Mama Mirajane!

by Crimzon Slayer

What happens, when Mirajane Struass finds an orphaned child in the guild hall storage room. Many adventures await Scythe, Mirajane, and the rest of Team Natsu and the Fairy Tail guild, as they bring this unknown child into their big family. May become M rated later on.

48. RWBY Knights3!

Mama Mirajane-48

---

They sky was cloudy and the only sounds to be heard, were a rickety old rope bridge, and the howling wind. But the sounds became accompanied by a third impression, making its way across the bridge as someone walked across the bridge, stopping in the middle of it, hearing the caw of a Nevermore in the distance. The woman's attire, at least on the surface, consisted of a dark blue tunic, with an ornate skull mask that covered her face, revealing only her lower jaw. Under the robe she wore a laced waist-cincher over a long blue tunic with a dark gray hemline that fell over a dark teal skirt that also had the same gray hem. The tunic opens in a 'v' to reveal an off-white folded collar. The long sleeves are also cinched just above the elbows. All three cinches and the hem are the same dark gray as the hooded cloak Maria also wore. Her boots were dark brown. In addition, she wore a dark blue skull necklace.

Standing in the middle of the bridge, the woman brought out and extended her weapon, a scythe connected to a carved skull on a cane. Through the fog in the air, she could see the silhouette of the Ancient Nevermore she heard, coming straight for her. When it broke through the veil of mist, the Nevermore let out another screech, as the woman brought out her second weapon, being another matching scythe, to the first one.

Just as the Ancient Nevermore was about to chomp down on the rope bridge and the Huntress, said woman jumped back, flipping through the air and off the bridge, evading the Nevermore's attempt at eating her just before it destroyed the bridge.

Flipping a switch on her weapon, and throwing it at the Nevermore, the blade imbedded itself into the Grimm's wing, before the top ring under the weapon in her hand, and the ring at the base of the weapon in the Grimm's wing, both began to glow purple, and she was pulled up through the air, while dragging the Nevermore down, before she stopped the power trick and flew up passed the Nevermore, grabbing the weapon that had been in its shoulder on the way up, and fired shots from the barrels of the guns on the weapons, and went spinning towards the Nevermore, before landing on its wing with her blades imbedding into its flesh, causing it to cry out, before she pulled up on her weapons, forcing the Nevermore to do multiple barrel rolls through the air and mountains.

Throwing one of her weapons into the side of a mountain, the Huntress activated the Gravity Dust in both her blades, drawing them towards one another again, and forcing the Nevermore to crash into the side of a mountain. The weapon went falling to the ground below, and with the magnetic Gravity Dust still active, brought the Nevermore and the Huntress down with it.

Pulling her weapon from the Grimm, the Huntress had a chance to catch her breath, looking at the Grimm, but gasped and jumped back when its eyes were on her, and it cawed before attempting to snap at her. With the Nevermore catching the Huntress with her guard down, the Grimm was able to knock her off balance, and even knock her weapon away.

Rolling to the ground, the Huntress was unable to run for her weapons and grab either of them in time as the Nevermore charged at her, leaving the Huntress with one final move, as a bright silver light shined like a beacon from her eyes, blinding any who might see her. When the light died away, the Huntress stood up, as the Nevermore came crashing to the ground, turned to stone.

With that done, the Huntress went over and picked up the weapon that the Nevermore had knocked out of her hands, and with the Dust feature she built into the weapon, she had the other in her hand in no time.

But something wasn't right. She was getting an ominous feeling, like her fight wasn't over just yet. Her suspicions were proven right, when a ringing echoed through the air, and she quickly turned around, to deflect a Burn Dust bullet that had been shot at her.

Standing there, coming out from behind the rocks, were three individuals, seeming like they were looking for more, than just directions to the closest settlement in the area. One of them was holding a big hammer, the other a shot gun, and the third a curved inward blade as the came closer to her.

"Well, that's a fancy trick now, innit?" A young woman's voice spoke up a little ways behind the Huntress to her left.

She turned her head over to see, a Crocodile Faunus with a shaved head, dark-green grayish mohawk and yellow eyes. Her clothes consisted of a dark green collared shirt with a dark brown corset that has a strap attached to a narrow belt around her thigh, black and gray striped trousers and black shoes. In addition, she wore dark brown fingerless gloves and carried a large stopwatch on her right hip.

The traits that identified her as a Faunus were patchy shady green scales all over her body and face. An x-shaped scar was visible on the left side of her head, black polish on her nails and sharp metal teeth with two screws in them, identifying her as some sort of bandit, or mercenary for hire. On the small of her back she carried a pair of golden hilted cutlass styled swords.

"'Fraid it comes with a price though love." The Crocodile Faunus exclaimed, before crushing a piece of the petrified Nevermore, turning it to dust as the Huntress turned to face her.

"I don't think you realize who I am." She said.

"'Course I do." The Faunus, Tock, said before pulling up her stopwatch and setting it. "You're the Grimm Reaper." She smiled excitedly. "An' these, are the last sixty seconds of your life." She exclaimed before activating the stopwatch timer. After starting the timer, Tock pulled out her swords, and held her breath, as the light of her Semblance activating, washed over her like a wave.

Tock charged at the Grimm Reaper and as they two fighters duked it out, the lackeys began firing shot after shot at the Grimm Reaper, missing while the Huntress was defending herself against Tock's strikes and attacks. If there was one thing Tock was right about, it was the price Grimm Reaper paid on using her silver eyes. It expended a tremendous amount of energy and aura for her to use it, and it was showing in the slack of her response time to attacks, as Tock knocked away one of her weapons with a smirk, before flipped over and hitting the Huntress with a double kick to the chest knocking her back.

Activating the retrieval in her weapons, the Grimm Reaper had both her weapons back, and used them to deflect bullet shots, and redirect charging weapon wielders into each other. Continuing to fight, and redirect the bullets, the Grimm Reaper advanced forward on the gunman, before she knocked his gun away, and rendered him unconscious, as she kicked him far off into the distance, before she threw one of her weapons at the blade wielder, while fending off the hammer wielder, knocking him to the ground, before she used the Dust in her weapons, to return the blade she threw to her hand, by keeping it in the air, and jumping towards it, faster than the hammer wielder could anticipate.

Throwing one of her weapons past the hammer wielder, she used the Dust to boost her speed again, and get behind him, before cutting the blonde hammer wielder down, before blocking another strike from Tock's blades, and pushing back before jumping into the air, evading another attempted strike from the blade swinging lackey, and flipped over him. Landing on the ground, the Grimm Reaper swung at him, and sent lackey to the ground, right before Tock came swinging her blades at her, putting the Grimm Reaper on the defensive once more, before she was kicked away, with her aura flashing at the damage taken.

Picking herself up as her attackers came closer to her, the Grimm Reaper activated the Dust in her weapons and allowed them to circle her as she turned to the people who she was fighting, and stuck her arm out, before the two weapons met in the middle, and connected, creating a double headed scythe.

Charging at her, Tock and her lackey weren't prepared for the increase in skill and combat Grimm Reaper had, with her weapons connected as one. Grimm Reaper managed to defend herself well against the two fighters, pushing them back, and knocking them over, while keeping pace with their attacks, blocking them, and redirecting the blades. Knocking out the third and final lackey, the Grimm Reaper was now up against Tock, all on her own. Blocking her opponents blades, the Grimm Reaper was still ready to fight, but was taken aback, when Tock bit through the hilt of one of the weapons, and head butted the Grimm Reaper, shattering her mask, and revealing the silver eyes hidden behind it. Looking over to Tock as she fell to the ground, her eyes widened in horror, before she felt the stinging pain of metal tearing through flesh, as her eyes were gouged out, causing her to scream in pain.

Tock simply just smiled at her handy work, before the clock on her waist went off, signalling the minute was up. Pressing the button on the clock, Tock let out the breath she had been holding, with a sigh, before she walked over to where the Grimm Reaper was.

"It was a close call." She smiled as the Grimm Reaper was still screaming in pain. "I'll give ya that." She said, dragging her blade through the ground.

The Grimm Reaper felt she was near one of her weapons, and used the gun mechanism in it to fire pot-shots at Tock, who easily was able to avoid them until the clip ran out, and she was just pulling the trigger.

"You know the only reason my master wants you dead, is 'cause of your eyes." She laughed. "But seein' as you ain't got them no more, you might be able to convince me to spare your life."

The Grimm Reaper just let out an enraged shout, and threw the blade she was holding, at Tock, who let it fly past her and into the ground behind her.

"Well I respect that." Tock smiled, preparing a finishing strike to end the Grimm Reaper's life. "A fighter to the end."

The Grimm Reaper realized tock was right in front of her, and reaching around, she managed to grab the other half of her weapon, and flipped the switch that activated the Dust that drew both halves together. Tock gasped when she realized she was in the line of fire attack, right before the blade came and imbedded itself into her back, knocking her forward, right before the Grimm Reaper swung the blade forward, decapitating Tock when she was within range.

---

~Present Day~

"But I wasn't." Maria said, as she finished telling them all her story, with the addition of Ben, riding in the flatbed to Atlas. "I went into hiding soon after."

There was a tense moment of silence as everyone was in shock of hearing her story. It had been a couple days since they left the estate that had been infested by Apathy, and they were more than ready for this journey to end soon.

"I can't believe it." Qrow said. "You, you're the Grimm Reaper. You were a legend, and then you disappeared."

"How exactly does a legend, just disappear?" Oscar questioned over the revving sound of the motor bike's engine.

"You never used your name, never showed your face." Qrow exclaimed. "Lots of us thought you were just layin' low. Eventually we came to accept that you were probably dead. But the stories about you, I based my weapon off of yours. I wanted to be as good as the Grimm Reaper."

"Well, I'm nothing but a disappointment. So you're well on your way." Maria said.

"How can you say that?" Blake questioned.

"Child, a Huntress is supposed to protect others to the bitter end. But after I lost my eyes, I only ever looked after myself. Even after my surgery, I was too afraid to fight." Maria exclaimed. "Afraid, someone would find me again, finish what the others started. You shouldn't aspire to be like me. Especially, when some of you, are clearly stronger already."

"You know, there's an old saying that I think fits this scenario." Scythe said, keeping his eyes on the road. "Never aspire to be like your heroes. Always aim to surpass them, and you'll forge your own path." He exclaimed. "Maria might have been the best in her prime, but there's no shame in what she did. It's human nature, to be afraid. The only fault in that, was she let that fear control her."

"You know, it's comforting seeing that your generation is up to the task of inheriting this world." Maria exclaimed. "I'm just sorry, I didn't do more, to leave it in better shape."

"Well, maybe you can do something now." Ruby suggested. "Teach me to use my powers the way you did."

Maria looked back to Ruby, before the sound of a Scroll going off, echoed amongst them, and Ruby picked it up, surprised that not only, did she have a signal, but that it was her friend, and teammate of Team RNJR, Jaune.

"It's Jaune." She said excitedly, before Scythe brought the flatbed and motorbike to a halt.

"How?" Weiss questioned.

"We must be close to Argus." Scythe exclaimed. "Ben, think you can scout ahead?"

"On it." The newcomer to the group said, before jumping out, and running for the top of the hill they were facing.

"H-hello?" Ruby asked answering the call.

"Ruby." Jaune said with a cheerful laugh. "Thank you. I've been checking my Scroll for your signal, since we made it to the city."

"The city?" Ruby asked. "Wait." She pulled her Scroll down and looked at it to see the signal strength, moved it to where it was getting stronger, and saw that it increased when she directed it at the path."

"Scythe." Ben called out, running back down the hill and back to the flatbed. "You gotta see this for yourself."

Driving forward, Scythe's bike brought the gang up the hill, and stopped at the crest of it, giving everyone there, a view of Argus, still a few miles away, but was in perfect view of the fortified ocean city.

"Ladies and gentlemen." Yang smiled, standing up. "We have arrived in Argus."

---

~A Couple Hours of Driving Later~

"That should do it. Thanks big guy." Scythe said, as Hercules picked up the flatbed and the bike, before taking it back to the Celestial Armory, as Yang locked up her bike in the storage garage.

The entrance to the city was quite crowded, but nothing too unexpected for the people of Argus, with trade going in and out of the city. The sound of gasping reached Scythe's ears as if someone had been running, and his inquiry on who it might be, was answered when he heard Nora's over excited voice over the crowd of people, as she rushed towards them, with Jaune and Ren in tow.

"Cute boy Oz." Nora shouted excitedly, before glomping Oscar in a hug, smothering him with her chest. "Oh, come here. I missed you the most."

"Are you all okay?" Ren questioned going in to give Yang a hug. "We were so worried."

"It's been kind of a crazy trip." Yang said as Jaune hugged Blake.

"That's an understatement." Weiss said.

"Wait, who's the old lady and the emo boy?" Nora questioned, spotting Maria and Ben.

"Seems they're all pretty excited to be back together again." Scythe smiled.

"I'm excited to have you back to." Wendy's voice echoed in his ear as her arms wrapped around him from behind.

"It's good to be back." Scythe smiled, twisting around in her grip and returning the hug, while giving her a kiss.

"You kept your promise." Wendy smiled.

"I told you I'd return." He chuckled as they went to follow the others through the city.

"It's a lot bigger than I thought it'd be." Yang said as they all took a trolley train.

"It's actually one of the largest, non-capital cities, in all of Remnant." Ren said.

"No way." Ruby gasped in excitement. "But wait, wouldn't it be hard to settle something this big from the main kingdom?"

"Well, it was, until Mantle showed up." Jaune said. "Early settlement attempts by Mistral didn't go so well. But colonists from Mantle were able to help brave the cold climate and return for goods that Solitas couldn't provide."

"The two nations worked together to create a hybrid city. While it still falls under Mistral domain, Atlas keeps a military presence here to help keep the people safe and to keep trade between the two nations steady." Ren explained.

"Well, until recently." Nora exclaimed as the trolley began to come to a stop.

It wasn't until after everyone got off the trolley, that Blake started talking.

"We should probably start looking for a ship." She said.

"So, where have you guys been staying?" Oscar questioned as Jaune hopped down and the trolley began to move.

"Uh…" Jaune chuckled nervously, until someone spoke up from across the street.

"There you are."

The woman calling out to them had wavy, dirty blond hair and blue eyes. Her clothes consisted of an orange top with a beige vest, light brown trousers with orange stitches on each side, and dark brown boots. On her left hand she wore a wedding ring and a bootlace necklace around her neck. In her arms she held a baby wearing button up overalls, and a shirt, with lightly tanned skin, and dark messy hair.

"Is that…" Yang questioned as the woman was waving to them.

"Hey Saph." Jaune said, as Ruby gasped and looked at her, then back at Jaune, and did so repeatedly, before she smiled as Jaune had a concerned look on his face.

---

~Cotta-Arc Residence~

"I can't believe I'm meeting your sister. I have so many questions." Ruby said, as they all sat in her living room, with Wendy sitting on the ground, with her legs crossed, and little Adrian sitting in her lap, while Weiss and Yang played with him.

"Oh, I can give you the rundown later." Nora smiled as Yang landed the toy airship in Adrian's hands.

"Will you guys knock it off?" Jaune questioned, sounding annoyed and concerned about his social life.

"What? I love telling stories about my baby brother." Saphron said, pinching Jaune's cheek.

Jaune groaned, before he waved his arms about to get Saphron to let go of his cheek. "I am not a baby." He declared. "That, is a baby." He said, pointing to Adrian in Wendy's lap.

Adrian just looked at him and crossed his arms, with an expression that Wendy, Yang, and Weiss, just found completely adorable.

"So Saphron, you're the only Arc living here?" Blake asked looking at the picture of Jaune and all his siblings on a couch, with Jaune holding a 'help' sign with pigtails in his hair.

"Yep." Saphron said, letting go of Jaune's cheeks after pinching them again. "Moved the second I could. Jaune and I are the only two living away from home. I guess he just wanted to be like his big sis." She exclaimed as she began talking in a cutesy voice.

"I uh…"

"Aw. You didn't deny it." Saphron teased as they began to roughhouse like siblings do, before the front door opened.

Coming in from outside, was a young woman with short dark brown hair and eyes with a single smooth bang that goes down her forehead and in between her eyes. Her clothes consisted of a dark navy collar shirt with a light-blue cardigan, dark-gray jeans and red sneakers. She also wears red glasses and a wedding ring, matching Saphron's. In her arms, were two large paper bags filled with groceries.

"Everyone, this is my wife, Terra Cotta." Saphron introduced, before everyone said their hellos to her.

"Why hello there." Terra laughed. "Wow, quite a party you weren't kidding." She said, addressing her wife.

"Here, let me help you with those." Scythe said, coming to aid her in carrying the groceries.

"Thank you, such a gentlemen, Saphron's brother could learn a thing or two from you." Terra teased as Scythe took the bags, and followed her into the kitchen.

In the kitchen, Scythe was making the sandwiches while everyone else did the talking. As he was washing the lettuce, Terra struck up a conversation with him.

"So, you're the husband Wendy has told us about huh?" Terra questioned.

"I am." He smiled.

"She seems like a nice girl. Good for you for finding someone like that to spend the rest of your days with." Terra said with a smile.

"You're no slouch in that department either. Saphron might act like a kid around Jaune, but I can tell she's an amazing woman. An' you two already have a kid." He said.

"Yeah, we had wanted to wait a couple more years, but when Saphron said she was ready for a kid, I immediately went to find a donor, and got myself knocked up." Terra chuckled. "What about you?"

"Me?" Scythe questioned. "Having a kid?"

"Yeah, I mean Wendy seems to do well with Adrian, and she's very kind, gentle, and sweet, nothing like a Huntress with her experience, normally would be around children." Terra said. "With you as the role model, I could see you being a happy family with Wendy."

"Well, Wendy and I are kinda young to be taking care of kids at this time, but that doesn't stop us from taking care of little Jackie." Scythe said.

"Awe, you're fostering her?"

"Sort of." Scythe said peeling the lettuce. "But, other than that, I don't think I'd make for a very good dad."

"How so?" Terra questioned, chopping up the tomato.

"My dad… he's not the best of people. In fact, he's not even legally considered a Faunus anymore. He's nothing but a monster, and…" Scythe paused as he looked out the open window to the kitchen and living room, and saw Wendy happily playing with Adrian. "I'm afraid that I might turn out like him. I don't want a kid who will look up at me, and see a monster, like how I see my dad."

"You know, the very fact you told me this, says a lot about you." Terra smiled. "It tells me you have a big heart, and that you genuinely care and are concerned for your wife's happiness, and between you and me, Wendy told me about your journal and your fantasy about her."

"W-what? Why would she do that?" Scythe questioned blushing.

"I asked her if she ever wanted kids, and she told me she would someday, and that even you, fantasize about that future." Terra smiled, snickering at his flustered reaction. "She knows you want to have a family someday. So just talk to her about this, and everything should be okay. It might seem hard, but it's easier than it sounds."

"I guess you're right. I'll talk to her about it when I get the chance." Scythe said, smiling at seeing Wendy smiling and gushing over Adrian.

"That's the spirit." Terra said with a smile.

"Hey you two."

Scythe and Terra turned to see Jaune, Ren, and Nora standing there, ready to do something helpful.

"Why don't you let us finish making the sandwiches, it won't be a problem." Jaune said. "I'm sure you'd like to spend some more time with Wendy, Scythe."

"Alright. If you say so." Terra smiled. "Thanks a bunch you three."

Returning to the living room, Weiss voiced a concern she had.

"An' you're sure it's all right if we stay with you?" She questioned.

"Of course." Saphron smiled as Terra took Adrian from Wendy and sat next to her wife. "We're happy to house Huntsmen and Huntresses."

"You all risk, so much to keep people like us safe. It's the least we can do, especially for such elitists like yourselves." Terra said, referring to Qrow, Scythe, and Wendy. "Although I will say, I was surprised to learn you had students helping you. Is that even legal?"

"It is actually, so long as said Huntsmen in charge of the students still has his teaching license." Scythe said as Ruby nudge Qrow with her elbow.

"Think of it as an extended training mission. I was a Professor once upon a time." Qrow said. "But my teaching license is still valid, and not in need of renewal for quite a few more years." Qrow exclaimed. "I even went to the same academy as them. Let me tell ya, these kids are way better than we were at their age. Well not better than me specifically, but a lot of students…"

"Shut up there's food." Ruby said, shoving a sandwich triangle in his hands.

There was a brief, moment of happy silence as everyone was eating their sandwiches, happily, before the soft hum of a Scroll buzzing, went off. Saphron looked at Terra, nodding her head, and telling her it was alright to take it.

"Here Scythe, Wendy got a lot of time with Adrian, why don't you spend some time with him?" Terra suggested getting up and putting the infant in his hands.

"Oh I don't think… okay…" Scythe said, holding Adrian up, not sure of what to do after Terra went to take her call.

"I'll be right back." Terra said, before answering the call. "Hello?"

"Is everything okay?" Blake questioned, as Wendy helped Scythe to put Adrian down on his lap.

"Oh, yeah it will be. Terra's a technician for the town's relay tower, unfortunately the military's radar system is also housed there." Saphron said, before going to baby talk as she took one of Adrian's hands. "Guess what's been on the fritz lately, and who's getting falsely blamed?"

"Me." Terra whispered, poking her head back into the room.

"If it's tech that's on the fritz, Scythe can help out with it." Wendy said. "He built his bike by hand, and it's mostly made of technology more advanced than anything on Remnant."

"It's true, the thing defies gravity itself, without the use of any Dust." Yang said.

"Scythe, if you could come with me later tonight, I could really use your help on it, if you're okay with it?" Terra asked, covering the speaker on her Scroll.

"Uh, sure I guess it wouldn't hurt to give it a look." Scythe said as Adrian played with his fingers.

"Thank you so much." Terra smiled, before going back to her call. "Hey, it's me again. Yes, I'll be there sometime tonight, and I'll be bringing someone I believe can help… I don't really know what his fee would be actually hold on…"

"150 Lien an hour." Scythe said.

"His fee is 150 Lien an hour… Perfect, we'll see you tonight sir." Terra smiled, before hanging up. "Thank you so much Scythe, you have no idea how much this will help me clear my name."

"Don't celebrate just yet Terra." Scythe said. "I'm not even sure what the problem is, so I have no clue if I'm gonna be able to fix it or not."

"Still, any help you can provide, would be perfect." Terra smiled.

"So, what's your plan for tomorrow?" Saphron questioned, as Ruby was munching on two sandwich triangles.

"Well, we're trying to make our way to Atlas. We'll probably start with the military base." Ruby said.

"So, we kind of already tried that, and it didn't go super great." Jaune said.

"C'mon, it couldn't be that bad." Yang said.

---

~The Following Morning~

The sound of rattling gates could be heard as they slammed shut in Team RWBY Scythe, Oscar, Qrow, and Maria's faces.

"Really?" Scythe questioned.

"They're even ignoring a Celestial Knight? That doesn't seem right." Qrow said.

"Come on, you didn't even hear us out." Yang said, shaking the bars.

"Our orders are clear, the Mistral/Atlas border is closed." One of the guards said.

"Please."

"Have a good day."

"But…"

"A Good day." They said in unison.

"Are these two twins or what?" Scythe questioned stepping up. "We'd like to see you commanding officer, now." He declared.

"Hey look, if you don't want to believe I'm friends with Ironwood…"

"General Ironwood." They corrected him.

"General Ironwood, than fine. But look, we have Weiss Schnee with us, and we're trying to get her home safely." Qrow continued.

The two dummies looked to one another, then to Weiss.

"Approach." They said.

Weiss just looked to Blake, who shrugged her shoulders, being no help at all, before approaching the gate, with the two guards doing the same, and bending over to look at her.

"Very well." They said.

"You may speak with our commanding officer."

"We will fetch her at once."

Turning around, the two dummies went to fetch their commanding officer, repeatedly saying, hup, as they did so.

"They were kind of…"

"Super weird? Huh, yeah." Ruby said.

"Hmmm…" Maria pondered.

"What wrong?" Oscar questioned.

"Well I, may know this commanding officer." Maria said.

"That's good, isn't it? If she's your friend then maybe she'd be more willing to help us?" Ruby inquired.

"I wouldn't exactly call us… friends." Maria said.

"Acquaintances?" Weiss questioned.

"Not quite."

"Colleagues?" Blake asked hopefully.

"Warmer."

"Enemies?" Yang inquired.

"That's the one." Maria said.

"Wait, what?" Oscar questioned.

"Oh, yes. I come through here about once every ten years to get my eyes checked up in Atlas." Maria explained. "You bring outside cashews on one flight, and suddenly you're placed on the additional screening list for life."

"You've gotta be kidding me." Qrow said.

"Now, now. Let's not give up hope yet." Maria said. "Maybe she's dead?"

"I wouldn't count on it if she's a short, old, cranky Caucasian woman." Scythe said, looking through the bars as the two dummies came back with someone he could see walking behind them. "Hey, has anyone ever noticed how this base looks like a giant metal boot?" He questioned right before the gates opened up and the two dummies were standing apart from each other.

"Introducing…"

"Special Operative…"

"Caroline Cordovin."

Said woman came out between the two dummies, before marching right up to Maria.

"Witch." Caroline said.

"She-devil." Maria countered.

"Hmm, I see you've chosen larger contraband to smuggle this time."

"Oh, Cordo. You know they say time changes people, but I see you've still got that stick right up your…"

"H-hello, Miss, uh, Cordovin." Ruby said, interrupting Maria before she could finish that sentence. "My name, is Ruby Rose, and I was wondering if you would hear us out about…"

"I've already heard what your other little friends had to say Miss Rose." Cordo said, looking behind her to where Jaune, Nora, Ren, and Wendy were standing. "What are you doing back here? I thought I told you to leave?"

"An' I told you, we wouldn't rest until you let us through." Nora stated.

"Sorry, Miss Cordovin, it's nice to see you again." Wendy said, holding Nora back with Ren and Jaune helping her.

'Wow, she's strong enough to push through Wendy's Celestial Knight Strength? Impressive, either that or Wendy isn't using it to hold her back.' Scythe thought.

"You civilians are clearly incapable of comprehending the importance of our mission here in Argus." Cordo said. "So allow me to say this, slowly, and with smaller words."

"I don't think so lady." Scythe said, getting her attention. "We're not dumb, and we're not here to hinder your mission. We're here to complete our own." He exclaimed, showing her his badge. "Me and my partner especially."

"Your little blue haired floosy showed me an identical badge just like that. Too bad I can tell when a badge is forged against the real ones." Cordo said. "If you really are what those badges claim you to be, then show me something that proves you are what you claim you are."

"I can't do that. If a civilian were to see me perform my abilities, then I might cause a panic, or a cult to be formed that worships me, and that could be harmful to the timeline." Scythe exclaimed.

"Then I suggest you stop claiming to be something you're not." Cordo said. "Running this base takes a level of wit and tenacity that none of you, could comprehend, as all of this, the base included, is a gift from the glorious Kingdom of Atlas."

"Such wit."

"Such tenacity."

Both the dummies were ensnared in her ego's shadow.

"Or maybe Atlas just wanted to get you as far away from the Kingdom as possible." Maria said.

"I'm with Miss Calavera on this one." Scythe said.

"All of you are just like the rest of those Argus ingrates." Cordo said. "This city wouldn't even be here, if it weren't for our Atlesian Ancestors, and what do we get in return? The entire world is ready to put a knife at our throats."

"Please, we know your kingdom had nothing to do with the Fall of Beacon. We were there." Ruby said.

"No one's happy about the Atlas borders or the embargo, but I know General Ironwood is just worried." Weiss added. "It's why we need to talk to…"

"The General is no coward." Cordo said. "Atlas is strong, and if all the Kingdoms plan on making us their enemy, then so be it. Atlas will prevail."

"Atlas will prevail." The dummy twins said in unison.

"Do you guys seriously have to do that?" Yang questioned.

"Look, no one is calling Ironwood a coward." Scythe said. "But I can assure you, that what he's doing, he's doing with everyone's best interest at heart. All we're wanting is to speak with him, it's important."

Cordo was silent, before she took in a deep breath, and put on a fake smile.

"If Ms. Schnee has truly come to her senses and wishes to return to her family, then of course the Atlas Military will escort her home. But the Kingdom will not be responsible for her, friends, of questionable character." Cordo said, looking directly at Blake.

"Excuse me?" Scythe questioned. "Did you just make a racial statement in front of me, in front of a Celestial Knight?" He asked, before turning around. "Wow, wow I knew that you Special Operatives could be assholes, but this?" Almost too fast for anyone to see, Scythe twisted around and drop kicked Cordo in the gut as if she were a soccer ball, with a flaming boot, sending her flying back into the wall of the base.

The instant he set his foot down, the two guards grabbed him by the arms, attempting to detain him, but to their shock, they couldn't even budge him an inch. Scythe reached up with his hands, and placed them under their jawlines, before four of this six blades came up and scratched both sides of their cheeks.

"If you've both done the math, then you'll know numbers five and six are gonna hurt real bad!" Scythe exclaimed. "So back off."

"Scythe are you sure about this? What if a civilian sees you?" Wendy questioned running up to him as the dummy twins backed off slowly.

"It's fine. The only people around here, are us and the military who know about Celestial Knights. I think it'd be best to show them a fraction of our power." Scythe smiled, before stepping forward, as Cordo was picking herself up, and wiping her mouth of the lunch Scythe's kick forced her to puke up. "You wanted proof that I'm a Celestial Knight, Cordo? Well here it is."

"I like this kid." Maria laughed.

Scythe took a single step forward, and raised his hands up, bringing two pillars of earth out of the surface of the ground, before the ground seemed to liquefy and wrap around Cordo, before bringing her towards him, as his mask formed itself and his tails spread out behind him, waving about in the air.

"Is this proof enough for you now?" Scythe questioned.

"Y-yes it is." Cordo nodded. "I shall have a transport ready for you tomorrow afternoon at the earliest."

"Good." Scythe said, undoing the damage his earth magic made, and setting Cordo on the ground. "We're done here. We'll be back when the transport is ready."

"Of course." Cordo said.

As Scythe left, the gates closed, and Cordo made her way to the base behind the metal bars.

"So, what do we do now while we wait?" Ruby questioned.

"Yeah, what's the plan?" Nora inquired.

"The plan? The plan just got botched with the Celestial Knight, using his power on Cordovin. Speaking of the Celestial Knights, where's Ben?" Qrow questioned.

"He went for a drink." Scythe said. "Doesn't have the same insides as me, so he can get drunk with normal alcohol."

"Why's he going for a drink?" Wendy asked.

"Something about finally having a minute to mourn over the death of the first partner he ever got." Scythe said. "I'd say we should leave him be until we send him back to the Armory."

"Well, I'm going for a drink to." Qrow said, walking off.

"What's his problem? It's not your fault Scythe decided to show off his power." Jaune said.

"If he's gonna be a jerk about it, then we'll just leave him behind. I mean, we've got Ozpin with us on our side, plus two Celestial Knights, and Ozpin usually knows what to do." Nora said, causing everyone who was part of the diversion team on the train, to gain long faces.

"What is it?" Ren questioned, knowing those looks.

---

~Cotta-Arc Household~

Jaune was pissed, evident, by the hole he just punched in his sister's wall.

"Jaune." Ruby scolded.

"Calm down dude." Scythe exclaimed, reversing time on the hole made, thus undoing it. "This is your sister's house, she's not gonna be so forgiving with you constantly putting holes in the walls."

"Everything we did, was for nothing." Jaune cried out.

"That's not true." Blake said.

"Really? 'Cause it sure does sound like it." Nora said.

"I, um…"

"If Salem can't be killed, then how are we supposed to win this?" Ren questioned.

There was a moment of silence, before Wendy spoke up.

"Scythe can kill her." Wendy said. "Scythe's a Godslayer, his magic is capable of slaying the gods, and he's also a Demi-God himself."

"Wendy, my grandmother became the Goddess of Fire, after she had my father, so I got no divine DNA coursing through me." Scythe said. "But aside from that, yes, my magic is designed specifically, for slaying the Gods, and immortals."

"So what, we're supposed to wait for Salem to show herself for you to make the killing move?" Jaune asked. "Great plan everyone." He said with obvious sarcasm.

"Look, none of this is great, we know." Oscar began. "But we're not the bad guys here."

"Are we sure about that?" Jaune questioned.

"What?" Oscar asked.

"He's in your head, isn't he? Did you already know about this?" Jaune questioned marching up to Oscar, only to be stopped by Scythe putting a hand on his chest plate. Jaune looked at Scythe with a glare, and Scythe returned it with his own, daring Jaune to do something that would make him an enemy of the Celestial Knights.

"He didn't know any of it." Weiss said, defending Oscar.

"How much longer can we even trust him?" Jaune questioned.

"Jaune." Yang said, seeing how worked up he was getting.

"How do we even know, it's really him? What if we've been talking to that liar this whole time?" Jaune ranted on.

"You're becoming paranoid man, cool off." Scythe exclaimed.

"How do we know, you're not in on this?" Jaune questioned, turning his sights on Scythe.

"Jaune." Ruby said sternly.

Jaune just looked back at her, before looking back to Oscar and Scythe, before he turned and left, marching up the steps to the guest room he and the other boys were staying in.

"Is he gonna be okay?" Yang questioned.

"I don't know." Nora said, before getting up herself and going up the stairs.

"I think it would be best, if we had some time to ourselves." Ren exclaimed, before following Nora up the stairs.

"Maybe we could, all use some space." Blake suggested.

"Not a bad idea Blake." Scythe sighed. "I have to go back to the relay tower to finish up a few of the mods I installed last night to keep the signal from the tower, and the military's radar system's signal, from scrambling together again."

"I'll come with you this time." Wendy exclaimed, before they left.

---

~Later~

The sliding glass door opened as Ruby stepped out to the back, and was trying desperately to contact Qrow.

"C'mon please." Ruby pleaded as her uncle didn't pick up, the screen showing no answer as she got frustrated. "Ugh, where are you?" Ruby shouted.

"You know, I came out here to avoid the yelling." Maria said, showing she was sitting out in the back.

"Sorry." Ruby said. "The others went to get food for tonight, and to snack on for the trip to Atlas tomorrow. Plus Scythe went to finish the work that needed to be done at the relay tower."

"Why not go with them?" Maria questioned.

"I don't know." Ruby said, sitting on the porch. "I don't know anything. What do I tell Jaune and his team, when we don't even have a solid plan? Qrow and Ben are out drinking, Ozpin hasn't come back, and even if he did, I don't know if I could even trust him. There's always Jinn, but we've only got one question left to ask her. I feel like I'm letting everyone down."

"You know, you don't give yourself enough credit." Maria said.

"Oh, thanks." Ruby said.

"That wasn't a compliment." Maria exclaimed.

"Uh… what?"

"If I have to explain it to you, it would just defeat the purpose." Maria said. "But, if you're tired of not knowing anything, how about we discuss those eyes of yours?"

"Oh. Yes Ma'am." Ruby said standing up. "I would be honored."

"Sit back down for Pete's sake." Maria said, to which Ruby sat on her knees on the ground. "Let's start with what you do know. Tell me."

"Uh… silver eyed people are supposed to be legendary warriors. Or something." Ruby said. "An' at the Fall of Beacon, I turned a giant Wyvern into stone."

"Oh boy." Maria sighed, shaking her head.

"Look, if I already knew everything I wouldn't be asking for help." Ruby said crossing her arms.

"Yelling." Maria reminded her. "It's not your fault. I had my father to teach me, and even he didn't have all the answers. But what he told me makes sense, given what I've seen."

"Was he a Huntsman too?" Ruby questioned.

"It wasn't really an official title, back in his day." Maria said.

'She's hiding something. I might have been around Scythe too much, but I'm noticing she's not telling me everything.' Ruby thought.

"I only knew him, as an old soldier, and an excellent teacher." Maria exclaimed. "I never attended one of those fancy academies of yours, but I scored higher on the license exam than any other Huntsman or Huntress that day."

"He must've been proud." Ruby said.

"He would've scolded me for showing off." Maria said. "He'd never been able to find much information about our abilities. Just legends of warriors whose eyes shown like mirrors, reflecting the light of the world, onto darkness. He found so little in fact, that it made him cautious. How could such powerful bloodlines, be so rare? Unless something was actively seeking to destroy them."

"Salem." Ruby said, in realization.

"I tried to keep my powers a secret. But as you know, it wasn't enough." Maria said. "I owe my life, to my training, and my Semblance. At the end of the day, those are still your most powerful tools."

"What is your Semblance?" Ruby questioned, before a fruit fell from the tree, only to be caught by Maria.

"Preflexes. A silly name I came up with." Maria smiled. "Hard to explain, but I can sense everything better than most, and react to attacks almost before they happen. Combine that with my training, and secret ability, to turn Grimm to stone, or blind them, or vaporize them… (Clear's throat)… An' that's how you become the Grimm Reaper."

Ruby in awe was an understatement at least.

"So, how do I laser beam monsters with my eyeballs?" Ruby questioned, sounding all serious at first, before she got bopped on the head by Maria's cane, causing her to whine from being hit on the head.

"First, you stop thinking like that." Maria said. "I want you to think of all the times you've triggered your powers. What did those moments have in common?"

"I… was scared, and stressed. Is it emotional, like unlocking a Semblance?" Ruby questioned.

"It's emotional, but more focused than that." Maria said. "Think, what is it you wanted?"

There was a moment of silence before Ruby clasped her hands together, one over the other.

"I wanted to protect my friends." Ruby said.

"Precisely. It is the desire to preserve life, which fuels the light inside you, and make no mistake, it is light." Maria said. "Preservation, is an extension of creation, or, at the very least, and enemy of destruction. The Creatures of Grimm were made by the God of Darkness, but your light, comes from his brother."

"How do you know that?" Ruby inquired.

"I always knew how to use the light, but never why it only worked on the Grimm." Maria said. "Then Jinn showed us her vision. Were you paying attention?"

Ruby pondered on that, before her memory went back to the scene in the vision where the elder brother first transformed into the dragon, and how his light destroyed the Grimm, and what the color of his eyes were.

"The God of Light, his eye were silver." Ruby said before getting up to her feet. "Okay, where do we start?"

"Well, not here. The light only works in the presence of Grimm." Maria said holding her finger down to her plate of fruit and allowing the butterfly on the blue berries to fly to her finger. "Meaning the only practice you'll get, will be a trial by fire. But, what you can do, is focus on creating a state of mind that you can tap into when you need it. Don't think of your light as a means of destroying evil, but as a way to protect the people of Remnant."

"But, that can't be right." Ruby said.

"Hmm?"

"You said, the light only reacts to Grimm, but… I used it during our battle at Haven. It reacted to Cinder." Ruby said.

"Interesting." Maria said. "Perhaps there was something that you just weren't seeing?" She guessed.

"Ruby." Yang called to her, sounding a bit panicked.

---

~Relay Tower~

"Hand me the screwdriver will you Wendy? I didn't realize the mods would cause the circuitry to overload and short out so badly." Scythe said as he was replacing the wiring under the console.

"Almost done Scythe?" Wendy asked handing him the screwdriver.

"Almost, just a few more turns of the screw and… there." Scythe said as he finished with the wiring. "Should be good to go. Just had to replace it with some thicker copper wiring. It doesn't seem like these wires have been properly cared for in years. If I hadn't have fixed them, who knows what would happen?"

"That's great." Wendy smiled, looking back to see Terra motioning to Wendy, as if encouraging her to go forward, with a thumbs up and a smile. "So, Scythe. I was thinking about something."

"What's up?" Scythe asked wiping the oil from the coolant motor, off his hands with a rag.

"How do you feel, about Adrian?" Wendy asked.

"Oh the little tyke at Saphron and Terra's place? Love the little guy, he's great." Scythe smiled. "He wouldn't stop playing with my hands all night until he fell asleep." He chuckled. "I feel sorry for Saphron and Terra though, whenever it was feeding time, he got cranky when he couldn't be around me."

"Yeah, well… Oh for Kami's sake I'm just gonna come out and say it." Wendy sighed, as Scythe got to his feet. "Scythe, I want a baby." She declared. This out of the blue confession caused Scythe to lose concentration and trip over one of the wires he took out of the tower console, and fall face first to the ground. "Oh my goodness, Scythe are you all right?" She questioned coming to his side.

"Wendy, you can't be serious, can you?" Scythe questioned, getting up and looking at her.

"I am serious, I'm wanting a baby, to start a family of our own." Wendy said.

"Wendy…" Scythe sighed, sitting on his knees. "I know you're wanting to start a family, but I'm not ready for the responsibility of being a dad yet. I mean, I'm only seventeen, and you're turning sixteen in five months. We can't start a family, when we're still practically children ourselves."

"But…"

"Listen, I know you're wanting this, and I get it, it would be fun to start a family, but we have to consider the risks and the options here. We lead dangerous lives, what if one of our enemies came and took our son or daughter while we were away, and used them as leverage against us?"

"I know it's risky but…"

"Look, I'm not saying I'm against the idea. I want kids to, but there are several factors we need to think about first, one of which being my old man." Scythe said. "He's public enemy #1 back home, and he's not gonna suddenly get a change of heart just because he'll become a grandpa. I'd rather start a family, when we know, we can protect our children from him, and when we know I won't…" Scythe paused, realizing what he was about to say, but stopped right before he could. "Let's just focus on making sure he's no longer around, when we are ready for having kids." He exclaimed, getting up and grabbing his tools, before walking off.

Wendy just sat there on her knees, looking at Scythe like she had a realization about something.

'Is he scared he might end up like Acnologia if something bad happens to our children? Is that why he's afraid of the idea of becoming a father?' Wendy pondered, watching him walk off as he lit a cigar, before he stopped, as his Scroll went off.

"Hello? Hey Yang what's… what? We'll be right there." Scythe said before hanging up.

"What's wrong?" Wendy questioned.

"It's Oscar, he's gone missing." Scythe said. "We'll start searching the city, for him. We'll follow his scent once we get a whiff of it."

"Freeze dirt bags." An Atlesian soldier said as they became surrounded by gun wielding soldiers. "By order of Commander Cordovin, you're hereby sentenced to execution, for crimes against the Atlesian Empire, and plotting conspiracy and a terrorist attack on the Atlas Capital."

"Oh brother." Scythe groaned.

---

~Salem's Castle~

All was dark and murky in the halls of the Grimm Queen's castle, as Mercury and Emerald were doing their own thing, mainly Emerald sitting on the ledge of the castle, while Mercury was training, and increasing his agility, response time, and over all speed with his prosthetic legs.

"I hate being kept in the dark like this." Emerald said.

"Yeah, Cinder was a pain, but at least she kept us filled in." Mercury exclaimed, taking a pause in his motions.

"Can I ask you something?" Emerald inquired.

"You're gonna." Mercury stated, knowing she would ask whether he said yes or no.

"Why did you come with us, the night Cinder and I found you?" Emerald questioned.

"Why are you asking—"

"Just answer the question." Emerald stated.

"Just made sense." Mercury said.

"It made sense?"

"All my life, my father trained me to be a killer, an assassin like him. An' the moments after I killed him, you two showed up looking for someone with my exact skills. Just felt it was meant to be." Mercury explained.

"That's it?" Emerald questioned.

"Hey, what's your problem?" Mercury questioned.

"I mean there has to be something you want from this, right?" Emerald asked getting up and walking towards him.

"Salem's promised us everything, and that Grim Knight guy promised me a power of my own, even left it gift wrapped in my chambers before he left for his mission." Mercury said. "We win this thing for Salem, we'll be top dogs in her new world. What more do you want?"

"I just… (sighs)… Cinder was the only family I ever had. She cared about me, taught me things. But without her here, I don't know if what we're doing…"

"Wake up, already." Mercury said, interrupting Emerald and shocking her. "Cinder doesn't care about you. She doesn't care about either of us. I heard what that blue haired Celestial Knight said to Hazel, back at Haven, and she had Salem pegged for who she really is, and Cinder is no different from that."

"You don't know, what you're talking about." Emerald exclaimed.

"You're in denial." Mercury exclaimed. "An' if you're gonna start having a crisis of identity or some crap, keep me out of it."

That triggered Emerald as she threw a punch at Mercury, to which the mercenary easily blocked it. The fight between the two continued as Emerald was taking her anger out on Mercury, whether she truly was in denial and needed someone to blame, or she was just pissed at Mercury for saying what he said. The fight didn't last very long as Mercury grabbed Emerald's fist when she jumped in the air, to bring a punch down on him.

"I'm sorry you didn't have a mommy that loved you." Mercury said, keeping a tight grip on her wrist. "But I had a father who hated me." He exclaimed, before throwing Emerald aside. "He never went easy on me. Every day of training was a beating. An' when I unlocked my Semblance, he stole it with his." Mercury said, getting in a fighting stance. "This is a crutch, this makes you weak." Mercury repeated words spoken to him. "He told me I could have it back when I was strong. So I got strong, but I never got it back. I've had to work harder than anyone to get where I am. You may not like it here without Cinder, but I think I'm right where I'm supposed to be."

As the duo prepared for another bout of fisticuffs, the sound of insane laughter echoed through the room, drawing their attention towards the open door, as Tyrian came through with his new, prosthetic tail, and a wicked smile on his deranged face.

"Oh yes, the world is mean, and I'm a big, bad man now just like the others." Tyrian said, mockingly at Mercury.

"How long have you been standing there?" Mercury questioned, marching to Tyrian.

"All you've ever learned was pain and violence, and now you're too afraid to leave it. Such a tragedy." Tyrian continued to mock.

"You don't know me." Mercury declared, before trying to kick Tyrian, only for the scorpion Faunus to bend back, evading the kick, and knocking Mercury away with his own kick in the ass.

Mercury was knocked over, and the instant he turned on his back, Tyrian had him pinned with his mechanical stinger ready to pierce him.

"Hey." Emerald tried to come to Mercury's aid.

"Shh, shh, shh, shh, shh. I want to tell you both a little secret." Tyrian whispered. "Your question is all wrong."

"What?" Emerald asked as Tyrian laughed.

"What do you want from this?" Tyrian repeated Emerald's earlier question, albeit a bit differently. "Children please." He said, as if sounding like a disappointed parent. "If you're not loving what you're doing, then you're in the wrong field."

"So what? Are you saying we should just leave?" Emerald questioned.

"Oh no, no, no, no, no, you can't do that." Tyrian gasped, before he began laughing.

"Then what did you come here for?" Mercury questioned.

"To say farewell." Tyrian said, leaning into Mercury closer before getting up, and removing his tail from Mercury's face. "There's been a change in plans. Her Grace must act swiftly if we are to prevail. If General Ironwood comes to his senses and calls upon aid from Vacuo, all may be lost for us. An' so the good doctor and I are being sent to Atlas to prepare."

"Prepare for what?" Emerald questioned.

"Tyrian." Arthur Watts' voice rang out from the hall behind him through the open doors. "It's time."

Stepping away from Mercury, to allow the boy to get up, Tyrian had a few final words of farewell.

"Do what makes you happy children." He smiled, before looking at them with innocent eyes. "Please? I'm begging you." He said in a more sinister tone, pointing his stinger at the, before tossing something to Mercury.

"What's this?" Mercury questioned.

"That is something the Grim Knight asked me to give you before he departed to hunt down the Celestial Knights." Tyrian said. "He couldn't find your chambers, so I was to deliver it for him."

"It, looks like a medical injector." Emerald said. "But, one I've never seen before, and I've stolen a lot of them from pharmaceutical facilities and companies. This one, looks more like a gun then a pen."

"The good Knight left this with it as well." Tyrian said, tossing him an envelope. "It's supposed to describe where he got the power from, and how to use it apparently."

With that Tyrian left with Watts, leaving Mercury and Emerald alone. Tossing the note to Emerald, Mercury examined the medical injector.

"Don't you think you should read the note first?" Emerald asked, opening it.

"You can if you want, I'm not gonna waste my time." Mercury said, sticking the injector into his neck, and feeling a surge of energy coursing through his body. "Oh yeah, that's it." He smiled.

"To the silver haired punk. This little gift is from a universe, that I have multiple connections to, and multiple favors to call upon. This specific power isn't a Semblance, but is known as, a Quirk." Emerald read the note. "However, what is inside the injector, is not a single Quirk, but two Quirks merged into one. The name of the Quirks separately are Steel, and Permeation. Two Quirks given from my informant, who was able to get a copy of the originals. To use Steel, you just gotta imagine your body being covered in metal, while to use Permeation, you hold your breath, but be careful, unless your clothes are made of fibers from your hair, and your prosthetics are connected to your nerves, you'll phase right through them." Emerald finished reading. "Did you hear that Mercury? Don't use Permeation until… HOLY BROTHER OF CHAOS." Emerald shouted, turning to Mercury who still had his prosthetics connected to him, but was now naked, and covered in metal like a second skin. "Put your clothes back on baby carrot."

---

~That Evening~

"Oscar." Jaune called out, walking down the street with Saphron, Ren, and Nora.

"Oscar?" Nora called out.

"The City's enormous." Ren said. "He could've gone anywhere."

"This is all my fault." Jaune said. "I overreacted."

"I still don't really understand what happened. Was it about the mission?" Saphron questioned.

"It's… kind of hard to talk about." Nora said.

"I know, I know. Top secret." Saphron exclaimed. "Did he, do something wrong?"

"No, he didn't." Jaune said. "We just got some new information, and it's gonna be a lot harder than we thought."

"I mean, if it was easy, then it wouldn't be important, right?" Saphron questioned.

"I think we're all just a bit unsure of what we need to do next." Ren exclaimed.

"You could, stay in Mistral, get your licenses at Haven, and come back to Argus." Saphron suggested. "There's a lot of good you can do here. I know your mission is important, but it's not like you're the only ones who can do it. It's not the only mission that needs doing."

"It's… not that simple." Jaune said.

"Well… (sighs)… I should go pick Adrian up from daycare." Saphron said. "I'll let Terra know what's happened, and we'll meet you later." She exclaimed before walking away. "Good luck."

"Guys, glad I found you." Scythe said, jogging up to them.

"What's up, did you find Oscar?"

"No, but I've got some bad news." Scythe exclaimed. "Turns out Cordovin wasn't planning on letting us leave tomorrow. She was actually planning on ambushing, and assassinating me on my way back from finishing the mods and repairs on the Relay Tower, and blame it on the Grimm. Terra would have gotten caught up in the killing too, if Wendy hadn't stepped in and saved her. But the main problem is, we're back to square one."

"That damned She-Devil." Jaune cursed. "Where's Wendy?"

"Letting Ruby and the others know." Scythe exclaimed.

There was a slight pause and moment of silence before Nora spoke up.

"Hey, there's a café over there. Why don't we get something to warm up?" Nora suggested."

"I'm okay, you three go on ahead." Jaune said, before walking off to sit on a park bench.

"I think I'll stay by his side. Dude looks like he could use a lot of cheering up." Scythe said.

"You want anything big guy?" Nora inquired.

"A hot chocolate please." Scythe exclaimed.

"We'll be right back." Ren said.

As Nora and Ren went to the café, Scythe took a seat next to Jaune, giving off a sigh as he sat down.

"So, feeling a bit guilty with how you reacted Jaune?" Scythe asked.

"I don't wanna talk about it." Jaune said.

The two sat in silence for a moment, before Jaune noticed an autumn leaf, dancing in the wind and on the ground, before it began to blow away into the park right across the street. When he looked into the park, his eyes caught onto something odd about it, and he got up from his seat, heading into the park, this action not going unnoticed by Scythe.

"Jaune? Where you going man?" Scythe inquired as he got up to follow.

Jaune followed the leaf into the central square of the park, with Scythe following, and both of them caught sight, of a giant bronze statue, of someone they both knew dearly, from their respective worlds.

"Pyrrha." Scythe said, recognizing her as they moved closer to the statue.

When they got to the statue, Jaune knelt down and read the plaque that had been dedicated to her, with Scythe putting a hand on his shoulder, his head hung low.

"Is she still alive in your world?" Jaune questioned.

"Yeah, she is. An' she's happily married to the man of her dreams, with three bundles of joy." Scythe smiled.

There was another moment of silence before Scythe sensed the presence of someone else coming towards the statue, and he had a feeling, it was someone else, who held Pyrrha dear to their heart.

"It's really beautiful isn't it?" The woman asked, stopping Jaune from stepping away.

Jaune turned back to look at the woman, and saw it was someone who could have been mistaken for Pyrrha's older sister.

"Yeah." Jaune said. "Why here?" He inquired.

"She trained here, Sanctum Academy." Mrs. Nikos said. "Everyone was crushed when she chosen Beacon over Haven. No one wanted to see her go, but it was where she wanted to be. I'm just glad she was surrounded by such amazing people." She said, looking to Jaune, knowing exactly who he was.

Jaune realized this, and looked to Mrs. Nikos to see the look of gratitude in her emerald green eyes.

"She should be standing here." Jaune said.

"She is." Mrs. Nikos said. "She understood that she had a responsibility to try. I don't think that she would regret her choice, because a Huntress, would understand that there really wasn't a choice to make. An' a Huntress, is what she always wanted to be, ever since she was just a little girl." She exclaimed, her voice starting to crack.

Jaune turned to look at her, fully, with respect for his teammate's mother.

"Pyrrha never got the chance to graduate." Jaune said. "But she was, a Huntress."

There was a moment of silence as Mrs. Nikos went to rub the tears away from her eyes.

"Thank you." She said.

"Jaune, Mrs. Nikos."

Jaune and Pyrrha's mother turned to Scythe, as he had remained silent, with a smile on his face, to let them have their moment. In his hands, he held a jar of ashes, one big enough to be labelled an urn.

"I believe there is someone, who you both would like to say these things to in person." He smiled, opening the jar, and pouring the ashes onto the ground, using his sky magic to keep any from blowing away.

"Scythe, what are you doing?" Jaune questioned.

"Something, that will help restore the timeline to its proper balance." Scythe exclaimed, as he began to use both his sky magic, and his time magic. "Sky/Chrono Deity: Resurrection of the Fallen!"

The pile of ashes became encased in a sphere of black wind and crystalline particles, as it began to float off the ground, and in the middle of Scythe's palms, before it began to grow, and expand with a figure, in the fetal position forming in the center. With the curtain of the magic blocking their view, neither Jaune, nor Mrs. Nikos could make out who it was Scythe was bringing back from the dead.

When the winds began to die down, the sphere of energy, containing the curled up figure, began to fall gently towards the ground, before landing softly. With the magic no longer running its course, the sphere disappeared, revealing, that it was none other than Pyrrha herself Scythe had brought back. With a sudden gasp, Pyrrha jolted awake, still thinking that she was in a fight with Cinder, before she began looking around, and shivered as she hugged herself.

Mrs. Nikos gasped in shock when she saw her daughter sitting there on the ground. She looked to Jaune, and saw he was looking away, his face flushed red.

"What's the matter?" Mrs. Nikos asked him.

"We… might wanna cover her up." Jaune said.

Mrs. Nikos looked to her daughter again, and realized Jaune was right as Pyrrha was in her birthday suit, freezing on the cold hard ground.

"Where am I, what's going on?" Pyrrha questioned as her mother came and put her jacket around her. "Mom?"

"It's all right dear, you're safe now, you're home, and you're fine." Mrs. Nikos said. "Thanks to…"

Mrs. Nikos and Jaune looked to where Scythe was, and saw that in their shock, they hadn't noticed him having fallen to his knees, and then flat on his back, breathing heavily.

"You good man?" Jaune asked, coming over to him.

Scythe's only response, was giving him an exhausted thumbs up, before his arm flopped back onto the ground. "Just fine. My Magic though is gonna be depleted for the next 24hours."

"Magic?" Mrs. Nikos questioned. "Are you… a Celestial Knight?"

That instantly got Jaune and Scythe to look at her, as if she'd grown a second head, Scythe was even sitting up, because he was so surprised.

"You know about Celestial Knights?" Scythe asked.

"Oh please, don't act so surprised." Mrs. Nikos said. "My name's Artemis Nikos, and I'm a retired Celestial Knight."

"Jaune? Scythe?" Ren's voice echoed through the air.

Scythe and Jaune looked to where Ren and Nora were, and saw the two had spotted them, and came to their location, both of them holding hot drinks.

"There you two are we…" Nora stopped when she gasped, both her and Ren dropping the drinks they were holding, as they saw Pyrrha, being helped to her feet by Jaune. "Pyrrha? Is that you?"

"Ren, Nora…" Pyrrha smiled. "You've both changed so much. How long has it been?"

"It's been almost two years, since you were murdered by Cinder." Ren exclaimed.

"Almost two years, since you died." Jaune said. "You were brought back, by the big guy lying exhausted on his back… who somehow managed to get his hot chocolate from Ren before it landed on the ground." He exclaimed, seeing Scythe sipping his hot chocolate.

"Ow, hot." Scythe winced.

"Aren't you immune to fire?" Nora asked.

"He's completely out of magic. He used it all to bring Pyrrha back." Jaune explained. "So he's about as vulnerable to the elements, as we are for the next 24hours."

"Huh, good to know." Ren said. "But that does mean we're down one heavy hitter."

"If not our heaviest hitter. I mean, the guy is the grandson of the High Leader of the Celestial Knights." Nora said, before clasping her mouth shut, thinking she spilt the beans.

"You're Shirou's grandkid?" Artemis questioned.

"Yep, that's me." Scythe said.

"Wait, who is she, and how does she know about the Celestial Knights?" Nora asked.

"Guys, this is my mother…" Nora introduced. "Mom, these are my Teammates, Jaune, Nora, and Ren."

"Pleased to meet you." Artemis smiled.

"As for how she knows about the Celestial Knights, according to her, she's a retired Celestial Knight." Jaune exclaimed.

"I'm sorry to interrupt, but can we please get me a change of clothes?" Pyrrha questioned. "It's a bit drafty downstairs, just being in this jacket."

"Oh, right, sorry dear." Artemis said.

"I've got you covered." Scythe said, reaching into his side pouch and pulling out a suitcase. "A set of your armor, and clothes, are in there."

"Thank you, for bringing my daughter back to me." Artemis smiled, looking at Scythe with a big affectionate smile.

"No problem, now let's get back to the house, and regroup on how we're going to proceed from here and find Oscar." Scythe groaned, forcing himself back to his feet, before wobbling, giving Ren and Nora a prompt to catch him, before he could fall.

"We've got you big guy." Nora smiled.

---

~Back at the House~

"I've never seen him this bad." Yang said, as she, Maria, Weiss, Blake, Wendy, and Ruby were looking at their uncle who was lying on the doorstep to Saphron and Terra's house.

"An' what's worse is Ben is just as drunk." Ruby exclaimed, sighing in frustration. "Ben I get, having lost a partner, but Uncle Qrow seriously has to get his shit together."

"Jack." Wendy called, right before the former summoned spirit popped up by her side.

"Hi mommy." Jack smiled.

"Jack sweetie, can you please bring Ben back to the Armory and get him to sober up there?" Wendy questioned.

"Of course mommy. I'm on it." Jack saluted before grabbing Ben by the ankle, and returning to the armory with him.

"Mommy?" Yang questioned.

"She's a wraith created from hundreds of orphaned children who died on the streets, all wanting the same thing so badly, their restless spirits converged on one child's corpse, and she came to be." Wendy said, throwing Qrow over her shoulders. "Their one wish, was to have a loving family, and Jack found that, in Scythe and myself."

"Where are they from?" Maria asked.

"The same world High Leader Emiya and Rin are from, a world called Earth. At some point in their timeline, Jack was known as a serial killer named Jack the Ripper, who only targeted hookers or any woman associated with prostitution because that lead to an increase in homeless children who were either enslaved, kidnapped, abandoned, or several other things that I am not really comfortable with mentioning, since Saphron, Terra, and Adrian, are gonna be coming by around the corner in less than a minute." Wendy explained.

"Ugh, why was I on the stairs, and why am I on Wendy's shoulders?" Qrow questioned, before Wendy dropped him to the ground, to wake him up, which worked. "Hey." He said angrily as he got to his feet.

"Probably because no one's home, Uncle Qrow." Ruby said. "We've been out looking for Oscar."

"Oscar?" Qrow questioned.

A few seconds later, Saphron and Terra came around the corner with Adrian in Terra's arms, reaching out to Scythe, who was still being supported by Nora and Ren, as they came home. Wendy seemed a bit concerned when she saw Ren and Nora helping her husband back to the house, as he looked a bit unsteady.

"I'm sure this looks great to the neighbors." Terra said, sarcastically, only to receive an elbow from Saphron, who accidentally elbowed Adrian in the back, instead of her wife in the ribs.

"No luck?" Ren asked.

"No, you?" Blake questioned.

"No, we didn't find Oscar." Scythe said as he stood up from Ren and Nora's help.

"Scythe what happened?" Wendy asked.

"Let's just say… he did something that the whole city might worship him for." Nora said.

"Back to the missing Oscar thing." Scythe groaned, sitting on the steps.

"He's right, let's not worry and start panicking. We will find him." Jaune said. "We aren't going to Atlas without him."

"We?" Ruby asked helping Qrow to stand with Yang's assistance.

"Good old Jaune here, has a plan." Scythe smiled.

"Sorry we won't be staying." Jaune said, turning to look at his sister, nephew, and sister-in-law.

"No you're not." Saphron smirked, knowing her brother.

"How about we get out of the cold?" Terra suggested before the front door opened, surprising them as they thought everyone was out of the house.

"Oh, I was wondering when you'd get back." Oscar said, standing in the doorway, wearing a new green and red themed jacket with a belt around his waist.

"Oscar." Everyone called out, seeing he was safe and okay.

"Huh?" Oscar was confused, until Nora started screaming and glomped him in another hug, burying his head deeper into her bosom, accompanied by everyone, minus Qrow, Maria, Terra, Saphron, Adrian, Scythe, and Wendy, dogpiling him into a massive group hug.

Everyone started their berating after they got off the dog pile, and Ruby helped Oscar to his feet.

"You had us worried sick." Weiss said.

"Are you okay?" Ruby asked.

"What are you wearing?" Nora inquired with a gaze at his new jacket.

"Is something, cooking?" Terra asked as the others joined in on welcoming him back.

"Oh, uh, yeah." Oscar said. "I thought maybe you guys would appreciate a hot meal after spending all day looking for me, apparently."

"It's my fault we were all out there in the first place." Jaune said, coming to the head of the group. "Oscar, I'm so sorry for earlier. I was way, way out of line, and what I said…"

"No, it's okay." Oscar exclaimed. "These past few days, I've been scared of the same things you were. I don't know how much longer I'm going to be, me. But I did some thinking, and I do know that I want to do everything I can to help with whatever time I have left." Oscar said.

"Good." Jaune smiled. "This team isn't quite the same without you Oscar."

Sniff-sniff… "Is something burning?" Wendy asked.

"Oh no, the casserole." Oscar panicked.

"We're on it Chef." Saphron smiled.

"Combat gear looks good." Ruby said.

Knock-knock-knock…

Qrow, being the closest to the door, turned and opened it. When he saw who was standing there, his eyes nearly popped out of his head, before closing the door, and opening it again, and repeated that pattern two more times, doing his best imitation of a fish, before closing the.

"Uncle Qrow? What's wrong who is it?" Ruby asked.

"I think I've finally reached my breaking point." Qrow said. "Scythe, you answer it."

Scythe shrugged his shoulders, and went to answer the door, smiling when he saw a fully clothed, and armored Pyrrha standing in the door. This sight caused everyone, who was not Jaune, Nora, and Ren, to go bug eyed.

"Is there room for one more on your team?" Pyrrha questioned.

"Pyrrha, is that really you?" Ruby inquired.

"Hello Ruby." Pyrrha smiled softly. "It's been a while."

"How, how is this possible?" Yang was gobsmacked.

"It's all thanks to the big guy." Nora said, patting Scythe's back.

"So you found the right time to bring her back huh?" Wendy asked.

"Yeah, in front of her mom, who just so happens to be a retired Celestial Knight." Scythe said.

"What's a Celestial Knight?" Terra asked as she and Saphron came out of the kitchen, but stopped and went slack jawed when they saw Pyrrha standing in their doorway. Even Adrian went slack jawed at seeing the redheaded Amazonian.

"What, but how, isn't she supposed to be dead?" Saphron questioned.

"She is, but she isn't." Scythe smiled.

"Why don't we all enjoy some of Oscar's casserole while Scythe and I explain everything to you?" Wendy suggested.

---

~One Explanation Later~

"An' that's pretty much what we are." Wendy finished, as Saphron, Terra, and even Adrian, looked shocked at hearing that news. "I take it you two are still processing?"

"So, that's how Pyrrha Nikos is back from beyond the grave?" Terra questioned.

"Yep." Scythe said. "Though, the process of bringing her back, has left me drained, I can still use my physical strength and speed granted to me by my Celestial Knighthood, but as for my magic, I'm afraid I won't be able to use it until the 24hours from when I brought Pyrrha back, is actually up." He explained. "I think I might still be able to use my other abilities I've gained from my travels through the multiverse, but my Godslayer Magic, and Celestial Knight Reequipping are, I'm afraid, off the table for another 22 hours."

"That could be a problem." Blake said.

"Worst of all, Cordo tried to have her soldiers assassinate Scythe and I earlier, instead of doing as she was ordered." Wendy explained.

"So, would it be too much if I requested to join you all?" Pyrrha asked. "I don't wanna sit on the sidelines, and just be defenseless, and useless like I was at the Fall of Beacon."

"You weren't useless." Scythe said. "You managed to delay Cinder's plot for destroying the tower, long enough for civilians to find safety. That's what the heart of a true Huntress is all about."

The sound of someone going up the stairs, caught his and a cloaked reaper's attention as they looked up to see Qrow heading to the second floor.

"Where are you going?" Ruby questioned.

"I don't wanna get in the way of your reunion with Pyrrha." Qrow said.

"You've been gone all day. Just sit with us." Ruby exclaimed.

"She's right Qrow. Take it from someone who's isolated himself who's been in your shoes. Isolation is not the way to go." Scythe said.

"Look Ruby, Scythe, I'm glad you kids worked out whatever all that was earlier with Oscar, and that Pyrrha Nikos is back. But the fact is, we're not a single step closer to Atlas." Qrow exclaimed.

"Actually, I think I have an idea." Jaune said. "But, it's sort of a, no going back, kind of idea."

"Well, let's hear it." Ruby exclaimed.

"This should be good." Scythe smiled.

"With Cordo on watch, only Atlas Airships have the clearance to leave for Solitas. So we, steal an Atlas Airship." Jaune exclaimed, getting a little nervous at the end, causing Adrian to laugh, while the others looked at him, as if he's lost his mind.

"Not what I was expecting Jaune." Scythe said. "I'm gonna be out of the game for a while, it's kinda risky."

"An' besides, I work best with Scythe at my side, there's no way I'd be able to help with the heavy duty stuff on my own if there's more than I can handle." Wendy exclaimed. "I might be a Celestial Knight, but I have limits."

"That's not just breaking the law, that's definitely worse." Weiss said.

"How would we even get onto the airfield with Scythe out of commission for the next day or so?" Yang questioned.

"That part, I haven't quite figured out yet." Jaune exclaimed. "But I was…"

"Okay stop, just stop. Stop." Qrow said. "Look if this thing goes south, then it's not something we can just fight our way out of. This is the Atlas Military we're talking about. For your sake, just drop this."

There was a tense moment of silence, as Ruby looked over the group, before turning back to her uncle with a clearly, annoyed, and determined look on her face.

"I want to hear him out." She said.

"Ruby…"

"She wants to hear him out Qrow." Scythe said giving Qrow a look that dared the old drunk bird to argue against his authority. "An' so do I."

"Me too." Wendy said.

"I know you're trying to protect us; you're afraid we can't do it, but right now, I don't really care what you think." Ruby said, surprising Qrow with her attitude and how she was talking towards him, reminding the old drunkard of a white cloak wearing silver eyed woman he used to know. "Just because you don't have an idea, doesn't mean we're out of options. Oz hasn't been here to tell us what to do, but we still managed to get this far anyway. We've been in bad situations before, and we didn't need an adult to come save us, or tell us what to do. We just did it our way, and I say we do it our way. An' if you think you can keep up with us kids, we'd be happy to have you."

"Spoken like a true leader." Scythe smiled.

"Ruby has really grown up these last couple years." Pyrrha said, happy and feeling proud for her friend.

"Looks like you didn't give her enough credit either." Maria chuckled, looking at Qrow.

---

~Argus City Sometime Later~

The night sky was dark, but illuminated by the city lights, as a lone figure was crouched down on the rooftop of a building, right across the street from the Cotta-Arc Household, with clear head shots of Scythe and Wendy in his scope, seeing that they were still in the middle of planning their next move. He was about to pull the trigger, but paused when he saw through his scope, Wendy raising little Adrian over her head, making him laugh, and making silly faces at him.

"Damn it." He cursed, as memories he tried to keep repressed about his own childhood, came up to the surface.

"Having trouble there Bruce?" Ben questioned, aiming a pistol, point blank at the back of Grim Knight's helmeted head. "Now I know your cowl is made of a bullet proof material that could block most rounds with minimal damage done, but I doubt that would be very effective at this close a range from my pistol."

"Shigura." Grim exclaimed, putting up the safety on his weapon. "How you holding up? I heard about your partner. My condolences."

"You do not, get to talk about her." Ben exclaimed, his grip tightening on the hilt of his weapon. "Thanks to this damned Celestial Knight metabolism, I'm unable to get drunk unless it's by some of that shitty wine Iskandar has, or the Tengu liquor Scythe has in his trophy room."

"My apologies, I didn't mean to upset you." Grim Knight said, standing up. "I know how hard it is to lose someone, so I understand how you feel."

"You Dark Knights, understand nothing about true pain, or suffering. All you desire is chaos, carnage, and anarchy." Ben exclaimed.

"We seek out true order through those. For there cannot be order without chaos." Grim exclaimed. "That's why the Dark Knights exist. To be the immortal enemies of the Celestial Knights. I'm kinda disappointed you accepted Shirou's offer after you and your beloved, had turned down mine so callously."

"Shut up."

"You wielded two of the four Chaos God's power, Khorne, and Nurgle, while your beloved had the other two, Slaanesh, and Tzeentch, but when your lover died, her powers passed on to you, making you the bearer of all four, and there was nothing you could have done about it." Grim Knight said. "If only there had been some way for you to have convinced her not to go on that solo mission that ended her life. Don't you feel hatred, rage, and malice towards the Emiya's? Mad that you're alone and your lover is gone, while the lovers of those two remain alive?"

"No." Ben said. "I know what you're doing Grim Knight, and it's not working."

"What exactly is it you think I'm doing?" Grim Knight questioned.

"You're trying to get into my head, you're trying to turn me against my allies, and make me Ex-Communicado, so you and your merry band of misfits can take advantage of my weakness to recruit me." Ben exclaimed. "Well it's not working."

"Too bad, my mind tricks usually work." Grim Knight exclaimed. "Won't matter though. I'm stronger than any of the Celestial Knights in that armory. All the Dark Knights are."

"Not Scythe." Ben said. "Scythe is different. You might know how the rest of us tick, but you have zero clue, on what Scythe's true limitations are."

"We'll just have to see about that, now won't we?" Grim Knight questioned, before he disappeared in a haze of purple light.

"Damn it." Ben growled. "He went to the Dark Armory."

Walking closer to the ledge of the building, Ben put his gun away, and looked into the Cotta-Arc household through the window, smiling when he saw Scythe and Wendy cuddling together with Adrian playing with Scythe's fingers, as the two teens began to doze off.

"Still, it'll all be worth the effort, keeping the Dark Knights at bay." Ben exclaimed. "Scythe cannot be allowed to die, if he did, all hell would break loose on the multi-verse."

---

~Celestial Armory~

"Hmmm." Shirou said looking over the notice in his hands.

"What's wrong dear?" Rin questioned.

"It looks like Scythe and Wendy's training with their martial arts teacher is gonna have to wait a little while longer, at least for them. I just got a notification from Death, telling me they've been gone for too long from the DWMA and missed too many classes, and that if they don't turn up soon, they will be expelled and will have to retake the entry test." Shirou explained.

"Isn't there also a time loop related mishap in that world that needs to be taken care of to?" Rin questioned.

"There is, but given how we don't have physical bodies anymore, it would be too dangerous for either of us to take care of it ourselves. We'd be erased from reality instead of just being erased from the timeline of that universe." Shirou exclaimed.

"So then what, send Ben when he gets back, in hopes he won't screw it up?" Rin inquired.

"No. A mission like this requires a two person team." Shirou said, looking into his crystal ball. "Sometime into Scythe and Wendy's second year at the DWMA after the Kishin escapes, if they aren't expelled by that point, Death will send some staff, and more than a handful of students to the island, to gather a relic left behind by an old friend of his. That relic sits in the time loop in the vortex on the island the mishap from our first mission there took place on."

"You mean the mission that we botched and Cerenos nearly took our heads off for?" Rin questioned.

"That one, back in our early days as Celestial Knights." Shirou sighed, getting up, and reaching into his desk. "If the timeline goes as it should, Scythe and Wendy should be joining the raid team on that mission the weapons and meisters will be sent on, sometime after returning to the academy."

"It has been a while for them since they attended the opening ceremony for newcomer weapons and meisters." Rin exclaimed. "You think they'll be able to catch up on the work they've missed?"

"A couple seconds on the fifth level of the armory should do." Shirou smiled, pulling a box from inside the drawer. "Do you think they're ready to find out the truth behind what the armory is really a part of?"

"I say, we tell them after they make it back from their training in with that perverted old hermit." Rin said.

"I suppose you're right. They aren't exactly ready to know the truth just yet." Shirou chuckled, putting the box on a shelf of the book case.

"Soon though." Rin smiled.

"Yes, soon." Shirou nodded.

---

~Remnant Plan Execution~

The sun was shining brightly as the seagulls squawked and the skies were clear over the airfield. The sun was beating down on the winter scenery as Weiss and Cordo could be seen walking to an airship, with Weiss pulling her luggage in tow, with Saphron holding Adrian walking up behind them with the dummy twins behind her.

"I was relieved to hear that you had come to your senses Miss Schnee." Cordo said, her face bruised and wearing an eyepatch over her right eye. "Many of us were devastated when we heard you would be attending, Beacon Academy." She exclaimed, saying Beacon's name with disgust. "Knowing that you'll be returning to Atlas, just warms my old heart, and makes the sting of my injuries from that heathen ruffian the other morning, all the more bearable."

"It was… time to get my act together and get back to my roots." Weiss said.

"Oh, I can't wait to see you follow in your sister's footsteps." Cordo said.

"Absolutely." Weiss said, a bit tense as she was forcing herself not to just punch Cordo in the face.

"I'm sending two of my best guards to personally escort you." Cordo said. "Make sure General Ironwood, hears that part." She winked before turning around and marching off.

"Allow me to assist you with your bag." One of the guards said.

"No, no, it's fine, I got it." Weiss said, as she began to have a struggle with the guard about her bag, with the other joining in.

Saphron took notice of this, and turned down to Adrian.

"Okay, just like we practiced." She told him, before Adrian began wailing as loud as he could. "Oh no, look at that, he's just going to miss you so much." Saphron said. "You should hurry on out of here."

"A crying child?" One of the two guards said, putting part of Weiss's bag down.

"We must console it." The other said, both of them taking weird action poses.

With the two guards distracted by Adrian and trying to console him, Weiss made her move and loaded herself up onto the airship with her luggage.

"That was close." She sighed.

"Is everything okay?" Ruby asked over the intercom.

"Call me heavy, it's all muscle." Maria said, from inside Weiss's luggage. "I'll show them a thing or two about heavy."

"At least they didn't figure out you were in there when you grunted." Wendy said, poking part of her head out of the shadow of Weiss's luggage.

"We're on board." Weiss said.

---

~Ruby's Location~

"Alright, we'll all watch our scrolls." Ruby said. "The second Weiss is out of range of the Comm Tower, that'll mean that she's out of range of the radar to."

"An' that's where Blake and Scythe step in." Yang said over the intercom. "We're almost at the drop off."

---

~Yang Blake and Scythe's Location~

"Why isn't Ben here to help?" Blake questioned.

"He returned to the Armory last night remember? He was having to give his report to High Leader Emiya, after he'd sobered up." Scythe explained, running alongside the bike with Grimm Reaper on his back.

"Damn your Celestial Speed is fast." Yang said.

"This isn't even my fastest." Scythe smiled.

"Okay, remember. One the radar box is separate from the rest of the communications equipment." Terra said, talking with Blake over her Scroll. "So if you disconnect it properly, it won't take out comms in the rest of the city. Two, this conversation never happened."

"Don't worry. This isn't the first time I've disabled Atlas security." Blake said.

Terra just looked at her unamused. "Never. Happened." She said, before hanging up the call.

"Wow, you said that with no shame. We sure you're okay?" Scythe quipped, causing Yang to chuckle, as they skid to a stop. "But you've never worked around the kind of mods and upgrades I've made, so I'm gonna have to come with you for this."

Blake hopped down from Bumblebee, as Scythe took on a steady pace, to go for a light run the rest of the way.

"You sure I shouldn't go with?" Yang questioned.

"More intruders means we're more likely to be seen." Blake said. "I've got Scythe by my side, so it should be all good." She reassured as she began turning around. "Besides, stealth isn't exactly your um…" She stopped when she saw Yang crossing her arms, daring her to finish that sentence. "I mean, you're great, and I'll hurry back."

"Smooth save." Scythe said. "Don't worry Yang, I'll be sure to keep Blake safe."

"Go." Yang said giving off a smile.

With that, Blake smiled to Yang, keeping eye contact with her until she couldn't as she and Scythe went running into the forest.

"Heading in on foot, won't be long." Blake said over the intercom.

---

~Rest of the Team~

"Yes it's all going according to plan." Jaune cheered before he stopped, as he saw Ren, Nora, and Pyrrha, giving him amused and adoring looks. "I mean, roger."

"Don't celebrate just yet Jaune." Scythe said over the intercom. "99% of the time, plan A, usually goes down the drain, that's why strategists come up with multiple contingency plans. I know I've had my fair share of those. Plus I have enough firsthand experience to know this to be true."

Oscar and Ruby knew he was right, and chuckled when they saw Jaune deflate, before they turned to look at Qrow.

"Hey." Oscar said, getting Ruby's attention. "This is gonna work."

"Yeah." Ruby said as she and Oscar turned in the direction Weiss would be coming out from.

---

~Weiss's Location~

Weiss was sitting patiently on the seat of the airship, and watching her Scroll carefully, for the signals of her friends as they disappeared one by one. When all bars were empty, Weiss gently tapped her foot on the ground, twice and Wendy came out of the shadow of her luggage, and walked over to the pilots, a genuinely joyful smile on her face.

"Pardon me gents." Wendy said putting her hands on each of their shoulders, making them look at her. "But I'm afraid this is your stop."

With that done, Wendy slammed their heads together before they could radio the trap in, and were left unconscious.

"Jack." Wendy called.

"Yes mommy?" Jack said, popping up next to her, with a smile.

"Can you do mommy a favor and bring these two back to the mainland? Five miles outside the City of Argus's gates?" Wendy asked, taking the helm. "But make sure they're protected from Grimm."

"Sure thing mommy." Jack smiled, grabbing the two soldiers by the shoulders and disappearing like she had with Ben the other night.

"You're good at this whole mutiny thing." Maria said, taking the other seat after climbing out of Weiss's luggage.

"A Celestial Knight has to be prepared to play the part of anything." Wendy said. "Similar to an assassin, but entirely different."

"Seems reasonable enough." Maria said, as Wendy turned the airship around. "Where'd you learn to fly an airship?"

"Today, it is happening right now." Wendy said. "I'm learning as I go."

---

~The Rest of the Team~

Ruby was looking at her Scroll, seeing the bars for Weiss's icon getting stronger, and stronger, which was a bit concerning. If the comms were still up, then so was the radar, which meant something else has happened, before the bars went down to nothing, and dashed her worries to dust.

"Alright guys this is it." Ruby said. "Blake, Scythe you're up." She exclaimed, but got no response. "Blake? Scythe?" She questioned, before turning to the rest of the team, her fears and worries returning.

---

~Yang's Location~

"Yang, what's going on?" Ruby questioned over the intercom.

Yang got up, and took a few steps around the tree, to see the comms tower.

"I don't know." She responded, before her Scroll beeped, and Weiss's signal was returning, which wasn't good.

---

~Argus Military Base~

"Ma'am, we've got something on radar." One of the soldiers said, getting Cordo's attention.

"An' who would be foolish enough to enter our airspace unannounced?" Cordo questioned.

"Apparently us, Ma'am." The soldier said.

---

~Airship~

"Manta5-1, this is Argus Base. We see you've circled back. What's your status, over." The soldier questioned.

"Why can they see us?" Weiss questioned.

"Someone dropped the ball." Maria said.

"No, it's more like a third party has involved themselves into affairs that they're not welcome at." Wendy said. "I'll handle this." She exclaimed grabbing the radio. "I've worked with military forces before, I'm familiar with their jargon."

"This should be interesting." Maria smiled.

"Argus Base, this is Manta5-1. Feel free to gaff off. Thought we were going to scrub do to FOD, but we're back up and green across the board, over." Wendy said.

"Nice work, couldn't have done it better myself." Maria said.

"Manta5-1, return to base immediately, or you will be treated as hostile, over." The soldier said.

"I thought you said you were familiar with their jargon?" Weiss questioned.

"Jargon was fine, but our records show none of our female pilots were granted permission to accompany the flight on Manta5-1 to Atlas." The soldier said.

"I knew I should have called for Iskandar and his notes." Wendy groaned.

"CALAVERA." Cordo's voice echoed from the radio. "You those insolent children, and those fake Celestial Knight Ruffians are up to something, aren't you?"

"Surprised to find I'm still alive?" Wendy questioned, talking into the radio. "You openly ordered your soldiers to try and kill two Celestial Knights. You've got no one to blame for this current predicament, but yourself, so you can take your stupid Holier than Thou attitude, and shove it right up your… hey…" Wendy stopped when Maria snagged the radio away from her.

"You thought you could undermine my authority? If you don't return my ship this instant, I will make an example out of you. I will show you the true might of Atlas." Cordo said.

The only response Maria gave was to start chewing on the cashews she brought with her.

"You hear that Cordo?" Maria questioned. "That's the sound of me not caring." She mocked, before she began laughing menacingly.

"Ruby, we're in trouble." Weiss said, seeming a little scared of Maria. "Cordo's onto us, and Maria isn't helping."

---

~Team's Location~

"Why is the radar still up?" Weiss questioned.

"We don't know, Blake and Scythe aren't responding." Ruby said.

"What do we do?" Oscar asked.

"Keep the ship in one piece." Yang said, joining the conversation.

---

~Yang's Location~

Yang revved up the engine of her bike before she went driving towards the comms tower.

---

~Team's Location~

"Maybe we should fly over to help Yang, Blake, and Scythe first?" Nora suggested.

"Damn it." Qrow cursed. "Cordo's gonna scramble her fighters. We've got maybe 90 seconds before they're in the air, and all over Weiss, Maria, and Wendy. This is all my fault."

"What are you talking about? Your Semblance?" Jaune inquired.

"Every choice I've ever made has led me here, and I've dragged you along with me." Qrow said. "Oz, myself, the others. We're responsible for the mess the world's in now. I shouldn't have come, I shouldn't have let any of you come. What was I thinking?"

There was a tense moment of silence, where the sound sounds to be heard were the roaring waves of the ocean.

"We're all in this together, and we're all gonna do the best we can. That's all anyone can do. An' I know, it's what you've always aimed for." Ruby said. "We would've come whether or not you'd let us, so stop talking like we're you're responsibility. We're not. But we could still use Qrow Branwen on our side."

There was another moment of silence, before Qrow spoke up again.

"Hm. How did you grow up so fast?" Qrow questioned.

"I had good role models." Ruby smiled.

"Guys, we've got a problem." Wendy said, gaining their attention.

---

~Airship~

"Cordo isn't sending fighters." Weiss exclaimed, as they had a view of the base.

From their vantage point, they could see the metal doors of the Argus Base's largest hangar opening up, and the weapon inside, made all three of them frightened beyond belief.

"I think we're gonna need Scythe's full strength to deal with this thing." Weiss said.

"Unfortunately that's not an option at this point." Wendy exclaimed, as the peak of the sea spire, spilt and a giant robot came lumbering out of it, with Cordo at the helm.

"Clearly the people have forgotten that they live in peace thanks to the awesome might of Atlas." Cordo's voice rang out from the robot, unaware that her current actions, were causing the people of Argus to panic.

"Is Cordovin piloting that thing?" Weiss questioned.

"Consider this, a reminder." Cordo said, as she aimed the giant arm cannon at the airship, and firing at it, with lightning Dust.

"Is she crazy?" Wendy questioned, maneuvering the ship to where they avoided the hit. "She's gonna cause the entire city to panic if she uses that thing right out of the gate. Isn't it only meant for fending off against leviathans and other Sea Grimm of that nature?"

"She's definitely lost her mind." Maria said. "She's let the power go to her head, and has become a tyrant. She has to be stopped."

"Pyrrha, isn't your mom a retired Celestial Knight?" Weiss questioned over the intercom.

"She is. She told me about her exploits and the Armory. She might still have access to it." Pyrrha exclaimed.

"Then contact her. Try and see if she can get Scythe to the fifth level of the Armory." Wendy said.

"Why the fifth level?" Maria questioned.

"Time moves a lot faster on that level, it's always fluctuating. But five hours in real time, is generally two and a half years in there." Wendy explained.

"That would be more than enough time for Scythe to recharge his energy." Weiss said.

"All Atlas personnel, stand by, and watch how your leader maintains order." Cordo said.

---

~Team's Location~

Ruby looked from Qrow, to the direction the airship would be coming from, as Pyrrha just got off of a call with her mom.

"Alright, she's gonna try her best to get Scythe to the fifth level of the armory." Pyrrha exclaimed, just as the airship came flying around, with the giant robot coming in close behind.

"It's time you asked yourselves, children." Cordo's voice echoed from the speakers of the robot. "Do you truly wish to defy me?"

"Hurry back Weiss. I need you and Wendy on the ground if we're gonna take this thing down." Ruby said.

---

~Earlier Comms Tower~

"Why is the radar…static…up?"

"We don't know, Blake…static…Scythe…static…responding." The static of the communications filled the air, before the Scroll went dead, as a boot stomped on it, crushing the glass.

Blake went running on the tower, behind a ventilation shaft, and knelt down trying to catch her breath, before she turned and gasped, seeing a dead Atlesian Soldier beside her, causing the Faunus girl to yelp and jump up.

The sound of metal clanging against metal could be heard in the distance along the ground, with war cries ringing out, as Scythe was facing off against his own opponent.

A gunshot ricocheted beside Blake, signalling that her attacker was getting closer, and was not in the mood, for letting her go, alive. Running to the other side of the platform, Blake didn't know what to do or where to go, but she knew she had to do something, otherwise, the mission was gonna be even more screwed than it already was. Looking down the space between the main body of the comms tower, and the platform, Blake saw Adam one level down, with a cloth over his eyes, as he was sheathing his weapon.

"It's nice to finally have time to ourselves." Adam said. "Don't you think?"

"Leave me alone." Blake shouted firing off rounds from Gambol Shroud.

Adam just deflected those shots with his blade, absorbing the kinetic energy from the strikes.

"But I've waited, so long. For you to be away from them." Adam said.

Blake went running to the edge, and used Gambol Shroud's ribbon as a handle to zip line down the cable. Unfortunately though, her escape was cut short, when Adam sliced through it, sending her down to another platform, coincidentally, the same one he was on. Not having time to rest from the impact, Blake jumped away, deflecting a strike from Adam's blade, and moving away from him. Blake lunged and swung her blade at Adam, before twisting around, and blocking his blade from striking her back, before maneuvering out of the way, bending back to evade a downward strike from Adam, and slam her knee into his face, knocking him back.

"Why did you have to come into my life, and ruin everything?" Adam questioned.

"You stalked me across Anima. I don't want anything to do with your life." Blake exclaimed.

After that, Adam went charging at her again. The two clashed swords, and Blake jumped back, onto the railing and into the air, evading another of Adam's energy strikes, and jumping higher with pushing off of a Shadow Clone. Repeating this process several times, Blake managed to get up to the second to top level of the tower, and looking over the edge, tried to spot where Adam was, but couldn't find him.

Unfortunately for her, Adam was already up on the same level, and sent his blade flying at her, hitting Blake in the head, laughing a bit as his blade came spinning back to him. Blake used Gambol Shroud to swing herself around the main body of the tower, and swing her blade down on Adam, before they continued their fight between blades. Eventually Adam was pushing Blake back as she was holding his blade at bay, before he twisted around, and threw her to the railing.

Jumping on the railing, Blake jumped up, evading another strike from Adam's energy wave, and made it to the top of the tower, relaxing only for a second, before Adam grabbed Blake by the throat, and pushed her back, into the railing she'd just come over, bending her back over it.

Blake didn't have much choice, and she knew that there would only be one way to escape his strangle hold on her. Blake brought her leg up, and kicked Adam into the air, sending both of them over the ledge and to the ground below.

"I got you." Scythe said, catching her and landing on the ground with a slide, while Adam just hit the ground hard, shattering several branches along the way.

"Scythe." Blake gasped, seeing he was bleeding, and his injuries weren't healing. "What happened to you, why aren't your wounds healing?"

"Let's just say, my opponent did his research on me, very thoroughly." Scythe groaned, setting Blake down before he fell to one knee. "He has ammunition that can temporarily stop my healing factor, and if he managed to get one of those rounds into my brain, I'm dead for keeps."

"Here I thought that human bastard would have been reliable enough to take you out, and keep from interfering with my unfinished business with my beloved." Adam said, picking himself up.

"You know…" Scythe groaned getting to his feet. "There's another you in my world. He's just as sick and twisted in the head."

"Sick? Twisted?" Adam questioned. "I am neither of those things. I am a revolutionary. All I want, is for the Faunus, to take their rightful place as the true rulers of this world. Yet there are those of you, her included, who's betrayed her own kind, who wish to keep opposing me, and standing in my way. The humans will be enslaved like they should be. They will worship us, and they will serve under us, like the inferior beasts they are."

"You are insane, you know that?" Scythe questioned.

"Let go, of the past Adam." Blake said. "Do it for yourself."

"Just forget it all? Is that what you did to me? You just threw our memories away?" Adam questioned.

"Adam."

"I let you go once already, Blake." Adam said, gripping the hilt of his weapon. "I'm never, making that mistake again."

"Iskandar." Scythe called out, before the two strong armed summons appeared behind Blake. "Take Blake back to the team. Tell them what's going on, and make sure that they get to Atlas safely."

"You can count on me, my prince. Shall I grab Ms. Xiao Long as well?" Iskandar inquired.

"Please do. Make sure they're both safe and with the team." Scythe said.

"Understood." Iskandar said, putting a fist to his chest, before scooping up Blake, and disappearing.

"No. I was finally going to make Blake pay for all the suffering, and anguish she's caused me since I've known her." Adam growled. "Guess I'm just gonna have to take your head and use it as a reminder as to why she can never out run me."

"Give it your best shot." Scythe growled, before moving his head to the side, just before a bullet zipped past him, and pierced the ground in front of him.

"I see your instincts are sharper than they appear." Grim said, hopping down from the tree he was using as cover.

"Two against one, not exactly fair odds, but then again, it's the exact opposite of how I took down the Adam Taurus of my world." Scythe said, extending his claws. "Want me to give you some time to call for backup to make this fight a little fairer?"

"Pride and arrogance will be your down fall." Grim said, holstering his gun on his back, and pulling out a jagged bladed knife.

"It's not arrogance that I'm displaying." Scythe said, just before Adam and Grim came charging at him.

(Cue Music… Ain't no rest for the wicked: Cage the Elephant)

Bringing his arms up, Scythe blocked both Adam's blade, and Grim's knife, by twisting around, crossing his arms over his chest, and interlocking the blades in his claws, before pushing up and back, knocking both fighters off balance, as he jumped up, and double kicked them both in the chest, knocking them away.

Landing on his hands and feet, Scythe charged at Adam, swinging his claws up, down, side to side, any which way at Adam, forcing the Bull Faunus to keep stepping back, before he was forced to roll to the side, to avoid falling down the rock wall, to the water below.

Twisting around, Adam thrust his blade at Scythe and the Celestial Knight, turned around, and bent backwards, narrowly avoiding getting stabbed in the head by Adam's red blade, leaving only a cut going across the bridge of his nose and parts of his cheeks, before Adam was forced to jump back, avoiding Scythe's claws once more.

"Damn, how could a weak human be this powerful?" Adam questioned, as Scythe kept coming at him, slicing through the air, before Scythe lunged at him, slamming his knee into the Bull Faunus's stomach, sending him rolling back.

Scythe, was about to lunge at Adam and impale his claws into his chest, before he jumped back, avoiding a bullet that had been aimed for his face.

'My healing factor is trying hard to repair the damage Grim did to me with the rounds that negate it. If I get hit with any more of them, I'm screwed. This cut Adam made across my nose isn't sealing up, so I've gotta end this quick.' Scythe thought, jumping back and evading more bullets from Grim's rifle.

"You can't outrun me forever. I will put you down like the rabid animal you are." Grim exclaimed.

"I don't need to." Scythe said, flipping back, just before Grim fired what he counted was his final round. "I just need to keep you wasting your ammunition."

Scythe ran towards Grim, going in a zig zag motion, jumping just narrow avoiding getting hit with another round, with some grazing his skin.

"I'm not gonna let you and your other Dark Knights succeed in creating chaos." Scythe exclaimed, digging his claws into Grim Knight's torso.

Grim grabbed Scythe's arms, pushing back on him, before bringing his hands together, and slamming his elbows on the back of his neck. Scythe grunted in pain, but held fast on the ground, pushing Grim up to a tree.

Grim Knight grunted in annoyance and pain, before slamming his clamped fists on the back of Scythe's head, gaining more leeway in getting free, before Scythe pulled his arms upwards, throwing Grim through the air over his head, and into Adam, knocking them both to the ground back towards the waterfall and Cliffside.

"Damn it." Grim Knight groaned, using a special solve to seal the wounds, before he picked himself up, and turned back towards Scythe. "You're gonna pay for that."

"I'd like to see you try." Scythe exclaimed, panting heavily.

"You're getting weaker, and you're bleeding out." Adam said, preparing to send an energy wave at Scythe. "This is where you die."

Adam lunged at Scythe, and pulled out his blade, sending the built up kinetic energy at him. Scythe brought up his arms and with what magic he'd regained, covered them in metal, but the blast was too great, and shattered the metal, throwing his arms back, and leaving a large gash on his chest, before knocking him back into the rock wall, close to the edge of the waterfall.

Grim pulled out a pistol, and aimed it at Scythe as his body wasn't moving.

"One less pest in the way of our endgame to correct the universe." Grim Knight said, before pulling the trigger.

(End Song…)

Just as the bullet was gonna hit its mark, a bronze shield, in a 3foot 360 diameter shaped like a disc, got in the way, deflecting the bullet as it flew passed Scythe, before it rebounded from the rock wall beside Scythe, and went towards Adam and Grim, hitting them both in the chest, while knocking off Adam's blindfold, knocking them back before returning to who had thrown it.

"You seriously picked the wrong day, to try and off a Celestial Knight." A familiar voice resounded from the trees as the woman who threw the shield, came walking out, and stood in front of Scythe, shield raised and in her other hand, a Xiphos sword with the blade resembling that of a long bowie knife. Artemis's armor was similar to her daughter's, but covered more with leather and metal than with cloth, and had a pair of shorts on, underneath her skirt.

"Artemis?" Scythe questioned, pulling himself out of the rock wall.

"Hey kid. Rest a bit, you've earned it." Artemis said.

"No, I can still fight." Scythe exclaimed, letting his claws out again.

"You don't seem like you're in that great of a shape kid." Artemis exclaimed.

"I can still run circles around these two. Problem is, the Dark Knight, has ammo that can negate my healing factor." Scythe said. "I've managed to weaken him, by stabbing him with my claws."

"Grim Knight, he doesn't have any powers like you or I. But he's a Dark Knight, so that might not be the case from when I first encountered him." Artemis said.

"Well, at least you have some experience with him." Scythe groaned as his wounds finally started to heal, the gashes on his chest and nose, as well as the bullet wounds Grim inflicted upon him, scarring up.

"At least you got some impressive battle scars now." Artemis smiled. "You take Adam I take Knight?"

"Sounds fair to me." Scythe smiled.

(Cue Music… Angel of the Dark: Aviators)

Scythe and Artemis went running at their chosen opponents, splitting them from each other.

Scythe pushed Adam more towards the waterfall, and used his claws to slash at him. Adam was smart enough not to face him, head on, but that method wouldn't work forever. Choosing to ride or die, Adam pulled out his blade and used it to block Scythe's claws, but that turned out to be a bit of a mistake as Scythe's claws sliced right through the metal like a hot knife through butter.

"I hope you have a spare somewhere up your ass. Because you're screwed without a weapon." Scythe growled.

"TAURUS." Grim called out.

Adam looked up and, immediately raised his hand, catching what Grim had thrown at him, by the hilt. The weapon Adam caught, was a sword, with the blade looking like a golden lightning bolt, but it began to change shape, and take the form of a katana, the weapon Adam was most accustomed with, but with a golden blade.

"What the hell kind of weapon is this?" Adam questioned, looking to Grim Knight.

"It's known as the God Killer. I borrowed it from another member of the Dark Knights, figured it'd come in handy if it was needed." Grim said, as he was blocking and deflecting swings and strikes from Artemis's blade and shield. "It'll adjust to any user to become any weapon that they desire."

"Perfect." Adam smirked before bringing the blade up to block Scythe's claws. "I'm curious as to how it will effect Blake."

"I will not let you hurt any of them." Scythe exclaimed, pushing harder against Adam's new blade, but the metal wouldn't even chip.

"Oh, but you don't have a say in it. Because I am stronger, I am superior." Adam declared, pushing harder against Scythe's claws, and as the blade began to glow, he cut right through them.

"AAAAHHH." Scythe cried out as he brought the nubs of his claws back into his arm. "Nothing, should have been able to cut through my claws." He said, before Artemis went flying into him, knocking them both to the ground.

"Your claws are of a divine origin. Meaning the metal they're made of, is susceptible to the God Killer's power." Grim said, coming towards them, pulling his rifle off his back. "It must be my lucky day. I've never gotten to kill two Celestial Knights before."

"Artemis, how good are you at larger, melee weapons similar to spears?" Scythe inquired.

"I excel at a wide range of weapons, why?" Artemis questioned.

"Because you're about to see something not a lot of people know about me." Scythe exclaimed, jumping up and kicking the rifle in Grim's arms into the air, before spinning around and kicking him in the chest, knocking him into Adam.

Going to a tree, and running up its trunk, Scythe leapt into the air, and began to glow, taking on his weapon form, one of his blades imbedding into the ground, in front of Artemis.

"That won't help you." Grim said, picking himself up. "You need to be spiritually compatible in order for her to use you, and the odds of you being compatible, are slim at best."

"Then I guess there's only one way to find out if we're compatible." Artemis said, grabbing Scythe's hilt and pulled him out of the ground, before running at Adam and Grim, slicing through the fire arms with Scythe's blade.

"Artemis. We need to try and get that weapon out of Adam's hands, if I can get my hands on it, this fight is as good as ours." Scythe exclaimed.

"On it." Artemis said, rushing Adam and swinging Scythe around, splitting the two fighters up once more.

Artemis thrust one of Scythe's blades into the ground, before swinging her legs into the air with her body weight, and kicking Grim in the chest, knocking him over the ledge to the river below.

Flipping back over and landing on her feet, Artemis pulled Scythe from the ground, and continuing the momentum, threw him at Adam. The Bull Faunus prepared to strike Scythe in the middle of his hilt, but as he swung, Scythe reverted from his weapon form and flipped over Adam, grabbing him by the wrists and pulling them down, as his body weight brought him back to the ground, with the katana blade pointing down.

"When will you learn, that you humans are nothing compared to the superiority of the Faunus?" Adam questioned.

"Don't give me that bullshit." Scythe said as he struggled to maintain his grip. "You just have an inferiority complex, because of what happened to you. Well guess what pal, you're not the only one, who was enslaved."

"What would a human like you know about true pain and being enslaved?"

"I was an experiment for a madman who wanted to turn me into a weapon. If I wasn't being experimented on, I was forced to do his bidding." Scythe exclaimed. "I swore then and there, if I ever got out, I wouldn't suffer at his hands anymore and I would do my damn hardest to make sure no one else had to suffer what I've suffered."

Scythe removed one of his hands, and grabbed the flat part of the golden blade in Adam's hands.

"An' in order to do that, I had to forget about my past, but never forget about the pain I endured." Scythe exclaimed, as the blade began to glow, the light blinding Adam for a moment, before it died down, and he realized the weapon wasn't in his hands anymore.

"Where'd it go? Where'd the God Killer go?" Adam questioned, before Scythe roundhouse kicked him in the chest, and sent him closer to the waterfall.

Looking up, Adam saw where the God Killer went as Scythe's claws were back, but were now shining with a golden glint to them.

"I am the God Killer." Scythe growled, running at Adam.

Putting his aura up to its max, Adam thought he could deflect the strike as he crossed his arms over his chest, but was mistaken when the claws pierced not only his aura, but his arms and into his chest as well.

Scythe hoisted Adam up with his claws, and walked to the waterfall, and looked him in the eye as he dangled the dying man over the cliff.

(End Song…)

"This is the part, where you die." Scythe growled, before retracting his claws.

Silently, Adam went falling through the air, down to the water below, before he landed with a splash, and the water turned red as he was bleeding out.

"So, it's over with him huh?" Artemis asked.

"It is." Scythe sighed, retracting his claws.

"Do you think you'll ever be able to get the God Killer out of your body?"

"I don't know." Scythe said, noticing the golden upside down triangles on the back of his hands. "But I think it's better if the God Killer remains in my body."

"Fair enough. You think you'll be able to handle the power though?" Artemis inquired.

"I'm an Etherion Godslayer and the grandson of a Goddess. I'd say I'm barely qualified to handle it." Scythe smiled.

"The God Killer, wielded by the Godslayer. Seems like that weapon was made for you." Artemis chuckled. "What about Grim?" She questioned.

"He'll be back. I'm sure of it." Scythe exclaimed. "I killed Velhallen Beo. There's no way a guy like him, would let that go so easily."

"Well, when you put it that way." Artemis sighed, before getting serious and putting a hand on his shoulder. "C'mon, the rest of your team needs you, there's trouble."

---

~Team Location~

"You're joking right? You want to fight this thing?" Weiss questioned over the intercom.

"We've fought giant monsters before, this is just a tiny old lady." Ruby said. "With one, very big robot."

"You little spider roaches, thought you could creep your way into Atlas?" Cordo's voice echoed from the giant robot. "Well, let's see how your resolve holds out against the might of the Atlesian Military."

Cordo aimed the arm cannon towards the airship, and fired off a missile, that exploded midair, before it could hit the air ship. Cordo, not expecting this, turned towards the Cliffside of the ridge, and spotted the rest of the team there.

Ruby brought Crescent Rose down, and sighed, before looking to Cordo with a, what you gonna do about it, look on her face.

"Ugh, so be it." Cordo growled, before making the robot take two steps towards them, and prep the cannon.

In the airship, Wendy and Weiss saw this and Wendy unbuckled.

"Maria, take the helm and dive." Wendy said as she and Weiss raced to the doors of the ship.

Once they were ground level, Weiss and Wendy jumped out, with Weiss putting up an earth wall, and Wendy switching the element on her choker.

"Ice Dragon: ROAR." Wendy shouted out as her attack collided with Cordo's, and the resounding impact created a field of ice, that the team had been shielded from by Weiss's earth wall.

"That was close." Oscar said.

"Definitely." Pyrrha agreed.

"We need to figure out how to stop Cordovin, and protect the airship until we do." Ruby said.

"Well, if Scythe were here and at full power, he'd use a breath attack to just destroy part of the legs to knock the robot back into the ocean, rendering stuck and unable to get up, like a turtle on its back." Wendy said. "Pyrrha, did your mom say anything about how long she'd be?"

"No. I'm worried she might have been…"

Pyrrha stopped when the sound of an engine revving came to them, and Yang stopped in front of them with Blake on the back of the bike.

"What happened?" Ruby asked.

"Scythe and I got ambushed by Adam and one of the Dark Knights before we could actually do anything." Blake said. "Scythe had Iskandar take me to Yang, but when he tried to grab Yang to, we told him we'd be fine heading back for the team on our own."

"Is Scythe okay?" Wendy inquired.

"We're not sure." Yang said.

"The Dark Knight that he fought, had ammunition that could negate his healing factor, but Scythe wouldn't let us stay behind to help." Blake said.

"What do we do?" Weiss asked.

There was a moment of silence before Wendy spoke up.

"Scythe will be fine. He's gotten into fights without his magic before, and he's come out stronger than ever. We'll put that problem on the back burner." Wendy said. "Right now, we've got a giant robot controlled by a power mad little old lady to deal with."

"She's right, besides my mom is no slouch when it comes to a fight either. I have not beaten her once, so she should provide good backup for Scythe." Pyrrha said.

"Then let's give Cordovin more targets to focus on." Jaune said.

"You mean us, don't you?" Nora questioned.

"Look at that thing, it's not designed for small enemies. It's probably meant for giant Grimm that come in from deeper waters." Jaune exclaimed. "We can turn our size, into an advantage. We just have to be smart."

"Maria can you keep the ship out of harm's way?" Ruby questioned speaking to the old woman through the comm link.

"They can take my driver's license, but I won't let them take this ship." Maria said.

"Very reassuring." Ren exclaimed.

"I'm starting to think she really is going senile." Wendy said. "Blake, Yang, you go with her, just in case."

"I'll be more useful if I go with her to. From up high, I can try and spot any weaknesses." Oscar exclaimed.

"Well he's not the only one who can grab a bird's eye view." Qrow exclaimed.

"You said you needed us on the ground?" Weiss questioned turning to Ruby.

"Not exactly." Ruby said a bit nervously.

"I'm not liking that look you have." Wendy exclaimed.

"Wendy, what kind of rounds do you have for your rifle?" Ruby inquired.

From Cordo's point of view, the mist from the ice attacks colliding finally dissipated, and her eyes widened when she spotted the ice zone they had created, before the rapscallions came out, three directions at once. The ship going right, a red blur, and a bird, going straight up, and Team JNPR going left.

"Wait, is that… Pyrrha Nikos?" Cordo questioned, spotting the supposedly dead girl traveling with them.

Not having time to ponder on that, as Ruby unfurled from using her Semblance, and shot at the windshield, blocking Cordo's vision a bit as the glass cracked.

Cordo growled in frustration, and fired missiles in Ruby's direction. Landing on a tree branch, Ruby jumped and went spiraling towards Cordovin, in a dash of rose petals, before unfurling momentarily to run along the missiles, reaching closer to her. After jumping off the last missile, Ruby twirled in the air as she went falling down towards the water. Moment before Ruby hit the water though, it turned into ice, giving her an icy slide to go down.

"Let's go." She cheered, before Weiss and Wendy were seen coming up the sides of the frozen wave, skating along its surface.

Weiss used the Dust in her rapier to make icebergs, giving her and Ruby, surfaces to jump across, while Wendy just dove into the water after changing her element to water dragon, and swam alongside them as they made their way to Cordo.

Just as Cordo was about to stomp her giant mechanical foot on them, the robot got hit in the left arm by pink smoke grenades that had been launched at her.

"Hey over here." Jaune called out, as Team JNPR got their attention.

"What?" Cordo questioned turning to them, spotting the team of four running along the ledge of the Cliffside, weapons brandished and ready to be used.

"An' you said it wasn't beach season." Nora smirked, as she and Jaune looked to Ren, with an amused smile on both their faces.

"Nora, now is not the time." Ren said.

With that, the four teammates split to their own positions, with Nora taking the lead and firing two grenades at Cordo. But the attack didn't work, as Cordo brought up a barrier when she raised the robot's left hand.

"Surely you knew Atlas was the father of Hard-Light Dust, or do lesser Kingdoms simply lack, proper education?" Cordo questioned.

Cordo raised the robot's cannon and loaded an element of Dust into the barrel, before firing several shots at the ground, where Team JNPR were.

"Cordo just activated shields." Jaune told the rest of the team.

"I saw that. We need to find whatever's generating it." Oscar exclaimed.

"You know, in video games, the weak spot's usually on the back of the giant boss." Ruby exclaimed as Qrow flew by Oscar.

"Ruby, this isn't a game." Weiss stated.

"I'm just trying to… look out." Ruby called out through the comms as Cordo went to stomp on Ruby, and Weiss.

"You are ants." Cordo said, as Qrow flew down to the robot, shifting back to human and putting his weapon into scythe mode. "You are lower than ants." She declared, just as Qrow came crashing down and slammed into the back of the robot, hooking his scythe blade into it. "What was that?" Cordo questioned.

Qrow used the recoil of a blast to send himself up and onto his feet.

"Until the shield's down, we're gonna have to get up close and personal with this thing." He said, before reverting his weapon to its gun form, and firing at the hole the single shot mad, damaging it even further, before a giant hand came out from above him, and attempted to grab the currently sober, drunk bird before he shifted back into one, and flew off, evading the giant metal hand attempting to grab him.

"That's easier said than done." Ren called out.

"Weiss and I are on it." Ruby said.

"I'm making my own way to damage it." Wendy said, breaching the water.

"Hold on." Weiss called out.

Switching the element of her dust, Weiss struck the tip of her blade into the water, causing small glaciers of ice to form, and knock Cordo's robot off balance, as it struck the right leg, just before it could take a full step.

"Hey watch it, you almost froze me in that attack." Wendy said.

"Sorry." Weiss apologized as the airship flew by.

"Wait that's it, when she…" Oscar realized as he saw the chambers of Dust shifting on the robot's cannon and aimed it in Ruby and Weiss's direction. "RUBY MOVE." Oscar shouted.

Ruby and Weiss looked up, just before Cordo sent missiles in their direction. Thankfully they were fast enough to dodge them, just as Weiss and Ruby came flying out of the geyser of water from the explosion, on Weiss's summoned Queen Lancer. If they could see Cordo, they'd see she was pissed. Ruby jumped off the back of the Lancer Queen and spun forward, with Crescent Rose in full scythe form, spinning like a buzz saw, before Crescent Rose's blade pierced the metal of the robot, cutting through it, like a can opener, with the impact knocking it off balance.

The resulting impact of the robot hitting the Cliffside, caused what the people of Argus thought was an earthquake, with panic and fear rising in the masses. Cordo let out a loud scream of annoyance, as she tried to pull the giant robot to its feet.

"Go." Jaune called out, as Team JNPR went running for the robot.

As the giant left hand of the robot pressed against the ground, Ren jumped up on the hand, and climbed up the arm, with Jaune, Nora, and Pyrrha inflicting their own damage on it. With the robot being made of metal, Pyrrha was able to do more damage to it than the others.

As Cordo got up, Ren was still hanging for dear life to the robot, same as Ruby, as the red head girl moved down more, and was in front of the windshield, and waved at Cordo, smiling nervously.

"Get off of me." Cordo said.

Cordo brought the giant robot's left hand to grab Ruby, but the red reaper let go, and went falling to the water below before Weiss and the Lancer Queen caught her, while Cordo ended up punching her own robot in the face, knocking it back even more.

"Heh." Ruby smirked, looking back at the robot before back to Weiss.

"What if I hadn't caught you?" Weiss questioned.

"I knew you would." Ruby smiled, but as soon as Weiss turned away from her, she sighed in relief. "Uh."

Meanwhile, Ren was still climbing the robot, now on its back, as he'd nearly been knocked off with Cordo's attempt to grab Ruby. But instead of climbing up, he was climbing down. When he got to the mid back, he heard a humming coming from under the panel he was right beside, and found that to be either a good sign, or a bad one. Putting one of his blades in it, Ren pulled back with all the strength he could muster in one arm, before the robot moved, and was about to send him to the water below, but was caught by someone grabbing his wrist.

"Got ya." Qrow exclaimed. "What'd you find?"

Ren smiled before Qrow pulled him up, and to their surprise, Ruby's video game logic was spot on with the weak spot, being on the big boss's back.

"Well, alright then." Qrow said, before he and Ren began firing like crazy at the shield generator, causing it to malfunction, and cause an explosion, that sent the robot forward, by two steps.

"No, no, no, no." Cordo cried out, as power in the shields were draining, before they hit zero, and failed. Things only got worse for her, when Nora began firing grenades at the giant robot.

"You get back here with my man." Nora cried out, as she continued to fire grenades at the robot.

"Since when are those two dating?" Pyrrha asked.

"Since we helped Ren kill the Grimm that murdered his parents and home village." Jaune said.

"Well good for them." Pyrrha smiled.

The Lancer Queen, circled around the robot with Weiss and Ruby, before stopping at the back, with Ruby having a big smile on her face.

"Told you." She said to Weiss.

"That was nothing but a coincidence." Weiss exclaimed as Ren and Qrow hopped on.

Nora's attacks continued on, until she ran out of grenades to launch at her.

"I've had enough of you ingrates." Cordo said, going to slam her giant robotic hand into Nora as Jaune was running to shield her with an aura boost, but just seconds before the giant robotic hand could hit her, something came zipping out of the forest, and stopped the otherwise lethal blow, building up a cloud of dust and dirt.

"You're going too far Cordo." Scythe's voice echoed through the air, as the dust and dirt cleared, showing he stopped the robotic hand with only his right hand. "If you had just obeyed orders like you were supposed to, none of this would be happening."

"If you ingrates had just respected and obeyed our Atlesian Authority, like the good dogs you are, then none of this would have actually happened." Cordo countered.

"You're blaming us? You're using a piece of tech, meant for fighting giant deep sea Grimm, against two Celestial Knights, and several Huntsmen and Huntresses, who only want what's best for Remnant, and know what they need to do." Scythe growled.

"Oh please, as I told you the other day, I know the difference between a Fake Celestial Knight and a real one." Cordo said. "A Real Celestial Knight, would hold himself with dignity, respect, and honor, akin to the Great General Ironwood. Not be some two bit punk who uses, admittedly, highly advanced Dust Manipulation Technology, and illusions. Now surrender for your crimes, and accept your punishment."

"I've tried reasoning with you, but you've really tried my patience." Scythe groaned gripping the robotic hand with both his arms. "We're going to Atlas. Bigger people than you have tried to stop these brave souls, and failed, miserably. You're supposed to be on the same side. You're supposed to use your power to protect people, but you just use yours to look down on everyone. We didn't want to steal from you, we did it because you left us with no other choice." He declared. "I'm giving you one last chance to stand down, and hear us out. Or there will, be lethal consequences."

"Scythe you can't be serious." Ruby said through the comm link.

"Actually he is." Wendy said linking into the conversation. "Cordo attempted to assassinate two Celestial Knight, impeded our mission, and even dared to claim herself to be an expert and on the same level as the Celestial Knights. Half of the first one alone, is cause enough for a Celestial Knight to execute someone. The other two are because she could have caused irreparable damage to the multiverse, thus ending trillions of lives. Scythe doesn't agree with these rules, but he follows them, because it's his duty as a soldier."

"I've heard enough." Cordo growled, priming the Dust in the cannon as she prepared to aim it at him.

Scythe's grip on the robotic arm continued to tighten, until he ripped the robotic arm off the robot at the shoulder joint, and used it as a club to destroy the cannon, causing a chain reaction of Dust to form as the cartridge had been locked in, and destroying both the arms, while keeping the robot pinned as the Dust damaged cannon was still connected.

"Wendy where are you?" Weiss questioned.

As if to answer her question, the front panel of the robot burst open from the inside like too much pressure inside a soda can, as Wendy threw Cordo to the ground, building up a cloud trail of dust as she slid to a halt. Wendy jumped out of the robot's cockpit, and landed on the ground.

"Cordovin." Scythe said as he and Wendy surrounded her on both sides. "For crimes against the universe, attempting to murder not one, but two Celestial Knight, impeding our mission from progressing, and claiming to being on par with Celestial Knights, as well as irresponsibly and selfishly lording your power over the people of Argus, the Celestial Knights find you guilty, and condemn you to execution."

"You can't just claim to be Celestial Knights, and pass judgement on whomever you please." Cordo said, still feeling a bit confident. "You are nothing, but a whelp, an imposter who tries to pass off his fake title to gain respect and power."

Scythe just looked to Wendy, before taking several steps back, gaining a running start as he drop kicked her, and sent her flying through the air, hitting her head against the robot before she went falling into the water below.

"She's gonna drown isn't she?" Wendy asked.

"Yep."

"Or perhaps get impaled by the sharp rocks at the bottom caused by excess Dust falling down below?"

"Most likely." That's when Scythe raised his head, and brought his fingers to his ear. "Artemis, what's wrong?"

---

~Argus Base~

"C'mon, c'mon why isn't she answering the call?" One of the soldiers said, trying to reach Cordovin. "We're in big trouble, and we could really use the defense force of the giant robot."

Out in the water, making its way towards Argus, was a giant Leviathan Grimm, with Manticore, Chimera's and other areal Grimm making their presence known as they flew around it, fighting the fighter jets.

"It's already torn threw the Hard-Light barriers. We need help, where is the Commander?" Another soldier questioned.

"I don't know she's not responding." The first soldier said, before something came up on the screen. They saw it was the Huntsman who had drop kicked their commanding officer the previous morning, standing at the gate. "What is he doing here? Is he going to try and take advantage of the confusion?"

---

~Gates~

Scythe slammed both his hands into the cracks between the two gate doors, and forced them open, causing the rest of the gates to rattle as he walked through the base, just as guards began surrounding him.

"Halt, don't take another step further." One of the soldiers said, aiming their guns at him.

"Tell you troops to stand down, and for your pilots to come back, unless they wanna get hit in the crossfire when I strike." Scythe exclaimed, not stopping as he moved passed them.

"What the hell do you think you can do about that thing?" One of the guards asked, grabbing him by the arm.

"More than you know. Just have your pilots take care of the smaller Grimm." Scythe said, pulling his arm from the soldier's grasp, and jumping to the top of the tower, leaping onto one level at a time.

"Scythe hold up. Let me try something." Ruby said over the intercom as the Leviathan began its attack on the first barrier.

"Are you sure Ruby?" Scythe questioned.

"I'm positive." Ruby said. "Please just let me do this."

"Alright, I'll buy you as much time as you need." Scythe said, before closing his eyes and concentrating, as he focused on a barrier spell he hadn't performed in quite a while. This would take all the magic he could safely push out, to stall the Leviathan. "Lotus Barrier!" Scythe cried out, pushing out with both hands, right before a giant barrier of black magical energy, larger than the space between the reefs on either side of the Argus base, shaped like a lotus blossom, formed, and pushed the Leviathan back, causing it to roar in pain.

"Scythe are you crazy? You almost died the last time you used that barrier spell." Wendy said.

"I know. But I'm not in that kind of danger anymore, and because it's spread so thin, the backlash damage won't be too serious." Scythe exclaimed.

"Problem being, it's made from your own magic, so your healing factor, won't have any effect on the injuries this barrier causes." Wendy stated.

"I know. An' I'm sorry, but this is needed." Scythe stated.

"Just hold on, I just need a few seconds to do what I need to do." Ruby said.

Flying in front of the Leviathan, Ruby was on the Queen Lancer, but Weiss was having trouble maintaining it, and was doing her best not to just pass out. Closing her eyes, Ruby began thinking of everything important to her, everything, and everyone she cared about, but wasn't able to concentrate in time, and when she opened her eyes, she saw the Leviathan about to chomp down on her.

"Jinn." She called out.

Almost immediately, everything around Ruby began to slow down in as time came to a standstill, before she relaxed.

"I'm sorry. I don't have a question for you, I just, I just needed a little more time." Ruby said, turning to face the blue skinned, gold chained woman.

"I know." Jinn said. "An' while you don't seek knowledge, just this once, I shall give it freely. I will not allow you to use me without a question, again. Even if this was clever." She said with a smile.

Ruby sighed, and turned back around to the Leviathan. While time around her was still frozen, Ruby began thinking of all the fun she'd had with her friends, of all the people she wanted to protect, of all the laughter and joy she'd miss out on, if they were all killed. Then, her thoughts stopped on a memory of her mother, and just as time resumed, her eyes flashed a bright glow of silver, blinding the Leviathan. When the light died down, all the Grimm that had been around it, as well as the Leviathan itself, had been turned to stone.

Ruby sighed in relief, but that relief was soon gone when she heard the cracking of stone, and the Leviathan's head became free.

"No." Ruby said in horror.

"Ruby out of the way. NOW." Scythe's voice echoed in the comm link.

The Queen Lancer moved out of the way, as Ruby did as Scythe told her and from where she stopped, she saw something, she never thought she'd see.

"Etherion Deity: DIVINE BELLOW!" Scythe cried out as he used the breath attack, after dropping the Lotus Barrier, to skewer the Leviathan, turning it, and the stone of its body, to dust.

---

~Later~

"We should have, just enough fuel to make it." Maria said as Wendy took over as Co-Pilot, with Scythe being Head Pilot.

"Thanks you guys." Ruby smiled.

"Hey Ruby." Qrow said, with a smile. "You did great out there today kid. Just don't go giving me heart attacks like that again." Qrow was about to take a swig of his flask, but stopped and put it away.

"I love you to." Ruby smiled, after wrapping her arms around his neck.

"You know, you weren't half bad yourself today either you old drunkard." Scythe said, looking back to where Qrow was sitting, as Ruby walked away.

"I feel like you and the others did all the heavy lifting." Qrow said.

"But you were there to help when they asked for it." Maria said. "An' you were there to catch them, when they fell."

"Literally." Wendy snickered.

"Thanks." Qrow smiled. "Hey Bluenet. How'd you get inside the robot anyway?"

"You know my little add on to my choker that allows me to use two elements at once?" Wendy questioned. "I used that, and made myself an Iron/Water Dragonslayer, and just ate a hole in the heel of the right leg and made my way in through there."

"That's my wife for ya." Scythe smiled.

"Hey Scythe." Weiss said.

"What's up?" He questioned.

"I'm sorry you went through that nightmare alone, but I'm glad Pyrrha's mom came to your rescue in time." Weiss said.

"It's no big deal. I chose to fight alone, it wasn't anyone else's fault." Scythe smiled.

"Anyways, it's Ruby who you should really be looking at. She did the most impressive thing of all today." Wendy exclaimed.

"Huh?" Ruby questioned as they all did look at her. "Hey, stop it."

"You petrified a Leviathan." Ren exclaimed. "After Scythe created that giant lotus blossom barrier."

"Hey, it's about Ruby right now, not me." Scythe exclaimed.

"Don't act like you all haven't done crazy stuff before." Ruby said, laughing a bit nervously.

"Ruby none of us, have ever done that. I'm pretty sure that if Scythe hadn't come when he had, you'd have dove down the barrel of that giant robot's cannon." Pyrrha exclaimed.

"She's right. You're a special kind of crazy Ruby. You and your Earthland counterpart both." Wendy exclaimed. "Anyways, if you've never seen Atlas in person before, you definitely don't wanna miss this."

All of Team RWBY came up to the front of the ship, and stood between the seats, while JNPR stayed behind them.

"Is it weird that I'm sorta nervous?" Ruby questioned.

"No, I'll believe we've made it to Atlas when I see it." Yang said.

"Well, believe it." Weiss said.

The clouds in front of the airship began to part, as the city floating thousands of feet off the ground, came into view, with the city of Mantle down below.

"Wow." Nora said, as Team JNPR and Oscar, moved to the window to get a better look.

"You know, you make the trip up to Atlas, over and over, but you never get used to that view." Maria smiled before her eyes started going out of whack. "Oh come on." She groaned.

"Guess it's a good thing I'm flying the airship." Scythe chuckled.

Weiss stepped closer and looked out the window more carefully, with a trained eye on the city in the sky.

"Weiss, what is it?" Ruby questioned, seeing the look of concern on her friend's face.

The others saw the look, and pointed their gazes in the direction to the sky above the city, seeing the numerous airships flying through the air.

"The Atlas Air Fleet." Weiss said. "I knew all of our ships were called back, but…"

"They're set up like they're expecting an attack." Qrow finished for her.

There was another moment of silence, before the radio started.

"Manta5-1…" The soldier on the other end of the line began. "Welcome home."

---

~Unknown Location~

Darkness, darkness was all he could see, and pain was all he could feel, in his chest, and his body, as Adam lay on the table, unable to open his eyes, or to move his body. The pain kept coursing through him, as Adam was forced to endure it. He could feel his stabbed organs, and the broken bones he'd suffered from his fall from his enemy's claws, burning like a soldering iron was carving into him, and repairing the damage, before his eyes widened and he shot up, sitting on the table, with nothing but a towel covering his lower body. He looked down to see that his injuries had been healed, and he could even see out of his left eye again, even though the scars remained.

"Good to see you're awake." A voice said, echoing from the darkness that surrounded him, before a set of clothes had been set down beside him, clothes that didn't look like his, accompanied by a new weapon, almost an exact copy of his old one.

"Who are you?" Adam questioned.

"My name is not important, but if you insist on knowing, you can call me Angra Mainyu. I am the one in charge and the one who gives out missions to those who serve under me. I believe you've already met one of them, Grim Knight." The man said.

"Yeah I've met him. A lot of help he was in that fight." Adam tsked annoyed.

"Indeed, but I am a forgiving man, even though he entrusted you with Merciless's beloved God Killer weapon, he's still being punish, but not killed." Angra said, his form still covered by shadow. "You however have been found to be very interesting, and could be a great asset to me and my cause."

"An' what cause would that be?" Adam questioned.

"I simply wish for true balance in the universe. Velhallen Beo might have been the man who started this organization, but I'm the one who planted the seeds, watched them grow, and become a glorious flower, the same flower that you have the honor of joining." Angra exclaimed.

"What do I get in return if this benefits you?" Adam questioned.

"You'll get power. Power strong enough to defeat even your greatest foes." Angra said. "I once, was the weakest among my kind. I was a summoned servant of a brand new class, the Avenger Class. But I was weak. After my prison had been destroyed for good, I gained power, power that I could never have imagined having in my wildest dreams. An' I am here, to grant you the same power, should you choose to accept."

"One question." Adam said. "How am I still alive?"

"Oh, I'm afraid you aren't, not technically. You died on Remnant, but I used my power to revive you, because I still had your soul within my grasp. The others are like you actually, they died, but were brought back to life, before becoming members of this organization." Angra said, holding out his shadowy hand to Adam. "But what do you say, will you accept my offer and join?"

Adam looked to Angra, as the silhouette of his form became clearer, and he could see him clearly, it was plain to see he stood at a height around 187cm tall, so he knew Angra wasn't a child.

His skin was darker than Adam's, he had neon blue glowing hair swept back in a windswept style, and glyphs tattooed all over his body, shining the same neon blue color. His clothing consists of a red tight sleeveless body armor shirt with black accents outlining his muscles with his collar open and down the sides of his neck, and matching red pants with two silver straps on his thighs and two around his shins, separate from each other, with a tattered red waist cloth, a bandana of same color, and blue bandages on his forearms and silver plated metal shoes attached to his pants. Around his waist was a black open skirt that ended above his shins, held together by a silver metal plate at the waist like a belt buckle.

Adam looked to Angra for a moment, before taking his hand, realizing he had nothing left to lose, and shook it.

"Excellent, Adam Taurus…" Angra smiled, before the lights lit up, revealing several others, in more bat themed attire, behind him, all of them varying between different sizes, and styles. "Welcome, to the Dark Knights."