Chp. 55: From Bad to Worse

Remnant

Somewhere in Eastern Solitas

Teleporting Dust Warehouses

Back on Remnant, within Solitas, Winter, Penny, the Ace Operatives, the Happy Huntresses, and a few Atlesian soldiers continue to fight off the White Fang.

"Keep fighting! We're pushing them back!" Winter shouted as she slashed at a White Fang soldier's chest.

"Um... guys?" Marrow asked as he pointed out in the tundra.

Everyone turned to see A large herd of Grimm stampeding their way towards the warehouses.

"There's no way we can beat all of them!" Harriet shouted.

"We must try!" Elm shouted, swinging Timber at another White Fang soldier.

Suddenly, an artillery round struck several Grimm. Everyone turned to see where the shot came from and saw a group of T-14 Armata tanks, three Mil helicopters, and several groups of Russian soldiers as they began to open fire at the Grimm. The Grimm then turned away from the warehouses to attack the Russians. A moment later, Sergeant Alexey Belitrov drove up to Winter, Clover, and Robyn on a snowmobile.

"Me and my men were out here patrolling until we saw the Grimm heading your way. So we thought you might need some help," Alexey said.

"Good thing you did. We wouldn't be winning if you hadn't shown up.

The four were then suddenly getting shot at, making them dive for cover. They looked to see More White Fang soldiers trying to shoot at them.

"Shall we?" Alexey asked.

Winter, Clover, and Robyn charged out in the open while Alexey began to open fire on the Faunus supremacists.


Earth

Knoxville, Tennessee, USA

First Horizon Plaza

Meanwhile back on Earth, Amber glared at Cinder, getting into a stance as Cinder calmly walked around her.

"It's nothing personal, dear. You're just not worthy of such power. But I am... So I will take... what is mine..." Cinder said, before coughing.

"It was never yours to begin with," Amber said as she drew out her staff.

Cinder charges at Amber and swung her obsidian glass swords at Amber as she jumps away from the attack. Amber swung the wind Dust crystal end of her staff, unleashing a blast of wind at Cinder, pushing her back several feet. Cinder faces her palm to a window on the building next to her, and coalesces the window into several glass shards, which she hurls at the Maiden. Amber is knocked back from the damage, face down in the quickly gets back up to her feet just as Cinder rushes towards her. Cinder attempts to slice Amber with the two blades, only for the Maiden to deflect each hit and kick the assailant away.

Ruby, Kelly, Jacob, Yang, Kendra, Velvet, and Cade approached and saw Amber and Cinder attacking each other. Just as they were about to run in to intervene, bullets struck the ground in front of their feet. They turned to see Tyrian charging at them, while trying to shoot at them.

"Ruby, Velvet, and I will hold off Tyrian! You guys help Amber!" Jacob shouted.

Jacob, Ruby, and Velvet rush over at the scorpion Faunus as Cade, Yang, Kelly, and Kendra rush over to help Amber. Before they could intervene, The Hound flew down from the sky and lands right in front of them, giving out a roar. Tyrian charges over to Ruby with a cackle, but Jacob jumps in between them and bashes Tyrian's head with his shield. Tyrian swung his tail at Jacob's legs, making him fall on his back. Before Tyrian could lung his stinger at Jacob, he hears the sound of a camera snapping. He turns his head to see Velvet putting her camera away and then creates a hard light copy of The Queen's Servants. The rabbit Faunus charged over at the scorpion Faunus and tried slashing at him as he dodged her attacks. Before Velvet attacks again, Tyrian activates his semblance and sweeps his hand at her stomach. Before Tyrian could land a fatal blow, Ruby dashed at the mad serial killer and swung her scythe at him. Tyrian flips over the attack and kicks Ruby to the ground.

Before Tyrian could attack Ruby, Qrow falls from the sky straight towards Tyrian. Anima's serial killer jumps out of the way as Qrow landed where he had stood. Ruby, Velvet, and Jacob all walked next to Qrow as they pointed their weapons at Tyrian.

Up north of South Gay Street, Hazel, Mercury, and Emerald were all looking down at the folder with the scripts for RWBY Volume 8 with stunned expressions on their faces, while Keaton, Robert, Ren, and Nora all stood waiting for a response.

"Salem really is planning to destroy Remnant," Emerald said.

"Jeez, all that just to off herself," Mercury said.

Hazel stood in silence, still looking down at the scripts.

"I only have one thing to ask. What do you three plan on doing now?" Keaton asked.

Hazel, Emerald, and Mercury stood in silence for a moment until Hazel finally spoke.

"What Gretchen would have done," he answered.

"After... After everything that has happened... I'd rather do whatever it takes to survive. Anything other than helping Salem... Or Cinder," Emerald said.

Keaton smiled at Hazel and Emerald before turning his head at Mercury.

"Eh. I'd rather stay alive than let Salem kill me even after helping her with her plans. And I never really cared for Cinder anyway," Mercury said with a shrug.

"I'm glad you all see now. Because I have a plan," Keaton said.

Not far from the conversation, Pyrrha continues to fight off Carmine. Pyrrha tosses her shield at Carmine as she deflects it away with her sais. Carmine connected her sais together and formed her long double sided trident. Carmine rushes at the Mistral Champion and thrusts her weapon at her, but Pyrrha brings back her shield with her semblance and deflects the attack away. Pyrrha transformed her sword into her javelin and thrust it at Carmine, making her jump away. Carmine twirls her double sided trident above her head as the windows on the buildings shattered. The shattered glass then floats above Carmine, cycloning around. She points her weapon at Pyrrha, making the broken glass hurl towards her. Pyrrha lifts up her shield, blocking all the shards of glass coming towards her.

"You can't win, Champion of Mistral! You're dealing with the Rattlesnake of the Sands of Vacuo!" Carmine shouted.

Umber swung one of her whips at Fox as he rolled away from the attack. She swung her other whip at the blind member of Team CFVY, but misses when Fox jumps away. Fox rushes at Umber and tries slashing at her with Sharp Retribution, but misses every time when Umber dodged his every attack. He tries shooting at Umber, but she runs away from the shots. Umber swung one of her whips, wrapping it around Fox's legs. She yanks it back, making Fox fall on his back. Umber swung down her other whip as Fox rolled himself away from the atack. He quickly gets up and rushed at Umber.

Gillian fires an arrow at Jaune which he blocked with his shield. She rushed at Jaune and swung her bow at him as he parried away the attack. Jaune swung his sword a couple times at Gillian as she leaned away from the first attack, then blocked the second. Gill whacks him in the face with her bow. Gill grabs on to Jaune's arm and begins to siphon his aura into hers.

"You took my brother away from me!" Gillian yelled.

Jaune bashes Gill's arm off of his, then bashes her on the side of the head.

"You and Jax were trying to take over Vacuo and then plan to do the same with Remnant! Of course me and my friends aren't going to let that stand!" Jaune shouted.

"I'LL KILL YOU!" Gillian screamed.

Just before she could fire another arrow at Jaune, she was suddenly getting shot at. She ran behind a car for cover and peered over it to see who was shooting at her. Gillian saw several American soldiers, including Alex and Steel, all trying to shoot at her. Umber was about to attack at Fox once more until she turned to see Gill hiding behind a car from the soldiers, and Alex and Steel trying to gun her down.

"Carmine!" Umber called. "Our queen needs help!"

As Umber ran to help Gillian, Carmine sent a large ball of broken glass shards at Pyrrha pushing her back. Carmine then quickly ran over to help Gillian. Umber and Carmine hid behind the car with their leader.

"Where's Rosa and Argento?" Gill asked.

"They're both dead," Umber answered.

"We're all that's left of The Crown now," Carmine added.

"No! They were my team! My friends! It can't end like this!" Gill said in despair.

"We must retreat! At this point, we are outmatched" Carmine said.

"You're right. My legacy can't continue if I'm caught or killed," Gill said.

Steel tosses a smoke grenade at the three remaining members of The Crown, but Carmine sees this coming and uses her semblance to toss it back. The smoke grenade explodes into a large cloud of smoke blocking Jaune, Steel, and Alex's vision as well as the rest of the soldiers around them. Taking this opportunity Gillian, Carmine, and Umber began to run away until the three girls were out of sight.

Ilia swung her whip at Fennec as he jumped away from the attack. Corsac rushes at her and tries slashing at her with his dagger, as Ilia parries away the attacks. Ilia backflips away from another attack from Corsac. Fennec ran up to the chameleon Faunus and shot a blast of wind at her, knocking her into the ground. Corsac shoots a fireball at Ilia as she quickly flips herself away from the attack and back up to her feet. She wrapped her whip around Corsac and electrocuted him and knocked him unconscious.

"Brother!" Fennec cried out.

Fennec picks up his brother's dagger and turns to face Ilia with an enraged expression. He charged at Ilia and tried slashing at him with Cyclone and Inferno, while Ilia dodged and parried the attacks.

Rebecca swung Hailstorm at Trifa who backflips away from the attack. Yuma flew towards Rebecca and threw a punch at her face as he flew by. Trifa shot a web at Rebecca, wrapping her in spider web silk. Yuma flew down behind Rebecca and wrapped his arm around her throat, choking her. Ilia turned her head to see Rebecca in trouble. She turned back when Fennec swung Lightning Lash at his shoulder, electrocuting him and knocking him unconscious and breaking his aura. Ilia ran towards Rebecca and Yuma and swung her whip at Yuma. He gets shocked from the whip which forced him to let go of Rebecca. She headbutts Yuma and runs straight towards Trifa. She kicks the spider Faunus' hands that gripped the spider web silk and knocks it out of her hands, then follows with a kick to her stomach, knocking her back. Ilia ran up to Rebecca and cut her loose from her webbed bonds.

"Thanks, Ilia," Rebecca said.

She picks up her scythe just as Yuma flies towards her. Rebecca swung her scythe at the bat Faunus knocking him away. Trifa rushes at Ilia, but the chameleon Faunus wrapped her whip around the spider Faunus, electrocuting her. Trifa falls to the pavement now unconscious and aura broken. Fennec wakes up and picks himself up. Ilia and Rebecca looked back at the fox Faunus who began to charge at them. Rebecca transformed her scythe into her machine gun and fired several rounds through Fennec. He fell back to the pavement as blood poured out of his body.

Yuma gets up from the ground and sees the now dead Fennec and an unconscious Trifa. He turned his attention to Ilia and Rebecca who were pointing their weapons at him. Knowing that things were not going their way, Yuma turns around and flies away. A moment later, several American soldiers ran up to drag Corsac and Trifa away.

Meanwhile a block away, Salem was fighting off several American soldiers and police officers that were shooting at her. Salem dashed at a soldier and grabbed him by the throat, then tossed him at a second soldier. She dashed at a police officer and shot a blast of fire through the officer's chest. Another officer ran up at Salem as he was shooting at her. Salem grabs the officer by the throat and snaps his neck and tosses him aside.

Suddenly a stream of bullets were striking Salem in the back. She turns around to see a cobra helicopter shooting at her. Salem shot an ice shard at the helicopter's tail, making it spin out of control and crash into three more soldiers. A soldier ran up to Salem while shooting at her. Salem turns and smacks the soldier into a building. She blasted a mist of ice at a soldier's head, freezing it. The soldier fell back onto the pavement as his frozen head shattered upon impact. Salem turns her head toward the First Horizon Plaza for a moment before gliding down the street at an alarming speed towards the building.

Meanwhile at the crash site, Amber and Cinder continue to duel against each other. Cinder shot three arrows at the Fall Maiden as she rolled away from the projectiles. Amber shoots a fireball from her staff at Cinder, but she effortlessly blocks it with her hand. Cinder charged at Amber and they both gave a series back and forth slashes and blows. Amber activates her Maiden powers and floats up into the air. She then flew at Cinder, and both girls flew down the street.

Meanwhile at the First Horizon Plaza, Ruby, Jacob, Velvet, and Qrow continue to fight off Tyrian, while Yang, Kelly, Kendra, and Cade continue to fight off The Hound. Tyrian tried slashing at Qrow who parried and dodged his attacks. Ruby dashed up to Tyrian and swung Crescent Rose at him as he flips away from her attack. Jacob rushed in with God's Trust, along with Velvet with a copy of Jacob's sword and tried slashing at Tyrian who parried and blocked their attack. Qrow, Ruby, Jacob, and Velvet all swung their weapons simultaneously at the scorpion Faunus as he blocked their attacks with The Queen's Servants and his tail. With an enraged scream, Tyrian drops onto his back spins frantically, swinging his legs through the air as his four opponents backed away from his swinging legs. He then gets to his feet, looking somewhat dizzy, and begins laughing maniacally.

The Hound lunges at Kendra who quickly rolls to the side. She swung Mercy Bringer at The Hound, but the intelligent Grimm grabs her pole axe mid-swing and tosses her into a mailbox. Kelly ran up to The Hound with Hacker in its buzzsaw form and swung it at the Grimm. The Hound leaned to the side to avoid Kelly's attack, then swiped his claws at Kelly knocking her to the ground. Yang charged at The Hound and threw a couple punches at its jaw. Yang throws another punch, but the Faunus-Grimm hybrid catches her fist and slams her to the ground. Kelly gets up to rush at The Hound, but the Grimm tosses Yang into Kelly knocking them both back to the ground. Cade began shooting at The Hound getting its attention. The Hound rushes at Cade as he pops a blade out from out of Random Access. The intelligent Grimm tried to claw at the American android as he leaned away from his attacks.

Several feet away from everyone, Blake, Weiss, and Ricky continue to fight off Adam. The bull Faunus rushes at Blake, but she jumps away with her semblance at the last second. Weiss creates several glyphs and they launch ice shards at Adam. He blocks the icey projectiles that were hurled at him with his sword and then charged at Weiss. Before he could strike, Ricky jumped right in front of her and blocked his attack with his machete. Weiss and Blake rushed in to help Ricky and tried to strike at Adam with a series of back and forth blows and slashes.

Blake grabs the bottom portion of Gambol Shroud and throws it at Adam, but he deflects it back at her. Ricky notices this and grabs the pistol and uses the ribbon to swing Blake around. Blake uses her cleaver to clash with Adam's sword, but he sends her flying back. Weiss creates a glyph behind her and launches herself from it and straight towards Adam. Weiss gives a horizontal strike, but Adam blocks the attack and then kicks Weiss back several feet. Ricky rushes at Adam and tries to strike at him, but Adam quickly blocks his attack and then kicks him back several feet next to Yang who was shooting at The Hound from a distance. Blake charged at Adam and they both clashed their blades.

"It's always about your friends, is it?" Adam asked.

"At least I have some!" Blake retorted.

"That can be arranged," Adam said.

He manages to push Blake to the ground, and then removes his mask, revealing a scarred Schnee Dust Company brand mark across his left eye, which was bloodied with a gray iris and a singed eyebrow, as opposed to his remaining blue eye and brown eyebrow.

"People hurt me long before we met... All sorts of people in all sorts of ways... but no one hurt me quite like you... You didn't leave scars, you just left me alone. So now I'm going to make sure you will be alone," Adam said.

Adam turns his attention towards Yang who was still shooting at The Hound. He clinches on to Wilt as his body starts to glow red. Ricky looks back and forth between Adam and Yang with a look of shock and horror. Blake quickly realizes what Adam was about to do next.

"YANG!" Blake screamed, reaching out to her partner in vain.

Jacob heard Blake cry out to Yang and turned to see what was going on. Yang turns around to see Adam was about to attack her. Just as Adam dashes at Yang, while activating his semblance, Ricky quickly gets up off the ground and pushes Yang to the side. Adam approached and narrowly missed Yang, but ended up slicing off Ricky's left arm and depleting the last of his aura. Ricky fell to the ground and lost consciousness. Weiss, Blake, Yang, and Jacob watched in horror at their friend losing his limb.

"RICKY!" Weiss screamed.

Jacob turned his attention towards Adam with an infuriated look as Adam looked down at Ricky with annoyance and disgust. Jacob's body began to glow red like Adam, tightly gripping on to God's Trust.

"ADAM!" Jacob screamed in fury.

Jacob dashed straight towards Adam, just as he turned to face him. Just as Adam attempted to dodge, Jacob managed to slice off Adam's right hand and his horns. Adam dropped to his knees, screamed in agony upon losing his horns and hand. Enraged, Yang activates her semblance and hurls a punch at the bull Faunus, sending him flying into a wall, creating a large hole in the wall, and depleting the rest of Adam's aura. Jacob and Yang turned their heads to a wounded and unconscious Ricky.

"Ricky!" Jacob and Yang cried as they ran over to their hurt friend.

Weiss and Blake ran over to Ricky and knelt down with Jacob and Yang. Blake looked up at Jacob in shock as he desperately tried to tend to Ricky. Jacob looks up at Blake and notices her expression.

"What?" Jacob asked.

"You... You have Adam's semblance. How is that possible?" Blake asked.

"Yeah, I know! But I have bigger things to worry about right now!" Jacob said as he got back to helping his partner.

Tyrian tried slashing and throwing blows at Qrow and Ruby as the two scythe wielders blocked and married his attacks. Velvet rushed behind Tyrian with a copy of Harbinger and swung it at him, knocking him away from the three. Tyrian gets up from the pavement and sees Qrow, Ruby, and Velvet closing in on him. He looks around and notices Jacob, Weiss, Yang, and Blake all kneeling down trying to help Ricky. He gave a maniacal laugh before charging toward them. Qrow, Ruby, and Velvet chase after the scorpion Faunus.

"Kids!" Qrow called out.

Yang, Weiss, Blake, and Jacob turned to see Tyrian rushing towards them. Jacob get up to his feet and rushed at the serial killer. Just as Jacob started to glow red and use Adam's semblance, Tyrian's eyes and hands glow purple as he activates his semblance, and suddenly Jacob instantly stopped glowing.

"What the...?" Jacob thought as he noticed his semblance suddenly stopped working.

Tyrian tries to strike at Jacob as he blocks his attacks with his shield. Tyrian and Jacob's blades then clashed against each other as they tried to push each other back. Just as Tyrian was about to strike at Jacob with his stinger, Jacob's eyes and hands were suddenly glowing purple, just like Tyrian. Just as Tyrian's stinger lunged at its target, Jacob grabbed the scorpion Faunus' tail, stopping the attack. Tyrian quickly kicks Jacob to the ground and crouches down at him with a smile. Just before Tyrian could lunge his stinger at Jacob again, Ruby rushed at him and swung Crescent Rose, cutting off the stinger from the rest of his tail. It bounces, spurting purple liquid, to the ground. Tyrian reels back and cries out from the pain. Standing, he whirls to face Ruby, infuriated.

"You bitch!" Tyrian yelled in anger.

"Look who's talking," a voice spoke from behind Ruby.

Qrow jumps up in the air from behind his niece and throws a punch to Tyrian's head knocking him head first in the pavement, breaking his aura and knocking him unconscious. Jacob got up from the ground and ran over back to Ricky as Qrow, Ruby, and Velvet followed.

"Ricky?!" Ruby cried upon seeing him.

"He needs medical attention and fast," Qrow said.

"I've already called an ambulance," Weiss said.

"Hey, Jacob?" Qrow asked.

"Yeah?" Jacob asked.

"You have Tyrian's semblance," Qrow said.

"What? That's impossible! He just used Adam's semblance just a couple minutes ago!" Blake said.

"Wait! Jacob has two semblances?!" Yang asked.

Everyone was silent for a moment until Velvet spoke.

"Maybe his semblance works a little like mine," she said.

"What do you mean?" Ruby asked.

"My semblance allows me to copy different fighting styles and movements of other people by watching them. Maybe Jacob's semblance can copy other people's semblances just by watching whatever semblance he sees," Velvet said.

"That doesn't explain why I couldn't use Adam's semblance on Tyrian," Jacob said.

"Perhaps the next semblance you've copied cancels out the last semblance you have previously copied," Velvet said.

"So the only way Jacob could use Adam's semblance again is if he watches Adam use it all over again?" Blake asked.

"That could be," Velvet answered.

"Guy! Can we talk about Jacob's semblance later? Right now, Richard needs help!" Weiss shouted.

"Right. Sorry," Ruby said.

Meanwhile, a few blocks away, inside a grey Mazda CX-5, Judy was in the driver's seat stuck in traffic with Ashley riding in the back in her toddler car seat.

"Come on, move. I need to get Ashley out of the city," Judy muttered. "I really hope Keaton and Jacob are okay."

Suddenly, Amber and Cinder flew out of the corner and crash landed in front of Judy's car. Both girls quickly got up from the ground as civilians all around ran away screaming. Judy steps out of the car and opens the passenger door as Cinder and Amber both traded blows and slashes at each other.

"Come on, Ashley! We need to go!" Judy said.

She unbuckled her baby niece and picked her up from her car seat. Judy began to run away with Ashley in her arms. Cinder fires an arrow at Amber's feet which then explodes upon impact, sending her flying. She fell right onto the pavement in front of Judy as her aura broke, making the latter stop in her tracks. Judy hears the sound of footsteps and turns around to see Cinder approaching. She frightfully took a few steps to the side holding Ashley as Cinder walks up to Amber. Cinder summons Midnight in its bow form and aims an arrow at Amber.

"Like I said; You were never worthy of such power," Cinder said.

She releases the arrow as it strikes Amber in the chest. Amber gasps for breath and a moment later, she stops breathing and her eyes drift closed, and her head leans to the side, her whole body going limp. Amber's body soon starts to glow orange, then the glow then bursts out of Amber and enters Cinder. The murderer glows, begins floating, and gains long trails of flame around her eyes, with orange energy swirling around her. Amber is dead and Cinder is now the new Fall Maiden. Judy trembled in fear and soon reached into her pocket and grabbed her iPhone. It slips off of her hand and drops to the ground, gaining Cinder's attention. She looks down at the device to see Judy, Leon, and Ashley, alongside Jacob and Keaton on the screen. She looks back at Judy with a sinister smile.

"I take it that you're relatives of Jacob Gordon?" Cinder asked with a cough. "It's a pleasure to make your acquaintance."