Blake didn't want to get up. Not when the ground beneath her was so comfortable. She just didn't have the energy. Her body ached from fighting. She was tired. So tired. Tired enough that even the Grimm—only now climbing to their feet in the dust-laden air—failed to scare her. They were just monsters after all. She'd been fighting them her entire life. She deserved a break.

Her shoulder burned. The joint had swollen stiff. Even the slightest movement sent agony down her nerves. Sun's treatment had only been a temporary fix. Handicapped, she had taken numerous other wounds in the desperate struggle. Her skin was stained with blood and dirt so deeply she would probably never be clean again.

Her body was exhausted and spent, but it was her mind that prevented her from getting up. She just didn't see the point. She would just get knocked back down again. Only a handful of the hundreds who had set out just a few hours before remained alive.

So many bodies. So much death. It had surrounded her for so long. She was a magnet for pain. Her life brought only death to those near her. Yang hadn't fallen yet, but it was only a matter of time. She was spent as well.

The wound on her stomach had opened again, her bandages dyed carmine. It must have been agony. It was a miracle she had fought for this long at this intensity. Any sensible person would have collapsed. Not that they'd had the opportunity, or that Yang was sensible. Even now her Aura flared, creating sparks where once there were flames. Yang hung on by a fingernail, the thinnest thread of her will, but it was enough. Somehow, she staggered to her feet. Swaying in the lightest breeze.

Nothing could have persuaded Blake to forego the comfort of the jagged rocks beneath her. Nothing apart from Yang. If Yang could find the strength to stand, so could she. Fighting was a whole other matter though.

Her legs ached and shook as she tried to put weight on them. They held, barely. Gambol Shroud dangled from the ribbon wrapped around her wrist. The blade was stained, chipped, and pitted. Without its sheath, it looked exactly how she felt. A shadow of its former self.

They all did. There was no trace of the people who had set out on this expedition. No trace of the proud force protecting their king. Only remnants. But they were remnants who had made it this far. They were hunters. They had sworn their life to the endless war against the Grimm. They were heroes one and all. And within each of their souls was a hidden pool of strength. A pool that few had, and even fewer could tap into. Ignoring the complaints of their bodies which would have felled lesser men, they climbed back to their feet.

A bristling ring of steel greeted the horde around them; there weren't enough of them left to form a solid circle, but they did the best they could. If Blake could take one solace from her impending death, it was that 'horde' was barely the right word anymore. They must have killed hundreds of Grimm in their last stand. It was a feat fit for any of her books. Their actions should have been celebrated, revered. Instead, the island of Menagerie would swallow them as if they'd never existed.

The Grimm faced them down, muscles bunching, throats growling, fangs dripping venom. A crackling roar drowned everything out. The impact that had knocked Blake from her feet had also thrown up a thick smog of dust; it hung heavy in the air, obscuring the crater from sight.

Rays of light shone through the murk causing individual particles to sparkle in the rays. A figure clambered from the crater, one which burned impossibly brightly. Cinder's dragon roared its triumph off the vaults of the heavens.

Its wings swept great clouds of dust from beneath it. The powerful gusts threatened to knock Blake from her precarious standing position. The dragon took to the air and, upon seeing what had bested the oldest and most powerful of them, the Grimm fled. It started with a trickle, a single Ursa, but before long they all ran for the safety of the forest.

Cinder didn't let them reach it. Fire consumed the running pack. The flames almost seemed alive as they clung to the thrashing forms, burning through both flesh and armour. The Grimm ran, they rolled, they danced, and then they collapsed, quivering on the ground.

It was worse for those that didn't die quickly. One of the Goliaths had enough mass to survive the flames as they slowly sank into it, burning along its nerves like they were made of tallow. The pain drove it insane. It reared up on its hind legs, trumpeting its agony.

The dragon struck the Goliath in the side. The impact shook the ground, and that was before the Goliath toppled over. The dragon rode it down. Fire engulfed them both. Blake had to throw up her arm to shield her eyes from the wafting heat. When it cleared, the Goliath was but a smoking pool of melted flesh and protruding bones.

It was yet another display of the unimaginable power that Cinder wielded. A Goliath brought low in a moment. Cinder still stood, protected in the centre of their circle, right up against the bulk of truck. She alone appeared unharmed. From the expression on her face she even seemed exultant, as if she were revelling in her might.

Cinder might have been kept safe from the Grimm, but that didn't mean the person next to her was unharmed as well. Velvet's body quivered, her eyes screwed shut, her ears drooping the lowest Blake had ever seen. An incarnadine glow surrounded her. The dragon hadn't been entirely Cinder's creation. Cinder may have shaped and enhanced it, but Velvet alone had provided the raw power. Even now she was still providing it. Her skin stood out like parchment against the blemishes.

Back in Airtafae, Cinder had shown them what she could do with the tiniest crystal. When Velvet used her Semblance, she didn't do tiny. The two most powerful Dust users on the planet had combined to create a beast that had laid the Grimm low. The effort had taken a much more serious toll on one of them.

As the dragon dissolved, its almost liquid body spreading over the ground in a wave of fire, Cinder released her mental hold on Velvet. The Faunus collapsed. Her body entirely limp. She hit the solid rock face first and made no effort to break her fall.

Cinder stepped past her. It was as if she were discarding a broken tool. In reality she was. In all the time Blake had known her, she had witnessed Cinder make a single effort to connect with anyone personally. She was distant. It wasn't that surprising. No one with any trace of empathy could have committed the atrocities she had. Or, for that matter, looked around at all the bodies surrounding them with a smile on their face.

"Is it over?" Yang asked.

"I think so," Blake said. The air was silent but for the still smouldering carcasses.

Yang's reply was distant. "Good." She fell backwards.

Blake tried to catch her, but she was too slow. Too tired. Yang hit the ground hard. "Yang!" Blake dropped to her knees beside her. Any physical pain she'd been experiencing diminished into insignificance. Terror filled her breast. Yang's eyelids fluttered.

"I'm ok," she said, her voice unfocused. "It's just… Ow." Her hands pressed against the sodden bandages over her stomach. Yang sounded young. So young. And vulnerable. She had fought for hours with a wound that would have put any sensible person in the hospital. She had ignored the reports of her body, and it had taken its toll.

Blake's mind was blank. For anyone else she would have known what to do. What procedures would help. But this wasn't anyone else. This was Yang. The only person in the world who truly understood her. The person who was so special to her. The person whom she loved. Under the weight of her panic, she couldn't think of anything. She clasped Yang's hand. The blood, Yang's blood, glued their skin together.

"Yang!" Taiyang shouted as he rounded the truck. He fell to his knees beside his daughter, but he was not entirely paralysed by fear. "What happened?"

It was Yang who answered, not Blake. "Just a kitty." She laughed and regretted it immediately. It was just like Yang to try and make everyone else feel better.

"I'm going to have to see. I'm sorry. This is going to hurt." Taiyang pulled their hands away.

"I know. I'm fine. Do what you have to do." There was strength in her voice, resolve. Blake looked her in the eye. Yang managed to smile for her. To make it all seem like it was a minor inconvenience.

Taiyang joined Yang in hissing as he pulled the last of the bandages away. The flesh beneath was puckered and raw. It was much worse than when Blake had seen it earlier. If Yang had been rushed straight into surgery immediately she would have been fine. With proper sutures, she probably wouldn't even have had noticeable scars. Now though, Blake wasn't sure. She squeezed Yang's hand in response to Yang trying to crush hers.

"She'll live." A cool voice said from above her. Cinder looked down at them. "Trust me. I've seen more than enough wounds in my life."

"So have I," Taiyang paused in the midst of removing a small medical kit from his belt. "But this fucking island won't be conducive to her recovery. Why are we even here? You still haven't explained that."

Cinder's brow furrowed. "I don't appreciate your tone."

"And I don't give a flying fuck." With a bleeding daughter under his hands, Taiyang had lost any inclination to be diplomatic.

"What's going o—" Raven limped towards the commotion before she saw Yang. She repeated the same exclamation the rest of them had made.

"Look, I'm fine… Mostly," Yang admitted after a time. It was lie none of them bought. "But I would also like to know why the fuck we're here?"

"Mother…" Raven warned, her tone lacking any form of patience as Cinder turned her heated gaze on Yang.

"Fine. We came here, to this 'fucking island' as you so delicately put it, to kill that." Cinder pointed at the crater where the Grimm dragon lay.

"Why? Ow!" Yang winced. Taiyang hadn't stopped in his treatment while Cinder spoke, and Raven provided another pair of steady hands.

"I have neither the time nor the patience to explain everything to you. Suffice to say, that Grimm, is the source of Ozpin's power. When we destroy it completely, he will be weakened. For a short time, or maybe longer, he will be vulnerable." Glee practically dripped from that last statement. So much so that Blake didn't understand one thing.

"If he's weak now, why are you here? I thought you wanted to kill him?"

The truth was in the tightening of her lips. "Only I was capable of defeating that." She nodded towards the Grimm. "Regardless, it was decided to give the chance to another. I would have thoroughly enjoyed watching the light fade from his treacherous eyes, but for the cooperation that allowed this to take place, I cannot."

So Cinder had made a bargain with Juno, and maybe some of the others of her old organisation. That was interesting. She hadn't thought Cinder would give up her vengeance for any reason.

"There." Taiyang tied the last knot in the bandage. "As good as… well not new."

"Thanks. Help me up."

"Yang, I don't think—"

"I'll live. You heard her. Plus you did a great job. We'll have to get moving soon anyway. Won't we?"

"Indeed." Cinder looked over towards the crater again. For some reason she seemed anxious.

"Are we done here?" King Badr walked over. Blake peered at him. He was drenched in blood and gore, but unlike the rest of them none of it seemed to be his own. Unless he was concealing wounds beneath his breastplate, he was uninjured.

"Yes." Cinder waved at the driver of the truck. It began to trundle towards the crater. "Get your men ready to fall back."

Badr laughed as if she'd made a fine joke. "There aren't that many left. The Grimm were most thorough." The deaths didn't seem to affect him either. It wasn't what anyone would have expected from a ruler. The soldiers had looked up to him, followed him. Now they rotted on the ground.

"They were indeed."

With the truck out the way, they could see the truth of Cinder's words. Less than two score people remained out of several hundred. Such a waste of life. Blake took the coward's way out. She looked away. She couldn't face seeing Sun cradling a blue head in his arms. Qrow trying to resuscitate Velvet. Oobleck standing over the body of his oldest friend. A scene repeated dozens of times.

It affected all of them. Or at least all of them with hearts. Cinder watched impassively.

"Was it worth it?" Yang asked through gritted teeth.

"To topple the reign of an immortal emperor? I would think so."

"I don't."

"Really? What if I tell you the champion chosen to face Ozpin is your sister?"

"What!" Yang and Taiyang spoke almost simultaneously. Yang actually as far as grabbing Cinder's shoulder and spinning her around. Any trace of exhaustion had vanished.

Cinder's eyes glowed. "Remove your hand!"

"Then tell me what the fuck you meant about my sister!"

For a second it appeared that Yang had pushed her too far. That Cinder was going to attack. Punish her. It was what her insolence demanded. But in that moment Cinder saw that Yang's expression was matched on all those around her. Even Raven's jaw jutted in betrayed fury.

On this expedition they'd all been pushed so far. They'd seen friends die for a cause that had been withheld from them. There was no way any one of them would have agreed to go if they'd known the full extent of Cinder's plan. That Ruby was in danger. They would have been at her side and screw the consequences.

Cinder saw all that, and realised that if she attacked Yang, she would have to fight the rest of them too. Spent as they were she could have killed them all, but maybe she held the slightest bit of compassion for Raven's family.

"As I explained earlier, I did not make that decision. Ruby has been chosen. She and she alone. I would not have made that call, not for a matter as important as this. I wouldn't have chosen a mere girl. Rest assured that it is not my will." With a smooth motion she broke Yang's grip from her shoulder. "I am only left to hope that she proves strong enough."

"Why didn't you tell us?" Taiyang growled. With the fury of a father he seemed to be heartbeats away from striking her.

"It would have been counter-productive. Your minds would have been elsewhere when they were needed here."

"We wouldn't have been here!"

"Maybe not, but you wouldn't have been with Ruby either. She was chosen to face this task alone. Foolishly. You could not have changed that. Your strength would have been wasted chasing after her. Here you had the chance to aid her. Walk with me."

Cinder led them to the edge of the crater. The basalt had been melted and reformed into strange patterns. It was deep, far deeper than it should have been. It only confirmed the weight of the beast that lay within. From this close up, it was colossal in the way that buildings were. Nothing that large should have been able to live, and yet it had.

And still did. The dragon wasn't dead. Not if the shifting of its body meant anything. Its scales might have been burnt and rent, its wings shredded, and its bones visibly bursting from flesh, but it wasn't dead. It still breathed. The most powerful and largest Grimm Blake had ever seen was simply too stubborn to die.

Its back appeared broken, it couldn't raise its neck, but an eye was open. The malevolence in its gaze made Blake's hairs stand on end. It watched them all, but it watched Cinder most of all. She stared back, a thin smile on her lips.

With them both in view, Blake noticed a pattern she hadn't before. Lights shifted beneath Cinder's skin. It wasn't that unusual. The few times Blake had witnessed her utilise her Semblance they'd always been there. They were dimmer now, not as prominent, barely a ghost beneath Cinder's pale flesh, but they were there.

They were also present on the dragon. Not in the same way. There weren't sources of illumination underneath its flesh. Instead it almost seemed like an anti-light. As if it absorbed light from the environment and became darker. They were different, but there was an odd resonance. As the lights in Cinder's skin pulsed, patterns on the dragon's scales waned. They shifted in unison, as if Cinder and the dragon were connected with an invisible link.

Cinder turned to them all. "This is what you accomplished by being here. This is what all these people gave their lives to accomplish. This beast is the source of Ozpin's power, and we are going to destroy it. Without our actions, Ruby would be facing Ozpin at his full strength. No matter her skill, she would have lasted mere seconds. All of this has made her task possible. You have done far more here than you would have by her side."

The logic was perhaps sound, but it didn't appeal to Yang. All she knew was that her sister was going into danger alone. "I hate you."

Cinder eyed her for a few seconds, bearing the brunt of her loathing without flinching. "Rest assured that your hate means nothing to me child. Take solace in the fact you have helped your sister. Now, there are wounded who need tending. We will not be here long."

While they cared for their injured, the technicians who had remained safe in the cab of the truck prepared the bomb. The armoured sides folded down and the gleaming interior was revealed. It was all pipes and metal chambers. Blake couldn't even fathom how it would work, but judging by its size she didn't want to be near it when it did. Cinder might have been unable to kill the dragon completely, but she'd planned for that eventuality.

They were a sorry troop as they departed. Those who could walk aided those who could not. Blake made sure to stay close to Yang. To be there if she stumbled again. Taiyang held Velvet in his arms. She was breathing, but not much more than that. Her eyes hadn't opened once.

Sun and Sage had left behind the bodies of their teammates like so many had to. They couldn't bury them and, when the dead outnumbered the living to this degree, they simply couldn't do more than leave them. The bomb blast would be their collective cremation.

It was her fault. Blake didn't appreciate the thought, but it was true. She had asked Sun to come. Preyed on her friendship with him. If not for her, Neptune and Scarlet would be alive. They would be enjoying the Vacuan sun and looking forward to the rest of their lives. Now they were rotting meat.

Raven knelt next to her portal. Compared to what had originally carried them to the island, it was a pale imitation, barely wide enough for two people to pass at a time. Those still able fight went through first.

The sensation of stepping through the portal made Blake stumble. On top of her other wounds and injuries, it was too much. Yang came off worse. Blake only just managed to keep her from falling. They were in the middle of the forest. Even at the height of her strength Raven couldn't have transported them straight to the island off the coast. In her current state, she could only manage short distances at a time. Still, exhausted and depleted as they were, even the portals beat walking.

Whether a conscious decision or a fortunate accident, they didn't travel along the same path as they had. They didn't appear each time surrounded by the bodies of those they had lost on the way. The Grimm didn't trouble them either. There was no way that the entirety of Menagerie had been tamed but, for the moment, the Grimm had been driven off.

On the beach, with the island just visible through the spray of the sea, Blake made a promise never to return to Menagerie. Qrow had been right. It was cursed. She would be happy if the memories simply ceased to exist.

It took Raven far longer than usual to create the next portal. It had to stretch miles, whereas the others had stretched only a few hundred yards. It was weak and sputtering, seeming to flicker in and out of existence. Raven's body shook a little more as each person stepped through it.

Blake was one of the last through. Raven hadn't taken them back to the fortress. No one seemed bothered. Almost everyone took the opportunity to finally collapse onto the shelf of black stone. Even Yang. She didn't fall down, but instead slowly lowered herself to the hard ground. Yang might have been unaware of the pained hisses that escaped her lips, but Blake wasn't. She did what she could for her partner, trying to keep her stomach more or less straight. Blake was aware that if she sat down too she would likely never find the energy to rise. She didn't care. She was spent.

There was so much that they both needed to do. So much they should have done. They didn't. They just leant up against each other, sharing their strength and their grief, staring out over the tempestuous sea at the island where they'd lost so many.

Taiyang trudged from the portal, still carrying the comatose Velvet. He set her down gently. That only left Raven. She staggered through the portal, and almost immediately lost her footing as it closed.

None of them were safe. Though the days they had spent here had likely cleared the majority of the Grimm from the small island, it was possible they would come under attack again. In the fortress they would have been safe, but they would need to wait for Raven to recover to go back there.

Only a handful of people retained the strength to remain standing. King Badr stood idly; Mercury walked towards the beach, scuffing his blood-stained boots on the ground beneath him; Taiyang and Qrow might have stood, but they were checking Velvet and Raven respectively; and of course Cinder didn't take a knee.

That would have been a step too far for someone as proud as her. She looked back at Menagerie, the wind whipping at her hair and dress. Drawing on her indomitable will, nothing would bring her down.

Minutes passed, maybe hours, in all honesty Blake wasn't sure. She was just too numb. Her world became the pain in her body, the warmth of Yang against her side, the sight in front of her, and the grief in her heart. With her head on Yang's shoulder, she didn't cry. She didn't have the strength, but silent tears welled and began their slow descent down her face. She didn't want to look around. Be reminded of all the people she'd lost.

Cinder checked her scroll again, and this time returned it to her pocket. Her hand came out with a small silver cylinder. She extended an antenna from it and called out in voice all were able to hear over the waves. "I would suggest that everyone brace."

It took Blake a moment to realize just what she was implying. Cinder's thumb hovered over a red button. She and Yang squeezed each other tighter. A thumb descended.


Nothing happened. Not for several long, long seconds. Long enough that a few people exchanged glances. Then, on the island of Menagerie, just in front of the thousand spires, a new sun was born.

It started in its infancy. Small and almost inconsequential. A gentle brightening. It didn't remain that way for long. It grew. The black peaks of the spires shifted to white. Yang threw an arm up against her eyes. It didn't help. The actual sun dimmed in the sky, transformed into irrelevance by the creation of man.

The wave of light struck Yang almost as if it were a physical thing. She recoiled from the burning heat. It seared her retinas even through her shielding arm and burned her skin. The ground trembled. Rock cracked and split. It ripped Blake away from her. They fell apart.

The shockwave arrived moments later. It bowled her over and sent her cartwheeling as if she were a child. Her ears popped. Her sense of balance disappeared. Debris rained down from the sky. Chunks of stone and wood as large as her torso and larger. Under the assault, she made herself as small possible. Her instincts even made her forget Blake. She only hugged her knees, wishing it to end. Praying she wouldn't die. That she was finished with this lunacy. Promising that if she got out she would never do anything this stupid again.

The ground became still. Though it might have, her body couldn't. Her mind had simply been overwhelmed by all the different stimuli. All competing for which one hurt the most. Her torn stomach won, but only just.

At least she could see. Even if the world was dark. Blake looked bad. Really bad. Her hands pressed down on her Faunus ears, the subconscious motions of someone trying to push the pain away. Yang couldn't imagine what that noise had done to them when it had driven a red-hot nail into her own. Yang rolled to her knees and crawled closer. The few yards that separated them were some of the longest of her life. Her head spun sickeningly but, for Blake, she fought through it.

Blake didn't look good. Even if not for her ears, her skin was scalded red, burned by the heat of the explosion. Blood ran freely from both her nostrils, pooling around her lips. Short of wiping it away, Yang just didn't know what to do for her. She tried to roll Blake onto her side, ignoring the whimpers of pain, and apologising in a voice that sounded strangely distant.

If Yang had thought it would help she would have cried out, but it wouldn't. Everyone else was in similar states. The bomb had downed them all. It wasn't surprising. Not when she considered what it had done to Menagerie.

A cloud spread over the island. Hundreds of feet tall, its tip blossomed outwards as the hot air within cooled. It concealed almost everything in the centre of Menagerie. The forests on its edge had been stripped bare. Thousands of trees simply gone, reduced to matchsticks and then carried away.

Beneath her the towering wave set into motion by the explosion crashed into the beach. Water raced towards their group, surging past the high tide mark and lapping around them. Yang had to dig in to avoid being dragged back. Another wave followed soon after.

All this destruction had been wrought by a single creation of man. White Dust bombs were more or less common knowledge. Everyone knew that they had been worked on in the Great War, but they'd never been deployed, or even tested. Gathering enough of the raw resources was close to impossible. It was said that some countries had built them in the years since, but Yang had just assumed them to be typical bombs. Armies were much more important. How wrong she'd been. Detonated in the middle of a city, it would have killed hundreds of thousands.

No one would have survived. Well, no one apart from Cinder and, more surprisingly, King Badr. They alone stood tall, facing the explosion. That he still stood at all raised her suspicions. He was the only one who had come through the battle without a visible wound. He'd lived where most of his protectors had died.

In their very first meeting, Cinder had said that she had convinced King Badr not to attack Vale. That he wouldn't be a problem any longer. At the time, Yang hadn't thought Cinder meant permanently. But she'd replaced him with one of her old comrades. One who had played the part well enough that no one had noticed their king was dead. They'd taken an entire country in one fell swoop, and he'd made all this possible.

Lights shone beneath both their skin. Bright white lights. They seemed to be intrinsically linked to whatever made the pair of them gods. But, unlike all the times before, the lights flickered. They gained intensity until they were almost blinding, and then became dull. The cycle continued speeding up, slowing down. Intermittent and uncontrolled. The pair of them collapsed, falling to their knees, their bodies shaking, spasming.

Just as people were beginning to react, they stilled. The lights died. Their skin returned to normal. No one rushed to check on them. Yang had no idea what had happened. The display had been unlike anything she'd seen before.

And yet, she could guess. The entire purpose of this expedition had been to weaken Ozpin, and Juno had said they would all bear the cost. Had Cinder really been so intent on vengeance she'd been willing to put herself at risk? Yang wouldn't put it past her. Her quest for revenge had seen entire cities and countries fall. When it came to her hatred of Ozpin, she would have watched the entire world burn as long as he burned along with it.

That was what she had done. Whatever had happened had affected both Cinder and Badr simultaneously. It stood to reason that Ozpin was suffering as well. She had achieved her goal. Not that it had come without risk.

Cinder lay on the ground. She had exerted herself immensely in the fight against the dragon, and now without the mysterious source of her power, it was taking its toll. Badr was quicker to rise. He took three staggering steps forwards and drew one of his black swords. It stabbed haphazardly downwards. The White Dust-imbued blade pierced the ground. Badr ripped it sideways, cutting at an invisible foe. He laughed.

"I'm almost disappointed," Cinder said, climbing to her feet. Badr spun around, the white sword still held in his hands. His eyes widened. "You've never changed, have you Dolos? Never could resist the opportunity to stab someone in the back. After all we've been through together. All these years. You still couldn't resist the urge to betray me. Did you really think you could outmanoeuvre me? You never were the smartest of us." She seemed to have recovered, or at least was putting on a strong front. Dolos drew his other sword.

"God. Did you ever realise how stuck up you were? You and Ozpin both. Always lording it over the rest of us. Well guess what? You're outnumbered. Kill her!" Dolos waved one of his blades.

No one started forward. In fact there were a lot of bemused glances over shoulders. It was only now that Yang came to realise no one around wore a Vacuan military uniform. The few survivors had gone through the portal, but hadn't come out the other side. All those here were the hunters that Cinder had selected.

"What are you waiting for!" Dolos shouted, gesturing wildly.

"Have you not worked it out yet?" Cinder smirked. "Emerald, you can stop now."

It was only when Cinder looked at her that Yang saw Emerald. She was crouched down, her face screwed up, her body shaking with exertion. At the command, she exhaled heavily. She must have been around in the fight, but Yang couldn't actually remember seeing Emerald all that often.

If there was one emotion that entered Dolos' expression, it was fear. He cast around, searching. His strange actions made sense to Yang now. If Emerald was involved, she'd no doubt had him seeing exactly what she wanted him to see. Or more precisely what Cinder wanted him to see. It was entirely possible Badr had exited the portal believing they were back at the fortress, surrounded by the fresh troops that hadn't gone with them on the expedition. Instead, his desperate glances revealed only stony faces. None which owed a king their fealty.

"Do you wish to reassess the situation? There's one thing that has been puzzling me all this time…" Cinder revelled in his fear. "Ozpin never gloated. Never admitted to trying to have me killed. There's no reason why he wouldn't. Especially now. He maintains his innocence. But they were his hunters. I'm certain of that. If anyone could have imitated him, it would have been you. So tell me, were you the catalyst for all of this? Did you order the death of my husband?" Her tone which had started playful, ended entirely flat. She took a step forward.

"He attacked me remember."

"Oh yes. You always were the great actor. Still, I should have seen through your little performance. You can blame my rage for that. I couldn't see past Ozpin. I can now."

"I'm telling you the truth." Dolos didn't lower his swords, but even Yang was able to detect the desperation in his tone.

"I'm sure you're not, but it doesn't matter anymore. You betrayed me. I don't take that well." Venom practically flew through the air. Just as she was about to speak, Dolos interrupted her.

"You need me."

"You were useful. I'll admit that. I might even miss having you around when I want to freshen up. But I'll make the sacrifice."

"I'm still useful." The king practically begged. "You'll need my help to deal with the fallout from killing the Schnees."

Schnees…

Yang missed whatever Cinder's reply was.

Weiss…

It was in that moment Yang knew she'd made one of the biggest mistakes of her life. And unlike most of the others, this couldn't be undone. If what Dolos had so casually remarked was true. Weiss… was dead. And she'd gone to her grave with the knowledge that Yang hated her.

That almost broke Yang. She was barely holding it together. She hadn't hated Weiss. Not really. She had tried really hard to. Perhaps at times she had, but most of the time it had just been a front. As childish as it was, she had just been punishing Weiss. Punishing Weiss for hurting Ruby, for hurting Blake, and for hurting her.

She'd been under no misapprehensions that her life wouldn't have Weiss in it. Not when Ruby still loved her as much as she did. She had known eventually they would have to make up, or at least come to an understanding. She had just wanted to return a bit more of the pain that Weiss had caused her before that happened. Before she was forced to admit that Weiss was her friend.

And now she never could. Not to the person that mattered. Weiss was gone. Dead. And she hadn't even had the courage to go and see her with Blake. To bury the hatchet as anyone else would have done. No. She had been too stubborn. And now it was too late.

It was by far the most despicable thing that she'd even done. Had Weiss thought about her old friend in her last moments? Yang honestly wished she hadn't. She didn't even want to imagine that Weiss had suffered with that pain as well.

If she could do it again, Yang would do so many things differently. She'd have gone to Weiss, maybe have slapped her, called her a frigid bitch, but eventually she would have forgiven her. Told her that despite everything, she still had a friend. That the bonds they'd forged at Beacon couldn't be so easily broken. That she was like a little sister.

But Yang couldn't do it again. She almost threw up. She could only take the guilt to her grave, and perhaps beg for forgiveness from Weiss in the afterlife.

Surrounded by Cinder's troops, Dolos appeared to have abandoned any sense of dignity. Yang couldn't find the energy to listen to his begging, and Cinder had tired of it as well.

"Stop! Is this really how you want to die?"

"Cinder, I can still help you. You know that. You know that you'll need me in the future!"

"What I know," Cinder hissed the words between gritted teeth, "is that you betrayed me." She nodded.

Mercury lashed out. A single kick from behind. Thanks to Emerald, Dolos probably hadn't even known he was there. Mercury's boot struck the back of his spine with pinpoint precision. Dolos' head snapped back, and his body dropped as if he were a discarded puppet.

As simply as that, a god fell.

There was no light. No magical regeneration. Not even an Aura worth its name. It had only taken Mercury a single kick to kill him. A person who had lived for thousands of years. Mercury seemed neither impressed nor horrified by his actions, instead he seemed bored. As if killing was a mundane everyday activity.

Warm sticky fingers wrapped around Yang's own. It was in that moment of contact, that Yang knew almost every emotion she was feeling was mirrored in Blake. They'd been through so much together. They'd grown close, and they'd fallen apart.

And it all seemed to have been for nought. Even Cinder appeared pensive as she looked down at the body of the person she had known for so long. Everything she had done. Every crime she had perpetrated. Every death she had caused. All the actions that had cascaded throughout the world had been started because of lie. Somehow worse than just the deaths alone was knowing that they'd been so avoidable.

They may have been, but they had happened. Yang had lived through it all. She was only fortunate that she'd had Blake by her side. That she was still at her side. Together they could do so much. But not now. Even if it had all begun with a deception, it wouldn't end with the discovery of the truth. The world was set into motion. The pair of them could only continue with the path they had chosen, and hopefully, at the end of it, they could give everyone the opportunity to live the lives they wanted to live.

They had done their part. They had made their sacrifices. They had shed blood and lost friends. They had seen things they would never recover from, but they had achieved their aim. If Dolos was any example, the gods were mortal once more. They had given Ruby a chance.