Author's note: You have no idea how much work this chapter was. Some parts are noticeably boring, because I had to write small talk, and other parts may feel a bit listless. So, yeah, sorry in advance.

Salem walked through her castle, looking for Tock and Tyrian. She had enough of waiting, and needed to do something before it was too late. She found them in a training room, with Tock manifesting her aura as a crocodile tail from her back, while Tyrian had his aura manifest as an exoskeleton. They were fully engaged in their training, and didn't even notice her enter until Tock's tail touched her and turned her into a black splatter on the wall.

"This… is bad," Tyrian said.

"Probably," Tock said, and both turned off their aura traits again, "How long do you think she'll be gone?"

"No idea," Tyrian answered, "But… I am oddly intrigued." He checked his scroll and set a reminder for the time. They thought about what to do, and decided to just wait until she returned. Tock eventually got bored and left, but Tyrian stayed with his goddess until she came back, waiting over twenty-four hours.

~o~

Mercury saw Weiss approach the lake of misery, and had his minion teleport her into its body so he could take her out. The inside of the massive minion was largely an open area, but it could change based on all of Amity's different environments.

"Hello, Weiss," Mercury said, "Welcome to your doom." Before she could react, Mercury attacked her, launching her backwards into the gravity area, which began filling the entire arena. Weiss rolled backwards, up a wall, and landed upside-down, then drew her rapier. Mercury attacked again, and she had to dodge his attacks, but secretly placed landmines in various locations.

"Come on, be serious," Weiss said as Mercury flew past her again.

"How are you doing this?" Mercury asked, then looked at the big orange gem in the center of the arena, "And you, stop helping her."

"Warped realities are really easy to navigate for me," Weiss answered. Mercury attacked again, and stepped on a landmine. The explosion sent him upwards, into the gravitational pull of another platform, sending him into another mine. Mercury was flung around by explosions and gravity. Unbeknownst to him, Jaune was below, using Rose Tourbillon on the lake of misery, firing a steady stream of rose petals and red sparkles from his sword, which he held like a staff of sorts, and neutralizing the liquid bit by bit.

"Alright, enough," Mercury said after his aura broke, "Get her out of here and head back to Salem's castle." The minion teleported Weiss back to the ground and flew away, leaving both Weiss and Jaune to watch as it disappeared behind the horizon.

"Good job," Weiss said, "The lake really shrunk a lot."

"Thanks," Jaune said, "But we only knew what to do because of your skills."

"You're welcome," Weiss said, "But let's head back for the day."

"Good idea," Jaune said, and both headed back to Atlas, seeing how their aura was rather low, and the cold wasn't making it any better. On the way back, they discussed a few things, though mostly mundane things.

~o~

Harriet oversaw Neon and a few other Atlas students train their speed or related semblances, including maneuvering, hitting targets while moving, and aiming ranged weapons. Just as she was starting to enjoy the job, her scroll beeped, signaling that her shift was over. The students all stopped, and Neon floated over to her on her anti-gravity skates.

"Hey Teach, what's wrong?" Neon asked.

"Teach?" Harriet asked, shook her head and answered, "My shift is over for today. I've got to go. Bye."

"Teach as in teacher," Neon answered and said, "But do you really have to go? I mean, nothing says you can't stay here and watch in your time off."

"No, sorry, I have other things to do," Harriet answered.

"Like what?" Neon asked.

"None of your business," Harriet answered.

"I go rollerblading later today, if you're free," Neon said.

"I'll keep that in mind," Harriet said and rushed off. Halfway through the military complex, she met Winter, who was just wandering around.

"Oh, hello Harriet," Winter said when Harriet stopped to not run into her.

"Hello," Harriet said and asked, "And, how's it going?"

"Well, I work for the military," Winter answered, "So, I can't complain."

"Yeah," Harriet said and asked, "How's the weather?"

"Outside," Winter answered, "I find it nice. Not perfect, but good enough. You?"

"Same," Harriet answered and asked, "So, what are you up to?"

"Nothing much," Winter answered, "Just walking around."

"Same," Harriet said, and they both stood around awkwardly.

"So, want to grab something to eat?" Winter asked.

"Sure," Harriet answered, "What were you thinking?"

"Fries?" Winter suggested, "I know this place nearby."

"Sounds good," Harriet said, and followed Winter.

"Read any good books lately?" Winter asked after a short moment of silence, just to end the silence.

"Not really," Harriet answered.

"Me neither," Winter said, and silence resumed.

"Hear any good songs?" Harriet asked after a short moment.

"No, not really," Winter answered.

"How about Atlas' anthem?" Harriet asked.

"Heard it plenty," Winter answered, "A bit too often, if I'm honest."

"Same," Harriet said, and the silence continued.

"Anyway, you seen this new… thing?" Winter asked.

"What thing?" Harriet asked.

"This thing, with the stuff," Winter answered.

"Kinda," Harriet answered and asked, "With the people, right?"

"Yes, with the people," Winter answered. They continued their non-conversation on the way to the military's cafeteria, where they were surprised at the prices. Normally, their ranks offered them a hefty discount, but since Winter had been demoted, and Harriet wasn't working, those no longer applied.

~o~

Weiss walked up to Penny, who seemed to be going through cyberspace, as her eyes dilated while she stared into empty space, giggling occasionally. She felt kind of bad interrupting whatever she was doing, but she was also curious what it would be like to fuse with her.

"Silly human," Penny said with a giggle, "Your skeletal structure is not designed to handle that range of motion. You will- wait. How? What is happening?" Her eyes snapped wide open.

"Hi Penny. Are you alright?" Weiss asked.

"Yes, I believe so," Penny answered, "I am, however, very concerned for some people I just saw, as their joints bent beyond what is medically advisable."

"I see," Weiss said.

"Anyway, did you want something?" Penny asked and said, "My facial recognition parameters imply you are waiting for an opportunity to bring up a topic you are invested in."

"I do, actually," Weiss answered, "I'd like to fuse with you." Hearing that, Penny gasped and jumped up.

"Really?" Penny asked excitedly and said, "Let's go."

"You sure are excited," Weiss said.

"Of course," Penny said, "Seeing the world through human eyes, even by memory, is so fascinating. I wouldn't want to do it full time, but it is a nice change of pace."

"I see," Weiss said, "Alright then, let's go." They hugged and Weiss used her magic to initiate the fusion. The resulting fusion showed a lot of skin, only wearing a black metal bikini to ensure the most basic amount of decency. Her bikini top pushed up her chest a little and was attached to a choker as well as a backpack, while her lower legs were completely covered in heavy black metal boots with three thrusters each. She wore black metal gauntlets. The backpack held four segmented legs made from black metal, with light green connections between them. Green lines ran along her various pieces of armor, and ran around near the rim of her boots and gauntlets.

"Who are we?" Penny asked mentally.

"Not sure, but I'd rather not be seen," Weiss answered, "You go pick a name."

"Firewall sounds nice," Firewall said, with Penny's voice being more prominent.

"Alright, Firewall it is," Firewall said, with Weiss' voice being more prominent. She looked around and saw visions of all kinds of worlds, and decided to focus on alternate versions of Remnant for the time being. She lost track of how long she spent in the multiverse, when Harriet tapped her shoulder.

"Hey there," Harriet said and asked, "Who… who are you?"

"Me? I am… I'm Firewall," the fusion answered, "I'm a fusion of Weiss and Penny."

"Firewall?" Harriet asked and looked the fusion up and down, "You sure you're not cold?"

"I am, yes," Firewall answered, "I can simply turn on my internal heating systems if my core temperature decreases too much."

"I see," Harriet said and asked, "So, want to see how strong you are?"

"That would be interesting, yes," Firewall answered, "Let's go, then."

"Sure," Harriet said, "I'll wait for you in training room eight." She rushed off and Firewall followed her. Weiss internally cursed herself for revealing her involvement in this fusion, leaving Penny somewhat confused as to why Weiss seemed to take so much issue with their combined form, as it met all criteria to not be guilty of indecent exposure.

~o~

Taiyang threw a left hook, and Ruby blocked the blow. They were sparring some distance away from the house, with Zwei watching and keeping all senses on Grimm, to avoid them being caught off-guard. Before Ruby could recover from the blow, she took an uppercut to the chin and a punch to the chest, staggering backwards a little.

"You need a break?" Taiyang asked.

"Nope," Ruby answered, dusted off her clothes and got in position again, "Let's go."

"Sorry, but you definitely need a break," Taiyang said, "You've been sleeping for months, and haven't been awake for too long. You need to recover first before you can get back into training."

"Come on, I feel fine," Ruby said.

"But you don't look fine," Taiyang said, "Let's get back home."

"Fine," Ruby said with a groan. They grabbed their things, wiped the sweat off their foreheads, and returned to the house. Along the way, Ruby explained some more things to her father, and answered some questions, to get him up to speed on most things.

~o~

Firewall stood in the training room, with Harriet zipping around at insane speeds and shooting disks in all directions. The fusion looked around, analyzing the trajectory of every projectile. She unfolded the spider-like legs on her back and grabbed the end of the first segment on one of the upper legs. The segment popped off and extended a lime green energy blade, which Firewall used to block Harriet's punch.

"Impressive," Harriet said.

"Thanks," Firewall said, "But that is not all." The remaining segments popped off and floated around, except for the last ones, which shot lime green energy webs to pull the fusion away from Harriet as the other segments began shooting energy blasts at Harriet, who tried to dodge.

"Got you," Harriet said and kicked one of the disks. It ricocheted off of her leg and collided with another disk, setting off a chain reaction that made all the disks fly towards Firewall. The fusion grabbed another segment as a sword and tried deflecting all the disks, but her calculations hadn't considered Harriet changing the trajectory, so she was on her own. The additional segments shot energy blasts at the disks to disrupt them, making it a lot easier, but Harriet kept introducing new variables to the situation, keeping the fusion on her toes regardless.

"I'm getting the hang of this," Firewall said to herself, swatting away disk after disk and causing them to hit other disks. She jumped away from the disks again and fired an energy net at Harriet, trapping her and keeping her from running around.

"That's interesting," Harriet said, "But I've got one last ace up my sleeve." She activated her semblance again, but simply vibrated rapidly until her aura ran out.

"What was that?" Firewall asked and retracted the webbing.

"Vibrating through dimensions," Harriet answered, "I've seen it in some of the comics Yang gave me. It looked pretty cool." She seemed a bit disappointed that it didn't work, but also somewhat embarrassed.

"Those are comic rules of nature," Firewall said, "In comics, things work differently. Sometimes things work just because they're cool, even though they shouldn't work. But in our world, things don't work just because they look cool." She offered Harriet her right hand and helped her back up.

"But… you guys do cool things all the time," Harriet said.

"Because they work," Firewall said, "If we tried to do something to look cool, and it broke the rules of our reality, it wouldn't work, and we would look silly. Now excuse me, there are other timelines bothering me." She sat down and her eyes dilated as she used her Technopathy semblance to control devices across the multiverse to try and help people as best as possible.

~o~

Following her father back home, Ruby felt that her aura was running thin protecting her body from harm. She felt weak all of a sudden and her legs gave away. Her aura broke, but was replaced with a blue one as Sapphire took over. She dropped to her knees, drawing Taiyang's attention. He stopped, turned around and knelt down in front of her.

"Ruby, are you alright?" Taiyang asked, worry on his face.

"Don't," Sapphire answered, getting panicked.

"Wh- what do you mean?" Taiyang asked and moved back in confusion.

"Just, just leave me alone," Sapphire said, got up and hurried into the forest.

"Ruby, wait!" Taiyang called and followed her, not knowing it wasn't his daughter. He followed Sapphire as she stumbled through the woods, not knowing where she was going.

"Wait," Zwei called out, chasing after Sapphire. He could tell it wasn't Ruby in charge, but he didn't bother telling Taiyang.

"Please, just leave me alone," Sapphire called as she pushed through shrubs, breathing heavily.

"Wait, if she keeps running that way…," Taiyang thought, "Damn." He threw a ball of green energy behind himself to launch himself forward, just as Sapphire ran over a cliff. He followed her down into the forest, and just as he tried to grab her, her hands were coated in a blue glow. A chain of butterflies made from blue energy shot out of the orb around her left hand and wrapped around the branch of a large tree, clinking like glass as they moved. She swung around the massive tree and landed safely, and Taiyang augmented his semblance with air-dust, forming a small tornado around either of his feet and allowing him to stand on the air.

"I get help," Zwei called down, then headed to the nearest town. Taiyang landed softly and went over to Sapphire, who was sitting behind the big tree.

"Hey, everything alright?" Taiyang asked and sat down next to Sapphire.

"No," Sapphire answered, "I'm not- I don't know. I was there, and now I'm here, and I'm confused."

"Want to go back home?" Taiyang asked.

"No," Sapphire answered and looked at him.

"Wait, blue eyes?" Taiyang asked, "What is going on? Where is Ruby?"

"She… is tired," Sapphire answered, "I am Sapphire. I help her. She saved me from a dark place, so now I help her."

"Help her?" Taiyang asked, "With what?"

"Her aura is thin," Sapphire answered, "Her soul was straining to keep this body intact. She ate too much too soon. I came to help her, give her some time to rest."

"I… had no idea," Taiyang said and asked, "So, you're Sapphire? Where do you come from?"

"The silver eyes shine like the afterlife," Sapphire answered, "It is a calming and warm shine, and I held on to it when I was freed from my prison."

"What kind of prison?" Taiyang asked, "What… happened to you?"

"I would rather not talk about it," Sapphire answered, "Ruby knows already. That is enough."

"Well, alright," Taiyang said and asked, "So, want to come back home?"

"No," Sapphire answered, "The prison I escaped was one of tricks and deception. I can't follow anyone anywhere. It doesn't feel safe."

"Are you really alright?" Taiyang asked and said, "You might draw in Grimm."

"Yes," Sapphire answered, "I will simply remain here, and wait for Ruby's soul to recover and continue protecting this body. I had to learn to fight early in life, I will be fine." They heard something in the bushes, and Sapphire stood up, her hands glowing blue again. A pack of Ursai broke out of the undergrowth.

"I've got this," Taiyang said and charged at the Grimm, his fists coated in yellow energy. He uppercut one of the Grimm, then kicked it in the stomach, coating his foot in energy, and the yellow energy exploded out of the Grimm's back. A Creep popped out of the ground behind him and jumped at him. Sapphire grabbed the Grimm with one of her chains and swung it into another Ursa.

"Take this!" Sapphire called out and brought both of her chains behind her. She swung them forward and had them completely cover the Grimm. She pulled them together and crushed the Grimm.

"Impressive," Taiyang said. A black King Taijitu head came out of the ground and lunged at him. Sapphire grabbed it with her chains and swung it around, throwing it against the white head just as it came to attack her. Taiyang shot the Grimm with energy projectiles until they died, and after the fight was over, Zwei came out of the undergrowth.

~o~

Zwei ran through the city, heading towards Signal. He had to go and get help. He didn't know what was happening with Ruby, but someone else was in her body, and she was scared and confused. He needed to get help as soon as possible.

"Hey Mint, look," a woman said and asked, "Isn't that the Xiao Long's dog?"

"Sure is," Mint answered and picked Zwei up as he passed, "I wonder what he's doing here."

"Mint, Aela, help," Zwei said, startling the two women.

"He can talk?!" Mint asked, almost dropping Zwei in surprise. She wore dark green leather shoes and black short skirt, a black leotard and a short dark green shrug with frilly shoulders, completed with black, elbow-long gloves. Her short, dark green hair looked rough and unkempt, but was actually styled to look that way.

"Interesting," Aela said. She wore blue shoes, a white mini dress with blue trims, dark blue shorts, and white elbow gloves with blue accents. Her long blue hair was styled upwards a bit, held in place by a blue butterfly pin, then fell back.

"My semblance lets me speak," Zwei said, "Ruby fell asleep, and someone else woke up. She is scared and confused, and Taiyang is keeping her safe, but she is attracting Grimm. Hurry."

"Got it," Mint said, "Let's go." She let Zwei down again and he headed back to the forest, the two huntresses following him. On the way, Mint created five baseball-sized, transparent orbs of moss green energy, with a beige spark in the center. Aela formed a bow out of light blue energy in her right hand, ready to take aim.

~o~

When Aela and Mint arrived at the clearing surrounding the big tree, they looked around and made sure there were no Grimm nearby, then relaxed. Taiyang immediately recognized the two women and breathed a sigh of relief, and Zwei walked over to him for his well-deserved belly rubs.

"Aela, Mint, it is so good to see you," Taiyang said.

"Aela? Mint?" Sapphire asked and looked at the huntresses, "You." She shot two chains at the two women, restraining one with each, and crossing the chains, so that Mint was held by the chain in Sapphire's right hand, and Aela with the left.

"Sapphire? What are you doing?" Taiyang asked. Sapphire jumped up and behind him, crossing her chains again behind him and keeping him between herself and the huntresses.

"You don't understand," Sapphire said, shaking, "They're with him."

"Wait, Sapphire?" Aela asked.

"You know her?" Taiyang asked and said, "It's weird, but her soul is in my daughter's body. Ruby is still there, but I think she's asleep or something."

"Who are you talking about?" Mint asked.

"Don't play dumb!" Sapphire shouted, sending an energy wave through her chain to hurt Mint, "I know, I saw you, back there. My whole crew, I- I lost everyone that day. And the worst part is what happened to me afterwards. He- he just took me with him, into the darkness. It was hell. I went through hell because you helped that monster! And now you'll pay!" Suddenly, the chains dissolved and Sapphire stumbled backwards, holding her head and crunching up a little. When she looked up again, her eyes were red.

"Hello, I'm Emerald," Emerald said, "This… may be a bit confusing, but Ruby is very tired. But since her body is still in danger, we have to take turns keeping it safe while she recovers. Sapphire did something Ruby didn't like, so she called her back and sent me instead."

"Wait, Emerald?" Taiyang asked, "From the festival?"

"That's me," Emerald answered, "But, to be honest, we used the festival to attack Vale. Sorry."

"Wait, that was all a setup?" Mint asked.

"Yeah, but now I'm trying to fix it," Emerald answered, "Ruby taught me a lot since I died, and I'm trying to repay her kindness."

"Grimm," Zwei said and looked into the forest. Mint created five energy orbs, and Aela summoned her bow again. Emerald drew her weapons, and Taiyang coated his fists in yellow energy. As soon as the Beowolves broke out of the undergrowth, Aela took them out with arrows made from energy, with tips that looked like blue crystals. An Alpha Beowolf followed, and Emerald made it see its allies as people, causing it to attack the other Grimm and allowing her to kill it.

"How'd you do that?" Aela asked.

"My semblance, Hallucination," Emerald answered, "I can mess with people's senses."

"That's impressive," Aela said, and Emerald struggled to process the compliment. A couple Ursai showed up, and Taiyang dealt with them, then a Deathstalker attacked. Mint sent her orbs to attack, piercing its bone plate armor and body before returning to her.

"Incredible," Emerald said under her breath.

"Thanks," Mint said, "My semblance works better against enemies with strong defense, so I focus on those, while Aela takes out the smaller threats."

"I see," Emerald said, "You know, I'm kind of used to things being much harder than this, so we should probably be ready for something really bad to show up any minute now." The group waited for close to an hour, but nothing worse than an Ursa showed up, so they decided to call it a day and head back to their respective homes.

~o~

Ruby's Group and the Ace-Operatives were scouring Mantle, looking for the source of the Grimm alarms going off all over town. Sophie's swarm had already locked down the outskirts of town and was looking through the sewers. In Atlas Academy, Stefanie Santiago, General Ironwood's secretary, looked up at Salem, who wore a dark gray hooded cloak that concealed her identity.

"I came to speak with General Ironwood," Salem said, and Stefanie swallowed nervously.

"Well, I believe I can squeeze you in," Stefanie said, "We're having a bit of a situation, so he is currently on alert and can't take visitors." Salem sighed and took a deep breath, and the alarms stopped.

"How about now?" Salem asked.

"H- how did- what are you?" Stefanie asked.

"I am the person who will meet with the General now," Salem answered, "So you would be wise to tell him I am here." Stefanie swallowed nervously again, trying to calm down.

"There, just head up the elevator, he'll be waiting in his office," Stefanie said and changed the General's schedule for the day with shaky hands. Salem entered the elevator and when the doors closed, she used her magic to make it go to the General's office.

Author's note: Harriet and Winter are bored. Yay.

Firewall's story, as in the reason how she came to be, is a funny one. Some time while writing this, I found an anime called Hina Logi: From Luck & Logic. Turns out it's the sequel, kind of, to Luck & Logic. Both are great, but you can watch Hina Logi on its own just fine. Very different tone, and the original's main cast only has cameo roles.

Anyway, the basic premise is that people, called Logicalists, are born with special powers, which allow them to Trance with beings from another world, which are called Foreigners. There are also evil Foreigners, which want to take over the world, so there is a school to train people whose powers awaken, and then send them to fight.

I eventually got the idea for a crossover fanfiction, where it would be revealed that Penny was actually just a Foreigner from the world Tritomi, who arrived in Remnant and trance-jacked (basically a forced merging that leaves the victim as the Foreigner's puppet, and allows the Foreigner to take their normal form) an Atlesian Knight 130. And for some reason I imagined her to be spider-like. But because she picked a robot, she took a human form. However, in the story I had imagined, she would've jacked Pyrrha after the Knight was destroyed, taking on her original, gigantic, cyber spider form and wreaking havoc until Ruby can talk her down.

And because I liked the idea, I added Firewall. Her design is mostly inspired by Mahiro Kyobashi, one of the main characters in Hina Logi, though I added the spider legs because they look cool.

Sapphire's Prism Chain semblance is based on the finisher of the same name, utilized by Cure Lemonade in Yes! Precure 5 GoGo.

Mint was originally supposed to be based on Cure Mint, one of the other girls from that generation of Pretty Cure, but I remembered her dark clone, Dark Mint, and decided to go with her instead. And yes, her semblance deals more damage the higher the target's defense is, making her deal more damage against heavily armored targets.

Aela is based on Cure Aqua, and her semblance is based on Cure Aqua's solo finisher in Yes! Precure 5 GoGo. It lets her summon a bow and basically infinite arrows, as long as her aura can keep up.

Both Mint and Aela are around Tai's age, and while he didn't go on missions after settling down, those two never settled down, and kept getting better at kicking ass.

Finally, yes, Salem shows up personally. I don't know which side this paints as more badass: Ruby's Group because they forced Salem out of hiding, or Salem, because she just bypassed a whole city's worth of scanners specifically looking for her, and then made herself invisible to them.