[X] It wasn't going to work, Zero was going to fight her way through and keep coming. She needed to lose herself in the Song to stop Zero.

...She couldn't just sit aside and do nothing, Two decided.

She had two choices in front of her. Run and hope, or fight and try. And the first option was doomed to failure from the start. Every time so far, hope had failed her. The only saving grace which Two had been able to stick with this far is that she had always been strong enough to make it through whatever trial she had to face, but that wasn't true here.

Zero was stronger than her. Far, far stronger. And that dragon had overpowered all of Three's Armisael- Even if they had a habit of self destructing and weren't the most powerful Angel, that was still something that would take an army in most circumstances. Worse, the dragon didn't even look too bad off. There was blood dripping from it's gums where the wires had dug into it's jaw, and it's wings and scales were burnt, with the occasional blood dripping behind the scales on his wings.

Most things, when fighting an Angel, would be dead by now. No, not even that, most things would have died before there was a fight. Something other than an Angel facing off against an Angel was shocking. Something managing to put up a fight and make the Armisael take loses was unbelievable.

Something beating an Angel? Inconceivable.

And yet it was happening. As expected from something out of a legend. Comparing them to what you already understood and thought you knew was pointless, because legend's don't live in the real world. They live as something above that. Something bigger than reality, something that wasn't supposed to be reality. How were you supposed to expect and understand something that shouldn't be real?

But it was real, and it was terrifying. Even with all the gunships opening fire into it, all the missiles exploding in the air around it, the dragon was dodging and avoiding the danger with barely a scratch.

Not to mention how it had broken Two so easily. With her Song coiled around her, she should have been able to take a hit like that easily enough. And then the dragon hit her once, and it was like the Song was powerless.

It wasn't as if the dragon was strong enough to pierce it. The Song had just failed as soon as the dragon had hit her.

But as far outmatched as Two was compared to Zero and Michael, the army was far more outmatched. The Armisael were distracting the dragon and the Intoner, but there was only a few of those left, but as soon as those were gone, the airships weren't going to be able to stand a chance.

If this went ahead, people were going to die. Too many people. Any amount of people was too many, and if Two could stop it...

And it'd be so easy to stop it. She could feel the Song whispering into the back of her mind, and it'd be so easy to give in right now. Just let the Song guide her. The Song was powerful, and right now, Zero was away from her dragon, the being which had shut the Song so easily. It wouldn't be able to stop her if she just gave in, embraced it's full might, and let it guide her through the fight.

It'd be so easy, it whispered into the back of her mind. And she wouldn't even be suffering while it did the work for her. She'd lose herself in the song, and the world outside which had hurt her so much would just fade away.

Two wasn't sure when exactly she started letting that beautiful sound fall out of her lips, but once she became aware of it, the dam broke.

A scream pierced the air in that heartbeat, louder than anything before. Pain blossomed as her lungs struggled to keep up with the demand being given to them, but once the Song flowed through her, that ceased to be a problem.

Two felt her worries drain away, as she and the Song melded together. Where she ended and the power began, she didn't know. And she didn't need to know, right now. All that mattered was following the Song.

In fact, maybe she didn't end anywhere. Or rather, the power didn't begin anywhere. The power was malleable, after all, and that would explain why she could move on broken legs. Because the broken legs weren't something that could stop sheer power.

The robot carrying her disintegrated, as the waves of the Song began to slam into it, and Two stepped down on the ground where it had been a moment ago. She could feel the earth under and around her giving away and disappearing under the force of her power, the Song creating barriers for her to walk on just to move forward.

And when she moved, she moved.

She thought she had been fast before, but now it was like the world was standing still. The bullets ripping through the air were slow, painfully so, and Two let herself listen to that sound as she moved forward. A bullet rang out as it hit the ground. Two thundered forward, cratering the earth in her wake as she forced herself through this slow existence, reaching Zero in a heartbeat. The white clad woman spun around, shocked, and Two's fist flew as she punched her sister in the stomach.

The speed behind the blow, the power, was more then Zero had been prepared for. As her body moved forward even after making her blow, Zero was thrown backwards, slamming into the broken rubble of the lonely palace of ice.

The world burnt azure as Two's Song thundered around her, and with a casual thought, the power of her Song shot her forward, reaching Zero before she could properly react. The force and momentum of Two's entire body focused into the collision, and the impact created an explosion that pushed away the broken remnants of a cold home. A regretful and hateful sister in white felt her Soul fail her under the force of the power facing her, but her eyes burnt with a cold light, as silver as the steel of her determination.

The Song ripped out again out of another mouth, and the conflicting power ripped into each other with the force that burnt away the existence around them. The world around the two fighters didn't matter. The two of them existed, and that was all that mattered.

The white woman's hand lashed out, reaching towards her counterpart's throat, and found itself blocked by an invincible shield. The song around her coiled, focusing on her arm, and started ripping their way through the shield like a drill. As she extended herself forward, Two allowed the shield to fall, causing her sister to stumble forward.

The woman in blue brought up her knee, into Zero's chin, and throwing her skyward. Slamming her leg back down, Two put enough force into the impact to propel herself upwards, chasing after her sister in the process. Zero spun in the blue expanse of the false sky, trailing a nail against her arm before throwing down droplets of blood. An Intoner's body was kin to the Song, and blood especially was the essence of their power, so it was no surprise when the fluid shot down and struck Two in the eye.

She wretched her eyes shut instinctively, and in that moment, Zero acted. The hand closed around Two's throat, trying to strangle the life out of her, or at least cut out her Song. But the line between Two and that power had blurred. She was at her most powerful while she Sang, but that wasn't a necessity. Two''s own hand reached around Zero's, as both warriors tightened their grip.

Bones snapped, but that didn't matter at all. The Song was powerful, it didn't matter if the vessel was broken a little in the process. Two's hands gripped down harder and harder, and as she heard bones shatter, she found herself grinning.

This was easy. So, so easy. Why had she waited so long to do this? What wasn't there to love about this?

Letting the Song solidify behind her, Two used it as leverage to spin in the air, pulling into a twirl. With her arm broken, Zero wasn't able to keep her grip around Two's neck, and as the blue haired woman felt oxygen rushing through her rapidly repairing throat, she threw Zero downwards.

Her grip on Zero's arm slipped at the last second, but Two definitely heard something pull from it's socket as she slammed Zero into the ground. Her own descent was slower, but she was there before long. Her foot stamped down, focused on Zero's skull, but Zero's other hand raised to block the blow before it could hit.

The limb broke from the impact, on both ends, and blood rained down on Zero for a split second before she screamed again. Her Song was enough to throw Two back, with her bad footing, but her leg was in working condition again by the time she landed.

The sound of machine gun fire kept echoing out, as slow as a light drizzle of rain, and Two could feel bullets disintegrating against her power as they tried to strike out at her sister.

The distraction was nothing, but if it was nothing, then how it ceased didn't matter. Sweeping her arm to the side, Two pushed out with her Song. Rather then disintegrating, the bullets were pushed back, the increased momentum from being flung by her power returning them to the sender before they could react. By the time the airship had realised what had happened, the bullets had torn through their armour, their engine, and they were on a downward spiral.

The rest of them ceased firing after that, but there was still bullets coming that were fired before that reaction. Two put the thought out of her mind as she let them bounce back to the source as well. Why should it concern her what was going on outside of her Song? The world was a hurtful place and nothing you did in it ever mattered, so why should she care about anything going on outside of this power?

She stepped closer to Zero again, as her silver light pushed against Two's blue. The silver light was the stronger at the extremities, but the heart of Two's power was strong enough to force Zero's to part before her. Lances of silver lashed through the defences of her blue, but Two walked through them, turning the blood on her check and arms into more power to turn against her sister.

Zero swore, as she used her own Song to rocket off the ground and into the air again. Two moved to pursue her, but before she could jump, barriers appeared above the blue haired girl, trapping her under a mountain of silver. It pushed downwards, and the ground around Two disintegrated as she pushed back, even as Zero made her escape.

There were other beings making a move against Zero in that moment. Soulless metal opened fire, their bullets pushing against Zero's song harmlessly as Two finally broke through the silver weight crushing at her. For a moment, her power extended in a similar pushing manner upwards, and the air currents rippled through the power being thrown around. A nearby airship rent at the force, the air ripping apart it's steel as it was thrown down. The dragon flapped it's wings and pushed the air back, as it killed the last of the great beasts it was fighting, and moved towards Zero in the process.

A black clad figure shot out into the middle of the battlefield, driving a sword towards Zero, and was met with a crushing kick that shattered his leg in a heartbeat. Relentlessly, he stabbed forward, his blade piercing through Zero's stomach as he fell. Zero caught his arm as he let the sword go, and the blade disintegrated as she started to Sing. Somehow, her opponent was unharmed by the Song, even if he struggled against it, and Zero bent his arm as she continued on his way through.

The black being fell to the ground, and Two watched as Zero tried to flee.

...Aw, was she done already?

But Two was just getting used to this power! Wasn't it any fun when she had someone who was hurting her back? Her arm was broken at least, and with the amount of the Song she was channelling, Two didn't doubt that it would take time for Zero to overpower the wound and force it to heal. The airships were opening fire again, and the dragon seemed pain as missiles started slamming into it, but it really looked like they were trying to run away now!

But maybe there was a way for Two to make Zero stay?

She could feel the Song flowing through her person as the idea came to her, and she felt the shockwaves throwing everything away from her as she stepped closer to Zero. It felt familiar, like her own Angel was out of reach, but different. A blessing to keep her sister here, something beyond what Three had called up while holding on while insisting on holding on to her sense of self.

"Ra-"

The black clad figure was on the move again, Two noticed. Even with a broken leg and arm, they were running right at her, a determined look on his face in the process. How bothersome. Zero was on her dragon and had taken flight, it's fireballs ripping a nearby airship apart, as the other airships in the area closed in, apart from one which was barrelling away behind the biggest group of the fleet. If Two didn't do this now...

Her fist ripped upwards, tearing through her the black clad man like a blade through butter, demolishing the lower half of his body as he reached his arms around Two. Blood splattered as Two's fist emerged and curved upwards, and even as Cent's arms pulled her close, his blood splattered on-

Cent?

The sudden realisation shocked Two out of her Song, as she stared down at the Disciple that was desperately holding her close.

...W-When had she...

What had she-

She looked down, at her blood covered fist impaled through her love. An explosion ripped up from above Two as the dragon tore through an airship, and the thought of the airship brought back memories of what she had been doing a few moments ago, the airships that had been ripped apart and brought down because of her because of what she did and-

"I..." She choked out, tears choking her vision as she tried to look down at Cent. Her hands shaky, she tried to extract her limb from Cent's stomach, and the movement of her hand kept shaking something else free as she tugged it out.

Cent groaned in pain, as he looked up at Two.

"My lady...?" He asked weakly, his skin going pale from the blood loss.

N-No, this isn't what Two wanted, she didn't want this, b-but...

She'd caused this. S-She tried to f-fight Zero a-and got so obsessed t-that she...

Cent was hurt. Maybe even dying. All of those people in the airships, the ones torn apart by Two reflecting their gunfire and the one destroyed when Two lashed out upwards with her Song, they...

She hadn't even cared at the time. She hadn't even...

What was wrong with her? What kind of monster was she?

Her voice shaking, Two sang softly, her tune matching an old melancholic song she heard once. The blue light flew into Cent's body, and started patching his skin back together, slowly.

The Song. The same Song which had led Two to... T-to...

She stopped Singing, and started sobbing into Cent's shoulder as she collapsed by his side. The hole in his stomach was smaller, and was bleeding less, but was still there nonetheless.

"It's fine." Cent insisted, as he held her close in his arms. "I'm fine. The stomach is entirely redundant, you know."

The joke went in one ear and out the other, as Two hugged Cent closer for comfort. She didn't react, as he tried to console her, or when someone else came by and started trying to capture her attention. Her shaking arm was the only sign from the outside world that her body was still moving on it's own, as she wept.

The sound was fading away, as Two felt herself detach from the world and as the source of the loudest sound moved away, but Two barely noticed.

The burning orphanage, the destroyed manor, Zero, and h-her own actions...

She didn't understand. She didn't understand anything, or why any of this was happening. As she cried into Cent's shoulder, all Two felt was lost.

The pen left the old man's hand, as he wrote the conclusion to the scene.

"Well, it could have been worse..." He muttered aloud. There was nobody else in the room, but it was a habit he had gotten into long ago. You never knew when you would need to be recorded this way, and a bit of variety was often useful in keeping the recorder interested. A little way of making their duty simpler.

This incident...

Could have gone better, he had to admit. For Zero's alpha strike, she had been somewhat unfortunate in her inability to secure a kill on an Intoner. But, he had been opposed to Zero acting this early regardless. He had no control over her or those who supported her, but if he had it his way, One would have had more time to continue her crusade against the Grimm before this came to pass.

Still, it was an enlightening experience all around, at least. Zero may be powerful enough to defeat any of the Intoners as they usually were, but even her strength fell short when they entered that state...

He had known for a while that the full power of the Song wasn't to be trifled with. And yet, it still surprised him, that even Zero had been forced back by that power. Though, considering the consequences, the fact that One would likely be finding out about-

The old man paused, as the thought came to him.

...Was that part of the younger girl's plan all along?

It definitely was not part of Zero's plan, at least. But the girl who had stepped in, she would know of the risk of that event occurring. If she had hoped for this, had hoped for an Intoner to lose themselves, knowing that One would find out and have as much reason to avert a repeat incident in the future...

Perhaps he hadn't given her enough credit, the old man mused. It would have been a risky plan, but once One would certainly be invested in preventing a repeat incident of Two's episode. And the implications behind it, may serve as the stepping stone she needed to piece together the truth...

Perhaps this incident had gone better than he had thought, then. Interference from the girl wouldn't have made enough of a difference to avert the worse of what was going to happen to Atlas in the aftermath, but if One reacted as her records should imply, then this opening move may prove more beneficial than the old man had initially hoped.

If only this wouldn't put a delay on One's plans, the old man sighed wearily. The destruction of a Grimm force that powerful, that quickly, could have been the turning point, if not for this incident. The old man knew that she knew that as well, hence her actions in this incident.

But it wasn't too late, not yet. Keeping track of all the elements in play after this would be difficult, but the old man didn't doubt that the Intoners would still be a valuable tool in the destruction of the Grimm, and the correction of his greatest mistake.

He merely had to be careful about this.

As he rested his pen hand, the man looked over the records made so far. The aftermath of this incident, and it's impact on Miss Xiao Long and Miss Rose specifically, would take some time. And for now, there were so many things to do.

He would need to meet with his colleagues from the other Kingdoms, for starters. Organise safe escort for Miss Amitola. Ensure that resources were in place for the next major step. And before he could record their fates, the old man owed something to Miss Xiao Long and Miss Rose. More than anyone, he owed them something after this.

Straightening the records on the table, the old man left a feather pen by the desk, and left his chair.

He had made another mistake today, he mused, by having Qrow stay in Atlas. Perhaps it would have been kinder to have someone less related to them be put into place. He hadn't expected the Hunter to die, but he should have. That was his sin to bear, another name of someone he had the chance to save and yet failed again. The girls would deserve better, especially considering what he would need of the younger one in the next few years.

Taking a deep breath and adjusting his glasses, Ozpin left the room of records behind.