Here's the chapter!

It was almost funny just how much could change in a single instant.

Not a week ago, he had been on top of the world. The Xiong name was probably more recognisable for the average Vale's citizen than the name of the current city's mayor, and there wasn't a single person who dared to attack him.

The life had truly been going great for him.

Now, he was stuck, barely alive, to a cheap bed in some random field hospital. His whole body was in pain, and even the legs, which everyone was telling him he no longer had, couldn't stop hurting him.

The only reason he was alive in the first place was through the sacrifice of most of his men, the people who came to him in search for safety and power.

It took all of his strength to not cry in agony at the memory of all of his subordinates pushing him into the emergency secret tunnel of his bar while being exterminated by whatever the purple flame that did all of that was.

Hopefully, all of them had ended up in a much more stable place than Remnant currently seemed to be.

"W-What can you even offer me?" He finally asked with a rasp tone, to the only person who actually visited him.

There was little faith he had in the deal Roman offered him.

It wasn't to say he didn't trust Roman, at all. They used to have quite a fruitful working partnership a year or two ago, and if nothing about their relationship had ever changed to this day, he would have likely at least made some attempt at listening to his old friend's deal.

Sadly, it wasn't the case anymore.

A year and some months ago, he remembered, Roman simply disappearing from the face of the Remnant with no explanation or prior warning, whatsoever.

At the time, he honestly didn't think too much about it. People, especially thieves and crooks, disappearing from the grid wasn't a rare occurrence, when it came to Vale's underworld. Whether it was because they had to hide from the police or they simply wanted to leave the life of crime behind, countless crooks and gangsters were disappeared from the underworld every year.

Back then, he had honestly thought that Roman Torchwick was just another one of such instances.

What was currently making Roman different from all of those situations, was that he was right now before him and willing to return to the life of crime after more than a year.

Although, considering the state of Vale right now, his friend might have decided to return a little bit too late.

Suddenly, he felt a little push from his side and heard a loud, panicked, scream from his side.

"Hey! Don't just ask me a question and immediately start loosing yourself in your thoughts!" Roman said with a slight grumble. "We still have a deal to go over here, you know?!"

Some of the nurses around them scowled at them for making too much noise, and tried to shush them, but the orange haired thief took it in stride.

"Oh, quit complaining, already!" Roman rolled his eyes theatrically. "Most, if not all, the people in this hospital are in such a bad state that some noise isn't going to change their situation, at all."

Angry grumbles and tired groans echoed around them, but both he and Roman masterfully ignored them to get back to their conversation.

"Okay, now that I have your attention, my friend, I can finally get to telling you what exactly I have to offer for this deal." Roman grinned and leaned closer towards him. "Trust me, I know, you're going to love it."

"A-And-" He had to stop himself from finishing his question because of a painful cough. "And why, pray tell, do you think so?"

Roman's grin widened as the orange haired man quickly spread his arms wide in an arrogant and inviting gesture, before opening his mouth to talk.

"Because, I offer you a chance of revenge."

He looked at the thief with a cold gaze, already he could hear quiet screaming from his side as Miltia was undoubtedly unloading her anger on Roman. If there was anyone remaining in his gang who would certainly want revenge, it would have surely been her, considering that she had to watch her twin sister die during the Great Vale Tragedy.

His thought on taking revenge, weren't quite as clear, however.

For all the satisfaction it would give him, killing the monster that destroyed the majority of the city of Vale would accomplish scarcely little.

It wouldn't rebuild the city, help reconstruct the Vale's underworld, or revive all the dead members of his gang. In worst case scenario, it might even make him, and the small remainders of his gang, a target for wrong types of people in the future.

Besides, there was one more problem with trying to take revenge against such person.

"In case you didn't realise, I'm not in the shape to kill anyone, and even if I was, I doubt my entire gang in its prime would be able to do anything against the monsters who caused all of this." He told Roman, coldly.

Roman, in response, once again leaned towards him, and adopted a shrewd expression on his face.

"That is why I'm offering you this deal, Junior." Roman said in a voice quieter than anytime before. "I can easily grant you and your men powers beyond any of your dreams."

He raised one of his eyebrows in response.

"Have you finally stumbled upon your semblance in the last year?" He asked with a single cough. "Is that why you went dark for the last year? If that's so, then I will have to break your bubble here, and tell you right now that no Semblance would be able to make someone strong enough to take on anyone capable of causing so much destruction."

His words of wisdom didn't faze Roman, in the slightest.

"That's a good thing, then, that my powers are something different from any common Semblance." Roman said, as he made two small balls of barely noticeable lightning and fire appear in his hand, for him to see.

He widened his eyes at the display before him, elemental control wasn't something impossible for a Semblance to do, but it was super limited and difficult to control, not to mention that there has never been a record of a Semblance capable of controlling more than one element.

Not only that, but Roman didn't seem to be using any aura by doing that either.

"H-How?" He asked before looking Roman in the eyes and remembering a certain news article he read while in this hospital.

Roman quickly made his balls of elements disappear at the sudden recognition in his eyes. If he was looking carefully, he might have even noticed some panic in the gentleman thief's eyes.

"An unnatural ability that cannot be explained with a Semblance." He whispered to himself before facing Roman directly. "You are from the Other World. You are a terrori-!"

Before he could finish saying anything, Roman quickly covered his mouth using his hand.

"Quiet!" Roman shushed him quietly. "Do you want to turn this entire hospital into a giant Atlas target?! The moment they come here and get reports of there being confirmed people from other worlds present, they are going to bring their entire military to storm this city!"

He groaned in response, not caring what sort of answer would this convey to Roman.

"Alright, I will let you talk, but promise me you aren't going to talk about the other world, okay?" Roman asked.

If he had more strength in him, he would have rolled his eyes with exaggeration at Roman's behaviour, but since he was still stuck to a hospital bed and barely alive, he only nodded his head a little.

"Good." Roman nodded back, before receding his hand. "You ready to talk about our deal?"

He still wanted to glare at Roman a little, but after a second of consideration he could only sigh. Unlike him, who was barely clinging to life, Roman not only was perfectly fine, but also had access to newfound powers.

Like it or not, this time he wasn't the one who was holding all the cards.

"Alright, I'm willing to listen to your deal." He grunted out. "Although, I don't really get what could you want from someone like me, right now. Don't you already have all the things you could want thanks to all your powers?"

Roman leaned back a little, and sighed.

"A month ago, that was what I thought, as well." Roman said wistfully. "Honestly, in some way, a part of me still thinks so even now, but seeing the fight that caused all of this destruction made me realise an uncomfortable truth."

"That truth being?" He prodded.

Roman shifted a little, as if just admitting it was going to hurt him.

"I cannot defeat all the remaining opponents on my own." A sigh escaped Roman. "Not when they can gang up on me, or fight me often enough to completely drain me of all my stamina."

A scowl formed on his face as he began to see where the orange haired thief was going with this.

"You want my remaining men as your henchmen."

"No, I don't want just any henchmen." Roman raised his arms defensively. "I want a special force, a group of people capable and loyal enough to face even the scariest of monsters in order to achieve their revenge."

A subtle sound of something cracking entered his ears, as Miltia seemed ready to launch herself at Roman in anger at the offer. The girl was seething in rage at the thought of someone sending the few of his still living people at the monsters who destroyed Vale.

If he were to be completely honest, he was no different.

Alas, he knew that probably all of his man would gladly accept the offer, if given the power to take ravage on the ones who had caused all of this pain to them.

In the end, he could only sigh as he raised his only remaining hand to stop Miltia from doing anything.

"You know, none of my men are professionally trained to fight." He said, with the slightest hopes of convincing the thief against the offer.

"Trust me, I can make them strong enough." Roman grinned.

He narrowed his eyes at the thief.

"Why not simply ask random people in the refugee camps, if you can empower anyone so much?" He pointed at all the people in the hospital. "I'm sure you would find dozens, if not hundreds, of desperate people willing to help you in exchange for a mare sliver of power and a chance at revenge."

"True, I guess, I could do that." The gentleman thief nodded his head a little, as if seeing his point, before spreading his arms wide open and smiling with a predator-like grin. "However, none of those desperate people would have the same cruelty and experience your men would have! I bet, most of the ordinary people would have frozen in place the moment I asked them to actually kill someone."

A dissatisfied grumble escaped him as he heard Roman praise his men.

"You really want my people on your side, do you?"

The thief nodded his head with exaggeration.

"Yup, and I'm willing to spend quite a bit to get them, so don't think about dissuading me from getting them."

He sighed.

"Alright, I can't promise you all of my remaining men are going to work for you, since I can't really be the boss anymore in my state, but I will spread the word to them about you recruiting." He said rather lightly, despite feeling as if he had just sold the souls of all his friends to the devil himself.

"I'm glad we reached an agreement." Roman said with a wide smile before extending his arm for a handshake.

He accepted it.

"Make sure to treat them well, Roman."

The wide smile didn't leave Roman's face for a single second in response.

"Don't worry, I will."

(...)

Having finalised his alliance with Pyrrha, Qrow could move onto completing another important objective on his ever chaotic bucket list, acquiring assistance from Ozpin.

Though, he, and all the other heroes, were way beyond the scope of the Remnant's immortal's power, the headmaster of Beacon was still an invaluable ally to have. Not to mention, despite all the nightmares and challenges he had gone through in the Infinite Seas, his respect for the old man never disappeared.

To the contrary, saving a whole world, as terrible as it might have been, allowed him to appreciate all the work Ozpin had done for Remnant even more.

Gods knew he wouldn't have been able to do that himself, not for that long at least.

It truly was a pity Remnant's ancient magic couldn't compare to most of the powers at the disposal of other worldly heroes, or he would have asked Ozpin for assistance in the war the very moment he had returned.

A yawn escaped him, as he passed by another corridor and stopped right before the elevator to Beacon Tower.

It seemed that constantly getting the forbidden and undesirable knowledge from his contract was finally starting to take its toll on him.

He did all he could to shrug the tiredness away.

Resting would have to wait until he successfully convinced Ozpin that they needed to work together for the good of Remnant. Mentioning the destruction of other worlds probably wouldn't be the greatest idea just yet.

The doors to the elevator opened before him and he instantly went inside, there was no point in delaying the inevitable.

A shiver of knowledge went down his spine as the elevator began moving up. The whispers of Infant Great Ones were never a pleasant sound for a mortal mind, no matter how useful they were to him.

The fact his contracted Great One was being a little prissy to him right now for sending his sister its way, wasn't helping, either.

It wasn't like he could handle her on his own anyway, and the separate dimension of the Infant Great Ones was the perfect place to put all the undesirable problems for later. By the time Raven would find an exit or make his contracted Great One throw her away, he was going to have enough allies to deal with her.

Or, at least, he hoped.

A loud noise of the elevator fitting in place after arriving at its destined location brought him out of his daydreaming. The significant increase he felt in the surrounding air pressure right after, instantly made him wary of the situation.

He smiled a little to himself upon realising what was going on.

It looked like Ozpin was going for the show of strength.

"Qrow." A calm voice hiding a lot of anger welcomed him to the office.

The air pressure in the office nearly doubled.

If any ordinary person were to be here with them, they would have lost consciousness already. That was, only if they didn't dare to go dark in front of the angry headmaster of Beacon staring right at them.

"Ozpin." He smiled lightly in response as he leisurely walked forward.

Such meagre attempts at suppressing him weren't effective against him, in the slightest. Merely talking to his contracted Great One could often be more painful than the pressure he was currently feeling.

A tense silence instantly overtook the room as both he and Ozpin looked at each other warily.

Finally, it was Ozpin who broke the silence with a heavy sigh.

"You are one of my most trusted agents, you know?" Ozpin said with a solemn expression. "There wasn't any team I cared about more than team STRQ in this generation. That's why I want you to know that, before anything, I think of you as a dear friend of mine."

He began to relax a little before he noticed Ozpin stand up from his seat.

"However." An unnatural energy, Remnant's old forgotten magic, began circulating behind Ozpin. "No matter how much I like and respect you, I cannot allow our friendship to endanger Remnant."

Ozpin grabbed his weapon, and prepared for a tough fight.

"Tell me, Qrow." Ozpin pointed his staff at him, with a wild gust of wind spreading through the entire room. "What has truly happened in Vale when Jaune Arc and Pyrrha Nikos went to the city?"

He grunted quietly to himself, and shifted a little from leg to leg, in response.

It was good to see Ozpin as protective of his students and the whole Remnant as the immortal man usually was. Currently, suspicious of him or not, the fact Ozpin was willing to face him for the safety of Remnant only solidified his trust in the old man.

"Speak, Qrow." Ozpin commanded in a cold tone.

"It was a fight." He answered. "A three-way battle between the two kids and my sister, with Raven as the winner, the blond kid dead, and the red head traumatised from too ridiculous fights."

He heard Ozpin tighten his fist in anger from afar.

"Don't lie, Qrow!" Ozpin shouted. "We both saw what those Miss Nikos and Mr Arc were capable of during the initiation! There's no way Raven would have been able to even fight them, let alone kill them!"

"Evidently, my sister learned some new tricks when we weren't looking." He shrugged, not bothering to tell the full truth.

Ozpin instantly charged at him and swung his weapon in anger as a response.

The attack took less than an instant.

It also missed him completely, as he easily leaned out of the attack's way.

"Don't make light of this situation." Ozpin said. "The scale of the disaster which happened that day almost surpassed the tragedy of Mount Glenn! If I didn't know two of my students have been involved, I would have thought it was an open attack made by Salem."

Ozpin glared at him with rage in his eyes.

"Tell me the truth, Qrow." Ozpin said coldly. "It's a command."

He looked at his old headmaster with a bored expression on his face for a moment or two, before finally sighing after a while.

"I assume, you've heard the news Jimmy was spreading?" He asked while gently pushing Ozpin's weapon away from himself.

"The ones about the terrorist organisation 'Other World'?" Ozpin raised his eyebrow. "Are you trying to tell me that James has accurate information about such unbelievable individuals? How would he even get access to that? He had practically disappeared from the face of the Remnant for the last year, or so."

A small smile appeared on his face. It wasn't difficult to figure out that old Jimmy was another one of the other worldly heroes, especially with access to his knowledge, but it was still nice to receive a confirmation.

"It's because he is one of them, just like me." He said.

Ozpin shifted a little in place before chuckling to himself with a hollow laughter.

"It turns out that both of my most trusted allies, the people who I thought would willingly give up their lives for the protection of Remnant, became some unnatural monsters and terrorist."

He grimaced a little.

Maybe that wasn't the best way to deliver the news to Ozpin.

"I wouldn't call any of us terrorists, really." He winced. "At most, I would say that we are merely ordinary people who found some clearly otherworldly powers. Or at least, relatively ordinary people, considering who exactly me and Jimmy are."

Ozpin sighed slowly, before asking.

"What can I do to help you with the whole situation?"

His eyes nearly fell out with how much he widened them in surprise at Ozpin's question. Even with all the forbidden knowledge at his disposal, he didn't expect Ozpin to so quickly offer his help.

"You're not going to ask about more details?" He couldn't help but ask.

"Would you have given me more information?" Ozpin asked back with a raised eyebrow, and upon not hearing any answer from him, continued. "It is clearly a major issue, I should help with. Besides, I wasn't giving you all the details about the war with Salem all the time, either. It would have been a bit hypocritical of me to demand I know absolutely anything, don't you think?"

He slowly nodded his head in response.

"Now, tell me, what you expect of me." Ozpin said. "As long as it is not too absurd or directly endangers my students, I will do all that I can to assist you."

"Simply continue what you were already doing for now, but make sure to let the red haired girl leave Beacon as she is involved in the war." He said. "As long as you are able to keep as many people as possible out of danger, I can focus on the battles and deal with everything."

Ozpin looked at him with a frown.

"Are you sure that involving Pyrrha Nikos is absolutely necessary?"

"Whether I'm sure of it or not, the girl is going to get involved with the whole situation anyway." He shook his head. "The best we can do is not hamper her attempts by trying to make her stay in Beacon."

Ozpin sighed.

"Alright, I will trust you with it." Ozpin went back to his desk. "If you find yourself really needing my help with something, then you know where to find me."

A content smile formed on his face as he nodded to the headmaster.

It seemed that acquiring the assistance of a non-otherworldly hero, was a success.

(...)

After multiple years of being able to travel with spaceships capable of FTL speeds, it was difficult to get used to the underwhelming speeds of Remnant's bullheads again.

A short trip to the other side of the planet, which would usually take a couple of minutes at worst, was now apparently a dozen hour journey. In that time, he should have been able to circle the Remnant, at least a hundred times.

He let out a tired groan as he glanced at the two pilots who were actually willing to help them get to the Land of Darkness.

After he won this war, he was going to focus on making Atlas actually damn useful. Not only was his kingdom woefully unequipped to deal with any real threat, but it also barely have any people brave enough to face them.

With the strongest kingdom on Remnant as weak as it was, it was no wonder the grimm were such a big issue here.

"I don't think it's a great idea to make our pilots nervous, General." Winter Schnee, the only other passenger of this bullhead besides him, commented lightly.

He scoffed.

"If just my stare is enough to make them nervous, then they shouldn't have become a part of the Atlesian air force." He voiced his opinion. "There's no place for the weak-minded at war."

The pilots twitched a little at his words, but wisely decided to stay silent and focus on flying.

"Yet, despite that, the vast majority of people send to any war are weak-minded like this." Winter pointed out. "No animal is fearless by nature, not humans or faunus, either. Besides, your stare can be quite menacing."

He let out a small chuckle.

"If that's truly your opinion, then I can only conclude you weren't sent to any remarkable world." He shook his head. "Because, the worlds I visited showed me the true potential of an average human, and it was greater than anyone can imagine."

Winter hummed quietly in response.

"S-Sir, we are leaving the Atlas airspace." One of the pilots reported. "We have eight hours until reaching the target. I will be reducing speed to avoid grimm contact as much as possible."

He grunted in acknowledgement.

Eight hours was way more than what he would have hoped for, but, whether he liked it or not, there was nothing he could do about it. One couldn't push a machine past its limits, no matter the height of their human potential.

"That's going to be quite a long journey." Winter remarked out loud.

He nodded his head in agreement.

"You might use this time to explain to me just what Remnant's evil we are going to be fighting." Winter offered. "You've been quite tight-lipped about it ever since mentioning it back in Atlas."

One of the two pilots turned their head towards them in curiosity, before immediately swinging it back after seeing his glare.

"I suppose it is a vital information for the mission, isn't it?" He murmured to himself.

A silent sigh escaped him.

He could already hear Ozpin's complaints about revealing this secretive information to the others. The reincarnating man was always one to like the absolute secrecy when it came to dealing with the important issues.

Although, he could see how keeping the information hidden from the public was useful, it surely wasn't worth more than allowing all of humanity to unite against a single enemy, and letting them find a way to victory.

If it had been, then Salem wouldn't have been a problem anymore.

Winter looked at him somewhat eagerly for his answer.

"This is the most classified information on Remnant, that relates to the security of the entire world." He supposed, he could respect Ozpin's desire for secrecy at least a little bit, by keeping it a secret from the wider public still. "Although, there won't be any documents for any of you to sign from learning it, know that revealing it to anyone outside here will result in your life being terminated."

He saw Winter's eyes narrow on him, and heard an audible gulp from the pilots.

"Do you still desire to hear this information?" He asked with a serious tone.

The pilots shifted in their seats, hesitant of learning too much info above their pay grade, but both he and Winter ignored them entirely, as the Schnee heiress merely smiled at his attempt at intimidation.

"Yes, we would like to know." Winter said, despite the whines and protests of the pilots beside them.

His eyes focused on Winter for a second or two, before relenting, and sharing the information.

"Unlike what every school textbook might tell you, the grimm we are fighting aren't actually mindless beasts of pure evil." He glanced out of bullhead's window to observe a small pack of grimm travelling through the wilderness. "They in fact have a leader, a queen. Her name is Salem, and, as far as I am aware, every generation a group of influential individuals is gathered together through the help of a man currently known as Ozpin to stop her from conquering the world."

Wintered hummed in interest, while the pilots began sweating upon learning that the mindless beasts they were used to fighting had actually a command structure and could realistically conquer their entire kingdom.

"She is the one we are currently flying to kill." He added.

Silence spread over the aircraft as his words made everyone realise of the scope of their mission.

"H-How is it possible that she hasn't been killed yet, sir?" One of the pilots asked after a moment of thinking.

"I beg your pardon?"

"T-The grimm queen, sir." The pilot clarified. "She's been around for generations, right? There had to be people strong enough to kill her, before, or at least fight her, if there weren't then we wouldn't have the chance to be here in the first place."

He hummed a little as he thought the question over.

"It is a good question, soldier." He said. "The sad thing is that I have no idea. It was always Ozpin who was the most knowledgeable about Salem's capabilities, and he wasn't willing to share much of it with us."

His words made the pilots stiffen in fear, and Winter giggle a little as a result.

"S-Should we really fly into an enemy territory when our information about them is so lacking, then, sir?!" The pilot asked frantically.

"Be calm, soldier." He commanded. "Charging into the unknown is not a foreign concept for humanity, you need to be more confident! Besides, with both Winter and I here as the fighters, Salem wouldn't stand a chance against us even if she was the literal devil itself. Now focus on flying, soldier!"

Winter nodded before reassuringly putting her hand on the pilot's shoulder.

"Yes sir!" The pilots shouted at once.

(...)

Pietro Polendina was scared.

More than that, he was terrified, but not for himself.

It was his daughter he was afraid for, Penny. His sweet young Penny, who nearly drove him to depression when she had disappeared from the face of the Remnant for a whole year not too long ago.

Luckily, she had safely returned by now, but it didn't change the fact, she was now in grave danger again.

The worst thing was, she seemed to be actively looking for that danger, and he could do nothing to stop her. His daughter was far too powerful for him to even try stopping her from going anywhere.

Sadly, she wasn't powerful enough for him to not worry about her safety.

"Daaad!" Penny whined in a human fashion. "I told you, I have to go to Vale in order to protect the world of Detritus! After getting so many upgrades to both my body and my mind from there, it would be immoral to let it get destroyed!"

He had to stop himself from scolding at his daughter's another attempt of convincing him to let her join the bizarre extra-terrestrial she had told him about tight after returning home.

A barely noticeable frown appeared on his face as he thought of that. Those upgrades to her body were the only good thing Penny had received from that world, and in turn she was put in extreme danger more than once!

If he had it his way, he would have the world that endangered his daughter so much, destroyed.

"Penny, no." He said with a stern expression. "It's too dangerous for you."

"But, Daad!" Penny pouted.

If just a moment ago he was almost scolding at his daughter, now he had to do all that he could in order not to gush over Penny.

She looked so adorable while pouting!

Back when he was first creating her, he didn't give Penny many functions a normal human would have. It had been mostly due to his inability as an android designer at the time, but now that his daughter returned with a body so human, it was nearly impossible to tell she was a robot, he couldn't help but feel that he really should have studied more robotics before building Penny.

A small sigh left him.

Alas, it was already far too late for that.

Now, his daughter could do all the repairs and modifications to herself on her own, while at the same time being so complicated he wasn't sure he would have been able to improve anything in the first place.

It was just another one of the things, he hated his daughter's multiversal adventure for, he supposed.

He winced a little as he saw his daughter becoming sad in front of him.

"Look, Penny, I'm not going to keep you here for the entirety of this war of yours, you know that I can't do this, but, please, wait for just a couple more days before leaving for Vale." He pleaded with his eyes. "Nobody is immortal, no matter how powerful they are, not even you, and the Vale right now is going to be incredibly chaotic. Think of it this way, the fewer heroes remain for you to fight against, the higher chance you have at survival."

Penny looked at him with her annoyed, human looking eyes for a few seconds, before sighing.

"Alright, I won't charge into the fight just yet." Penny lowered her head a little. "I promise."

He smiled with the most gentle smile he had.

"That's all I ask for, my sweet daughter."

And cut!

Alliances are made, and our eleventh fighter gets introduced.

It's Penny!

I really wanted to include her in this fic since I haven't really had the chance back in my previous one, so here she is.

That's all for now, see ya!