cat!"

Ruby leapt forward to dodge the bullets, dashing over towards Happy. She glanced back and watched as the far side of the hall's roof went up in flames, smoke rising up and clouding the view of Jaune and End's battle.

"Fire dust?" the red hooded huntress murmured, tilting her head to the side.

He had fire dust? But then… why was he only using it now? He could have used it to corner her, burn up the rooftop bit by bit until she had nowhere to run. He'd certainly shown that kind of strategic planning back at Oniyuri. And even if that was just a fluke, which Ruby doubted, he'd certainly seen Nora's semblance. Why would he bother shooting lightning dust at all if he had other varieties?

Was there something more going on then she'd thought?

"Tomcat!" Carla yelled, erupting towards her fellow Exceed.

Lucy flinched after her guildmate charged, hesitating. Despite her threats, the combination of her closeness to Happy with the shock of seeing him as an enemy for the first time meant she wasn't nearly as trigger ready as she'd tried to bluff. Still, as Carla transformed and delivered a brutal kick that the male Exceed blocked on his Buster Sword, she was able to send a few light arrows downrange.

Ruby flashed her requip and replaced Full Magnolia with Crescent Rose. Now that Carla was so close to Happy, she couldn't risk filling the sky with cannon fire. Fortunately, it also meant that the demon cat's air superiority was no longer unchallenged. She had a chance to end this without hurting her old friend too badly. And maybe get some answers on what was going on.

She tapped into her armor and pulled all her scattered rose petals away from the fire and into the air. With backup or not, she knew this wouldn't be an easy fight.

RWBYRWBYRWBYRWBYFTFTFTFT

It was her. She was here. Not a nightmare or a training hallucination, or a mocking specter that haunted her when she closed her eyes. This was real. The monster that crippled her, that nearly killed her, that rendered her so utterly powerless now stood before her.

"You."

As Cinder's snarl filled the Vault of the Spring Maiden, Pyrrha knew this wasn't going to be an easy fight.

A fact that was clear to the actual Spring Maiden beside her.

"Stall her," Raven advised, glancing back at the Vault's tower orange gate. "I'll form a portal, we jump to Qrow or Yang and regroup—"

"If you want to run, go right ahead," Pyrrha spat. "I'm finishing this."

Raven's eyes widened. "Are you insane? It's a straight bridge, there's no room to maneuver! She's got more power than both of us put together, and if I touch those doors, the Relic is hers for the taking."

"She won't get it," Pyrrha growled, her emerald eyes narrowing. "I'm going to kill her."

The champion seeped her semblance throughout her armor and took in a deep breath of ethernano to top off her origin. Styx and Cerberus expanded into their full forms, the latter's three blades sprouting from their sheath and hovering in midair, bathed in the black gleam of their mistress's polarity. She shot across the bridge like a bullet, the golden shine of Meteor coating her body and rocketed her forward even faster.

Cinder thrust her hands out behind her, a roaring conflagration erupting out of her palms and heels, warping the elevator shaft and sending her tearing forward to meet the redheaded huntress.

Pyrrha gritted her teeth, the anticipation curling in her gut. The Fall Maiden was arrogant. She'd shown that in their first encounter when she'd taken her time letting the Invincible Girl flounder instead of using her raw magic power to end the fight quickly. Now, she was racing to meet the Heavenly Body wizard in close combat when she clearly possessed the advantage at range.

If the young huntress could get into melee range, she could use the same strategy she had against Ruby. She'd hit hard and fast with her three swords and her shield-gun and keep Cinder on the back foot until she whittled down her aura.

However, just as she and her foe were about to collide, Cinder came to a sudden halt and whipped her arms in front of her. The raucous inferno flooded over the Fall Maiden and surged onward across the bridge, the stone underneath blackening from the touch of the flames.

Having no desire to be barbecued, Pyrrha dove over the side of the rocky path, the blaze tearing over where she'd last stood, the heat flooding over her back as she lost herself to freefall. A glance back showed that Raven had had a similar instinct, leaping into the chasm and transforming into a bird to avoid the fiery onrush, the blazing torrent crashing into the gate of the Vault. Magic must have been at work, because not even the oak tree borders of the barrier acknowledged the flames' presence. All Cinder's attack had accomplished against the threshold was clouding the bridge with smoke.

Pyrrha allowed herself to plummet into the pit of Vault for a second before activating her Polarity and yanking herself upward. Her semblance's command of her armor enabled her to float over the underground chasm, with her magic lending her the speed of true flight. Granted, it was a drain on her aura, but she'd been practicing precise control of it over the last few months so that it didn't wipe her out.

She glared back at the smog, her emerald eyes trying to catch a hint of Cinder's movement from within the cover. Instead, all she was able to see was a black bird soaring for the elevator shaft.

"Raven! Clear the cover!" Pyrrha shouted. "Clear the smoke before you—"

A swarm of glass arrows soared out of the smog, burning orange comets that streaked through the air towards Raven. The Spring Maiden dove through the swarm, but the bolts homed in on her position and exploded against her avian form.

The bandit was knocked for a loop, but thankfully, her years of huntress experience lent her the dexterity to morph back to her human state, flip around so her boots hit the cavern wall, and thrust Stalwart Stem into the rock to arrest her fall. She threw out her hand, the maiden's light glowing over her eyes as a great wind blew through the pit, revealing Cinder on the bridge, her bow already nocked and ready with another barrage.

Pyrrha zoomed back onto the bridge, zigzagging across the stone to create the formation she'd need if her charge went wrong. She jabbed her fist forward, her swords streaking towards her enemy.

Cinder snapped at her, launching her barrage of arrows towards the flying blades. The glass projectiles exploded with a deafening trio of explosions, tossing the steel sabers wide. Pyrrha couldn't stop the sheer force from throwing them back, but her semblance was swiftly able to reestablish control and bring her swords even with her own pace.

She made to use the explosion as cover, rush through the blaze and smog to catch her enemy by surprise… but then she remembered the tower, and what had happened the last time she tried to block Cinder's arrows. Her right heel certainly pulsed with recollection.

She ducked low, expecting the arrows to reform and shoot after her. They didn't, but another volley flashed through the blaze in their place, followed in turn by three more rounds. Her caution led them to sail over her head, thundering behind her as she raced through the flames, carried on their shockwaves.

Blinking away sparks, Pyrrha burst under her enemy, her blades glowing with the fire's heat.

Cinder's eyes widened briefly at the champion's lightning approach, but she corrected herself without too much trouble, snapping her bow into a pair of curved sabers. Pyrrha sent out a quick wave of her semblance, unsurprised that her foe once again had no metal on her, the weapons in her grip constructed entirely of glass and dust. She wouldn't be able to use her Polarity to influence her foe.

But she could manage that. Her own weapons were still loyal to her command.

Cerberus's trio of blades thrust down on the Gate just as Pyrrha launched her own assault with the sheath and Styx. Cinder countered as best she could with her swords and flaming bone whips, but the battle was too clone range for the latter to build up any momentum. Despite the Fall Maiden's skill, she suffered several blows from her enemy's barrage of blows while she herself only scored glancing strikes on the relentless champion.

Pyrrha smirked, a rush of victorious relief flooding through her as the duel settled into a steady rhythm, a rhythm that favored her. She was fighting back! She would not be powerless!

Or at least, she thought she wouldn't.

She brought her right foot down to the ground from a kick. Nothing extreme that would aggravate her injury, just standard footwork. But as soon as it landed, it froze. Literally, it was encased in a block of ice, shattering the rapid pace of Pyrrha's onslaught.

The champion could have kicked herself. Her enemy was so fond of fire, she'd momentarily forgotten that a maiden's versatile arsenal consisted of all elemental magic. The Fall Maiden had let her set the pace of the exchange so that she could disrupt it for maximum effect!

Cinder smirked, a soft, cold glow fading from her fingertips. Cracklings of viridescent electricity surged over her body, a soft green glow emanating from her form.

"Enhance," the monster sneered. "20%."

When she lunged forward to take advantage of Pyrrha's opening, she was faster and stronger than ever.

The champion gasped, the breath crushed from her lungs as the Eclipse Etherious's blades raked across her armor. Pyrrha was sent tumbling across the stone bridge, the ice that had held her right foot shattered from the raw power of her enemy's strike, her heel screaming in protest from the weight it was momentarily forced to bear.

The Heavenly Body wizard careened over the side of the bridge and began plummeting into the chasm. She frantically reestablished her semblance's hold over her armor to begin counteracting her momentum, a burst of Meteor enabling her to snatch onto the edge of the rocky overpass.

Unfortunately, Cinder appeared on the edge before she could pull herself back up, a molten spear in the devil woman's raised hand.

Pyrrha immediately released her hold, dropping away from the reach of her foe's weapon. Cinder roared and threw the lance downward, falling towards the redhead like an executioner's ax.

"Meteor!" the young wizard yelled, frantically shooting herself out of the spear's flight path and racing to a different point on the bridge. However, she'd barely landed when Cinder's bone whips lashed out and thrashed against her back. Pyrrha gasped as she was knocked into the dirt.

Cinder smirked, casually curling her whips at her side, the green aura fading from her body as her arrogant swagger returned. "I must congratulate you, Ms. Nikos. It's rare for one to master magic to such an extent in this barren world. However, you were lucky to leave our last encounter alive. Rest assured, neither Ruby nor Wendy will not be coming to your rescue this time. And soon, rest in peace."

"Oh, shut up!"

Cinder whirled around, only to get slammed by a titanic ice sword from above. The condescending bitch crashed into the dirt, carving a new trench out of the intricate cobblestone.

Raven landed on the bridge, her giant ice blade disintegrating from around Stalwart Stem. She pulled back her hand and summoned a gust of wind to yank Pyrrha back to her feet.

"If you've got some sort of ace up your sleeve, use it now!" the Spring Maiden screamed.

"Ri—right!" Pyrrha stuttered, assuming the necessary stance, one hand over the other, two fingers extended up.

She'd planned for this, anticipated it. She'd known that as hard as she had been training, it was entirely likely that Cinder had also spent the last few months doing the same, only aided by her ascension into a Gate. She'd known her charge might not have worked. She was not invincible.

But neither was Cinder. She was alone, just like the champion had been before. Pyrrha's friends had succeeded just as they'd promised and left the Fall Maiden with no allies, none of the backup that had enabled her to survive her clash with Wendy at Beacon.

Wendy had beaten her, put a stop to her. And Pyrrha was just as much her mother's student as the Sky Dragon Slayer was. She could do this! She had prepared for this! She would not be powerless!

"May the seven stars cast judgment upon you!" she roared, gleaming light building over the seven sigils she'd laid across the ground during her earlier approach. "Grand Chariot!"

The magic circles blazed into the heavens, solidifying into the constellation of power just as Cinder rose to her feet. The golden-eyed woman gazed up at the sparkling stars just in time for them to crash down upon her, raining brilliant, shining retribution down in a thunderous maelstrom. The Fall Maiden howled in agony, her screams audible even through the calamitous bombardment.

Pyrrha wasn't sure what it said about her that she felt no relief at her enemy's pain.

As her spell came to an end and smoke once more filled the air, the section of the bridge connected to the elevator shaft crumbled to dust, hunks of rubble plummeting into the abyss below. For a moment, the young girl felt relief, jubilation that she'd vanquished the monster she'd so dreaded, that her nightmare was finally over.

Then Raven spoke.

"There's no body," the bandit queen observed, her eyes locked on the boulders falling into the void beneath them. Her sword rose back up from where the blowback of Grand Chariot had knocked it. "Stand ready. We're not safe yet."

"Jiu Leixing!" Pyrrha immediately shouted, grateful for the maidens' presence enabling her to cast again after using such a powerful spell.

Nine swords of lightning flashed into existence behind her, startling Raven at their suddenness. The bolts flashed across the bridge, slicing the smog in two, and revealing Cinder within the cloud.

Or at least, what was left of her.

The Fall Maiden's entire right arm had been blown off by Grand Chariot, her elegant crimson dress torn apart and blackened with soot. The side of her face was ravaged and scarred, her left eye twitching near-shut. Her silky ebony hair was swept about like a wild mane while her left-hand bone whips were rammed into the ruin of the opposite side of the ridge, suspending her above the chasm.

Cinder swung herself out of the path of the nine lightning swords and jerked herself into the sky. Pyrrha reached back with her semblance to reclaim her swords for a follow-up assault, but Raven beat her to it.

The Spring Maiden thrust her odachi to the air and summoned up a tempest. Lightning and hail scored through the sky, screeching for Cinder and crashing into the monstrous devil woman. For another brief moment, Pyrrha thought they had won.

Then Cinder spoke.

"Eclipse Etherious Form!"

A sphere of raw orange mystical energy erupted from the Gate of the Archer, blowing away Raven's elemental assault. The endless well of the maiden's ethernano spurned ever higher, an eldritch fusion of magic and curse power flooding the vault, the cavern shuddering from the sudden surge.

Cinder descended from the hellish sun a new being, a warrior angel cast out from the heavens and descending upon the mortal realm with wrathful fury. Her right arm had been regrown, both it and her left coated in claws attached to her bone whips. Armor of the same material layered over her arms, chest, and neck. Her glass combat heels had shattered to pieces, her feet overtaken by wide, human-shaped cloven hooves.

Pyrrha and Raven leapt back just as the demon crashed onto the bridge, smoke and gravel bursting out from the impact. Green lightning flared over her new, monstrous body.

"Enhance," she snarled. "100%."

She lit up a firestorm behind her and blitzed forward in a blur of thunder and flames. Her armored claws grabbed both Pyrrha and Raven by the throat and slammed the women against the gate of the Vault.

As soon as the Spring Maiden's face pressed into the orange threshold, the shining door lit up with a tapestry of azure vines. The layers of the grand gateway clicked and whirred, retracting apart to reveal the true vault within.

But a mere vault was too pedestrian a word for it. The realm beyond the door was an endless expanse of desert, a clear blue sky spreading out as far as the eye could see. And a short distance away, a majestic gold and aquamarine lamp hovered above a stone circle, radiating magic purer than any Pyrrha had ever felt before. It could only be the Relic of Knowledge.

"A whole separate world just for one trinket?" Cinder chuckled. "Arrogant Ozpin may be, the old man certainly has a sense of flair."

Pyrrha shoved Styx in her face and pulled back the shield's layers. The gun barrels flashed, unloading a blast of dust rounds at point-blank range.

The bone claw covering of Cinder's left arm peeled off her bare flesh and pressed itself over the carbine, acting like an additional arm and stuffing the bullets. But, also leaving her flesh unarmored.

Pyrrha reached out with her semblance and summoned one of Cerberus's swords to her grip. She made to slash off her captor's arm, only for Cinder to toss her back across the bridge before the blade could touch her flesh. The champion barely managed to restrain her flight with her Polarity to keep from falling into the chasm. When she managed to secure herself on the edge of the broken overpass, she fell to her knees.

Raven's eyes flared with the maiden's power, her hand outstretched towards the demon gripping her throat. A blast of ice surged out from her grip and coated her enemy's head. Unfortunately, said ice proceeded to immediately melt away as the Eclipse Etherious's body lit up with flames.

"Vexing," Cinder remarked. "But I have evolved far beyond such petty tricks, you bandit slime."

She reeled her arm back and slammed Raven's head into the floor. Dust and shattered stone flew up from the impact, only to multiply when Cinder pulled back and repeated the process with all her strength. Over and over again, she bashed the other maiden's skull into the stone like a jackhammer, driving the bandit into the rock with all her strength.

When she finally planted Raven's head in the ground, her aura shattering to pieces, all the former huntress could do was groan, a trickle of blood running down the crown of her forehead.

Cinder grinned. Emerald electricity sparked up on her hand, but instead of surging throughout her own body, they flickered over to the woman she'd just nearly beaten to death.

"That should keep you pliant," she declared. She raised her opposite hand, a blood-red portal opening in her palm, some sort of beetle Grimm peeking out from her flesh. "Now keep still. This won't hurt a bit."

"Let her go!" Pyrrha shouted, calling her swords to float around her, Styx spraying her adversary with bullets as the champion desperately tried to keep from trembling.

Cinder glared back at her with the same utter loathing one had when they spotted a mosquito that had taken a bite out of them, her bone claws both detaching to form a second pair of arms and effortlessly swatting the dust rounds out of the air. "I've never met someone so tired of being alive."

She shoved Raven into the dirt one last time and stomped towards the young huntress, her cloven hooves cracking the ground with each step.

Pyrrha shivered, tears pricking from her eyes, reality setting in around her and crushing her idiotic dreams.

Nothing had changed. All those months, all that training, and nothing had changed. Every scrap of strength she had worked for was trumped in spades by Cinder's ascension. Even her Grand Chariot had been rendered meaningless by the mere act of the Gate assuming her true form. That was her strongest attack!

No, she did have one stronger. She had Altairis. At least in theory. She hadn't mastered it. And if she got it wrong, she'd create a miniature black hole. If it was just her and Cinder, that might have been an option, but with Raven still there… Pyrrha didn't like the bandit, but she wasn't about to sacrifice an ally who'd fought beside her, certainly not without their permission.

But then… there was nothing she could do. She was still powerless. She was going to lose. She was going to die.

No, no, no, no, no! She didn't want to die! She didn't want to die! She had her friends back! They were dealing with the other Gates, trusting her to handle this bitch! She couldn't let them down! She couldn't die and let them down! She couldn't… she didn't want to die.

She didn't want to let her friend's down, she didn't want to be powerless, but she was eighteen years old and she didn't want to die!

She… she couldn't win. What could she do?

… She could fight.

"Meteor!" she screamed, rocketing towards her foe.

Cinder covered her body in emerald sparks, moving in a blur to match even Pyrrha's speed. Her bone claws extended out their whip talons while her twin swords were spawned in her regular hands. She dashed out to meet the champion, easily battering through the redhead's defenses.

Pyrrha used her semblance to make sure she landed on her left foot and pivoted for another strike. She had to keep fighting!

Her swords fell upon Cinder, only for the Eclipse Etherious to summon a swath of flame and sweep them aside with her bone claws.

Keep fighting!

She raced in for a jab with her weapons only for Cinder to parry them with her swords.

Keep fighting!

Her enemy flicked her wrist, a bolt of ice magic sticking Pyrrha to the ground. With her footing grounded, she soon found herself engulfed in a merciless inferno, blown back to the edge of the pit.

Keep fighting! Keep fighting! KEEP FIGHTING!

And so she did.

And so she failed.

RWBYRWBYRWBYRWBYFTFTFTFT

Oscar had to admit. Emerald was really good at keeping the fight going.

He'd held out a small hope that he and Nora would be able to defeat the Gate of the Twins, or at least break past her to help Pyrrha down in the Vault. After all, Ozpin informed him that the Gemini powers the green-haired girl possessed were mostly utilitarian, and whatever her spinning curse was, it seemed to be purely defensive. The flaming Devil Slayer chains were dangerous, sure, but with Nora's invisibility and his time magic and shield, he thought they could work around her.

He had not accounted for Emerald's own illusions.

"Oscar, left!"

The young time wizard ducked back, avoiding a swipe to his left side that he'd seen coming from his right. It was hard to coordinate any sort of attack on Nora if they couldn't be sure they were seeing the same thing, or if they could even be sure what they were seeing was real. Fortunately, Emerald didn't seem to be able to affect both him and Ozpin, so his passenger was able to tell what was real. However, since he couldn't tell if that was because their enemy had some sort of limit on how many minds she could effect at once or if she just didn't fully understand that he had two minds in his head to influence, it was limited in its helpfulness.

No matter how 'weak' an Eclipse Etherious was, they couldn't be so reckless as to try to match hits with them. After all, comparatively, the weakest of the Gates was still stronger than most of them, except maybe—

"Oscar!"

All three combatants' gazes were drawn to the hole in the wall Jaune had thrown End through, only now, Scarlet rushed inside through it, dressed in very revealing spotted armor. Fortunately, her voice was just as commanding as always, so Oscar didn't get distracted like the first time they met.

"Pyrrha?" she called out.

Oscar pointed his cane towards the Vault. "Down there!"

Emerald raised her weapons, the pink flames shimmered over the entrance. "And you're not getting to them—gah!"

The Gate was blown back into the wall by a sudden fire dust explosion. Her attention had been drawn to Scarlet so much that she hadn't noticed Nora shift Magnhild into its grenade launcher form, nor the actual shot that had been cloaked in invisibility.

Scarlet immediately dashed towards the wrecked elevator, moving faster than Oscar had ever seen her run, which was saying something.

To Emerald's credit, she recovered quickly from the point-blank grenade explosion, scrambling to her feet. The thief danced across the floor, spinning her flaming chains at the redheaded woman. Whatever her lacking morality, she was determined to keep anyone else from reaching Cinder.

Oscar made to jump in and shield his mentor, but he needn't have bothered. Scarlet had matters well in hand.

She swung out one of her swords, a gesture that would have been useless against the spinning defense if it had been aimed at Emerald. Instead, the veteran fighter had struck lower, the blade biting into and through a patch of floor underneath the Gate's foot just as she crossed it. With a flick of her steel, she forced the bit of wood up when their enemy was still on it, tossing the thief aside despite her defense. The spinning couldn't let it slip off if it came from directly below.

With Emerald tossed aside, Scarlet dove down into the elevator shaft.

"Huh," Nora noted. "Well, that was impressive."

"Ergh!" Emerald growled, whipping her sickle towards the distracted huntress.

Only for it to be caught in the golden grip of another familiar face. Well, older familiar face, and he honestly didn't put it together, but Ozpin sure put it together fast.

"Leo!"

"Leo?!"

The Zodiac Spirit of the Lion, more gray-haired than he was in Ozpin's memories, but still easily identifiable in his shining golden armor, stood protectively before Nora, clenching Emerald's sickle in his hand. His body was protected from the Devil Slayer flames by the light of Regulus.

He glanced towards Oscar, cocking an eyebrow at The Long Memory. "Ozma?"

"Who?" Nora inquired, her eyes curiously studying their new ally.

The farm boy flinched. "Uh, Oscar. Ozpin's in my head, but—"

"You're still you for the moment," Leo nodded. "My apologies."

Oscar gulped, his grip on his cane tightening. Now wasn't the time to focus on the matter, but others viewing him as the same person as Ozpin, without his own agency, was not a particularly pleasant thought.

Emerald tugged her weapon out of the Celestial Spirit's grip, cautiously stepping in front of the Vault entrance. "Who the hell are you?"

Leo glared at her, his eyes filling with the light of a blinding star. "I am Leo, captain of the Zodiac Guard, sworn warrior of the Celestial Spirit King. I am Loke, a Fairy Tail wizard. And you, my dear lady, no matter your beauty, are an enemy of both."

Nora grinned and brandished her grenade launcher. "Yeah! Your ass is as grass as your hair!"

Oscar tilted his head to the side. They were still in a fight to the death, right? Why were things suddenly stupidly awesome and completely insane?

"Just go with it," Ozpin advised him. "No matter how outlandish, this is still a perilous situation."

Oscar groaned. His wise old mentor would have been much more credible if his voice hadn't been giddy as a schoolgirl since the Celestial Spirit had appeared.

Oh well. At least he didn't have to worry about Pyrrha anymore.

RWBYRWBYRWBYRWBYFTFTFTFT

Cinder sighed with contentment as a strong gale blew the Relic of Knowledge out of the inner vault and into her hand.

With her strength, skill, and cunning alone, she had bested the Spring Maiden and claimed her mistress's prize. Lord End's great plan was as unnecessary as she'd advised. Now, the infamous Raven Branwen laid beaten and helpless on the ground, her sight, hearing, and touch robbed from her by the Enhancement Curse. Her sword may have only been a few feet away, but she'd never find it, and she'd never be able to hold it even if she did. Cinder could have her Scarab drain her powers at her leisure.

And then there was the other insect.

Pyrrha Nikos had proved herself a persistent annoyance, Cinder would give her that. The inconsistent magic she'd displayed at Beacon Tower had been honed and sharpened into a noticeable fighting force. Combined with Branwen's tactical experience, her most powerful attack had even forced the Gate of the Archer to assume her Eclipse Etherious form, something she had doubted any of Ruby's rabble would be able to do.

The former Mistral champion had been soundly defeated afterward of course, but her seemingly inextinguishable desire to crash her head against Cinder's raw strength tried the Fall Maiden's patience. At last, she'd swatted the redhead into the dirt, broken her aura completely… and still, the girl attacked like a woman possessed!

She wasn't even a threat! Cinder had taken Teacher's caution about her Enhancement Curse to heart and fine-tuned a safer application for herself. While leaving the power on to continuously boost would eventually reach too high for her body to sustain, her new method of consciously amplifying herself for brief bursts enabled her to throw off her enemy's rhythm, hammer them when they least expected it, and test out degrees beforehand to find her limits. So far, her base form could safely handle a fifty percent boost, and her Eclipse Etherious form… well…

She'd tested up to a hundred percent, but she hadn't found the limit yet.

The point was that Pyrrha's rabid strikes weren't dangerous, just irritating. Fortunately, with her aura dealt with, she could be deterred indefinitely.

Cinder lashed out with one of her bone claws and grabbed the young wizard by the throat. Green electricity flashed into the child as the Enhancement Curse set to work. Admittedly, the Eclipse Etherious had not put as much focus into taking away the power her enemy had after Marvell's victory at Beacon, but her focus on using her new ability to strengthen herself had not left her hopeless in using it to crush her foes. She could still strip them of their senses… she just couldn't remove all five unless she only had one target.

Freeing Branwen to act would be foolish, so she left Pyrrha her hearing. She wanted her to be able to listen to her own screams after all.

Cinder plopped the redhead down onto the bridge, the wizard for once not leaping to her feet for another assault, but helplessly stumbling around the stone on her knees. At least, until she started howling in agony.

The Gate of the Archer chuckled. She also took the opportunity to increase all of her enemy's pain nerves up to their maximum. Ruby and Wendy were protected by Salem's command, and even though Pyrrha easily played the smallest role in the outcome of their previous encounter, Cinder fully intended to take her pound of flesh from the one target she was permitted. And with the Lamp of Knowledge in hand, she had no reason to make it quick.

She bent back her fingers and flicked the air, the faintest of breezes shooting over Nikos's bare skin.

Her screams were more beautiful than the finest of Mistralian symphonies.

"You once asked if I believed in destiny," Cinder remarked. "All my life, the world has tried to crush me, destroy me. And I have spat in its face and survived. I do believe in destiny. Because I defy destiny. I deny it and forge it with my own two hands because I am strong. The maiden's power is mine because I have the will to use it. To slay gods, not cower in the wildlands or be Ozpin's glorified padlock. I am strong. I am powerful. And the world will cower at the very mention of my name. No one will ever lay a hand on me again. Least of all, you."

She jabbed forward with her bone claws and punched Pyrrha into the ground, the fallen champion's howls tripling in volume. If a soft breeze felt like being cut to her core, actually being struck must have been like being crushed under a mountain.

Cinder formed Midnight's bow form and strung it in her flesh arms, pulling back a molten arrow aimed for her enemy's chest. "Now then, shall we pick up where we left off?"

To see this upstart crushed, to see the girl who had dared to take arms against her riving in agony, it was simply euphoric.

Then she spoke.

"Pyrrha!"

Cinder's eyes widened, her gaze zipping towards the opening of the elevator shaft, drawn by the voice so unfamiliar, yet so similar to Ruby's arrival back on the tower. For a moment, the Gate felt like her heart had stopped, an instinctual twinge of fear biting her soul.

A figure landed at the foot of the outer vault's entrance, a redheaded woman wearing some skimpy cheetah print armor. It hardly looked practical, but the new arrival was in no way laughable. She had just dropped at least three stories, and didn't show the slightest sign of fatigue, her legs already bunched and preparing to pounce. Her very presence…

Salem's unnerved people with her perversion. Teacher's put them at ease with her steely kindness. But this woman? She felt like a wild beast, an apex predator ready to tear its prey limb from limb.

And once she caught sight of Pyrrha, her brown eyes were set ablaze with fury.

The woman bounded forward, clearing the broken half of the bridge in a single leap, white light bathing over her patchwork armor, searing into the Gate's retina. When it faded, the redhead was rocketing towards Cinder in golden armor with fur trimmings, thick pauldrons, and massive gauntlets, the last of which she proceeded to use to ram her fist into the Eclipse Etherious's face, the air cracking as she was blown backwards.

Cinder retched, something cracking in her jaw as she bounced across the stonework, eventually floundering onto her knees at the edge of the inner vault. The Relic of Knowledge was thrown from her grip and tumbled to the bridge floor by Raven's sword.

The Gate of the Archer had no attention to spare for the Spring Maiden or the lamp however, as preposterous as that sounded in her very own head. Her golden eyes and the entirety of her mind were focused on the new combatant, who was glaring bloody murder at her while towering in front of Pyrrha's broken form.

"Get the hell away from my daughter, you bitch!"

Ah, I have been looking forward to writing that punch. Another of the big moments that drove me to write this story.

Also, yes. Cinder has effectively used the Enhancement Curse to get a knockoff Kaio-ken.

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

Go Forth and Conquer!