"Jeanne, you can't seriously be-"

"I am." She walked over and sat in the other chair, Amber vanishing and reappearing on my right instead. Jeanne's eyes showed that she meant every word, "I'm tired of feeling useless!" She gestured broadly with one hand, "You have your burden to carry, and I want to help you!" She placed her hand on her chest, "You shouldn't have to carry it alone! If I have the Maiden powers, then I can help you, and we can work together!"

I wanted to argue with her, to tell her that it was insane, that it was my burden alone to carry and no one else's. Yet here she was, and I knew that look in her eye, she wasn't going to budge on this. "Jeanne…" I looked down and away, "You know why I don't want this."

"I didn't want you to have to deal with this." I looked back at her, "Any of this." I gestured broadly, "This fight that I'm supposed to help end…I don't want to drag you, or anyone else, through this." I stood up and walked towards one of the windows off to the side of the room, looking outside, "This isn't what any of you signed up for, if things go wrong, you could lose who you are!" I turned around, "Surely Ozpin told you the risks of aura transfer, it's not natural, best case scenario you get the powers and that's the end of it, but that's the best case scenario, it's not guaranteed!"

"It's never been attempted before." I continued, "If it really comes down to that, I don't want you to lose yourself! You'll become someone entirely different, some kind of fusion between yourself and Amber!"

"You're forgetting something, Lunus." She responded, leaning towards me in her chair, her voice steadily raised as she continued, "One way or the other somebody is getting the Maiden powers. If it comes to it, if we can't save Amber…It needs to be one of us, because otherwise we risk dragging someone completely unrelated into this! Someone is going to have a part to play in this, as big as you and the Headmaster, and I want to be the person playing that part!" She stood up out of her chair and began to walk towards me, gritting her teeth.

"You say you don't want me to have to deal with this, but I want to!" She placed a hand over her heart, "Because I care about you! You told me back when we first came here that we were in this together! I'm not letting you go back on that now, when now more than ever you need me, you need Ruby, and you need Weiss! You three are like a family to me, and if you think I'm going to let a member of my family go through something like this without my help, you're joking!"

She closed the rest of the distance to me, as I looked up at her I couldn't help but feel dwarfed by her in both size and determination right now. She clearly wasn't going to budge on this. She placed her hands on my shoulders and her voice lowered down to a soft whisper. Our eyes met, she held a pleading gaze, "Lunus…Please, I know you're just worried for me, but…I have to try."

I closed my eyes and took a deep breath before exhaling, "Alright, fine…" I opened my eyes again and managed a weak smile up at her, "I guess it's better if it's someone as kindhearted and strong willed as you."

Jeanne smiled brightly, "Has to be me. Someone else might have gotten it wrong." She wrapped me in a tight hug for a brief moment before letting go.

Ozpin watched all of this stoically, only speaking once the two of us returned to our chairs and sat down, "Hopefully it won't come to this, if we can kill Cinder then we can restore Amber to her full strength and nobody will have to make any sacrifices." He leaned back in his chair, "Jeanne, in the event that the worst does come to pass, you will learn from Lunus how to control your powers. For now I want you to continue as if everything is normal, don't let anyone else know about this, not even your teammates. We must keep this as close to our hand as we can until we know whether or not we will need to go through with it."

Jeanne nodded, "Okay…So what do I do until then?"

Ozpin smiled, "Prepare for the Vytal Festival. You both may leave, classes resume tomorrow and I don't want you to fall behind."

I waved Jeanne off, "Go on ahead, I'll catch up. I need to talk with him for a bit longer." Jeanne nodded and walked off, it wasn't until I knew she was going down the elevator that I said, "...Is this what you meant by making sacrifices? Are you trying to make me see things from your perspective or something?"

Ozpin's smile faded as he sighed and looked down, "Ideally, there will be no sacrifice. I don't do this lighty."

I looked down, "I know." I stood up, "You've gathered loved ones, found happiness, then lost it all. Over and over again." I turned around, "I don't have the luxury of several lifetimes to keep trying."

I started walking towards the elevator, "I'll give everything I have and more to make sure I don't lose what I have."

Time went by, one week of regular classes and then the Vytal Festival began. Although it was hard for us to focus on classes with the tournament so close at hand. Sure, we had to worry about preparing for the final bit of the semester after the tournament was over, but the tournament was an internationally broadcasted spectacle where we would be put on display for the whole world to see!

I was able to sleep a bit easier in the lead-up, at least, Qrow was able to track down the two spies that Neapolitan and Roman had ratted out and drove them out. He attempted to capture them, but the girl named Emerald had a semblance that allowed her to create illusions, which threw him off long enough that she and the other spy were able to escape.

The fact that they weren't around and were actively being searched for meant that they couldn't do the kind of damage that they had originally intended to, they wouldn't be able to get anywhere near the coliseum, let alone hurt anyone.

The stalls were set up, the Amity colosseum was flying high in the air, bullheads were ready to take people to and from the fairgrounds…

The tournament had begun, and Team MARS was getting ready for its grand debut. We were already wearing our huntsmen gear, our weapons were ready, and now we were just assembled in the locker room in the floating arena, waiting to walk out and see the arena, and our opponents.

We didn't know what the arena was, nor did we know anything about our opponents, we were just watching the broadcast that was on the television in the locker room waiting for the cue for us to head out.

Professors Port and Oobleck were announcing, with Port declaring, "Today is a wonderful day for the starting rounds of the Vytal Festival! Don't you think, Professor Oobleck?"

"Doctor! And yes Peter I think everyone is in for a treat for our opening act! We've got Team MARS from our very own Beacon and Team ABRN from Haven! I have to say, we're in for a treat with these two teams, two colorful and ambitious groups of Hunters! Who will come out on top? Stay tuned!"

I looked at everyone else, I was standing and gripping my staff tightly in my hand, "Are you guys ready?" Jeanne was sitting on one of the benches, Weiss was practicing her form, and Ruby was polishing Crescent Rose.

Ruby looked up and nodded, "Ready as I'll ever be." She stood up and put her scythe on her back under her cloak, "Don't look so nervous, Lunus!" She walked over and put a hand on my shoulder, "I know you're worried about getting outed, but if you limit yourself you'll be fine! Most people don't even know magic ever existed to begin with, it'd be very hard for them to figure out you had something other than a really cool semblance!"

Jeanne grabbed her sword and shield and put them at her side, "Yeah, all we should be worrying about is beating this other team!" She hummed, "Never looked too much into Haven though, I wonder what they're like."

Weiss hummed, "They will be nothing compared to us! Regardless of where they're from." She smiled, "We are not only very skilled, but we are very well coordinated as a team." She sighed as she walked for the exit and muttered something I just barely caught, "I just hope she's watching…"

I wanted to ask her who she was talking about, but I decided I'd save it for after the fight. We all started towards the exit, making our way to the arena.

The Amity Colosseum arena was adaptive and could change landscape depending on the fight. We were given an evenly split arena of fiery wasteland and frozen glaciers. Team ABRN came in from the tundra, we came in through the wasteland.

Team ABRN looked like a very eclectic bunch, the most standout member was the one carrying a hoverboard, her hair spiked up in a very punk aesthetic. The others all looked very Mistrali with their getups and general looks.

Professor Port spoke over the loudspeaker, "Introducing Lunus Marigold, Jeanne Arc, Ruby Rose, and Weiss Schnee of Team MARS. They will be facing Arslan Altan, Bolin Hori, Reese Chloris, and Nadir Shiko of Team ABRN!"

"Ready…"

I activated the blade part of my staff and entered my fighting stance, the inverse scythe blade forming over the gem.

Ruby unfolded Crescent Rose, entering her own stance. Jeanne and Weiss followed.

Our enemies did much the same, the crowds were eagerly awaiting the show we were about to put on.

"Begin!"

Immediately I ordered, "Legacy!" Then I extended out my hand, focusing on the enemy team as they broke up and began to fan out, "Break!" Arslan and Bolin both found themselves rooted to the ground as they struggled to pull themselves out of the gravity magic keeping them in place.

Weiss placed a glyph at her and Jeanne's feet, the two braced before launching forward, catapulting across the arena as they each selected a target. Jeanne braced with her shield and crashed into Arslan, who met her shield with her fist. The end result was Jeanne needing to leap back, although it seemed Arslan had felt the force of that crash.

I released the gravity magic as Weiss closed in on Bolin, although he didn't have much time to react as Weiss created a glyph that shot ice projectiles at him as she sped closer to him. He managed to block them, but couldn't stop Weiss from jabbing him with her rapier, the force of the attack sending him flying back into one of the glaciers.

Reese, the girl with the hoverboard, was quickly hovering to aid her leader, I pointed forward, "Ruby, go!" She nodded and launched herself forward, I saw her engage with the other girl, the two beginning to exchange blocks and blows with each other.

That left me with…

I suddenly had to throw up a shield to block some incoming dust shots, across the arena was a grinning man with pink hair, Nadir. He seemed to be having more fun with this than anything else, although he looked confused for a moment as I blocked his shots.

I started to run forward, towards him, through the fire and the ice, he kept shooting shots at me, I either blocked them by swinging my staff or with shields. He seemed to grow panicked the closer I got, despite having a bayonet attached to the end of his submachine gun.

Just a couple feet away from him I swung outward with the top of my staff, extending out the blade and catching him by surprise as I did so. The scythe blade swept him off his feet and caused him to land on the hard, icy ground. There was an outcropping of ice dust next to him, as I drew closer I swung the war scythe component in a fluid rebound from the other attack and knocked the ice dust down onto him.

The result was immediate, he began to ice over. He tried to scramble to his feet, but I used gravity magic to root him to the ground. His expression turned from mirthful to panicked as he struggled to get up, the ice enclosing itself around him.

I spun my staff in my hand before bringing down my war scythe blade on his chest, striking hard. I didn't know how much aura he had, but it didn't seem to be breaking yet. I lifted him in the air with gravity magic as his body became covered in ice, then I pushed forward and threw him out of the arena.

Professor Oobleck announced, "There goes Nadir Shiko of ABRN!" The crowd cheered louder than it already was and I couldn't help but feel good from that.

I tore my attention from that and looked to see what the rest of my team was doing and if they needed help.

Ruby was giving Reese the runaround, with her boundless energy making it very difficult for Reese to keep up with the constantly moving and striking Ruby. Weiss had trapped Bolin in a glyph, using ice dust to form a giant snowball with him, which she promptly rolled straight off the arena, it crashed into the wall and Professor Port announced another ringout.

Jeanne was having the most trouble, being kept entirely on the defensive against the furious fists of Arslan, so I ran to go join the attack. Arslan didn't notice me until it was too late as I swung out with my scythe blade. The glowing white blade extended outward and slammed into her back, which caused her to start to fall forward towards Jeanne, who took advantage of this by blocking with her shield then pushing forward, sending Arslan to the ground.

Jeanne then struck downward with her sword, aiming to break Arslan's aura, but Arslan rolled out of the way and swept her leg, knocking Jeanne on the ground as she stood up and looked towards me. I readied my weapon and prepared for a fight, but that was when Weiss launched forward with one of her glyphs and connected her rapier to Arslan's back, sending her towards me. I responded by swinging my war scythe, it made contact with her stomach and slashed into it before launching her back again.

A sudden dust shot from Ruby flew through the air and connected with Arslan's side, sending her flying across the arena. She landed with a roll and her aura flashed, breaking, and causing Oobleck to declare her out.

We all turned towards the last member of ABRN, Reese, who had been fighting Ruby up until she disengaged to take her shot at Arslan. The last remaining member of ABRN saw how outmatched she was, but seemed prepared to fight anyway, which I found impressive. I was starting to get tired, but I wasn't too tired to use my gravity magic to hold her in place while her hoverboard flew on while she tried to get moving again.

Flailing in the air, she was an easy target. Ruby raced forward and leapt into the air, bringing her scythe down on the other girl and sending her flying off the arena, she crashed into the wall and was declared out by both ring out and aura depletion.

The crowd went nuts as Professor Port declared, "Team MARS is the winner! A wonderful show!"

I broke into a grin, with the others similarly celebrating as we all started back towards the locker room. It was actually a fairly easy fight, all things considered. None of us were at risk of breaking our aura, except Jeanne, but she kind of had the hardest fight out of all of us, so that wasn't her fault. The fact that she held on until we could help showed just how far she'd come.

We made our way back down to the fairgrounds via bullhead, and before we knew it we were at a noodle stand. Weiss had tried to pay, but her card declined, apparently her father was not happy with her. That wasn't a big deal though, I paid for it and we all began to eat.

Ruby spoke between bites, "So who's gonna fight in the duos? We don't have to figure it out until tomorrow but we should probably start thinking about it now."

Weiss furrowed her brow, "Whoever we choose should work well together, we all have great synergy but we need the best."

Jeanne hummed, "Well, Ruby and Lunus both have scythes, and they do work really well together, what about them?"

I hummed and shared a look with Ruby, before we both nodded, "Sounds like a plan." I smirked, "We've never met a problem the two of us couldn't handle."

Ruby grinned, "You got that right! The world better get ready for the showcasing of Crystal Moon!" She punched her fist in the air.

That was when Yang showed up, her team with her, "Hey guys!" She sat at the empty spot next to Ruby, the others filled in the space to her right, "You really kicked some ass out there!"

Nora grinned and agreed, "Yeah! That other team really didn't know what hit em! Especially that Arslan girl at the end, you dogpiled her, and then Lunus and Ruby sent that last one flying like she bought a bullhead ticket!"

I rubbed the back of my head, "We've just been training a lot." I tried to remain as humble as I could, although I would never devalue the work that the others did.

Weiss was not feeling the humble mood, "Training a lot, studying a lot, and practicing a lot! To see that the payoff is such a clean-cut victory, I think that's validation for all our hard work."

Jeanne agreed, "We have been working hard! Brothers, I can't wait for the break." She huffed, "We haven't even gotten through the whole semester yet and I already want winter break to hurry up and get here."

Ren smiled, getting himself a bowl of noodles like us, "I'm sure you'll make it through, Jeanne. We have a few days off after the tournament anyway. It's no winter break, but I'm sure it's enough to get you ready for the end of the first."

Nora seemed to be more in-line with Jeanne though as she got her own bowl of noodles, "Easy for you to say! We'll see how you're feeling after our fight in a couple hours!"

Blake, who had received a bowl of fish of all things, hummed, "We'll be fine. We just need to remember our training and we'll pull through."

Yang, also with some noodles, agreed, "Yeah! We'll kick ass just like MARS did, you guys can't let me get outshined by my sister and brother-in-law!"

I rolled my eyes at her teasing, while Ruby was more visibly flustered, "Yang! We're still in school! That's not gonna happen anytime soon!"

I nodded in agreement as I focused on eating, meanwhile Yang just laughed, "Might as well get my practice in now, then!" She gave her sister a hug, which she tried to squirm out of, "My baby sister is growing up so fast!" Then she let go with a grin, "Just make sure you cheer us on during our fight!"

We could agree on that at least.

BNYR's fight went about as you'd expect. They managed to win out against Team BRNZ through their deft mixture of strength and skill. Yang was a beast who overpowered the others in close combat, Blake was a quick fighter who kept her foes guessing, Nora as well had a hell of a time knocking people around with her hammer and blowing up BRNZ's sniper with her grenade launcher, and Ren found himself helping all three of them at different times.

When the day was over we all returned to our dorms, or at least we did after watching Qrow and Winter Schnee, Weiss' older sister, fight each other on the entrance path to the school. Atlas' presence here was nothing like what Ironwood had intended, but he brought Winter here regardless to assist in security operations.

Not that we needed his help, clearly. Winter seemed at least moderately annoyed at MARS for being the reason why half of Atlas' forces in the city were sent packing, but that just made it better. After all, despite Weiss clearly loving her sister, Winter didn't seem like a very nice person on first meeting, to put it lightly.

Then again, maybe that's where Weiss learned to act how she did when we first met her.

Before we knew it, it was time for duos.

Ruby and I were once again in the locker room, Weiss and Jeanne were up in the stands today, and we needed to give them the best show we could. I leaned on my staff while watching the screen, Ruby was once again maintaining Crescent Rose to make sure everything was in working order. She had been doing that obsessively all afternoon, I found it was just something she did when she was nervous.

Professor Port declared, "Today is going to be a great day, we have two crowd favorites from the first round squaring off with each other! Team MARS and Team FNKI have chosen two representatives for both their teams, on one side we have Lunus Marigold and Ruby Rose, on the other we have Flynt Coal and Neon Katt!"

Oobleck picked up, "That's right Peter, we are in for a treat today! One of the foremost up and coming teams at Beacon Academy and a highly distinguished team from Atlas, it will surely be a battle our audience at home will want to stay tuned in for!"

I furrowed my brow, "Are we really that well known?"

Ruby stood up from the bench she was sitting on, then she walked over and leaned up, smooching my cheek, "Of course we are! We took out a terrorist cell, that's not mentioning what we did at the docks! Have you seen the merch people are selling of us?"

I blinked several times, "M-Merch?"

Ruby grinned, "Yeah! All sorts of companies start selling merch of teams during the Vytal Festival, and we've got a lot of it! I'll have to show you some after we finish beating Team FNKI!"

Wow, I never imagined I'd have anything like that. Going from where I was this time last year to this year has been a hell of a journey, and one I know is nowhere close to stopping, for good and ill.

I leaned down and gave Ruby a quick kiss before I leaned back up, "Right, well, let's make sure we don't give Weiss anything to complain about!"

That was when we were alerted that it was time to head out, so we did so. The arena was split in two again, our side was urban ruins, their side was filled with molten rock and lava. The four of us headed to the middle of the arena and stood several feet apart at an even distance.

Flynt Coal and Neon Katt were not what you would expect from Atlesian students. Flynt wore a dark vest over an untucked white dress shirt, with a loose tie wrapped around the collar. It was all finished off with a pair of dark dress pants, silver dress shoes and a dark glove.

He reminded me of an old school jazz artist, and his weapon fit that look, being a trumpet.

Neon on the other hand looked more like the kind of girl you'd see at a rave. A light blue cropped tank top that barely covered anything, a bra which was easy to see if you looked hard enough, a miniskirt that I desperately hoped she was wearing shorts under. It all finished off with bracers and padded leg guards,

Flynt was the first to speak, "Y'all are friends with Weiss Schnee right? When you lose, make sure to tell her about how her family ran my father's shop out of business."

Ruby frowned, "She didn't have anything to do with that! I hope you don't hold it against her."

Flynt just looked away sarcastically, while Neon picked up, "Hey, where'd you get your outfit?" She asked excitedly to Ruby, before grinning, "It looks like something you'd pick up at that one emo store! Red and black, how original!"

Ruby scowled, "I made this outfit myself, and red and black is cool, it matches my hair!" She grabbed her scythe off her back and unfolded it while we waited for the signal to start.

Neon scoffed, "That explains it! What's your aesthetic, perky goth girl? So five years ago! Maybe you should try skating, you've got the perfect body for it, being so, you know…" She made a motion downward, imitating a flat surface, which caused Ruby to gasp in shock as she gripped her scythe tighter.

I rolled my eyes as I entered my fighting staff and activated my blade, as usual the scythe blade forming atop my staff, "Aren't you just a barrel of laughs."

Neon laughed, "Course I am, and you look like a regular stick in the mud! What, you dressed to take your goth gf to dinner somewhere? At least you've got a more diverse color palette than she does! Good work, Cheesewheel!"

I furrowed my brow, "What'd you just call me?"

She smirked, "Cheesewheel! You know, the moon is made out of cheese, your name is Lunus…"

I rolled my eyes, "Shouldn't you be doing drugs at a rave somewhere right now, or is your leader keeping you on a leash with that collar around your neck?"

Neon gasped, breaking into a full grin, "Ooh, someone's got fangs, me-ow!"

Port's voice resonated across the arena, "It's a good day for a rousing fight! Ready…"

Flynt prepared with his trumpet, Neon looked ready to start skating. Ruby I I entered our combat stances, my war scythe blade crossing with her scythe for a moment as we assessed our foes.

"Go!"

Neon immediately took off, leaving strange brightly colored trails behind her as she moved. Ruby immediately raced off after her, which left me with Flynt, who immediately blared out sour notes with his trumpet that sent rings of dust and soundwaves at me.

I retracted my war scythe blade and planted my staff onto the ground, a shield formed around me that kept me from flying off. I turned my staff around and gripped it in both my hands, today I would clearly need to just use the top scythe blade, otherwise I might get sent flying.

Flynt paused, needing to catch his breath, I lowered my shield and raced forward, raising my staff into the scythe stance that Qrow taught me. Once I reached him, I swung downward at him, but he managed to step aside, he blew his horn at me again and this time sent me skidding away a few feet.

On my left I saw Ruby and Neon giving each other the runaround. Neon's skates allowed her to move quickly, but I doubted she could keep up with Ruby. As Flynt took a breather I channeled magic through my staff, gravity magic grabbed ahold of Neon and tripped her up, sending her onto her face.

My attention settled back on Flynt as he blew his horn at me again, causing me to have to put up another shield. He yelled afterward, "Your fight's with me, Marigold! Your branch ran from the rest, instead of trying to change things at home?" He tsked, "Man. I hope you're not as big of a coward as your pops."

Oh hell no.

He prepared to blow his trumpet again, and as soon as he did I conjured a shield, but not around me. Instead I boxed him in with it and began to walk forward. I heard some gasps of shock in the crowd, I couldn't tell if they were directed at me or the other two. The soundwaves that Flynt created bounced around in the shield, knocking him around inside of it with his own attack!

Then I channeled some gravity magic, catching him in the air with it as the shield fell away, then I threw him out towards the molten arena, gouts of fire shot into the air as he landed in the middle of a bunch of fire dust outcropping.

I caught sight of Ruby, it seemed that while Neon had managed to recover from her trip up, she wasn't doing too good otherwise. Ruby threw down some ice dust, causing the ground beneath her to get iced over, which worked in her favor as Neon slipped and fell. Ruby followed up by swinging her scythe and all but sweeping Neon away, sending her flying further into the urban ruins on our side.

I turned my attention back to where Flynt had fallen and rushed over, intent on finishing what I started. Although once I came into view of him, I saw he was waiting for me. He suddenly started…multiplying? His semblance, I guessed, each clone had different colored clothes like they were different skins in a fighting game.

They began to blast soundwaves at me and suddenly I felt like I was playing some sort of weird rhythm game, needing to dodge the sound waves as they came while I raced forward towards him, getting clipped by some soundwaves, dodging others, sometimes getting hit full on. If only I could make shields follow me instead of needing to stand still…

Once I was close enough I swung my staff, the scythe blade extending into a much larger and longer version of itself as it swept the arena, dissipating Flynt's clones and knocking him into a brimstone wall, which promptly exploded in a gout of fire.

That was when I heard Neon, "Hey, Cheesewheel!" I turned around just in time to get smacked in my staff arm with one of Neon's nunchucks, suddenly I felt ice ground over my arm. She ran a circle around me and wacked my leg, also starting to cover it in ice. I gritted my teeth as the pain and cold shot through my body.

That was when Ruby zoomed over and slammed Crescent Rose into Neon, the weapon was now in its war scythe form, a rarity outside of training. Neon was promptly sent into the same fire that Flynt was in, she looked at me, "Are you alright?" She asked worriedly, I nodded. I looked up at the screen to check our auras.

Ruby and I were both at about half, the other two a quarter. They were still in the fight, then.

Sure enough Flynt and Neon both stepped out of the ringed caldera they had fallen into, I shared a look with Ruby. She nodded, I nodded back, I assumed my fighting stance then I took Ruby's hand in my own, "Crystal Moon." I muttered to her, and she grinned, Crescent Rose turning back into its regular scythe shape.

While Flynt and Neon were still recovering Ruby raced us forward, we raised our weapons in much the same manner we did with the Grimm that day on the mountain, and the other two hardly had time to react before I swung first, the glowing scythe blade extended again, but this time it pulled the two forward!

Right into Ruby's awaiting scythe blade as she swung it at them, the massive blade crashed into the two and sent them back into my scythe again, before I retracted it. We landed on the opposite side of the two, who were now laying on the ground, and heard Oobleck announce, "We have a double knock-out! MARS has secured its place in the finals!"

I almost fell over as I planted my staff in the ground again, Ruby caught me and helped me stand fully again. She grinned at me, I returned it, and together we waved to the crowd that was cheering for us, some of them even had pieces of artwork drawn on signs, some just had words written down, encouragement and beliefs in our eventual success, which came to pass.

There were some who looked upset, of course, people who probably had signs for FNKI, people who believed in them and not us, but that was okay, it was just a sport after all right? We relished in the cheers, eventually Flynt and Neon both managed to get to their feet, they walked over to us. Flynt coughed into his hand, "Uhh, that thing I said about your pops, I might have gotten a bit too caught up in the moment there, I'm sorry. I wouldn't want someone dissing my family."

Neon scratched her cheek, "I said some nasty stuff too." She kicked dirt as she looked at Ruby, "While we were fighting, I didn't mean what I said about your, you know-"

Ruby blushed and shook her head, "Just don't bring it up again and we'll call it even!" I wondered what Neon had said to her. Ruby and I shared looks, before I stepped forward and extended my hand to Flynt.

"Yeah, it's alright, and I'm sorry for what I said about you Neon. You have a way of getting under peoples' skin, you know that?" Of course she did, she just grinned at me as Flynt took my hand and shook it, causing the applause and cheers to get louder.

Neon and Ruby shook hands as well while Neon just shrugged, "Eh, we all said some pretty nasty stuff I guess, but hey, all behind us now! We can be friends, and we'll see you down at the stalls! Winner buys the loser a meal, that's how it works right?" She laughed.

I scoffed, "Yeah alright. We'll think about it." Then we all let go and walked our separate ways, back the way we came. As we were walking into the locker room, I muttered to Ruby, "What exactly did she say to you?"

Ruby blushed and huffed, flustered as she whispered back, "She said I was…bottom heavy! That's not true, is it?" I covered my mouth to suppress a laugh as she whined at me, "It's NOT is it?" We entered the locker room and I shook my head, removing my hand from my mouth and putting it on her cheek as we stopped walking to face each other.

"No, Ruby, I think you're not heavy at all." I leaned down and kissed her, and she reciprocated. After we pulled apart, I mused, "You're…" I tried to think of the right term, unlike what Neon said she was not flat or anything like that. I'd looked at her before of course, but it was embarrassing even now, "Petite." I finally settled, "Just right."

She blushed and looked away, "If you say so. You're…" She looked me over, "You look a lot…firmer than you used to, before we started going here."

I blushed and furrowed my brow, "You were looking at me back then?"

"Of course I was, you were really skinny. I don't like big muscular guys or anything, but you at least look a bit stronger." She squeezed my arm with a smile, "I think I had more muscle definition than you before then. I might still, actually!"

I raised an eyebrow, "You have muscles?" A playful smirk on my face, you wouldn't think a girl that looked as small as Ruby would have any muscles, but I knew she did. How else would she be able to carry that stupid heavy scythe around?

She huffed, "Of course I do!" Then she started towards the way out of the arena, and I followed, "Just look at my arms next time I'm wearing my tank top and you'll see!" I made a note to do that, because I could have sworn she didn't have anything of the sort, but maybe it was just very subtle.

Once we were out, we headed back down via bullhead. There were more fights but we'd had our fill for the day, Jeanne and Weiss would be along eventually we knew. So we found another food stand, this one had takoyaki, and we ate together.

Eventually Neon and Flynt joined us, and I decided to be a good sport and bought them both some food as well, which they were grateful for. As we ate, Flynt asked, "So what's the Schnee girl like? I thought they were all prudes but you two seem to like her."

Ruby took up that question, "She's a bit of a prude but she's a nice prude! We used to call her Ice Queen but she's mellowed out a lot since then. Although…" She pursed her lips, "We don't know a lot about her life back home, we know it wasn't nice, but did she have any friends or anything? It's kind of worrying that she's never really mentioned any."

Neon gasped and clapped her hands together, "Gossip! Oh, I know the answer to this one! There were some rumors going around about her before she left. Word on the street was that she used to hang out with this faunus girl back home for a really long time, then she just stopped one day! No clue why, maybe father dearest disapproved?" She giggled and shrugged, "Try asking her yourself, if she doesn't bite your head off."

Ruby and I shared a look, that was certainly something Weiss had never told us about before. It would be worth asking her about it eventually, once we were back at our dorms probably. Neon had something else to ask about, "So your team were the ones who stopped that terrorist attack yeah? Cool stuff!"

I laughed as I thought about the memory. Of course we couldn't mention that we had help from two people who were supposed to be the ones leading the terrorist attack, that'd just raise more questions that we wanted to answer. "Yeah, the White Fang were kind of pushovers though. I'm sure any team could have done the same. We were just in the right place at the right time."

Of course we couldn't mention that it was just Ruby and I that did the fighting, because our help wasn't our team but two criminals on hiatus. They were the reason why whatever Cinder was planning had seemingly gone up in smoke, whatever she had planned had likely failed and if she planned something else, then we would deal with it when the time came.

Jeanne and Weiss joined us not long after, and both Atlesians were surprised by how approachable Weiss actually was. I was glad to see she'd come this far, although she still came off as uppity, she was at least friendly and uppity rather than just an all around ice queen.

When we got back to our dorms, I sat on my bed and asked Weiss, "Hey, Weiss, you know I thought of something. You lived in Atlas your whole life before coming here, right?"

Weiss nodded, raising an eyebrow at my question as she went to sit on her own bed, "Yes…What about it?"

"Well…Did you have any friends back there? Anyone you talked to? It seems weird that someone like you would come here and be a clean slate, with no connections but your family." Jeanne rubbed her chin, sitting at the computer chair as she was, it seemed that she had thought the same thing before.

Ruby sat next to me and nodded, "Yeah! Did you have friends? You had to of, right? You're Weiss!"

Weiss frowned as she looked away, "I did, but I'd rather not talk about it. Okay?" We continued to look at her curiously, she sighed and got up, going to look out the window, "Yes, I had a friend. Her name is Orchid, but…My father made us cut off our friendship because of his disdain for faunus. The worst part is, he made me say some awful things to her. I don't think she'd forgive me even if I asked, she probably hates me."

My eyes widened and so did the other two's. Ruby and I shared a look, before Ruby spoke up, "Oh come on Weiss…If you go and apologize and really mean it, I'm sure she'd forgive you! What kind of person was she?"

Weis sighed, "She was a wonderful girl, a gardener who worked with her father. We met when we were really young, and we were friends for a really long time after that. She was a really friendly person, I'm sure you three would get along great with her, but she probably hates me now. Can we leave it at that?" She seemed to be getting annoyed, so we relented.

We could always ask her about it more later.

The next day was the start of the finals, we chose Ruby as our finalist because she wasn't as limited in what she could do. Sure I had some tricks up my sleeve, but a great deal of what I could do was limited by how public of a spectacle this was. Ruby was a great fighter, so I was sure she'd make it through for us.

So, the next day we all went up to the colosseum to watch the spectacle. Ruby's match wasn't the first one, before that was Yang versus Sun Wukong, Yang managed to win which of course we cheered for. I wondered how far Yang would get, if she and Ruby had to fight that would be a spectacle in and of itself!

Jeanne was having a good time, grinning from ear to ear as she watched the fight with Yang and Sun play out, "Yang just keeps getting better! Sun didn't stand a chance!" She looked over to me, "Ruby's gonna be even better though, don't you think?"

I nodded in agreement and smiled softly, "Yang is great, but Ruby is Ruby. She'll show everyone what MARS can do."

Jeanne giggled, "I know! I already bought some of the merch people were selling of us! This kind of thing is rare, you know, it's important to have memorabilia!" She pulled up her hoodie for a second, revealing that she was wearing a shirt that had 'MARS' printed on it, with little pieces of art of each of us underneath the name. It was cute, what was that art style called again? Chibi.

Wow, I had a chibi, I'd really made it in the world, and that wasn't even sarcasm.

There were a couple other matches before Ruby, Pyrrha versus some Vacuo guy, which Pyrrha won handily. Then Coco from Team CFVY versus a Mistrali team, which Coco managed to win. Things were turning up very Beacon for the second half, all that we needed to see was if Ruby could pull off a victory, and I knew she would.

It was almost time for her showdown with Penny, which I knew was going to be a fun fight to watch. Still, I knew I wanted to get some popcorn for this spectacle. So I stood up and told the others I'd be back, then I headed out towards the concessions to get a snack.

Once I was there I had to admit I relaxed a lot more from being in the bleachers. The crowds were so large and it made me nervous, but I could deal with it. After all, if Ruby could overcome her fear of crowds, then I could brave through the tournament throngs for her sake.

Once I got down there I thought I heard something strange in one of the maintenance tunnels I passed by. I wasn't sure what it was, but it didn't sound natural, like a weird clicking noise of some kind. Staff in hand as always, I raised an eyebrow and pressed my ear to the door.

It was some sort of metallic clicking just like I thought it was, but now I heard a startlingly familiar voice on the other side as well, "Lunus…Come here." It said to me in a voice I'd heard only once in a dream before.

The voice of my mother.

It made my skin crawl, there was no way that was actually it. Someone was playing tricks on me, and I was going to confront whoever it was. How did they know that voice, who were they?

I tried the maintenance door and sure enough it opened. I stepped inside and nobody seemed to notice. The hallway seemed empty, there were only the unending fluorescent lights up above to keep me company as I walked forward, tense and ready to act if I needed to.

The clicking continued and eventually I came to a lone door that seemed to lead to a maintenance room. Better safe than sorry, I activated my staff and the war scythe component sprung free, I assumed my battle stance as I stepped inside.

I was immediately met with the visage of Cinder Fall, leaning against a wall with her arms crossed. My eyes widened, and I immediately spun my staff around and held my war scythe blade to her throat, to which she just put her hands up, "Well, aren't you just oh so passionate? I like that."

I gritted my teeth, "How'd you get in here? Start talking before I-"

"You what? Stab me? Maim me, kill me?" She ran a hand along her cheek, "Mmhh, or something else?" I didn't like that attempt at a seductive tone in her voice, or the half-lidded look she gave me, "Before you do any of that, you should hear what my master has to say."

"Your…master?" My eyes widened as my grip tightened, and that's when I heard the voice to my right.

"Lunus."

It was the voice that sounded like my mother's again, and out of the shadow came a strange looking…orb with tendrils on it,

That wasn't the thing that shook me to my core though, it was the face that was looking through the orb. Her hair was white, her skin matched, but other than that there was nothing particularly odd looking about the woman that was looking at me. No, instead, I was terrified by the fact that I recognized them.

I had seen her in my dream, her skin and hair color were different back then, but I could tell from everything else that it was my mother, or some attempted facsimile of her. My eyes wide, I gritted my teeth, "What is this?!"

Cinder spoke, "I think you already know. Ozma has been hiding something important from you, we figured it was very important that you knew the truth. So you can make an informed decision before you choose who to side with."

"Yes, Lunus." The woman spoke with a small smile on her face, the tone was warm but still sent chills up my spine, "I'm sure your father has told you all sorts of stories, tell me, what do you know about what happened on that fateful night, thousands of years ago?"

"He told me that he and my mother were living a happy life, they had my siblings and I was the youngest, the last to be born. Then they told me that you attacked them, you killed my parents, and my siblings." I gritted my teeth, "Why should I listen to anything you have to say? You killed my mother!"

She laughed a refined, almost regal laugh, as if that was the funniest joke she'd heard in a long time, "Oh dear, it seems you've been misled." She gained a serious look on her face, "No…I am your mother." My eyes widened, but she wasn't done yet, "Your father and I fought, this is true, but only because he disagreed with my way to unite humanity. He had just as much a part to play in the deaths of your siblings as I did. I am not the one to hate here, because he was the one who stood against my ideas, all because he loved those damnable Brother Gods."

The grip on my staff began to shake and loosen, I felt as if everything I'd believed was shaken, if not just outright shattered. The worst part of it all was that I believed that she was my mother, because I knew she was just from looking at her. The very foundation of my trust in my father was torn down from under me, the idea that my mother had died fighting Salem, the idea that my siblings gave themselves to that same fight to stop Salem.

Yet Salem was my mother, and suddenly my sister's words made all the more sense to me.

"You can bring the Mom and Dad we loved back. I know you can."

She mentioned Mom because Mom had never died, because she couldn't. Salem was my mother.

"So I plead with you, Lunus." Salem continued, "Come home and assume your mantle as the Prince of the Grimm, and you will take your rightful place by my side." She smiled, "Take your time thinking about it, I waited thousands of years for you to return, I can wait a while longer." Then the screen cut off, the floating orb stayed but now it was just Cinder and I.

My mind started to spiral as I lowered my staff from Cinder's throat, my eyes were wide and tears were threatening to brim over.

That was my mom? Was she really the one Ozpin had been opposing this whole time? Unanswered questions swirled, the idea that he had as much to do with my siblings dying shook me to my core.

I dropped my staff and fell to my knees, grabbing my head as I squeezed my eyes shut and tried to reconcile everything that I had been told. The extreme emotions swirling in my mind caused sparks of magic to emit off of me, fire, ice, lightning, wind, and more… "No, no, no…" I muttered softly, I could feel Cinder's gaze on me.

I reached for some kind of magic, any kind, that could assuage my mind. Yet nothing made sense anymore, and the magic I cast just made things worse. Suddenly, an invisible wave of magic pulsed out from me and permeated across the entire colosseum. It was not something to help me though, instead I involuntarily projected my emotions out to everyone there.

Again and again it was sent out as tears flowed down my face, visions of the family I'd lost played out in my mind. Thoughts about how my father had lied to me for all this time danced around my mind. Anger, fear, sorrow, depression, it all projected outward as my mind fell further into the depths of despair.

I heard even Cinder start to sniffle and sob, wrapped up in my despair. Yet I knew it was not her own, how could she know what I was feeling? I lowered my hands and stared at the ground, tears continued to stream down my face but the magic stopped. I heard screams and shouts outside, a crash on the colosseum's roof, it sounded like something was attacking, but what did that matter?

What did anything matter? Everything I knew was a lie. The family I lost had not been brutally murdered by an evil witch, they were caught in the crossfire of a magical duel that didn't even need to happen. Everything I could have had was torn away from me, everything they could have had was torn away from them, forget me, I didn't matter, they mattered.

What was I but the last of an old world? The two remainders are my parents and they killed any chance of my siblings having happiness, and it was then that I felt so alone. Was Salem even in the wrong here? Was Ozpin in the right? I didn't know, how could I? Everything was thrown into question, I didn't know who to trust or what to believe anymore.

What was my life supposed to be, was I just my father's pawn in an endless war because he wanted to bring back the Brother Gods? The ones who cursed my mother and damned her to an eternal life?

Was I supposed to be something else?

I didn't know.

I stared at the ground, my tears were still falling, I felt the dragging claws of these thoughts bringing me further down. Cinder walked up to me, knelt down in front of me, and wrapped me in a hug. I didn't have the strength or willpower to throw her off me anymore, nor did I feel afraid.

What was there to be afraid of? My entire worldview and my entire life was thrown into question, I started to wonder if my father truly just wanted me as a pawn in this game he played, the game that killed my siblings, the unnecessary game.

Cinder spoke, "Your pain is understandable, your father lied to you for so long…" She ran a hand through my hair, "Oh, but my master can make everything better. If you just come with me, we can make it alright…You can take your rightful place as my lord." She whispered in my ear, sending involuntary shudders through my spine, "And my lover."

Was this the life I deserved? A life at the side of Salem and Cinder, instead of Ruby and the others? Did I deserve them, they who would give everything for me? No, I didn't, because clearly even my father could tell I wasn't worth anything but what I could give to his war.

Cinder stood me up, I meekly followed, she grabbed my staff and handed it to me, I took it. It was a reminder of my father's continued manipulation, but maybe that was all I deserved. I felt something, her lips on mine, but I had no reaction to it. Then she started to walk me out of the room, "We're going to take care of some business and then we'll be on our way to Evernight Castle. I think you'll like it there. We'll have our own room, and you'll be given a throne next to your mother's…"

I heard her words but I didn't care for them, I was too stuck in my own head. Whatever she wanted, she could get, because I wasn't putting up any fight. I just followed her, I heard the screams and panic of the civilians and the students, it seemed that Grimm were attacking Amity. It must have been my magic that did it, another reason why I didn't deserve to be in the company of anyone here.

We walked right through the concessions area and towards the exit, but instead of taking a bullhead Cinder opted to fly. She took me with her, and we flew down to the fairgrounds, where there was even more panic, and even more Grimm.

I brought this suffering to everyone here, and I knew then that I didn't deserve to ever come to this school, or any school. I should have not been at that dust shop during that robbery, I shouldn't have even gotten Ruby for that project.

I deserved nothing.

Atlesian soldiers were busy protecting civilians and evacuating people, their warships were taking on flying Grimm, I'm sure it would have been less of a problem if I hadn't made Ironwood take back half of his ships.

I thought of my sisters again and I wondered how they expected me to bring Mom and Dad back to how they used to be. The endless war they'd fought for thousands of years meant that they had that much bad blood between them. Maybe they wanted me to make Dad realize he should just work with Mom? Maybe they thought that I could make Mom remember her life before she was Queen of the Grimm. Did she need that human element in her life?

We exited the fairgrounds and made it to the courtyard. I wondered where Cinder was taking me, but I didn't have the strength to ask. The sound of battle raged all around us, but I didn't look to see who was fighting, nor did it seem like anyone paid any mind to Cinder and I. Why would they? Cinder was not a known criminal, only Ozpin's group knew to look for her, and most of them were up at the colosseum, where my team was probably fighting a battle without me.

I'd let them down, I didn't deserve them.

We entered a building, I think it was the tower that contained the Headmaster's office. I idly mused as to what Cinder wanted. Did she want the maiden powers? I wouldn't be able to stop her even if I could lift my staff in defiance of her. She was too powerful, I was too weak.

We entered the elevator and headed down, Cinder spoke to me during the ride, "I'll make all the pain go away…Just as soon as I've gotten what I deserve, my power. Then we can go to your new home, and you can become the Grimm Prince. Your mother might even be able to make you as immortal as she is, then you could truly rule a long lived empire."

We reached the bottom, we walked forward through the long vault hallway. Amber's spirit appeared next to me, "Lunus? What happened to you? Are you okay? Please, talk to me!" Yet I didn't, because what was I supposed to say?

I was a failure, no better than an instrument for both my parents.

We reached the aura exchange chamber and Cinder took her bow off her back and nocked an arrow.

She loosed it.

Only for a familiar cane to knock it out of the way, Ozpin was there, where had he been hiding? I didn't know, because I was just perpetually stuck looking at the ground. "Lunus! What's happened to you?!" He asked, his voice dripped with worry, but was it genuine?

Without the support of Cinder's hand, I just fell to my knees again and asked in a dull voice, "Why did you lie to me? Salem didn't kill my mother…She was my mother." I stared at him as I saw his eyes widen.

He gritted his teeth and turned his attention to Cinder, "What did you do?! I was keeping him safe, protecting him!" He gripped his cane, but he did not deny that he had lied.

Cinder bit back, "You used him, and you're supposed to be what, the purported 'hero' of this story? What hero lies to his own son? His mother told him the truth, and now look at what that's done to him, maybe if you didn't lie, he wouldn't be like this. Yet his mother was the truthful one, and now she will get what she deserves. She will have her son back, and I will have my lord, my lover."

She notched another arrow and Ozpin prepared to fight her.

What was I supposed to do? What could I do? I was clearly nothing but a pawn, I'd repeated this mantra over and over in my head and drilled it further into my mind.

Ozpin lied and Salem told the truth, what was I but a pawn?

Nothing, I was nothing.