The Enemy of Trust.

Nora, Ren, Oscar, Bernadetta, Lyre and Jaune are standing together in a hallway in Atlas Academy, facing Neo with their weapons drawn.

"Give up. We've got you outnumbered" Jaune warned.

Neo flicks her umbrella down to make the hidden sword blade protrude from the top, and the others respond by getting ready to fight.

"All right, then" Nora said.

Ren shoots at Neo, while Nora fires two grenades from Magnhild and Bernadetta fired an fire arrow. However, Neo opens her umbrella, turns around, and blocks the attacks with her umbrella by resting it over her shoulder. When the smoke clears, she smirks and turns to face them again. Ren runs toward her, firing his guns again, and she blocks the bullets with her umbrella, then runs on and jumps from the wall. Just as Ren begins to aim at her, she comes down from the air and swings her closed umbrella down at him, only for him to block by crossing his guns.

He pushes her away, and she uses her umbrella on the floor to bounce further down the hall. Nora charges at Neo and swings her hammer, but Neo ducks down, scoops Nora up with her open umbrella, and dumps Nora on the floor behind her. Neo then strikes a pose, winking and flashing a crooked grin. Ren fires StormFlower's blades at Neo, who closes her umbrella and casually deflects them with one arm behind her back. The blades plant themselves in the wall behind Neo, and Ren has StormFlower begin retracting the cables to send him flying toward her.

Neo does an exaggerated gasp gesture, smirks and drops to the floor by doing the splits. While on the floor, she flips her umbrella in her grasp. As Ren passes over her, she rises up next to him, hooks one of StormFlower's cables with her umbrella and pulls, causing him to be turned in mid-air by his own weapons. Unable to right himself, Ren slams into the wall.

Lyre charged in while Bernadetta fired more arrows. Neo blocked the arrows before she dodged Lyre's barrage of claw swings in a laid back manner. As Lyre goes in for a kick, Neo ducks under it and grabs Lyre's tail, she pulls it hard, making Lyre yelp in pain and briefly pulls her of balance, allowing Neo to deliver a kick to Lyre's stomach which sends her in to a wall. Bernadetta walked closer while firing more arrows, hoping she could get a hit in if she got closer. Neo dodged the arrows as she charged Bernadetta who raised her bow to block an anticipated attack. Instead, Neo hooked her Umbrella in to Bernadetta's bow and pulled it down. Bernadetta gasped as Neo looked her right in the eyes, giving her a teasing grin before she pulled her forward and used one of her legs to send Bernadetta in to the sealing, and smiled as she fell back down on the floor.

Oscar charges toward Neo with his cane drawn. She takes him by surprise by thrusting her umbrella between his arm and his side. She then moves her arm up and hooks it under his arm before flipping over him. When her feet return to the floor, she uses the momentum to throw Oscar into the air, causing the Relic of Knowledge to fall off of his belt. Seeing her chance, she thrusts her umbrella toward the Relic, only for Oscar to slip his cane through the Lamp's ring first.

As soon as Oscar lands on the floor, Neo begins stabbing her umbrella's blade at the Relic's ring with her other arm behind her back, while Oscar can only defend himself. With a crooked grin, she swings her blade at him, only for Jaune to slip in between them with his shield at the ready. The emblem on his shield glows pinkish-purple and emits a blast that knocks Neo away from them. She lands on her feet and takes a moment to glare at them.

Suddenly, Nora swings her hammer, uttering a grunt, which catches Neo's attention. Neo moves her gaze from Nora to Ren and Lyre, both of who is now up in the air and flying toward Neo. She readies her umbrella, but Bernadetta distracts her by grabbing her leg while still on the floor, and gave Neo an nervous look. Neo is momentarily surprised but then grins at Ren before shattering into pieces as he attacks her.

Surprised, Ren falls to the floor before rolling and getting up "What!?".

"Where'd she go!?" Nora asked.

"That slippery little!" Lyre growled as she looked around.

Jaune hurries down the hall and looks around the corner. Instead of Neo, he finds an Atlas Soldier, who points at him "Freeze!".

"We gotta move!" Jaune said as he, Lyre, Bernadetta, Nora and Ren flee down the hall. Oscar takes a moment to pant in exhaustion before jogging after them.


In the Atlas Medical Facility, Penny flies through the hole in the wall of Fria's room in an attempt to punch Cinder. However, Cinder catches her fist with her Shadow Hand and then, using the arm's stretching ability, flings her through a nearby pair of double doors. Cinder starts to walk into Fria's room, only to be impeded by Winter's flock of small Nevermore summons.

At the tail end of the flock, Winter charges toward her, swinging her sword at her. Cinder does a back handspring to dodge it and a subsequent attack, then sidesteps a thrust from Winter. She then uses her Maiden powers to form a pair of black glass swords to block as Winter swings her own sword down at her. She steps forward, pushing on Winter's sword and keeping their weapons locked together.

"You Atlas elites are all the same!" She said with an angry look

Winter starts to push back, and Cinder breaks her swords free of the lock. Cinder begins swinging her swords at Winter, who blocks the strikes with her own sword. As Winter attempts to fight back, Cinder parries her attacks.

"You think hoarding power means you'll have it forever, but it just makes the rest of us hungrier" She kicks Winter hard enough to send her flying, causing her to slam into a wall.

Edelagrd charged in, swinging her ax in fast and powerful blows. Cinder tried to block one swing, only for her blade to shatter under Edelgard's enormous strength. Edelgard kicked Cinder in to a wall but Cinder unleashed a stream of fire which Edegard quickly blocked with her shield. But Cinder smirked and shot the sealing, causing it to collapse on top of Edelgard.

One of Penny's swords flies past Cinder's head and stabs into the wall that Winter was slammed into. Cinder looks at the sword, then toward the doorway she had sent Penny through "And I refuse to starve".

Penny rockets toward Cinder and begins swinging and spinning her swords at her, only for Cinder to block the attacks. Penny recalls her swords and then sends them flying forward to stab Cinder, who jumps, spins and swings her swords to dodge and deflect Penny's. Behind Cinder, Winter withdraws her smaller sword from within her main one and charges at her. Cinder leaps and spins over Winter, blocking the attack with her own swords. She flips back to dodge Penny's swords, then blocks another attack from Penny before jumping and flipping over Winter to dodge her. Cinder blocks a strike from Winter, who then blocks a strike from Cinder.

Cinder then leaps and stands on Winter's large sword to dodge Penny's attack, then kicks Winter in the face, knocking her to the floor. Cinder jumps and kicks Penny, knocking her over, as well. Winter charges toward Cinder, who leaps and flips over her, leaving Winter standing in front of the entrance to Fria's room. Penny moves to stand beside Winter. Angered, Cinder activates her Maiden powers, drops her swords and screams before emitting a jet of fire from her feet to rocket herself toward Winter and Penny. As she reaches them, she grabs them each by the throat and smashes through a wall with them, exiting the tower.

Winter swings her large sword at Cinder, who uses the stretching ability of her Shadow Hand to move Winter too far away for the sword to hit her. Penny momentarily activates her jets, causing the trio to spin in the air. Winter stabs her smaller sword into Cinder's Shadow Hand, causing the latter to scream in pain and drop her. Winter drops the smaller sword and falls, while Cinder emits jets of flame from her feet. She watches Winter plummet while black smoke pours from her wound. Cinder then turns her attention to Penny and tosses her away before conjuring a flame-covered black glass sword and kicking it toward Penny. Penny activates her jets and catches the blade between her hands, only for the sword to explode, sending her momentarily tumbling through the air and screaming in pain.

Penny reactivates her jets and flies back up into the air, while Cinder watches, panting "I have come too far to be stopped by some toy!".

A blue fireball suddenly hits Cinder, and Winter approaches them, riding on a Manticore summon. Cinder rights herself with fire jets and shoots a fireball, only for Winter's Manticore to dodge and spit a fireball back. Penny and Winter both fly toward Cinder from two different directions. Winter reaches her first, her Manticore slamming against Cinder on its way past. While Cinder is distracted and throwing a fireball at Winter, Penny slashes her with her swords. Cinder charges Penny, who fights back and then moves out of the way while Winter's Manticore spits another fireball, which hits Cinder.

Cinder cries out in anger and flies toward Winter, who charges toward her. As they close the distance, the Manticore spits another fireball, but Cinder quickly changes her trajectory to go under the Manticore, using her fire jets to spin herself so she can slash the Manticore with a sword. The summon dissolves, leaving Winter to fall, and before Winter can do anything, Cinder shoots another fireball at her, which breaks her Aura. She screams in pain, and Penny gasps. Cinder rockets away to the medical facility, and Penny flies down to catch Winter.

Inside, Edelgard had freed herself and stood ready to stop Cinder from reaching the winter maiden. Cinder was getting annoyed by these constant interference and unleashed another stream of fire. But Edelgard wasn't going to fall for the same trick twice, and tossed her shield through the flames, forcing Cinder to break of her attack to deflect the shield. This gave Edelgard an opening to get in close, and Cinder barely dodged two of her swings before Edelgard managed to get her ax behind Cinder's back, pulling her close and in to a painful back breaker.

Cinder grunts in pain as she tries to break free, but Edelgard's inhuman strength made it impossible. Cinder headbutts Edelgard but even that didn't make her loosen her grip. Getting desperate, Cinder calls up flames all around them and the intense heat finally made Edelgard loosen her grip, allowing Cinder to send her through a wall with a powerful fire blast.

Cinder smirked. Now no one could stop her from claiming what's hers.


Lyre, Bernadetta, Jaune, Nora and Ren continue running through the dormitory hallways, with Oscar trailing behind them.

"Hurry, we gotta lose them!" Jaune said.

Panting in exhaustion, Oscar continues slowly running after them while they round a corner and stop. There, they see three soldiers, who take notice and run after them. The huntsmen and huntresses turn and run back down the hall they came from, running straight past Oscar, who had just caught up. Oscar turns around and follows them. The others round a corner ahead of Oscar. Once he reaches the corner, he rounds it, runs down that hallway and rounds another corner, only to find he has lost sight of his friends.

He stops and looks around, panting "Guys?".

"They went this way!" A guard said.

Nora's hand reaches out from a nearby room, clasping itself over Oscar's mouth and pulling him into the room. She holds him there, hiding next to the doorway while the soldiers run past. Uncertain of what is happening at first, Oscar panics and claws at the hand, hyperventilating. Once the soldiers are gone, he notices a mirror in front of him showing Nora standing behind him, and he relaxes. With a smug expression, Nora lets go and moves out of view of the mirror. He turns to face her and then yelps in fright and jumps backward, falling through the doorway and leaning back to dodge Neo's umbrella. The umbrella moves aside, and Nora blinks, her eyes turning pink and brown. Oscar's gaze moves from Neo's disguised face to her belt, where the Relic of Knowledge is attached. His eyes widen, and Neo strikes him with her umbrella, knocking him into a closed door.

As she runs away, he reaches toward her "No!".

Jaune comes into view from around a corner down the hall, looking around in panik "Oscar!".

He turns and looks just in time to see Neo running toward him. She thrusts her umbrella's blade at his face, and he reflexively knocks it away with his shield. She leaps and flips over him, and he raises his shield and keeps it aimed at her to defend from any potential attacks. She rests her open umbrella against the shield to aid in her trajectory, and as soon as she lands on the floor, she hops, backflips and forcefully kicks off from his shield to propel herself down the hall, knocking him over.

As soon as she rounds a corner, Ren begins firing his guns at her, and she leans forward and uses her umbrella as a shield. Ren charges toward her, leaps and begins to swing his blades at her. Neo leans back, switches her eyes back to Nora's light blue eyes and looks at Ren with a hurt expression. Ren gasps and halts his attack, and Neo rams the handle of her umbrella against his chin. While Ren is stunned, she hooks her umbrella on his ankle and runs past, pulling his leg out from under him and knocking him down.

Bernadetta aims at her but is to slow as Neo leaps at her. Neo's crotch ends up in Bernadetta's face, before Neo wraps her legs around her neck and uses her whole body to toss Bernadetta at an approaching Lyre who had to stop to catch her teammate, the force of the throw knocks them both to the floor.

Neo quickly rounds a corner, and Jaune chases after her, while Ren sits up with a wide-eyed and shaken expression.

"Stop!" When Jaune rounds the corner, he is faced by three armored soldiers and an Atlas military Huntress.

"Drop your weapons!" The armored soldiers begin firing their guns at Jaune, and he blocks with his shield.

"Fall back!" Jaune orders as he and the rest flee down the hall they came from and around a corner. Nora looks over her shoulder at Ren, who has tears streaming down his face.

The soldiers chase after the trio "This way".

The military Huntress starts to follow the soldiers but then stops and looks down a couple of hallways before confidently walking away with the Relic of Knowledge hanging from her belt.


There is a loud metallic sound, and Fria opens her eyes to see Cinder standing in front of her with the transfer machine's pod door missing. Cinder's glove has been removed, and her left sleeve has been ripped off, making her Shadow Hand visible. The Shadow Hand has spread up to her shoulder.

"You had your time in the sun, but now I'm afraid your time is up" Cinder said calmly.

"Yes. I've been waiting here... for some time, I think. What was I waiting for?" Fria asked.

Cinder smirks, and her eye flares with orange Maiden flames "Me".

Cinder draws back her Shadow Hand and then reaches for Fria, only for Fria to grab her wrist and stop her.

"No" Fria looks at Cinder with light blue Maiden flames around her eyes "I had a job to do".

Cinder pulls her wrist from Fria's grasp, creates a black glass knife and attempts to stab Fria with it. Fria knocks her away with a blast of blue energy and rises into the air, surrounded by a whirlwind of ice and freezing air. A layer of ice spreads across the floor from beneath her. Some of the ice spreads onto Cinder's Shadow Hand, causing her to scream in pain and jump back. The door of the transfer machine's second pod comes loose and flies toward Cinder, who rolls out of the way and leaps into the observation room through the now-broken window. Fria grasps her head and then cries out, the whirlwind around her intensifying and blasting a hole through the ceiling. The freezing air also pours out of the hole in the wall. Penny lands on the roof, sets Winter down and stares at the whirlwind.

"What is that?" Penny asked.

"That's the power of a fully realized Maiden" Winter answered as she runs over to the hole in the roof and attempts to reach toward it, only for the whirlwind to freeze and rip off three of the fingers of her glove, while turning her fingers themselves red. She cries out in pain and withdraws her hand, looking at her freezer-burnt fingers before shaking her hand "It's too cold. We have to do something!".

Penny looks at her own hands, then runs forward and jumps into the hole.

"Penny!" Winter shouts.

Edelgard wakes up when the cold air hit her "What's... happening?".


"I'm sorry" Oscar said.

Jaune, Lyre, Bernadetta, Oscar, Nora and Ren are resting inside the training room. The lights outside have turned red, and the lines for the grid on the floor are white.

"Don't be" Jaune said.

"We weren't ready to become Huntsmen" .

"That's not true!" Nora argued.

"Then why aren't we holding the Relic? Now Salem has the Lamp, Ironwood has the Staff, and we have nothing!" Ren shouted, his normally calm nature complely gone.

Jaune stands up "Ren, that's enough".

"We screwed up... We screwed up big time. But we can't make up for our mistakes if we end up in prison" Lyre said.

Their communication devices emit a transmission sound, and Pietro's voice comes through "Hello? Anybody there? Can you hear me?".

"Our Scrolls? Doctor!" Jaune excitedly brings out his Scroll, grinning at the private group chat that has opened.

Maria laughs triumphantly "Finest mind in Atlas!".


Somewhere else in the City of Atlas, Blake and Yang shoot at Atlesian Knight's with Severa blocking the bullets while they were backing toward a Manta.

"Maria! What are you doing?" Nora asked.

Inside the Manta, Pietro is typing on a computer projected from his chair, while Maria uses her Scroll to speak to Team JNPR. Severa, Yang and Blake board the ship and the latter two continues firing at the robots.

"Grabbing our getaway ship. We need to hightail it out of here. Where are you?" Maria asked.


"The academy training room. We slipped away from some soldiers, but it won't be long before they-" Nora yelps in fright as bullets begin flying toward her. Jaune, Lyre, Bernadetta, Nora and Ren gather behind Jaune's shield, which projects a Hard-Light barrier.

"They're here" A guard said.

"We're on our way. Just stick together" Yang said.

Jaune notices that Oscar is not present "Oscar? Oscar!".

A barrage of bullets pelt Jaune's shield, causing him to duck back down behind it.

"Sorry, but you all need to go on without me" Oscar said.

"What are you talking about!?" Jaune demanded

Oscar is running through a hallway "There's something I have to do alone".

"Are you insane!? Oscar get back here now!" Bernadetta shouted.

"Trust me, I know what I'm doing" Oscar assured... at least he hopes he knows what he's doing.


Back in the medical facility Penny holds Fria after having managed to calm her down from the ice storm... But Fria was dying, and the maiden power would soon pass on to someone else. Fria asked Penny if she was the one she had been waiting for, and now penny stood in for an massive choice.

"I… I…" There is a small explosion sound, and Penny looks to her left to see Cinder blasting her way through the ice.

Cinder glares at her and stands up "She's mine!".

Cinder screams in fury and sends her Shadow Hand toward Penny and Fria, and Penny flinches and closes her eyes. Suddenly, the Shadow Hand disintegrates, and Cinder begins screaming in agony. Penny opens her eyes and looks. Cinder is stumbling around, her Grimm arm having been cut off, and Winter is standing near her with her sword drawn.

Winter glares at Cinder, then looks over at Penny and Fria "No".

Winter glares at Cinder again. Cinder continues screaming and begins writhing as her Shadow Hand grows back. Cinder glares at Winter, hyperventilating in pain. Her eye flares with Maiden fire. Cinder forms a black glass sword and hurls it at Winter, who blocks with her sword. Cinder then furiously throws several more black glass swords and knives at Winter, which Winter blocks and dodges. Finally, Cinder holds onto one of the swords she creates and uses it to slice across Winter's arm, taking a chunk out of her sleeve and splattering blood onto the floor. Penny watches the fighting and worriedly looks at Fria, who is beginning to lose consciousness. After Fria closes her eyes, Penny takes her hand. Fria's hand glows with light blue Aura, which extends onto Penny's hand, while light blue energy swirls around both of their hands.

Winter is thrown across the room and slams into an ice wall. She has a black eye, her hair is down and the legs of her pants are torn. She lies on the floor, groaning in pain, while Cinder walks over to her with a black glass knife in her hand.

"NO!" Cinder looks and sees Edelgard charging at her.

Cinder dodged a strike before grabbing Edelgard's chest armor. She began heating it up to the point Edelgard quickly kicked her back and ripped the now painfully hot armor to the frozen floor, creating some steam. Cinder blasted Edelgard several times with her flames, and when Edelgard's aura shattered, Cinder smirked and hit her square in the chest with a large fire ball. Edelgard was sent in to an ice wall, now with very noticable burn marks on her body... the bigges one being on her chest, visible thanks to a burn hole in her shirt.

A single snowflake drifts past Cinder's face, distracting her. More snowflakes swirl through the air, and Cinder hesitates before turning to look.

Penny stands with her eyes closed for a moment, with snowflakes drifting around her. She then opens her eyes and looks at Cinder with green Maiden flames coming from her eyes. Cinder stares in disbelief and then becomes furious, Maiden flames flaring out from her eye.

Suddenly, Weiss voice distracts her "Winter!".

Cinder turns to look up at the observation room, where Ruby and Weiss are standing. Upon seeing Ruby and Lucina, Cinder gasps.

"You... I knew your death was to good to be true" Lucina said with a hateful glare.

"Lucina! I will gladly play with you later! But for now, you are all in my way!" Cinder generates fireballs in her hands.

Weiss gasps, but Ruby's eyes narrow; Cinder's angry expression turns to fear as she sees Ruby's eyes begin to glow silver. The room is engulfed in a bright white light.

Ruby drops to her knees, panting. She, Lucina, Weiss and Penny look up at a glowing orange hole in the ceiling. Cinder is nowhere to be seen.

"Winter" Weiss jumps down and goes over to Winter, who struggles to sit up.

Winter glares at Weiss "What did you do?".

Lucina runs up to Edelgard "You're badly burned... You need medical attention".

"Don't... touch me..." Edelgard said she hit Lucina's arm away "Save your concern for Mantle... And your friends who will now be arrested because of you...".

Ruby looks over to Penny, who still has Maiden flames coming from her eyes. Penny's Maiden flames fade away, and she looks at Ruby, then turns and drops to her knees, resting her hand on Fria's. Her eyes glimmer as she gains an expression of grief. She covers her eyes with her hands.

Ruby hurries over to her side and places a hand on her shoulder "Are you alright? Penny, what happened?".

"She's… gone" Penny said, and Ruby looks at Fria, but before she can say anything, Winter's voice catches their attention.

"No. She's a part of you now" She said while glaring.


On a docking platform, Lyre, Bernadetta, Jaune, Nora and Ren board a Manta, while Severa, Yang and Blake stand in its doorway, with Blake waving and calling out to them. The door closes, the ramp recedes and the Manta flies off.

Bernadetta quickly hugs Yang while shaking and Yang quickly hugs her back. Severa takes Lyre's hand, and the two friends gives each other reassuring looks, silently telling each other they are ok.

"Where's Oscar? And the Relic?" Yang asked.

Jaune, Nora and Ren are sitting on the floor. Ren is holding his head. Jaune, who is looking at Yang, closes his eyes and lowers his head. Nora looks at Ren, then gains a sad expression.

"We failed... we all... failed..." Bernadetta whispered.

"Damn it..." Severa said while clenching her fist, making Blake grab it in hopes of calming her down.


Winter props herself up against a wall "I suggest you all surrender and comply with the General's orders".

Weiss and Ruby look at each other and then at Winter.

"We can't do that" Weiss said sadly.

"Then... I suggest you run" Winter said.

"No, you're hurt! I'm not going to leave you like this" Weiss said in clear worry for her older sister.

"You're not leaving me. I'm giving you a head start" Winter touches her fingers to the communication device in her ear "This is Special Operative Schnee in need of immediate medical assistance. Send reinforcements. Ace Op member von Hresvelg is also in need of medical attention, over".

Winter lowers her hand, and Weiss stares in shock before gaining a serious expression "We all have to carve out our own way".

Lucina looks at Edelgard who just sighs "Just... go... and prey we never meet again".

Maria's Manta arrives next to the hole in the wall, and the door slides open to reveal Yang "Guys you're…".

Yang looks around at them, and Ruby looks at Penny "We need to go".

Weiss looks at Winter and then she and Lucina boards the ship. Ruby and Penny exchange a look, and Ruby gets up and walks to the ship. Penny looks at Winter and then looks away before getting up to follow Ruby. Winter looks somewhat surprised, then looks away in thought, frowning.

Aboard the Manta, Team JNPR stand together next to one of the doors. Ruby, Penny and Weiss are sitting together on a bench, with Lucina standing in front of them. Severa, Lyre, Bernadetta, Blake and Yang are standing nearby. Pietro is seated in the middle of the floor. Ruby and Weiss rest against Penny's shoulders, while Lucina holds her hands and gives her a smile to let her know they're here for her, and Penny smiles softly. Pietro watches them and smiles.

The Manta flies away from the City of Atlas while red lightning flickers in the sky. Lucina suddenly grabs her chest as if in pain, which quickly catches everyone's attention.

"Lucina? What's wrong?" Ruby asked in worry.

Lucina did not answer as she suddenly collapsed on the floor, making Severa rush over to her "Hey, hey! What's the matter?!".

A voice comes over the ship's radio system, and everyone looks toward the front "We've got multiple hostiles on radar. Is anyone else seeing this?".

Female Pilot "These readings can't be right".

Maria narrows her eyes at the radio, and her eyes widen when she looks through the windshield. Pietro adjusts his glasses, staring out the windshield.

"It's her... she's here... She's here... She has come..." Lucina whimpered like a frightened child.

"Lucina..." Ruby said in concern... having a bad feeling that she knew who her girlfriend was taling about

A constant flicker of red lightning reveals a strange silhouette in the storm clouds. Soon, an enormous whale-like Grimm slowly drifts out from the clouds, accompanied by a massive army of flying Grimm. Atop the whale's nose stands Salem, who smiles confidently.

Like the saying goes: If you want something done right, do it yourself. Salem will destroy Atlas, take the relics... and finally bring her granddaughter home... where she belongs... At her side.

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And that's the end of Volume 7. Had to cut out some parts, including Ozpin's speech, since the chapter is already long enough as it is, and there was nothing I could add to those scenes.

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Tell me what you think.