Disclaimer: I do not own any of the material appearing in this story. The OC's belong to their respective owners.

Tuesday - May 4th - 6:30 PM

"Welcome one and all to an exciting race about to take place here in Toad Town!" A Koopa announcer declared. "Here, we have two racers about to start their race! They will start at the princess's castle, and the finish line will be at Mario Stadium. Items are allowed in this race to keep things interesting! Our first racer is… Ruby Rose! And our second racer is… Sonic the Hedgehog!"

Ruby, decked out in a white tank top with red sleeves, red shorts and regular tennis shoes, stretched her arms while Sonic stretched his legs.

"Racers on your mark!" Hapi said, raising her arm up high.

Both of them got into position.

"See you at the finish line, Rubes." Sonic said.

Ruby smirked. "This time, for once, I'll make you eat my dust."

Sonic chuckled. "Looking forward to it."

Hapi smiled, throwing her arm down. "GO!"

BGM: Escape From The City (Sonic Adventure 2)

Both of them took off running, Ruby immediately activating her semblance to keep up with Sonic as they both tore through the hill as they started to hit the town. Ruby immediately seeing an Item Box with Sonic Shoes on the screen as she jumped over and hit it, immediately gaining more speed as she tore through Toad Town.

Sonic, meanwhile, snagged an item box of his own as a Red Shell appeared in his hand. He casually threw it as it targeted Ruby, immediately striking her heel.

"Ack!" She yelped, nearly tripping over and losing momentum the moment she caught herself. "You little…!" She growled as she quickly used her semblance to catch up, and then saw another Item Box as she quickly grabbed it, where a Fire Shield wrapped around her.

Huh…? Wait! Didn't Tails tell me I can use this to burst? She thought as she smirked, immediately using her semblance as she turned into a fire twister and took off.

Sonic, meanwhile, casually stopped at a chili dog stand and ate a chili dog while drinking some soda. Ruby blazed past him as Sonic swallowed the rest of his chili dog. "Took ya long enough!" He teased, throwing his soda away as he ran after her, then he ran through an item box as a Blue Shell appeared in his hand. With a casual chuckle, he threw the Blue Shell at her, which promptly blew up and getting rid of the Fire Shield.

"Waaaaah!" She yelped, falling on the ground as Sonic ran past her. "Rrrgh…!" She growled as she got up and started to pick up the pace again. She immediately pulled out her scroll and pressed a button as her Cyan Wisp came flying over.

"Alright Bolt, let's pick up the pace!" She said as Bolt nodded, quickly jumping inside of her as Ruby took notice of a Warp Pipe as she jumped in.

"LASER!"

Ruby shot through the Warp Pipe, appearing near Coconut Mall as Sonic ran nearby. Ruby used her momentum to run into Coconut Mall first, proceeding to grab an Item box as she expected to have a banana peel at the ready… only for a coin to appear in her hand.

"Oh come ON!" She complained, tossing the coin behind her as it landed right in the fountain as she quickly flew up the escalator while Sonic Triangle Jumped up the second floor as they ran side by side.

"Expecting a Banana Peel, were ya?"

"Unfortunately!"

"Better luck next time!" Sonic picked up the speed.

"Hey!" Ruby picked up the pace as well as Sonic charged up a spin dash and launched himself out of Coconut Mall in a Light Speed Dash. Ruby hit an item box as a Bullet Bill appeared in her hand as she clenched her fist and proceeded to turn into a Bullet Bill, launching away before turning back to normal as she caught up to Sonic, both of them side by side as they made their way to Mario Stadium, seeing the ribbon in front of them.

"Sorry Sonic, this time I'm winning!" She said as she used her semblance for a boost of speed as Sonic decided to follow suit, both of them neck and neck until they tore through the ribbon at the same time.

End BGM

"It's a photo finish!" The announcer declared as Ruby fell on her hands and knees, panting. She smiled and looked at Sonic who was looking smug at her.

"Good race." He chuckled.

"Hahaha… I totally beat ya! For once, I got ya!"

"You have been getting faster all right… but did you actually beat me?"

"What do you-"

"Hold the phone, folks. Let's take a closer look at the replay in slow motion!"

They turned to the jumbotron, where in slow motion, they saw Sonic running in, jumping over the finish line and quickly made his way to the camera with a sign that read "Sorry, Ruby!" with his trademark smirk before disappearing, then they watched as Ruby and Sonic crossed the finish line.

"HUUUUUUUUH?!" Ruby yelled, completely shocked.

"We have a winner, folks! Sonic the Hedgehog wins!"

Sonic chuckled, patting a distraught Ruby on the back. "Maybe next time, bud."

In the audience, an annoyed Yang handed some Lien over to Blake. "Thank you~!" She smiled.

Meanwhile, up in Atlas…

6:35 PM

One of Eggman's airships flew high above Atlas, completely invisible. Eggman made his way down and landed on the ground with Orbot and Cubot, all of them invisible as they made their way into Atlas Academy.

BGM: Three Days to Live (Team Fortress 2)

None of them said a word as they walked inside. A few officers walked by, as Eggman brushed up against a soldier. "Mmph!"

"What?" The second soldier wondered.

"I dunno, I thought I felt something hit me… eh, must be my imagination."

Eggman smirked as he held a card key in his hand that he pickpocketed. He put the key card inside of a slot next to an elevator, opening the door.

"Huh?" A female soldier looked up from her desk, noticing the elevator had opened on its own. She tilted her head in confusion as she went around the desk and watched as the elevator doors closed and went down a few floors.

She scratched her head in confusion with a weirded out expression. She then brought out a walkie talkie. "Hey, can one of the engineers come investigate this elevator? It's acting a bit weird…"

A few floors down, the elevator opened up as Eggman and the two robots followed until they found what they were looking for. A door that led right into Fria's room. Eggman used the card key.

"Access denied."

"Denied?" Orbot wondered.

"Ah, probably needs someone with more access." Eggman mused as they turned their heads to see Esdeath walk by while looking through some papers.

"Esdeath! What should we do?" Cubot whispered.

"Luckily, I came prepared." Eggman smirked.

Esdeath kept walking until she heard some noise behind her. "Hmm?" She turned her head and noticed a Ring spinning on the ground before falling to the ground. She tilted her head and picked it up. "A ring?" She wondered.

Suddenly, Eggman grabbed her from behind, putting a cloth filled with chloroform up her nose. "Mmmph! Mmmph!" Esdeath tried to activate her semblance in self defense but she quickly passed out as soon as she activated it.

"What the…?" A passing soldier looked on in surprise as he went to investigate, only to get smacked in the head as he was thrown into a closet as was Esdeath.

Eggman walked out, wearing Esdeath's outfit while Orbot and Cubot were stacked on top of one another as they hobbled over to the door as Eggman used Esdeath's card key, opening the door as they walked in.

End BGM

"Hmm…?" Fria looked to Eggman. "Who are you?"

"Oh, that name isn't important, my dear."

"My, EsBed, you look rather handsome all of a sudden."

Eggman chuckled, gently taking Fria's hand and patted her on the wrist. "There there, we're going to take you on a little field trip."

"Oh?" She wondered.

"Yes." Eggman nodded before noticing a picture of Futaba. "Oh, you have a picture of Futaba, do you?"

"Yes… Fuchsia is a kind soul…"

Eggman smiled, remembering fondly of how he and Futaba worked together on cracking Remnant's network.

"Indeed, she is." He said with a genuine smile. "I actually grew fond of working with her."

"You worked with Fuchsia?"

Eggman chuckled. "Yes, Fuchsia and I worked together on an important project. Perhaps someday, I'll let you in on it."

Fria smiled. "That would be wonderful."

Eggman pulled the bed from the wall while Fria took Futaba's picture and Eggman casually pushed the cart out with the robots behind him. "Is it me or are the soldiers getting shorter?"

"They've always been short. You just haven't noticed until now."

"Oh… forgive me, my memory isn't the best."

"Not to worry, your memory isn't important." Eggman said as they found the elevator to the vault and went down, proceeding to head straight to the vault.

Once the elevator stopped, they slowly walked to the door in question and stopped. Fria looked directly at the door as she instinctively put her hand on the vault door, opening it up and seeing the Staff in front of them.

Eggman smirked as he walked toward the staff while the robots followed, leaving Fria by herself as she looked on in wonder before returning to admiring Futaba's picture.

"Spring flowers and fields in an arctic area?" Orbot wondered.

"I guess you can say it's time to… spring forward." Eggman chuckled as he took the staff, and then time around them stopped as blue smoke emerged from the staff until a figure came out of said staff.

BGM: End of the World (Kingdom Hearts 1.5 HD ReMix)

"Good grief, he's naked! Where are his pants?!" Cubot asked.

"That's what you're concerned about?" Orbot wondered.

"Mmmmm! Aaaaaah, it feels good to be out of that…" The figure said. "Sup, name's Ambrosius. I can make anything you wish come true." He said as he took a closer look at them. "Hmm, nice mustache. And you two are robots?"

"Yes!" The robots said in unison.

Eggman smiled. "I am Doctor Ivo Robotnik, but you can call me Eggman."

"Eh, I like Robotnik better."

Eggman chuckled. "Robotnik it is."

"So, what can I make for ya? Please, make it something flashy. The last time I made something, it was completely mundane…"

"What mundane thing was it?"

"A floating island. Ugh, it's totally below me. There's no pizazz."

Eggman smiled. "Well, before I came in here, I actually did some research about you. You can make anything you want, but you require details. Not only that, but you can make only one thing at a time. Once you make something, the other disappears."

"Correct! Honestly, they could've made the floating island rise up with more pizazz. Rocket ships, thrusters, an iceberg! …Nope. It's just some boring gravity dust. Ugh, the nerve of it all…"

"Well…" Eggman pulled out the Chaos Emerald that Dimentio had given him. "How would this Chaos Emerald affect a Relic like you?"

"What are you-"

The Chaos Emerald glowed, its energy causing the staff to glow. "Gragh!" Ambrosius yelped, clutching his head. "Nnngh! I don't know… what you just did…" He grunted. "But I feel like I can make more than just one at a time! I feel… powered up!"

Eggman smirked maliciously. "How intriguing. The Chaos Emerald affected the relic with relative ease."

"So!" Ambrosius flexed his muscles after rubbing his head. "What can I make for you?"

End BGM

Later…

6:55 PM

Ironwood looked out the window of his office. "...Strange, why do I feel dread breathing down my neck?"

"You're probably just tired." Ryu said as Chun-Li read a book while Guile was doing an arm wrestling competition with Marrow.

"Maybe… but not only that, I haven't heard from Esdeath in a while. Either she's taking a nap or somethi-"

Suddenly, the whole area rumbled as Ironwood stumbled a bit, as the resulting shake was enough to make Marrow lose the arm wrestling. "Ack!" He yelped.

"I win."

"I knew you'd lose." Harriet teased.

"What was that just now…?" Ironwood wondered, when suddenly the door opened.

"Feel the fear, Eggman is here!"

Ironwood turned around. "You! How did you get past security?"

Eggman smirked. "I pretended to be a bar of soap."

"So that's why I smelled eggs…" Marrow mumbled.

"You should really up the security in this place, my dear General Ironwood." He casually pulled out a laser gun, aimed behind him and a guard without even looking.

Ironwood growled. "What do you want?"

"Me? I should definitely warn you that Atlas's days are numbered."

"What do you-" Ironwood immediately took notice of the staff behind Eggman's back. "That staff… how did you get that?!"

"You don't get it? Fria and I go way back!" Eggman chuckled. "As a matter of fact, she's still down there. Rest assured, I made sure to destroy the elevator."

"You left her down there?!"

"Oh, don't worry. You'll be joining her very shortly." He said as there was another Atlasquake, which in turn, caused an alarm to sound.

"General!" A soldier ran in. "Atlas is starting to fall!"

"WHAT?!"

Eggman smirked. "Now if you'll excuse me, I've a broadcast to make."

"You're not going anywhere!" Ironwood declared as they all aimed their weapons at him while Ryu, Chun-Li and Guile got in their stances.

Eggman turned his head slightly. "If I were you, I'd be more concerned about your daughter." he smirked.

"My… daughter…? What did you do to Esdeath?!"

"What did I do to her indeed… hmhmhmhm." Eggman walked off with the robots, all three turning invisible.

Meanwhile, around the same time as Eggman showed up at Ironwood's office…

"Listen up, my army!" A Master Commander declared. "Fellow loyal minions of the Dark One!"

Grumpy Grublins, Calasmonauts, Horknight Watchmen, Bilhaws, Uberkilling Machines, Franticores, Labradrakes and One-Man Armies started cheering.

"Malicious State Monsters of Erdrea!" Various malicious Erdrean monsters cheered as well.

"And the malicious state monsters from other worlds!" The various malicious state creatures from other worlds cheered as well.

"Now tell me why you are here?"

"To serve the Dark One!" A Malicious Paragoomba exclaimed.

"Mhm. Good."

"To annihilate the citizens of Atlas!" A Bilhaw declared.

"Now, men. While we don't have the full force of our army to take over Remnant as of now, we have enough troops for an invasion on one important location on Remnant, Atlas! Now, as you may know, our number one enemy is Salem-"

The crowd booed.

"Okay, settle down! There will be time for boos later. But she remains a threat and with what Eggman said was true… is that she's gathering the relics to end her life by taking everyone with her, including us. So we must gather the relics ourselves before she or any of her cronies get it. A complete take over of Atlas would provide the data we need to find the relics and to keep them away from Salem at all cost, but more importantly… we shall show her that our master, the Dark One, means business and will not tolerate her actions!"

Everyone cheered.

"First battalion, your mission is the shield generator. And I want you-" He pointed toward the Malicious Ruler of the Sky and Malicious Parabones. "I want you to lead to the front lines for distracting enemy fire while our demolition forces-"

He saw one of the Boreal Serpents carrying a malicious Bill Blaster. "-Focus their attention on the generator. Second battalion will focus on Atlas. Third will focus on Mantle, while the fourth and fifth will remain on standby."

He pointed toward Atlas. "Now… CHAR-"

He immediately saw the shields flickering as they noticed Atlas started to move slightly. He blinked.

"Anything okay, sir?"

"Yeah, I'm more than likely seeing things. CHAAAARGE!"

The forces let out war cries as they charged directly toward Atlas and Mantle.

"I swore I saw-... never mind." He mumbled.

Meanwhile…

7:00 PM

Weiss found herself face to face with Dark Weiss at Mushroom Hills. "You ready?" Dark Weiss asked.

"Ready as I'll ever be." Weiss said.

Dark Weiss smiled. "Good."

BGM: Blinded by Light (Final Fantasy XIII)

Fire swirled around Dark Weiss as ice wrapped around Weiss, both of them unsheathing their rapiers.

Both of them smirked as they lunged, clashing with their blades as Dark Weiss jumped back, throwing fire at her as Weiss deflected it with her rapier, conjuring up glyphs and threw ice at her.

Dark Weiss melted the ice as Weiss swooped in and stabbed her a few times and knocked Dark Weiss back.

Dark Weiss got back up, noticing Weiss switching weapons to Eiskonigen. With a smirk, Dark Weiss did a "Come at me" gesture as Weiss ran over and slashed her, but Dark Weiss backflipped.

"WEISS!"

*Record scratch*

"Oh come on…" Dark Weiss mumbled as Weiss turned to see Winter approaching.

"Winter, what's up?"

Winter panted. "Check your scroll…"

Weiss immediately pulled out her scroll as Dark Weiss curiously looked over, where she would see Eggman's logo. "Huh?!"

At that moment, Eggman appeared on the screen.

"OHOHOHOHOHO! Good evening, people of Remnant. It's been a while since we've last had a chat, hasn't it?"

"Eggman?!" Weiss exclaimed in surprise.

"In case if you have forgotten, I am Dr. Eggman… and I've come to make an announcement."

Eggman made sure that Orbot and Cubot didn't have a radio this time. With a nod, he continued.

"Look up in the sky."

Weiss looked up in the sky, and gasped. "What…?"

What she saw… was the Death Egg.

BGM: Death Egg Robot (Sonic Generations)

"If you are seeing an unknown object in the sky. Congratulations! You are witnessing the moments where I begin my conquest to invade Remnant!"

At Sojiro's…

"The Death Egg?!" Futaba said in surprise as they watched on TV with Jade and Chiaki also looking on with concern on their faces.

Third time's the charm? Chiaki wondered, while Silver, also in Sojiro's, looked on with his fists clenching.

"Last time, I outed Cinder, but this time things are a bit different! Take a precious look at your Atlas!" He said as another camera, held by a Buzz Bomber, showed the world that Atlas was starting to fall.

Weiss…

"WHAT?!" Weiss yelled with horror while Winter had her hand over her mouth in horror. Dark Weiss couldn't believe her eyes.

At the Schnee Residence…

Kirumi dropped a tray full of tea, her hand over her mouth in horror while everyone else was preoccupied by what they were seeing.

Cinder…

"What have you done…" Cinder whispered with narrowed eyes, while nearby, Rhodes had his arms folded and his grip tightened on his elbows.

"Yes, you are witnessing Atlas falling to its doom. Mantle will be crushed underneath Atlas as it falls! Ohohohoho! And once Atlas falls, all of Remnant will be next! However, I'm feeling rather generous. If you can find all seven Chaos Emeralds and bring them to me within the next twelve hours, Remnant will be spared. However, if you haven't found them within the twelve hours, all of Remnant will be destroyed… and if you think I'm bluffing… look up in the sky."

They would see the Death Egg turn toward the moon, opening up to fire a laser and fired at the moon, destroying another portion of it as everyone at Sojiro's could hear everyone screaming in terror outside.

"OHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHO!" Eggman cackled. "You have twelve hours or I will do to Remnant over what I did to your moon, only worse! Oh, and before I forget, I have a little nemesis that goes by Sonic the Hedgehog."

He showed a picture of Sonic on the screen.

"If any of you could be helpful and arrest Sonic the Hedgehog, that will be swell. He'll more than likely stop you from getting the Chaos Emeralds and prevent Remnant from being spared. That's right, Sonic the Hedgehog will be stopping you from preventing the loss of Remnant! He'll watch Remnant be destroyed! Once you have him, one of my robots will inform me and I will come to collect him. Tick tock, Remnant. The fate of the world rests on your shoulders! OHOHOHOHOHOHOHO!"

The screen turned to static before it switched back to Lisa Lavender, who looked absolutely terrified.

Weiss snarled, immediately texting her group. "WARCY, we're heading to Atlas!"

Blake received a text from Samus. "Ready to go save Atlas?"

"I'll be on my porch."

Back at Atlas…

Eggman chuckled, watching Mantle getting ever so closer to them.

"EGGMAN!"

Eggman casually turned to see Ironwood approach him. "Ah, Ironwood, my boy. How are you holding up?"

"I'm not going to let you get away with this!"

Eggman smirked. "Well, I'm wide open. Give me your best shot!"

Shit Just Got Real! - Dr. Eggman

Ironwood growled as he lunged, throwing a punch as Eggman weaved his head and delivered a strong punch to his gut. "Nnngh!" Ironwood grunted as Eggman delivered an uppercut right after.

"You really thought I wouldn't get past your iron defenses? I upgraded my gloves to where it ignores your cybernetics! I've also taken some sparring lessons."

Ironwood growled, pulling out his gun and fired at Eggman, but he pulled up a light shield from his wrist to block the bullets as he then pulled out his laser gun and fired at Ironwood, evaporating his gun.

Ironwood lunged, proceeding to punch Eggman in the face, only for Eggman to get out of the way and tripped Ironwood up. "You are so predictable, my dear general! You think I didn't study your fight patterns?"

Ironwood got up as the ground shook violently. The shields disappeared shortly after as they saw the Malicious enemies jumping over the cliff edges. "Malicious troops?!"

"Ah, they arrived precisely on schedule. Now that everyone's here…" He pressed a button as the Egg Fleet removed their cloaking devices as Ironwood looked on in horror. "Rain fire!" He ordered as the Egg Fleet proceeded to rain lasers and cannon fire, hitting all of Atlas as not only did civilians get killed, but Calasmos's Atlas forces as well, as not even the Malicious Ruler of the Sky and Parabones stood a chance.

Ironwood growled as Eggman cackled maniacally. "You lose, my dear General."

Down below, SPBRR and WARCY made their way to Atlas. "Alright, here we go! Full throttle!" Samus said as they flew ahead until they slowed down, barely touching the rock wall of Atlas as they proceeded to use all thrusters to try and push Atlas back. In fact, Rosalina called in her Lumas to try and push.

Rosalina teleported out as she used her power to stop Atlas from falling. However, Metal Sonic came flying toward her. She shifted her eyes as she quickly used one arm to stop Metal from advancing. However, several Flybots quickly flew over and slammed into her from behind. "Nnngh!" She grunted, lowering her concentration as Metal powered through and swiftly kicked Rosalina in the face before spin dashing into her, sending her crashing toward the ground.

"Mom!" Ruby exclaimed, quickly getting out of Aqua's ship as she used her semblance to go after Rosalina. Yang dove after them, activating her Shin form and flew down, grabbing a hold of Ruby and then Rosalina right after.

"Got ya!" Yang said as they crashed into the ground as the Lumas quickly flew over to check to see if she was okay.

"Nnnngh…!" Aqua grunted. "Come on…!"

"We have to save Atlas… we have to!" Weiss exclaimed.

"I thought you didn't care about Atlas as soon as you and your family left." Blake said.

"I'm not going to allow innocents to die! Mantle and Atlas don't deserve this!" She exclaimed as they added more power… but unfortunately, Atlas was pushing them to the ground.

"Mmmph! Samus, I think the writing's on the wall here…"

"Unfortunately. I'm sorry, Weiss… but I don't think we're going to save Atlas." Samus said sadly as they pulled away.

"No… NO!" Weiss yelled as Ruby and Yang watched on while Rosalina slowly groaned.

Back on Atlas, Eggman chuckled. "Until we meet again, Ironwood. Might as well look for your daughter whole you can!" He took a step back and fell, only to be caught by his Egg Wyvern, then he flew off as Ironwood watched on, anger burning inside of him.

End BGM

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAH!" Ironwood yelled, punching the ground in frustration.

BGM: The Final Word Part II (RWBY) (Start at 6:57)

"General!" Harriet came running over. "We've evacuated most that we can. As far as I know, the people in Mantle are currently evacuating."

"What about Esdeath and Fria?"

"We can't locate Esdeath… and for Fria… the elevator's toast. We can't safely evacuate her from the vault."

Harriet put a hand on his shoulder. "The Ace Ops and Winter Ops have been evacuated. We need to go. Now."

Ironwood sighed in defeat. "I was supposed to be the protector of Atlas…"

"You'll be the avenger of Atlas if we get off of it now. Ryu, Chun-Li and Guile are waiting."

"Take me there." He said in defeat as Harriet took his hand and ran off with her semblance.

Samus and Aqua landed their ships as Weiss immediately came running through. "No… NO!" She yelled as Dark Weiss and Blake quickly tackled her before she could go any further.

"It's too late… it's gone…" Blake said as they could only watch as Atlas slammed into Mantle, destroying everything around it. Weiss could only watch on with tears streaming down her eyes.

"Guys? What's that?" Dark Weiss pointed in the distance as water came rushing through, burying what remained of Atlas and Mantle underwater as everyone, including the entire world, watched on in shock as a Bullhead landed on the snow as Ironwood came out and watched on.

"Robotnik… you will pay…"

"You guys okay?" A voice asked as they saw Robyn and her Happy Huntresses approaching.

"Yeah, a little shaken up, but we're all okay. …Although, are Seryu and Sheele still at the Schnee residence?" Lubbock wondered.

"Yes. I just received a text from the two." Najenda said. "They're on their way."

"Father." A voice said as the Ace and Winter Ops looked to see Esdeath approaching them unharmed.

"Esdeath!" Ironwood exclaimed. "You're alive."

"Yes. I am alive…" She said in a monotone voice. "And I say we go fight Doctor Robotnik."

Nearby, the Master Commander looked at what remained. He couldn't believe it. All of his troops were wiped out just like that.

"...I was a pawn in Eggman's game…" He clenched his fists in anger. "He played us like a fool!"

End BGM

Meanwhile, in a white void…

"Huh?! What?!" Futaba looked around. "Where the heck am I?"

"Futaba…"

Futaba's eyes widened as she turned her head to see Fria approaching her.

"Fria? What are you-"

"In my last moments, I thought of you. That's why we're here."

"Last mome-" Futaba put her hand over her mouth. "Fria… you… you didn't make it out…"

"No. I did not. Even if I could, I wouldn't have had a chance to escape anyway."

"No… I… Esdeath deserves this more than I."

"But did she repair Remnant's network after hacking into it?"

"I…" Futaba looked away. "I guess not…"

Fria gently took her hand. "I know you think someone else deserves it, but I believe in you… how far were you finished?"

"I had just published the network just this morning…"

Fria smiled. "Excellent. Do me a favor, and take this torch I am giving you with your head held high."

Tears swelled in Futaba's eyes. "I-I will…" She said, her voice nearly breaking as Fria held out her hand. Futaba took it as aura was passed on to her.

"I enjoyed our visits, Futaba."

Futaba's lip trembled. "I did too…" She said as they both hugged right after.

"Make me proud…"

"I'll never forget you…" Futaba whispered.

At Sojiro's…

"Oh my gosh…" Chiaki could only say at the aftermath while Jade was comforting Futaba.

"Shit, this turned a one eighty real quick." Sojiro said as Akira and Jataro went around the counter to also comfort Futaba, as Sojiro did the same thing. Chiaki turned around to hug the now raven haired Phantom Thief as well.

Ann quickly walked in with the rest of the Phantom Thieves. "Is she in here?!" She asked with concern, then saw Futaba as the Thieves went over to her.

"It's going to be okay, Futaba… this ain't your fault…" Ryuji said.

"Guys… you… you know how I use hair dye to dye my hair orange…"

"Yeah?" Jade wondered.

"...I'm not going to do that. I'm done running."

Futaba removed the glasses. "But… there's something else that concerns me…"

"And that is?" Ryuji wondered as ice blue aura shot out of the corners of her eyes. "WHOA! WHAT THE EFF?!"

"Fria passed that down to you…" Makoto breathed as everyone else was surprised to say anything.

"What the hell am I supposed to do with this?!" Futaba exclaimed.

7:15 PM

11 Hours and 45 Minutes Remain

Ibuki: Oooooh shiiiiit!

Deadpool: Shit just got real! Shit just hit the fan! RED ALERT!

Yuuuup, Eggman means business! ...Now uh, before anyone gets up in arms over Futaba becoming the Winter Maiden and not Esdeath and start a pointless, yet laughable war, allow me to explain a few things.

One: Esdeath's semblance is already ice. By giving her the Winter Maiden powers, you'll be giving her... more ice. Wooooo! More ice! ...Booooring.

Two: Giving Esdeath the Winter Maiden powers is straight up predictable, and as I said, boring as heck/

Three: Futaba becoming the Winter Maiden? Now that's a wild card and unpredictable! Plus, she doesn't know anything about how to use it, so it's not like she'll be a master at it right away. It won't shatter any tension between her and Eggman. Sheesh...

Anywho! The start of this story two years in the making... let the games begin!