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.

49. RWBY Knights4!

Mama Mirajane

---

~RWBY Vol7~

Everything was not calm in the night sky as the Atlas Airforce ships were buzzing around, flying through the air, preparing for something to come and attack them, as the slightly battle damaged ship was flying through the air, trying to remain as inconspicuous as possible.

"Manta5-1…" The soldier on the other end of the radio began. "Welcome home. Please continue your approach to Atlas Docking Bay Omega12. A security team will meet you there. Over."

"I don't understand." Ruby said. "What's happening here?"

"I don't know." Qrow said.

"But we are here, we got the lamp to Atlas. So I guess we land and get some answers." Jaune exclaimed.

"It won't be that simple Jaune. We're in a stolen airship, they're not gonna listen to us right after landing, and they certainly won't give us an audience with Ironwood." Scythe exclaimed.

"But you're a Celestial Knight, couldn't you just make them listen by flashing your badge?" Nora asked.

"Ozpin said, only Ironwood's top commanding officers were informed of the existence of Celestial Knights, not every one of his soldiers." Qrow said. "So it's likely if we tried playing that card with the security team that'll come, Scythe and Wendy would both be locked up in the loony been."

"He's got a point. Plus I'm still recovering from the damage I took to the Lotus Barrier and the Leviathan's, breath attack hitting it." Scythe said, holding up his left arm wrapped in somewhat bloody bandages. "We need somewhere to lay low for a while." He exclaimed flying the ship closer to Mantle.

After flying down, closer to Mantle, Scythe had the ship flying through the air, over the buildings, at a slow speed, as to not draw attention, or cause a panic.

"I cannot express our appreciation enough." A broadcast alerted them to the giant screen as a recorded broadcast of General Ironwood, was on loop. "Many describe these as, uncertain times, and while that may be the case for the rest of the world, I can tell you what is certain. The Kingdom of Atlas will remain strong, and it will remain safe. That, is my promise."

"General Ironwood." Yang said, recognizing him, even if he now had a beard. "He looks…"

"Tired." Ruby finished.

"James, what have you been doing?" Qrow questioned.

Down below there were Atlesian drones patrolling the streets, most humanoid, while others were simple camera drones that kids threw rocks at, and hiding as soon as the drone turned around. It was clear to anyone looking, that something was wrong, and Atlas was trying to control the masses, for what reason was anyone's guess.

"This isn't right." Weiss said trying to get a hold of her sister. "None of this is right."

"It's about five feet from Ironwood having declared Martial Law." Scythe said.

"Manta5-1, we've noticed a detour in your route. You are to make your way to Docking Bay Omega12 immediately, do you copy? Over." The soldier who had first contacted their ship, exclaimed.

"We're, kind of running out of time here, guys." Scythe said. "Anybody got a plan?"

"We need to ditch the ship." Yang said.

"Agreed." Qrow exclaimed. "Get lost in Mantle and buy ourselves some time."

"I'm telling you, my sister can take us to Ironwood." Weiss said.

"Uh, Weiss?" Blake called to her as if there was something she needed to see.

Weiss came to the window Blake was at, and saw on another building sized screen, a recording of Winter Schnee.

"A reminder." Winter said. "Failure to cooperate with Atlas Military personnel is a punishable offense. If your sector is under lockdown…"

"Winter?" Weiss questioned.

"No offense Weiss, but I'm not sure that's a good idea anymore." Qrow suggested.

"There's obviously something very wrong." Weiss said. "If we can just talk to her, then we…"

"Look." Qrow interrupted. "I'm not even sure we should be talking to Ironwood, until we know exactly what's going on with Mantle."

"But…"

"He's right Weiss." Wendy said. "Ironwood is clearly acting out of paranoia, so until we know exactly what his plans are, and why he's locked down the city, we can't exactly trust he'll talk to us with a reasonable mind."

"Everyone calm down." Maria said. "I know someone who can help with both. Young man, find a clearing to land this thing and we'll go the rest of the way on foot."

"On it." Scythe said, spotting the perfect place to land the ship.

"Manta5-1, you are to make your…"

"Yeah, yeah shut up lady, take a hint." Wendy exclaimed shutting off the radio.

---

~Streets~

The streets of Mantle were dark, but lit up enough for someone to see where they were going. Maria poked her head out of the alley, and used her cane as she walked out, but when the person who crossed the alley was out of sight, she picked up her cane and began walking normally with the others following.

"Scythe I've been meaning to ask." Wendy said. "What did you do with Sakura? Rin's sister?"

"Lucifer and Rarity found her a good home in the Crocus Capital." Scythe exclaimed.

"It landed over there." A soldier called out from behind them.

"Let's go." Another called out as the battalion went down the road, leading to the ship they ditched.

"Who are you talking about?" Ruby asked.

"My grandma's sister." Scythe sighed. "I went back to a period in time in their world, when my mom and her sister were still children, and her sister Sakura, was sold to another family because that family, ended up with a child with zero affinity for high levels of magic."

"Wouldn't that have disrupted the timeline though?" Weiss asked.

"You'd think, but no. Turns out that world was already in such a disarray of balance, that the only way it could have been corrected, was if the one causing it was killed, and Sakura was no longer alive." Wendy said.

"But I found a loophole through that." Scythe said. "Sakura couldn't actually be there for the timeline to balance out, yet nothing said that it was required she be dead. So I just fixed it by taking Sakura out of the world entirely, and putting her in the one Wendy and I come from."

"Come on now hurry." Maria called to them. "It shouldn't be much of a walk."

"Is this many soldiers, normal?" Jaune questioned.

"No." Weiss said. "At least, I didn't think so." She exclaimed as a camera drone began tailing them, with Yang noticing.

The drone followed behind Yang, grabbing her attention, and when she looked at it, a flash of light as it snapped her picture.

After Yang recovered from the surprise snapping of the picture, she kicked the drone straight up, the impact destroying the circuitry inside, as it landed in the middle of the road. As the drone began getting up, it got hit by a truck, whose driver seemed all too happy to run it over.

"Ooh." She winced. Turning back to the rest of the team, Yang saw they were looking at her, with unamused expressions. "Maybe we should pick up the pace." She suggested as they continued to walk forward.

"You have to remember. The Kingdom had just lost the Great War. The people of Mantle needed a sign of a brighter future, and that sign was Atlas." Maria exclaimed.

"Makes sense." Scythe said. "A home in the clouds is about as bright as it gets." He exclaimed as a truck filled with exhausted Faunus workers covered in soot and coal mine dust, drove past them.

"Unless you're the one having to look up at it." Nora stated.

"This whole city, it just seems awful." Blake said.

"Yeah?" A drunk man questioned coming down the steps. "You don't like it here? There's plenty of space out in the tundra."

"Back off man." Scythe said. "She didn't mean it like that."

"Atlas is the greatest Kingdom in the world all right?" The man questioned.

"Hey." Ruby said, marching up to him, before Blake stopped her.

"We can't cause a scene." Pyrrha reminded her.

"The embargo… the embargo's got us in a bit of a rough patch, but it'll blow over, you'll see." His friend said, in a less aggressive tone.

"We try and help the other Kingdoms, and this is what happens? I say, let 'em rot." The first drunkard said.

"I apologize. I didn't mean to insult you." Blake said, sounding like she was forcing herself to say it.

In response, the man spit on the ground, and brought his flask up. "Stupid Faunus like you, wouldn't understand…"

The man stopped when three golden claws sliced through his flask, spilling his whisky, before Scythe grabbed him by the front of his jacket, and hoisted him off the ground.

"Insult my friend again, and I'll cut out your liver." He stated, before a black glyph from Weiss formed between the two, and sent the man flying into a dumpster.

The others turned to Weiss, and saw the smile she had on her face.

"It was worth it." She said, before she spotted a couple of guard drones, and ran.

The others turned to see the drones and booked it out of there as well, as the drones went to inspect the drunk who was in the dumpster, while his friend got up from the steps, and looked between the dumpster and the team that ran, before he realized something.

"Hey wait, you're… That, that was…AAH." He couldn't continue running after them as he tripped over something, and the moment his head hit the ground, he passed out.

Back with the team, they were just finishing their journey, as they reached their destination, as the door opened, and a lion Faunus girl came walking out, smiling and giggling waving her bionic arm to the man running the clinic.

"An' no more heavy lifting, you hear?" He called out from in the clinic.

"Ah, it's good to see you again, old friend." Maria said, as they all waited outside, while Maria went into the clinic.

There inside the clinic, they saw an elderly man with dark skin and short, balding white hair. Wearing a green cap with oval-shaped glasses, accompanied by a red vest over a cream shirt with a pink bowtie. His dark mustard pants and leather boots match with his cap and red-brown belt. Currently it looked as though he was rummaging through his desk, but he looked up when Maria cleared her throat.

"Ah, yes, yes." He said, spotting her adjusting his glasses, and moving his papers. "Have we met?" He inquired as the others came in.

"Well this is off to a fantastic start." Ren said sarcastically.

"Cybernetic optical implants. You adjust them. Every 10 years or so?" Maria inquired.

The doctor squinted his eyes as he looked at her, before he actually remembered her.

"Maria." He said. "Yes, with the cybernetic optical implants. I adjust them every 10 years or so." He smiled as he came out from behind the desk. He seemed to use a special chair to aid himself with movement. Built to have four movable legs, and is white and green in color, with yellow accents. "Oh wow, has it been that long already?" He questioned with a laugh.

"Ah, I know. I age like a fine wine." Maria said. "Would have been here sooner, if I hadn't run into these jokers." She exclaimed, directing his attention to the rest of the team as he guided her to his examination table. "At the time I thought they, might need my guidance, while fighting a little old sphinx."

"Oh, did they?" The doctor asked.

"No, no. They had much more complicated issues. One of them was even able to grow back his entire arm." Maria smiled hopping up on the examination table.

"Oh, like a lizard Faunus?" He inquired.

"Reattached it actually." Scythe said. "Mind introducing us?"

"So impatient." Maria sighed. "I didn't think I'd need, to introduce one of Atlas' finest minds."

"Working in a place like this?" Yang questioned as something creaked, and a ceiling tile fell.

"He likes to keep a low profile. Something I've come to realize none of you know anything about." Maria said.

"You can call me Pietro." The doctor said.

"Finest heart to." Maria smiled. "This pharmacy is just where he volunteers, when he's not building the future of Atlas alongside Ironwood, up in the clouds."

"Oh it's stuffy up there." Pietro said. "Down here I get to help the locals, and have a little fun. I'm a, currently working on shoes that make ya dance. You wanna try 'em on?" He questioned.

"Yes." Nora said excitedly.

"Before we get to that." Yang said, interrupting Nora's excitement. "We were wondering if you could, help us? We came to Atlas hoping we could talk with General Ironwood, but um…"

"What exactly has been happening here?" Blake questioned.

Before Pietro began to talk, he had a bit of a coughing fit. "Well, the Fall of Beacon took a toll on all of us. James was no different. I couldn't tell you, exactly what it was he saw there, but it changed him. He's…"

"He's scared." Qrow said.

"Paranoid would be the more appropriate term." Pietro said.

"Paranoia and fear work hand in hand Pietro." Scythe said.

"You have to understand, it wasn't just the Grimm. Someone completely dismantled Atlas Security Code. Made it their plaything, and made us look like traitors to some, and buffoons to everyone else." Pietro exclaimed. "Whoever managed to do that, is either a genius or one of our own. I fear the answer may be both, and so does the General."

"Maybe, Atlas isn't as safe as we thought." Ren suggested, after a moment of silence.

"After we came all this way, we can't just leave, can we?" Oscar said.

"Oscar's right. If there's even a slim chance of reaching through to Ironwood, then we have to take it." Wendy said.

"Question is, what are we gonna do?" Scythe inquired. "Get ourselves arrested in order to get a word with Ironwood?"

"How does the council feel about all of this?" Weiss questioned. "Or, Winter Schnee? Do you know anything about her?"

"Well, the council's so scared, they'll agree to whatever he wants." Pietro said. "Though some representatives from Mantle are… wait you're, Weiss Schnee." He exclaimed, causing Weiss to gasp and back up a couple paces.

"Wait, what was it you were trying to say about Mantle?" Yang questioned.

"Your arm." Pietro said. "How… how did you get your arm reattached and not need the prosthetic I made?"

"What are you…?"

"Is everything okay?" Ruby inquired as she and Blake stepped up.

"You're Team RWBY." Pietro said, in realization.

"You know us?" Ruby questioned.

"Oh, my girl I do. I most certainly do." Pietro smiled.

"Ruby, I think we're needing to leave, I'm getting a bad feeling about this." Pyrrha said, putting a hand on her shoulder.

"Pyrrha Nikos?" Pietro questioned in shock. "Y-you're alive? I think all this shock is gonna give me a heart attack."

"Hold up. Back up to the part where you know them." Scythe exclaimed.

"Oh, I feel like such a dunce for not recognizing you sooner." Pietro chuckled, putting the inquiry of Pyrrha's return to the world of the living, on the back burner for a moment. "My daughter's told me so much about you."

"Your…daughter?" Ruby questioned, before an alarm from outside began blaring.

"Ah, trouble." Jaune exclaimed, as they went running out to the streets.

"Wait." Pietro called to them.

Outside, the lights had gone red, with the sirens still blaring, before the cause of the trouble became known to the entire team, as a pack of Sabyr's came running through the streets.

"Grimm." Scythe growled.

"I guess the city defenses aren't doing much." Oscar said.

"Somehow that doesn't surprise me." Nora exclaimed.

"Stay back everyone. I wanna try something I've been working on for a while." Scythe exclaimed, stepping forward, and bringing Grimm Reaper out, in its Shikai form.

"Scythe, are you sure?" Wendy inquired.

"I won't know unless I try." He said, slamming the hilts of the weapons together, and focusing his energy through them, as they began to glow white. When the energy died down, Scythe was holding a bladed archery bow, made of the two katana, connected by a string of leather, like he had been originally. Raising the bow, Scythe put two fingers from his right hand on the string and pulled back, bringing it up to his cheek. "I am, the bone of my sword." He whispered as an arrow made of light, appeared knotted on the string, and on the left side of the bow. Focusing his energy into the shot, Scythe released the string, and once the arrow went flying, it split into multiple, hitting each of the Sabyr directly in the forehead.

"So this is what you were working on during our last mission." Wendy smiled. "Impressive."

"We've got more coming from our six." Oscar called out.

Weiss turned to where the Sabyr were coming from, and saw them heading their way. Thinking fast, Weiss hoisted the Sabyr off the ground, giving Ren a chance to show his stuff as he sliced through them with the blades of his weapons, dusting the Grimm.

More Sabyr were coming through, the one targeting Yang, was grabbed by the throat, as she slammed her fist into it and threw it to the ground, firing off a shot from Ember Celica, as another came charging from behind at her. When it pounced, a bullet pierced its skull, sending it rolling to the ground before it dusted. Yang looked to Blake who had Gambol Shroud in its pistol form, and smiled at her, getting a smile back.

Another Sabyr came up behind Blake, but a strange green energy beam came out and sliced through it, killing the Grimm the moment it hit. After that first beam, multiple lasers came down and sliced through the remaining Sabyr's, killing them off, and silencing the alarm as no more Grimm could be detected within the city.

Everyone looked up in the sky, and to most of them, they saw a familiar ginger haired girl, dancing through the air on rocket boots. Her silhouette visible in the light of the shattered moon. Though it was clear for them to see, she was definitely different from when they last saw her, as she came down from the sky and to the ground.

Her hair is significantly longer and curled inwards at the tips and she wears a black fabric bow under a pink metal bow that has a golden outlined green orb. The ahoge, they saw, remained and is more prominent than before.

The clothes she wears are an olive green dress with a black hem that is striped with emerald green. The abdominal region is black with four golden buttons with matching buckles on her shoulder straps, as she also wears an off white blouse with puffy shoulders, frilled flared cuffs and vertical black lining down the front center. Her collar piece does away with the green accents and is instead finished with a black ribbon, another power button. Penny wears black metal legs pieces that run-up to her thighs, there's a green stripe that runs down the sides, with a large green circle at the top and a small one at the bottom, both outlined with gold and capable of lighting up too. The knee piece of her leg wear is heavily defined to look separate from the leg pieces. She also wears a pair of black low heeled metal boots with the tops hidden by the lower part of her leg pieces.

"Penny." Ruby gasped.

"Darling, why don't you say hello to your friends?" Pietro smiled.

The green eyed android turned to the group, and she instantly smiled and turned all the way towards them, when she saw who was there, especially the red cloak wearing Huntress.

"Sal-"

"Huh?" Ruby was a little confused.

"U-" Penny said as she took a running start.

Now Ruby was concerned.

"TATIONS." Penny shouted as she went running at Ruby, before flying through the air and ramming into her with a hug.

"Why?" Ruby questioned as she groaned.

"It is such a pleasure to see you all again." Penny said popping back up to her feet, with a smile as Ruby painfully picked herself back up.

"Penny I… I thought you…"

"Died?" Pietro questioned coming over to them. "I guess in a manner of speaking, she did. But we were able to recover her core from Amity Arena, once it had made its way back to Atlas. It took me some time but…"

"I'm as good as new." Penny smiled, saluting them. "Better even, and now I'm the official protector of the city."

"That's my girl. We're not gonna let a little ripping to shreds, stop us, are we?" Pietro questioned with a laugh, before coughing a bit.

"No sir." Penny smiled, knocking on her head, with a metallic ring coming out of it.

"This is…" Weiss began.

"Strangely wholesome." Blake added.

"Sounds like Penny to me." Yang smiled.

"Well, both the martyrs of the Fall of Beacon, are back now at least." Scythe smiled.

"We have so many things to catch up about. I cannot wait." Penny said grabbing Ruby by the shoulders, right before the alarms began to blare in the distance. "It seems we will have to wait." She said as she backed up and began vibrating. "Let's talk more later. I can't wait to hear about all your adventures, I'm very excited for the whole experience." Penny called out, as she took off like a rocket into the sky.

"I can't tell if I completely understand what's going on, or have like, a million questions." Nora said.

"An' thankfully, I have about a thousand answers." Pietro smiled turning his chair away and walking back to the clinic. "But let's get out of this weather first."

"I have absolutely no idea who that child was. Is she important somehow?" Maria questioned, following him.

"That was unexpected." Jaune said.

"Never a dull moment." Ren concluded.

"But I wouldn't say, unwelcome." Qrow said. "I was honestly expecting things to go a lot rougher."

"Never say that Qrow. That always jinxes the situation." Wendy said.

When the team went to follow Pietro into the clinic, the sound of whirling ropes came to Scythe's ears, and even Ren could sense something was off. Scythe quickly let loose his claws, and used them to cut the ropes that would have entangled him.

Turning back to the Team, Scythe went to go cut their ropes, but was stopped when what felt like a rocket powered hammer, slammed into his chest, knocking him into a wall.

"You just made a big mistake, resisting arrest." The hammer wielding woman exclaimed, marching closer to him.

"No, you just made a mistake by hitting me with that oversized meat tenderizer." Scythe growled, shaking off the dust, and rotating his shoulders with audible cracks coming from his back.

"It's five against one pal." A wolf Faunus said, coming from out of the side, holding what looked like a rifle crossed with a boomerang.

"We're the best Atlas has to offer. We're the Ace Ops." A woman with weaponized strength and speed enhancement gear, said skidding to a halt on his other side.

"Please, just come in quietly. We promise no harm will come to you and your friends." A monk looking man said coming up to the enhancer type woman's right.

"At least one of you has manners." Scythe exclaimed.

"I apologize for the roughness of my team." A man with what looked like a fishing rod for a weapon, said coming in between the two female fighters. "But I'm afraid we are gonna have to take you in. We have questions for you, and we need them answered."

"So, let me see if I got this right. You resort to violence, before negotiations?" Scythe questioned. "That's just fucking messed up."

"I know it doesn't seem like a great first impression, but trust me, we only have everyone's best interest at heart." The leader of the team said.

"Look, I know you're just doing your job, and that's admirable, but my team and I don't have time to deal with you right now. We're needing an audience with Ironwood, and we're needing it now."

"An' we'll take you to him."

"In cuffs? I don't think so." Scythe said.

"Clover, Ace Ops, stand down." Pietro said.

"Stay out of this Pietro." Elm warned.

"Uh, you five seriously don't wanna pick a fight with this guy." Maria said. "You heard about the Leviathan attack at Argus right?"

"Of course we did. It was on the evening news. Someone used some sort of super weapon to kill it in one shot." Marrow said. 'Why are my instincts telling me to run?'

"Well this is the guy who killed the thing in one shot." Qrow called from where he was tied up. "You don't wanna tango with him."

"If you have military tech like that, then I'm sure we can come to some understanding, and the General would give you a handsome sum of lien if you were to sell the blueprints for the weapon to the Atlesian Military." Clover said.

Scythe just looked at Clover before he began to chuckle, before he laughed.

"What's so funny?" Harriot questioned, not liking the laugh.

"Oh man, you seriously didn't understand what Qrow said did you?" Scythe questioned. "I AM the weapon."

Raising his fist, Scythe slammed it into the ground, causing the earth around them to rumble, and sending the Ace Ops into the air, before he charged at them, blue lightning coursing through his body, as he slammed his fist into each of them, shattering their auras in one blow, and tying them up with their own bolo restraints.

With the five now sitting back to back, and stripped of their weapons, Scythe squatted down to Clover, and looked him right in the eye.

"So, about that audience with the General." Scythe smiled.

---

~Grimm Lands~

"What are we doing here?" Adam questioned Grim Knight as they travelled with Salem through the lands.

"Every member of the Dark Knights have something unique and special about them that derives from their home worlds. I have my intellect and skills, Merciless his Godly power, Devastator his immense strength, and so on and so forth." Grim Knight explained.

"An' I have my Semblance."

"Which is useless unless you have a weapon to absorb the kinetic energy with." Grim exclaimed.

"But that's why you came to me, to right this wrong." Salem said.

"An' how exactly are we going to fix that?" Adam questioned as they stopped in front of a pool of Grimm.

"Simple." Grim said. "You're gonna go, for a little swim."

Grim pushed Adam on the back, and forced him into the pool of Grimm. Adam began screaming in pain and agony as he breached the surface, with several Geist like arms pulling him down, as he cried out from what he was going through, before he was pulled under.

"Are you sure, it was wise to throw him in like that?" Salem questioned. "A normal person would melt down to their bones from swimming in the Grimm Pools. This has only ever worked with my Silver Eyed test subjects because of their connection to the God of Light. It's unlikely he'll survive this."

"This is needed." Grim said. "He has the power of a Dark Knight flowing through him, the Grimm won't kill him, it'll fuse with him, and make him more than he was. It'll make him stronger than the results of your Silver Eyed guinea pigs."

After he said that, a large dark hand with bone white finger nails and armor platting, sprouted from the Grimm pool, and grabbed the ledge, as the Grimm that had been created had pulled itself out of the pool, and stood, taller than either Salem or the Grim Knight.

"Magnificent." Salem smiled seeing the creature standing at his full height with his shadow blanketing over him.

"Now, true Havoc, will bring balance to the Multiverse." Grim said.

---

~Atlas~

"I can't believe we're doing this." Harriot said, leading the unrestrained team to General Ironwood on their ship.

"We don't really have a choice Harriot. We got our asses handed to us by a single guy on a silver platter, strong enough to take down a Leviathan in one attack." Marrow said. "That tells you, he was holding back against us. He was holding back, a lot."

After they landed, several guards came to the ship, and escorted the team, through Atlas Academy. When they got to the elevator, that's when they began talking with one another about a plan.

"So what's the plan Ruby?" Scythe asked.

"I don't know. You were the one taking the lead on this one." Ruby said. "But we should be careful with what we say."

"We'll follow your lead Ruby." Blake said.

"This is your team after all." Pyrrha exclaimed.

When the elevator doors opened, the team walked out with the guards leading them into the corridor that lead to General Ironwood's office, reaching it just as Ironwood, Winter, and Penny walked by.

"I swear if I have to sit through another council meeting like that I'll…"

"Yay, you're here." Penny gasped, seeing them.

Ironwood and Winter turned around to see the team, and they were surprised to see the students they met at Beacon, standing right in front of them.

"Winter." Weiss said, a bit shocked, but happy to see her sister.

"General Ironwood?" Scythe inquired after a brief moment of silence between the two sisters. "We need to talk. It's a bit urgent."

"Please, come in." Ironwood said, leading them into his office. "It is so good to see all of you. Even a few new faces." He exclaimed looking to Wendy and Scythe, who had Pyrrha hiding behind the both of them.

"Our reception didn't really, convey that." Yang said.

"What do you mean?" Winter questioned.

"Before we came here, a Team that works directly under the General, attacked and restrained us. It's only thanks to the big guy, the restraints were removed." Ruby explained, the back of her hand, patting Scythe on the arm.

"I see." Ironwood said going to his desk. "I sincerely regret how my team treated you. When a rogue airship entered our airspace, it raised some red flags. We assumed the ship was stolen."

"Stolen?" Ruby said nervously, before scratching her head. "Okay yeah, it was stolen."

This surprised Ironwood, but it more amused him than anything as he gave off a light chuckle, while Winter berated the teams.

"You stole, an Atlas Airship?" Winter questioned. "What were you thinking?"

"Cordo didn't really give us much choice." Scythe said.

"Is that why she's in the hospital in a coma right now?" Ironwood asked.

"She survived?" Wendy inquired.

"She's catatonic, brain dead, but otherwise yes, alive." Ironwood stated. "I'm sorry, but could you please tell us who the two of you are?"

"My name's Scythe, this is my partner Wendy. We're Celestial Knights." Scythe said, Ironwood, Winter, and Penny's eyes widening in shock. "As for why Cordo is in her current condition, it's because she tried to assassinate Wendy and I, as well as impeded our mission in helping get this…" Scythe said, holding up the lamp to Ironwood. "To Atlas."

"Can we please get back to the fact that, you stole an Atlas Airship?" Winter questioned. "You could have been shot down. How unbelievably irresponsible…" Winter was stopped when Weiss hugged her.

"I'm sorry I worried you." Weiss said. "But we did what we had to do."

"I…" Winter was speechless, first from the hug, then from the sudden explanation as to why they did what they had to, before hugging her sister back. "I suppose I understand." She said, before the hug ended, and she glared at the Branwen in the room. "But I cannot believe, you allowed this to happen, Qrow."

"You try stopping these kids when they have their minds set on something." Qrow chuckled. "Besides, Cordo thought Scythe and Wendy were fakes, trying to gain respect, and tried to assassinate them. So since she wasn't really gonna listen, there wasn't much choice left."

"Speaking of which, we have some important information for you that's… confidential." Wendy exclaimed.

"Oh, is it about the Relics?" Penny inquired.

"Or perhaps the Winter Maiden?" Winter questioned.

The teams were just left speechless, aside from Scythe and Wendy, who didn't look the least bit surprised.

"You told them?" Qrow questioned.

"Did you really think, you were the only one, who got to work on a new plan, after Beacon?" Ironwood questioned. "With Ozpin gone, I needed my own team of people I could trust. So yes, I told them. The Ace Ops too. Which is why I'm so glad you're here, with that." Ironwood said, pointing to the relic in Scythe's hand, now on his hip. "Until now, I believed it was truly impossible to turn the tide against Salem. Oz has pushed her back, he's kept victory out of her claws but, she will keep returning, stronger and stronger. Unless we destroy her."

There was a moment of pause as the teams were left speechless as to what Ironwood's reasoning's were, before someone spoke up.

"But, what about the Atlas Relic?" Ruby inquired.

"You mean the Staff of Creation."

"It's safe inside the Vault." Penny said.

"An' the Winter Maiden?" Qrow inquired.

"She is secure, and in stable condition." Winter said.

"Stable condition, what does that…"

"She's uh… not exactly a spring chicken." Qrow said, interrupting his lavender eyed niece.

"I know how this all looks. Recalling my Military, the embargo, I probably don't seem the most trustworthy right now." Ironwood said.

"Then why continue it?" Blake inquired.

"The people of Mantle are hurting." Nora said.

"I needed to ensure Salem, couldn't infiltrate Atlas. An' I wanted my Military here, protecting my people." Ironwood exclaimed.

"But it's not protecting them, it's making everyone hate you." Yang said.

Ironwood just looked to her and sighed, before he began to speak. "It's a price I'm willing to pay." He said, before pressing a button on his desk, and the office went into lockdown. "Just as you've all been entrusted with the knowledge of Salem's existence, I need you all to trust me. I have a plan."

"The Celestial Knights are willing to hear you out Ironwood." Scythe said. "But if this plan endangers the course of the timeline, or this universe, then we'll be putting a stop to it."

"Fair enough." Ironwood said as the circle Ruby and Oscar were on, began to rise, causing them to jump off. "Ozpin believed the best way to fight Salem, was to do so in secret, whether that was the right choice or not, isn't for me to say. But we find ourselves in the position of needing, a new approach."

"An' what do you suggest?" Qrow questioned.

Ironwood pulled out a remote from behind his back, and pressed a button on it, revealing a holographic image of Amity Colosseum over the platform that had turned into a table.

"That's… Amity Colosseum." Jaune said.

"Where the Vytal Festival is held?" Oscar questioned.

"Indeed." Ironwood said. "When Beacon fell and everyone on Remnant, lost contact with one another, I knew our current system was outdated. Amity was built to bring the nations together. An' it will serve that purpose once again." He exclaimed, before pressing another button, and a tower formed on the holographic colosseum.

"Isn't it great? We're not going to just, replace, Beacon Tower. Building a new tower atop of Amity Colosseum, will re-establish global communications." Penny exclaimed, excitedly.

"By launching the tower high into the atmosphere, our scientists believe we can create a sort of, Satellite." Winter exclaimed. "Out of reach of the Grimm, and capable of retaining global communications, even if we were to lose another tower."

"That is great." Ruby said.

"Scythe, what does the logbook say about it?" Wendy inquired.

Scythe reached into one of his pockets, and pulled out the same book one of the 40 Thieves had identified the Apathy with, and flipped through its pages.

"As far as I can tell, this tower is part of the timeline, and how things are supposed to go, to maintain balance on Remnant." Scythe said.

"What is that?" Winter inquired.

"It's a logbook, depicting what's supposed to happen in the timeline, and giving us a clear image on letting us know what needs to be taken care of." Wendy said, as Scythe put the book away.

"May… may, I have a look at it?" Ironwood questioned, hesitantly.

"Sorry General, but if you were to get a look at it, there's no telling what kind of havoc that could cause to the timeline." Scythe said crossing his arms.

"I see. I apologize for asking." Ironwood said.

"Don't. It's only natural behavior for someone to want to know their future." Wendy said.

"James." Qrow said, getting them back on track. "You don't need the entire Military for this project of yours."

"I will for the next part." Ironwood said. "When I finally tell the people, about Salem."

There was a tense moment of silence, before Qrow spoke up.

"Heh. So that's why you withdrew your troops, to handle the panic that would break out in Atlas." Qrow said.

"Yes, panic is inevitable, and panic brings Grimm. But I believe we are ready. Once Atlas has come to grips with the fight ahead, I'll use Amity Tower to spread the message, to all of Remnant." Ironwood said.

"But everything will fall apart. Grimm will be everywhere." Weiss said.

"You're right." Winter said. "But Atlas is willing and prepared to assist."

"Trying to hide the truth from the world, will eventually kill us all." Ironwood stated, before undoing the coverings of his fortified office.

"Oz spent his whole life, many lives, keeping this secret." Qrow said looking to James.

"I know." Ironwood said. "But since Beacon, things have changed. Without him here to guide us, all I can do is use my best judgement." He exclaimed turning to walk to his desk, before noticing how incredibly silent everyone was. "What is it?"

"Actually, Oz isn't completely gone." Oscar said turning to face him completely.

"Uh, Oscar here, is the next Ozpin." Qrow said.

"Oz?" Ironwood asked with a smile. "I am so glad you're here, I didn't think you'd…"

"Not quite." Oscar said, holding his hands up. "He's kind of, um… gone, at the moment."

"That's not normal." Ironwood said. "How did he…"

"We don't know." Ruby quickly answered. "We were in a train crash, and ever since, well… suddenly Oz wasn't there anymore."

"That's the worst news yet." Ironwood sighed. "Did he tell you anything about the Relics, before…"

"He told us, the lamp can answer three questions. But, all the questions were used up already." Ruby said.

"Right, right." Ironwood said, turning and marching to the window behind his desk. "Ozpin told us that too, once upon a time. At least we have you Oscar. You're safe here in Atlas. Maybe together we can figure out how to bring Ozpin back."

"Thank you sir, uh I mean General." Oscar said, standing at attention. "Uh, Ironwood?"

"So long as we're revealing secrets to one another, there's one, you're gonna want to sit down for." Scythe smiled, looking to Wendy, before the duo stepped aside, revealing Pyrrha who had been hiding behind them, quietly this whole time.

"Pyrrha Nikos?" Ironwood questioned, fumbling into his seat. "H-how? Didn't she…"

"Die at the Fall of Beacon, yes. But I was brought back, by Scythe." Pyrrha said. "His Celestial Knight superiors said, it was imperative that I be brought back, to help maintain balance to Remnant's timeline."

"How did you bring her back?" Winter questioned looking at Scythe.

"I'm not just a Celestial Knight. I'm the grandson to the Goddess of Flames, Amaterasu, and the son of a Dragon who can control all elements, including time itself. It was simply a matter of using a combination of time and healing magic on Pyrrha's ashes, to restore her body and bring her back to the world of the living. Left me, drained of all my magic for a bout 24hours, but I could still kick some ass without my magic." Scythe smiled, unfolding one arm, and clenching his fist, letting his golden claws show.

"Are those, coming directly out from between your knuckles?" Winter inquired.

"Yep, and they're about 3/4ths the length of my forearm, so they don't interfere with the joints of my elbows or wrists." Scythe explained.

"I'm sorry, you have them in both your arms?" Ironwood questioned.

"Yes I do. I even have a healing factor. Not sure about its limit, but it's effective." Scythe said.

"But, now that we've got my resurrection out of the way, let's get back on track." Pyrrha said.

"She's right." Wendy agreed.

"Right. We must work together, if we're to fight Salem and win." Ironwood said. "Now, if you're all on board?"

There was a moment of silence before Ruby spoke up, speaking for everyone in the team.

"Tell us how we can help." Ruby said.

"Good, because getting the Amity Tower ready to launch won't be easy." Ironwood said. "But first, I think we need to get those weapons of yours, up to our standards." He exclaimed.

"He's right." Scythe said. "Blake, Gambol Shroud's blade is on the verge of snapping. It would have been destroyed if you had fought Adam."

"Remember, this is Atlas." Winter began. "While assisting the military, we will provide you with the best equipment, our scientists can devise."

"Really?" Ren questioned as the others cheered.

---

~Main Foyer~

"So that was the second time I got banned, the third time I got banned…"

"Alright, cut the chatter." Clover said, interrupting Marrow's story about how many times he got banned from his favorite bar, as the team came down the steps from Ironwood's office, with the Ace Ops meeting them at the bottom steps. "I'd like to sincerely apologize for the miscommunication down in Mantle. We didn't intend to…"

"I feel so bad, honestly." Elm said, rushing through her team, and instead of shaking only Ruby's hand, she shook her whole body. "If we had known who you were, we'd be laughing over a hot meal right now and…" She stopped as she dropped Ruby to the ground.

"I understand…" Ruby said more than a little dizzy as she got up. "You were just following orders."

"I mean you could have asked us some questions first." Weiss said, spinning Ruby around comically, before stopping her.

"Sir." Clover said walking up to Scythe and saluting him. "I deeply apologize to you as well. The disrespect my team and I showed to you and your partner, is nothing short of dishonorable to the Atlesian Military's reputation. A Celestial Knight, should be treated with respect, not disgrace."

"It's fine. But next time, try using your words, before your weapons." Scythe said. "So take Weiss's advice, and ask questions first next time."

"Sir."

"Questions are for the weak." Marrow said, stepping up. "But, we're all on the same team now. Not that I'm happy about it."

"Dude, your tail is wagging, really fast." Scythe said. "Your body betrays your words."

Harriet had to stifle a laugh as Marrow grabbed his tail, forcing it to stop wagging.

"We just wanted to say, we're sorry." Clover said. "An' that we're looking forward to working with you on our next mission. Most of you might be students, but you've been fighting just as hard as we have. If not harder."

"Exactly why I'm looking forward to seeing what you kids can do." Harriet said.

"There is one, who hasn't done any fighting for the last couple years." Jaune smiled as Pyrrha stepped forward.

"No, way." Harriet was in shock.

"Pyrrha Nikos?" Clover questioned.

"How is this possible?" Vine questioned.

"It's a long story." Pyrrha said.

"One we'll have plenty of time for, over dinner." Scythe said.

"C'mon." Penny said, making her way to the front of the group. "Let me show you around campus." She cheerfully offered before leading the way.

"Dinner will have to wait. Right now, we're all needing some well-earned rest." Scythe chuckled as they all followed Penny. "We'll chat some other time."

"So that way's the cafeteria, and that way's the training rooms, oh and over there are the class rooms." Penny directed as she gave the tour.

"This all looks great Penny." Ruby said with a yawn, as Nora was leaning against Ren, a snot bubble coming out of her nose as she snored. "But where are we staying?"

"Remember, you're in Atlas now. As the most, well-funded school on Remnant, every team in Atlas Academy, gets their own room, and if that wasn't enough…"

"So we're staying in the dorms?" Ren questioned.

There was a pause before Penny cheered.

"It'll be just like Beacon again." Penny was very enthusiastic about their stay at Atlas.

---

~That Night~

Wendy woke up with a bit of a start as she had a nightmare, about the Adam Taurus of both Remnant and Earthland, and got down from her bunk to go to Scythe's bed, but found he wasn't there. She looked around the room, and saw that his pajamas were neatly folded up and laying on the pillow of his bunk, but found his uniform, and weapons bag, were gone.

Getting dressed herself, and making sure not to wake up Oscar, Wendy made her way out of the dorms, and to the one place she had a feeling she'd find her husband. When opening the doors to Training Room Alpha, Wendy found her suspicion to be correct as she saw Scythe sparring with the two newest recruits to the Celestial Knights, Michiru and Nazuna. Neither of them were giving Scythe a run for his money, but she saw he still found the exercise, to be enjoyable for him, even if he was holding back.

"Good, keep it up girls. Michiru I see you're not supporting your leg properly when your kicking. Correct that, or you're gonna injure yourself in your knees. Nazuna try to be a little more limber, and flexible. Try to go with the flow of the fight." Scythe said as he easily dodged and redirected their strikes.

"Late night training the greenhorns?" Wendy asked, as the doors closed behind her.

"Spar with each other girls." Scythe said, before going to Wendy.

"Can't sleep?" Wendy asked.

"I couldn't. There's something bothering me." Scythe said.

"What's up?" Wendy inquired, as Scythe sat on a bench.

"I read further ahead into the journal."

"Scythe, you know you weren't supposed to do that." Wendy exclaimed.

"I know, but I couldn't shake the feeling something was gonna happen that I could prevent without altering the timeline. It said Hazel is to die sometime within the next couple months." Scythe sighed, drinking from a water bottle. "I don't want the big guy to die. But I don't wanna screw up the timeline either. I just can't figure out how to do it."

"Well, there is one way to loophole him out of that fate." Wendy said.

"Yeah, but I doubt gramps is gonna agree to make him a Celestial Knight." Scythe sighed.

"Well, what if a deity Knighted him?" Wendy asked.

"Hmm, that could work." Scythe pondered. "I'll have to talk to Grandma about that."

"I'm sure Amaterasu would agree." Wendy smiled. "But I can tell there's something still on your mind."

"That obvious huh?"

"Scythe please, I'm your wife. I know when something is on your mind." Wendy said. "Spill it."

Scythe sat there pondering for a moment, before he looked towards Michiru and Nazuna.

"Remember when Weiss told us about how Beo's name sounded familiar to her, like she'd heard of it somewhere before?" Scythe asked.

"Yeah, we were right next to each other." Wendy exclaimed. "What's this about?"

"I'm thinking that her father, Jacques Schnee, made a deal with an Ex-Communicado Knight, gaining vast amounts of power and wealth, in exchange for something. My gut is telling me, it wasn't anything good." Scythe said.

"You really think Jacques Schnee would do something so underhanded to do that?" Wendy asked.

"I do. I've done some research on him. Accused of multiple crimes regarding Faunus enslavement, shady business deals, back alley partnerships, and one crime where he would have gotten arrested and tried for multiple murders due to sending workers into unsafe mines who died when it collapsed. But somehow, all of the witnesses just vanished, over two dozen people, going missing in a single night." Scythe stated.

"Only someone with a powerful Semblance, could do something like that." Wendy said.

"Either that, or someone who was once a member of the Celestial Knights." Scythe growled. "I've sent Robin Hood to go searching for any dirt that can be used against Jacques."

"These events are concerning." Wendy said. "Has Ben returned to Remnant yet?"

"He popped back in a couple hours ago. Currently, according to Gramps, he's at one of the high end bars, here in Atlas." Scythe said, getting to his feet. "I'll go and have a word with him."

"Don't be out all night. An' don't drink too much. Your liver might be able to handle it, but Ben's can't." Wendy said.

"Right. I'll be back as soon as I can. Keep an eye on those two for me, and I'll see you when I see you." Scythe said, kissing Wendy on the forehead, before leaving the training room.

---

~Short Time Later: Bar in Atlas~

The room was dimly lit, as the smooth jazz music played through the near empty lounge, as Ben sat at the bar counter, drinking what looked like his tenth glass of whisky.

"Knew I'd find you here." Scythe said, taking a seat next to Ben. "Still mourning the loss of your partner?"

"Shut it." Ben said.

"Hey, I'm just saiyan' what's on my mind." Scythe smiled.

"You know about Saiyans?" Ben asked.

"I know they exist in two or more universes. Thought using the name of their species in a pun would cheer you up." Scythe said. "Gramps is gonna be sending me and Wendy to one of those universes after this mission in Remnant is over."

"Don't count on it." Ben said, sliding Scythe a letter.

"What's this?" Scythe asked.

"A letter of discharge from High Leader Emiya." Ben said. "As soon as you and Marvell are done on Remnant, you'll be returning to the DWMA to finish your education, as weapon and meister. Which means you'll temporarily be Ex-Communicado until your time there is over with."

"He sent you back with this, did he?" Scythe asked opening it. "How long you staying this time?"

"I'll be helping you see this mission through. After a certain point, I'll be taking over as you return to the DWMA." Ben said.

"Sounds like a doable plan." Scythe said. "But, are ya gonna be okay?"

"Why wouldn't I be?"

"I mean, you've been drinking an awful lot whenever you're around alcohol."

"I have to put an enchantment on the glasses to make the alcohol actually able to effect me." Ben explained.

"But this isn't healthy you know. It's fine to mourn the death of someone you care about, but don't destroy yourself over it." Scythe said. "Believe me, it's not easy to bounce back from."

"Sounds like you've got experience with this kind of pain." Ben said.

"My entire Village. Metalica." Scythe said. "For the longest time, I blamed myself for its destruction, and the death of everyone there, all because I helped someone I thought needed help."

"You were just doing the right thing, and you made a mistake." Ben pointed out.

"A mistake that cost every man and woman their lives, and enslaved all the children of the village, turning us all into Hades test subjects for his experiments."

"Ouch."

"Yeah. But, there wasn't that much love lost. The villagers all knew who my father really was, and I was an outcast for it. They couldn't touch me though, since I was being raised by the strongest sorcerer, and wisest sorceress in the village." Scythe explained. "But, that didn't stop them. Even in my nightmares, I still could feel them all blaming me for it, from beyond the grave." He said as a glass of apple brandy was brought to him. "But you know, eventually I let it all go, because I actually talked with someone about it."

"Guess talking does help." Ben said, as Scythe downed the alcohol.

"So if you're ever needing someone to talk to, you know how to find me." Scythe said, paying for his drink. "Try to get some sleep before sunrise. We've got preparations to start working on in the morning." He stated, patting Ben's back, as he got down from his seat.

---

~A Couple Days Later~

"Alright gather around." Clover said as Jaune, Qrow, Ruby, and Scythe gathered for a meeting involving team leaders. "Our mission today is to secure the launch site for the Amity Communications Tower."

"What's the location of the launch site, and its significance to the mission?" Scythe questioned.

"Designated area is an abandoned Dust Mine. Since its closure, the Grimm have moved in. The good news, is all that untouched Dust, is still down there too." Clover explained. "Science team says they'll need it for the first phase of their launch."

"Well, that does make sense. The Staff of Creation is what's powering the Floating City, right?"

"Correct, so since we can't use it for both Amity Communications tower and Atlas…"

"We're gonna have to do it the old fashioned way with Dust." Qrow added, picking up what Clover was putting down.

"Atlas Military Huntsmen are already hard at work, clearing out the surrounding tundra with the aid of Celestial Knight Ben Shigura." Clover explained. "But recon has managed to identify a powerful Geist, what's managed to evade destruction and take several lives."

"Let us handle the Geist." Wendy said. "We've got some experience in handling phantoms who can evade danger." She chuckled, referring to her hunt of Beo and Ginger.

"We'll bring that up when we work out our battle plan. But here's the thing. After we increased our numbers, the Geist was smart enough to retreat into the mine itself." Clover explained.

"Which means this Geist is old, and extremely dangerous." Scythe said. "Just like Ginger Morgues."

"Who?" Qrow asked.

"One of our targets from a previous mission about a year back. She was an interdimensional hopping phantom who took over the actual Ginger Morgue's body, with her accomplice, and lover, Velhallen Beo. A nasty villain who originates from our world." Wendy said. "She liked causing chaos before devouring the souls of those she kills. She and Beo were capable of devouring entire universes worth of souls. But their little binging spree was stopped when Scythe and I had been put on the case."

"What is it you do to anyone who threatens the balance of the universe or timeline?" Clover asked.

"They're executed." Scythe said. "Wish it were different, but that's how it's been since the Celestial Knights were founded."

"You can hear more of our adventures another time, but right now, we need to keep focused on the mission at hand." Wendy said.

"This is our target." Clover said, bringing up an image of the Geist, possessing several boulders, with a Grimm bone mask. "The mine was a labyrinth back in the day. There's all sorts of tunnels and chamber the Geist can move between, so if we're gonna kill this thing, we're gonna have to split up and corner it."

"One problem though Chief." Scythe said. "It went into a Dust Mine, filled with megatons of unrefined, raw, unstable Dust. What do you think it would use to create a body best suited for killing and chaos?"

"Of course. Dust." Clover sighed.

"Let us handle the Geist. Everyone else will handle the other Grimm in the mines. Wendy and I have resistance to the elements, so we'll take point." Scythe explained.

"Roger that. Who am I to argue with a Celestial Knight's orders?" Clover questioned. "General Ironwood says, both RWBY and JNPR have seen your fair share of combat. I trust that man with my life, so tomorrow, I'll be trusting you all too."

---

~Later Pietro's Lab~

"Apologies for the mess, and for holding onto your weapons for so long. The upgrades you requested were, uh, well, they were more than I anticipated." Pietro said with a laugh, as Teams RWBY, JNPR, along with Scythe and Wendy, entered the lab with them.

"I'm sure the wait was worth it." Scythe said, as the ten of them stood in front of some lockers with cases holding their new gear.

"Your new weapons and armor should be as requested. But I also took the liberty of reviewing most of your combat footage from the Vytal Festival Tournament. There's some additional enhancements I'd like to suggest." Pietro explained.

"What about Scythe and Wendy?" Ruby asked.

"We gave him footage of training sessions we held in one of the training rooms the other day." Wendy said, as they all took their cases.

"But for now, these should serve you well enough. An' they're made from the material formula provided to me, by Scythe and Wendy." Pietro said.

"You followed the recommended sketches?" Wendy asked.

"Of course." Pietro smiled.

"Good." Scythe smiled, opening his case, and smiling when he saw the weapons inside. "Alright people, let's do this."

---

~The Following Morning~

It was a sunny day out, and the sky was clear with a beautiful hue as the stars were still somewhat visible. The sound of an engine revving through the air, disturbed the peace as an airship came flying through the clouds, heading straight for the Mines, before the doors opened, revealing the upgraded Teams of RWBY and JNPR, along with Scythe and Wendy in their new uniforms.

Going down the line, each of the Huntsmen and Huntresses showed off their new armor with their own unique style and flare added to the designs.

Ruby's hair was changed up quite a bit. The style was less flat, and became spikier and choppier, having taken inspiration for the cut from Qrow's style. Her new outfit was comprised of a black red lined lace-up corset with four buckles hanging loose over a mesh sleeveless top, as well as a black choker around her neck. She wore a red pleated skirt that is split at the side with a small brown belted strap across the gap, and bright red shorts under it. On her arms, she wears black bracers with large brown buckled straps around the wrist as well as black fingerless gloves. Around her waist, she accessorized with a brown belt with several bullets, and a buckle of her emblem on it alongside a pouch on the right side with a Zwei based emblem. Her usual boots had been replaced with black thigh-high steel-toe boots, red soles and heels, with a single buckled strap, rear seam and a large brown buckled strap with attached pouches near the top, over a pair of brown mesh tights. Finishing the outfit off, her torn cape was replaced with a new cape that has a hood, and made out of a more durable material than her old one, which she still kept out of sentimentality.

For Weiss, her new attire couldn't make her look more like royalty. Her hair is now braided, with grown out bangs and styled them to frame her face more closely. She wears a pale blue sleeveless dress with deep red lining, bow detail fixture, and two diamond-shaped pieces hanging from the corners of the hem, over a white diagonal hemmed strapless dress. Above her dress, she wears a vivid blue shrug with a raised collar, slim form fitting sleeves and the Schnee emblem on the left sleeve, fastened by a blue, silver outlined strap. On her arms she wore a pair of long navy blue gloves with silver top trim surrounding a red gem at the top. Over her dress, she wears a light blue, corset styled belt. Around her waist are three white belts with a medium-sized pouch attached to the lowest belt and another pouch attached to the middle belt. The lowest belt crosses over the middle one. She wears long, pale blue wedge-heel boots with white frill detailing at the top at the front, alongside grayish blue coloring on the toes and navy blue wedged heels. In addition, she wears a pair of ruby earrings that match her icicle-shaped tiara with a diamond-shaped ruby in the center.

For Blake's new looks, she was a little further for style after noticing how long her hair was after growing it out, as now she has shoulder-length bobbed hair. With her attire changing to a purple sleeveless catsuit with attached boots, having light purple soles and trim. The catsuit has a high neck with a single short silver zipper alongside matching zippers that run from her thighs to her ankles on the front of the legs. A pair of kneepads, matching color to the catsuit with silver studs on them are attached to the knees of the catsuit. The long, white tailcoat she now wore with her outfit, has desaturated purple detailing on the chest, sleeves, sides and collar alongside a dark purple detailing on the back. With a narrow belt around the collar and a wide white belt loosely secured around her waist through the coat's belt loops. The belt has two pouches attached to the back. The coattails end in a point and the inside lining is vivid purple. The front zipper of the coat is upside down and extends to the very bottom of the coat, and there are additional zippers along the lower half of the sleeves with a single purple line running between the zipper and her shoulders. Around each of her wrists is a dark purple belted wristband and has a desaturated purple magnetic backpack on her back.

Yang's new outfit, was entirely different from her old one, primarily consisting of khaki overalls, the gold zipper of which is unzipped just below the breast to reveal a white low-cut cropped tube top. Around the thighs of the overalls is a gold zipper and buckled strap that allows for the pants leg to be detached. The right leg is unzipped but still strapped to the overalls but the lower part is partially folded over. Over top of the coveralls, she wears a baggy, dark brown crop aviator styled jacket with fur trim around the neck and black-and-orange straps along the sleeves. Around her waist is a black-and-orange belt with black-and-yellow folded fabric on the sides, which runs behind her with a pouch attached to it and a golden buckle of her emblem. She wears dark brown knee-high boots with black laces and top trim. For accessories, she has still wore her orange scarf around her neck and added her purple scarf around her right leg. She also has a black/brown strap with golden trim and a pouch wrapped around her left thigh. She is also seen wearing orange sunglasses.

As for JNPR, their style had also been changed up quite a bit, since their team was all back in one piece.

Jaune cut his hair short and styles it to be up swept and somewhat spiky. He also gained a new outfit of his own design. He wears a high collar black shirt under a re-modified pure white chest plate that covers a bit more of his upper abdomen and similarly-colored bracers. Both the chest plate and the bracers are trimmed with gold, and he once again wears two shoulder pads. He retains his gloves and sash except he now wears dark navy jeans and dark brown boots.

Nora cuts her hair to a shorter length, one in which she said was from her days at Beacon, and she seemed happy with her new outfit. Her outfit was consisting of a long, pink and white sleeveless coat with light blue lapels and white-collar belted closed by a black belt with a pouch on the left side, over a black short dress. The front of the coat has two heart shape cutouts near to the bottom. On the upper back of her coat is a small pair of decorative metal wings with a magnet in the middle that she can attach Magnhild to. She also has long detached white sleeves with black fingerless gloves, white stockings light blue socks and black boots with silver heels, sole and toe plates. In addition, she wears matching metal bands on her upper arms with her emblem on them alongside silver metal bands around her thighs.

Pyrrha's new attire was somewhat to her liking as well. Her hair had been cut to be around mid neck length with some bangs covering part of her left eye. Her normal circlet was gone, replaced with a circlet with a more complex design, and an oval shaped emerald in the center on her forehead with cheek guards coming down from the circlet, stopping at her jawline. Her new outfit was comprised of a blood red one piece cat suit with a diamond shaped hole in the chest, revealing the scar that had been from Cinder's arrow piercing her chest at point blank range. Over the sleeveless suit, Pyrrha wore a bronze and silver chest plate that hugged her curves, and didn't hinder her mobility at all, with a silver sash around her waist. She still retained her bronze greaves, but the originals had been replaced with ones holding a simpler design, but like her originals, they started below her mid-thigh before continuing downwards into her boots as well as a pair of cuisses that began mid-thigh and ended slightly above her knees. She also equipped her arms with a bronze bracers over her fingerless sleeve gloves, with her armlet remaining on her left arm. Her high-heeled boots were brown with a silver trim and seemed, partially matching her sash and reaching up to mid-calf.

Ren's hair was braided, and his new outfit seemed more his style. He wore a sleeveless turtleneck dark green top, white long sleeves underneath, black half of a jacket/arm guard combination on his right arm with a dagger he told the Celestial Knights, was his fathers, attached to it, a single detached long black fingerless glove on his left arm, and black leather boots.

The two Celestial Knights however, weren't allowed to change their uniforms to their personal designs without Rin or Shirou's say so, but that didn't take too long as Ben had gotten the permission they required, thus giving them free reign of making their own uniforms, how they saw fit, with some help from the others, and some materials they sent down from a world the older knights had once visited.

Scythe was now clad in a black bodysuit with slim, form fitting red and silver accented ornate gold armor. A gorget around the neck attached to a chest plate armor surrounding his upper body and he had slim shoulder guards. All over his arms were gold armor with guards on top the bracers on the forearms. A Beowolf skull themed emblem was engraved in the chest plate. He wore slim form fitting leg armor and armored boots. Around his waist was a belt with the Celestial Knights Archlich crest in red with gold outlines. Attached to the back around the shoulder blades, were two black ropes of leather with two sickle like blades on the ends. On his back, he sported Grimm Reaper.

Wendy's new outfit came from inspiration of Ruby's outfit, and a top she saw, and purchased, in a store window in the Atlas Shopping District when she went exploring the Kingdom. Her royal blue hair was straight, but started to blend into a braid half way down the length, with a lavender violet grading from the blue to the tips of her hair, with her choker, and the enhancement add on, connected to it, around her neck, with the elements set to fire and ice.

Going off, completely different from her old uniform, Wendy's new uniform started out, presenting an open front tube top, with an inner sideboob view, held up on her chest by a wire frame in the top. Over her arms, shoulders, and shoulder blades were actually a pair of sleeves which covered her arms and was showing off her upper torso and midriff; the sleeves were skin tight, and made of a highly stretchable, very durable material, with the tube top being the same color blue as her hair, and the sleeves, being an Etherion blue, with the Fairy Tail emblem embroidered in midnight blue, outlined in gold, on the back of the material, between the shoulder blades, and another on the right sleeve, directly above where the mark on her shoulder is.

Around her waist, she wears a royal blue pleated skirt that is split at the side with a small black belt strap across the gap, and black shorts under it, and around her waist, attached to the back of her belt, a small light blue cape which hung down to her knees. On her arms, over the sleeves of her top, she wears black bracers with small blue buckled straps around the wrists as well as black fingerless gloves. Sitting at an angle around her waist, she now has a black belt with several bullets with a buckle of the Fairy Tail emblem on it, alongside a pouch on the right side with the Archlich Celestial Knight Emblem on a metal plate, screwed into the flap of the pouch.

For footwear, Ruby had added to Wendy's new uniform, her own design, consisting of thigh-high steel-toe low raised heeled boots with royal blue soles and heels, a single buckled strap, rear seam and a large black buckled strap with an attached pouch near the top of the right boot, over her bare skin. She made her own modifications to the boots so she wouldn't be, exactly copying Ruby, but the reaper girl didn't seem to mind.

"Alright people, let's make it happen." Scythe heard Clover speak into the intercom.

"You ready Wendy?" Scythe questioned.

"I'll meet you at the Mines." Wendy smiled before jumping out of the air ship with Team RWBY, as well as both Marrow and Harriet.

"I'll be waiting." He called to her.

"Approaching second drop point." Clover said.

"Copy that. Alright team, we're dropping in five seconds." Scythe said.

"This is my favorite part." Elm smiled before she and Vine jumped out the open door.

"Let's move." Scythe said, jumping out the other side with Team JNPR following his lead.

As they were falling through the air, Jaune started up his landing strategy, by using his hard light shield upgrades as a glider, before flipping forward and bouncing off the ground by the front of his shield, and standing with his team.

"Not bad Jaune." Pyrrha smiled. "You've certainly gotten better since Beacon's Entrance Exams."

"Thanks." Jaune smiled, before looking around. "Where's Scythe?"

"Look out below."

Team JNPR looked up, before they jumped back as Scythe came falling to the ground, in a superhero landing position.

"Wow." Jaune said as the cloud of ice particles cleared away.

"Haha. Perhaps you kids won't get yourselves killed after all." Elm cheered.

"Show them a little respect, they're a lot tougher than you think." Scythe said following Elm and Vine into the second entrance of the mines, and taking off ahead of them. "I'm going to meet up with Wendy as planned. JNPR, following Vine and Elm's instructions to the letter."

"Right." JNPR said.

---

~With RWBY and Wendy~

"This is Alpha Squad. LZ's clear. Proceeding on foot." Clover said over the intercom. "You've all got fancy new Scrolls, so don't forget to use 'em. Keep your eyes and ears open. I want an update if you encounter the target. Alpha out."

"Roger that." Wendy said, before noticing Yang couldn't stop staring at Blake.

Apparently Wendy wasn't the only one to notice as Blake blushed when she noticed Yang's constant staring.

"Uh, sorry, just not used to the new hair yet." Yang said, realizing she was staring.

"Is it, bad?" Blake asked, hugging herself while pulling some bangs behind her ears.

"No, no it's great even!" Yang said.

"Man, I did not sign up to be a babysitter." Marrow said.

"From what I understand, Marrow, the rest of the team babysits you, so this should give you an insight on their perspective." Wendy snickered walking past them.

"Burn Marrow, good thing we're surrounded by tons of snow." Harriet laughed.

Marrow just crossed his arms over his chest, and pouted like a baby.

As Wendy was heading for the mines entrance, she noticed Weiss looking rather upset, after she'd wiped some snow off something.

"You doing okay?" Wendy asked.

"These Mines are where my family's bad reputation started when my father took over the company after my grandfather passed away." Weiss said. "In fact, my grandfather's passing was said to have been natural, but there are things about it that don't add up."

"Hmm… Robin Hood." Wendy called out, only for the archer to appear next to her, causing Harriet and Marrow to instinctively pull out their weapons from his sudden appearance. "Relax, he's with me." She stated.

"My Lady, what is it I can do for you?" Robin Hood asked.

"I need you to look into something for me." Wendy said. "Go through Jacques Schnee's archives, everything you can get your hands on, and find out if he had anything to do with his father in law's death."

"As you wish." Robin Hood said, disappearing.

"What are you doing?" Weiss asked.

"Scythe found it odd and suspicious that your father would get help from someone like Beo. But with this new discovery, it's starting to add up some, since this mine collapsing was what Jacques would have lost the company too from the amount of charges and lawsuits he was facing, but all witnesses to the crime somehow vanished in one night. It's too flawless for the pieces to fit as a coincidence." Wendy stated. "We'll continue on this later, for now, let's get back on track with the mission."

Following Wendy's lead to the mines, the team were anxiously awaiting what was to happen in the mines, but currently they were focused on something else.

"Oh, it's freezing out here." Ruby said.

"Without heating or projected Aura, the cold of Solitas can kill you in a matter of hours." Weiss explained.

"I suddenly don't feel as bad about leaving Oscar behind." Blake said.

"Can we, talk about that again?" Yang asked, with a sigh as she put her hands on her hips.

"What about it?" Ruby asked, as Marrow and Harriet were far ahead of them.

"We're really not gonna tell Ironwood about what happened to Oz?" Yang questioned.

"Not right now we're not." Wendy said. "He will find out, but not for a while. An' it'll be Oscar who tells him."

"Let me guess, you peeked at the journal of the future?" Weiss asked.

"Scythe did actually, and told me about what was to come after the Councilman Elections coming up." Wendy explained. "Now come on, let's get a move on before Marrow and Harriet get suspicious." Wendy ran up ahead, catching up with the two Ace Ops, before turning around while running backwards. "I'm gonna go on ahead, and meet up with Scythe." She called out, before turning her back to them again.

---

~Qrow and Clover~

"Gotta say. I'm still not really used to working Huntsmen in the field." Qrow said.

"But you were on a team before, weren't you?" Clover asked.

"Long time ago." Qrow sighed. "I just found working alone, tends to be for the best."

"Well I think, that's a shame." Clover said, before reaching out and grabbing Qrow's arm as he tripped over something in the dirt, and pulling him back to his feet. "Alpha here, give me an update." He spoke into his communicator.

---

~Scythe~

"The connecting ice tunnels seem clear." Vine's voice echoed in Scythe's ear. "We should be approaching the actual mine any minute now."

"Yeah, about that." Scythe said, as he jumped back. "Meant to tell you, but something was jamming the signal until recently. I've found the target, and I'm currently engaged with him."

"Hang tight Scythe, I'm on my way." Wendy said into the intercom.

"I'd hurry. This thing's figured out how to detonate Dust, and he's charging up for a massive explosion." Scythe said, before a wolf head shaped helmet formed around his head.

"Where are you?" Clover questioned.

"I'm in the main cavern of the mines." Scythe stated, his voice sounding different with the helmet on, as he was jumping, and flipping through the air, to avoid a punch, but was hit by the Geist's other stone arm while he was still in midair, which slammed him into the wall.

"Scythe if that thing detonates in the main shaft of the mine, then not only will the mines be rendered useless, but the damage could very well lead all the way back to Mantle without the proper safety precautions in place." Qrow said.

"I know that." Scythe groaned as he pushed back against the Geist, his claws dug into its boulder appendage. "Problem is, the Dust crystals are part of the targets body so unless I get a clear shot to his mask from where I am, I'll risk detonating the Dust."

"Wendy ETA on your arrival with Scythe?" Clover asked.

"I'm about five minutes out. I have to work my way through all these tunnels, and without the use of my lightning element to speed me up, I'm not as fast." Wendy said.

"Don't use it Wendy." Scythe said. "The electric sparks might cause the Dust around you to detonate. I can hold out until you get here. But you might wanna hurry, this battle requires some delicacy, and you know…"

"Delicacy isn't your thing. I get it." Wendy said.

"You know me so well Hun. WHOA." Scythe chuckled, before he cried out as the Geist swung its arm up and slammed him into the ground. "Ow." He wheezed.

"Scythe, talk to me, are you okay?" Ruby asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine." Scythe said getting to his feet and looking up at the Grimm possessed rubble. "It's a little hard for me to do this without using my magic, but I'm gonna have to make due."

Scythe took a runners start and with his Celestial Speed, ran straight for the Geist's right leg. Sliding to a halt and throwing a hard roundhouse kick to the knee, where it was nothing but ordinary stone, causing the rock to crumble, and the Geist to fall to one side.

Jumping back as the Geist swung its stone arm at him, Scythe flipped through the air, before his feet planted themselves on the wall of the mines, and launched himself at the Geist, covering his body in metal.

With the force and speed he was going at, Scythe slammed through the Geist's stone arm, and hit the mask, breaking it in half, and causing the Grimm to perish. But with the Geist no longer holding the stone together, the Golem of stone and Dust began to fall apart.

"Guys, you might wanna get out of here, and as far away from the mines as you can." Scythe said.

"What's happened?" Qrow asked.

"I took out the Geist, but the body it was using has nothing to hold it together now. Dust is gonna be falling, and I might not be able to catch it all. An' if that happens…"

"The entire mine will be nothing more than a giant crater." Clover said.

"We're on our way to help you." Harriet said.

"I'm almost there Scythe." Wendy added.

"Ruby's on her way too." Yang told them.

"Well you'd better hurry." Scythe said, before he began running through the mine shaft, and catching as much Dust as he could.

Scythe almost had all the Dust, but his efforts were delayed, when he had to grab the larger boulders that had been part of the main body. Scythe panicked when the smaller ones were nearing the ground, but were stopped by gusts of wind, slowing their descent and lowering them to the ground gently.

"Cutting it a little close there babe." Scythe said.

"Well you know how I like making dramatic entrances." Wendy smiled, as she used her wind magic to slow the Dust clusters descents.

"You missed one." Scythe pointed out, as a Burn Dust cluster was gonna hit the ground.

Wendy's eyes widened, and sent out a gust of wind, but they both knew they would be too late, but somehow, by some miracle, a flurry of rose petals came swooping in, and caught the cluster, as Harriet and Ruby had made it to the main cavern, before Ruby slid to a halt, and slammed against a boulder.

"That was close." Ruby huffed.

"I thought you said, your Semblance was Speed?" Harriet asked.

"It, is?" Ruby was confused.

"I've seen a lot of other Speed Semblances. That was different. I think there's more going on here than you might think." Harriet smiled.

"Just wait till she sees what Ruby can do with her eyes." Wendy whispered to Scythe, as his helmet folded itself back into the armor.

"Scythe to all squads. The mines have been secured, and the Dust is undamaged." Scythe said. "Let Ironwood know the sight is clear of the Geist."

"Roger that Scythe. Rendezvous back out front to the mine shafts main entrance." Clover said.

"Did you take care of the last of the Centinel's?" Wendy questioned.

"I took out the last one, before we came rushing to Scythe's aid." Harriet stated.

"Good. Let's head back to the others. We've got a report to give in to General Ironwood." Scythe said.

"Yet I can't shake the feeling, we're in for quite the storm when we get outside." Wendy shuddered.

---

~Later Outside~

Everything was peaceful as the sun was beginning to set outside the mines, but a shadow crept over the land, and Amity Colosseum was driven over the center of the mines, confusing the two spies, gathering information for Robyn Hill. As the heavily armored trucks came to a halt in front of the mines, the teams came walking out of the mines, feeling good about what they'd done, with Marrow and Clover leading the way, and Marrow trying to act more like Clover.

Pyrrha, Ren, Blake, Weiss, and Yang hung back with Scythe, and Wendy, while Ruby, Jaune, and Nora were excited and in awe of the Ace Ops.

"You guys were incredible." Jaune said. "You're so powerful, and you didn't even have to strategize to work together."

"Ace Ops are hand picked to compliment one another. We support each other as assets, with as minimal liabilities as possible." Clover said.

"Some of us are all asset, zero liability." Marrow said.

"Tch." Elm scoffed.

"Oh yeah? You think I have some liabilities Elm?" Marrow questioned.

"Your brains for one." Elm stated, causing everyone there to laugh.

"You did ask." Vine said when Marrow slumped.

"He's as literal as Ren. Metaphors go straight over their heads." Wendy stated.

"Nothing goes over my head, my reflexes are too fast." Vine stated looking back at her.

"See what she means?" Scythe asked, looking to Blake, before noticing Nora standing over by Elm. "Nora, get back here."

"Hi. Do you need a new best friend?" Nora asked her fellow hammer wielder. "Our pair name can be, Thunder Thighs." She declared, doing a pose with her hammer while letting off some electricity.

"Perfect, complimentary teamwork." Ruby said, rushing up to Harriet. "I wanna have my friends backs, just like that."

"Looks like they'll be learning how cold the Ace Ops are, the hard way." Wendy sighed.

"Friends?" Harriet asked.

"This isn't the schoolyard kid." Elm said with a laugh.

"Thunder Thighs." Nora smiled as Ren picked her up like a cardboard cutout and carried her away.

"But I mean, when you go through so much with someone, it kinda changes things, doesn't it?" Yang asked as Team RWBY joined up.

"We get along well enough, sure. I count on them to keep me alive, they do the same." Harriet stated. "But that's the job. We don't confuse the two."

"An' that right there, is a liability." Scythe said, as Harriet turned to leave, stopping her, and the others from walking away.

"Please explain." Vine said.

"Friends, and teammates. They may seem like two different things, but in reality, they're one in the same. They're people you trust, people you want to spend time with. To say they're as opposites as water and oil, would be the same as saying water and ice aren't the same element. But they are, one's just frozen, while the other's still a liquid, but they're both still water." Scythe explained using one hand to produce a cluster of ice in his hand, and the other to produce a swirling mass of water in the shape of a sphere.

"But not all teammates get along." Harriet said.

"That doesn't matter. If you're on a team long enough, whether you like it or not, you'll eventually see each other as more than teammates. You'll see each other as friends." Wendy said as Scythe combined the ice and water.

"Just a little food for thought there." Scythe smiled, dispersing the combat spell.

"Hey, heads up." Qrow alerted them, pointing to Ironwood and Clover.

"Can I get the team leaders and Celestial Knights, over here?" Ironwood asked. "There's something I'd like to discuss with you. You too Qrow."

Scythe looked to Wendy, who shrugged her shoulders before they walked over to Ironwood, with Ruby, Jaune, and Qrow following.

"I need you on the ground. But be subtle. If people see too many Huntsmen roaming around, they'll get nervous." Ironwood instructed Clover, who nodded with a salute. "An' Clover… don't take Marrow." Clovers response to that was a light laugh.

"Something wrong James?" Scythe asked. "New problems in mantle?"

"More the same unfortunately." Ironwood sighed, showing the morning news article of a man who had been murdered the previous night. "Someone in Mantle, is taking out public leaders, who speak out against Atlas."

"Specifically, people who speak out against you, I take it?" Wendy inquired.

"That would be accurate." Ironwood said. "It didn't look like a pattern at first, but this is the third murder of its kind, in the last week."

"Your opposition in Mantle dropping dead, isn't exactly a good look for you, huh?" Qrow questioned.

"Not really worried about, my public image. But it is causing unrest." Ironwood stated. "I think someone's trying to frame me, and by extension, Atlas. An' it's working."

"Well, if it wasn't for the embargo making everybody so mad, people wouldn't be so quick to blame you, for everything else." Jaune said.

"Look at the balls on you." Scythe laughed, when Jaune stiffened under Ironwood's eyes.

"S-sir." Jaune said, standing at attention.

"No, no. You're right. Things in Mantle have been, hard to manage lately." Ironwood said, rubbing the bridge of his nose. "I'm not blind to its issues, in fact, that's what I want to talk to you about. With the launch of this mobile communications tower, and tensions down in mantle, I think there's a lot of good, your teams can do here."

"We think so too." Wendy smiled.

"Back to the issue of someone framing you, I think we might have someone who could help with finding who this crook is. He doesn't exactly like being called into the field, but his senses are sharp, sharper than mine." Scythe said.

"Scythe, are you sure?" Wendy asked. "He's not exactly the friendliest."

"He's who we need right now." Scythe said.

"This guy gonna be trouble?" Qrow asked.

"Maybe." Wendy said.

"No, he's honor bound to follow Celestial Knight code as her serves the Celestial Knights. I'm just worried with his, unique appetite, he might cause some trouble." Scythe sighed. "He's a Lancer Class Summons, and he was a King of his own country before it fell to ruin, and he died. He even earned himself a fitting name, which is why he's a Lancer Class."

"Well, if you think he can help, summon him." Ironwood said.

"Watch it." Scythe said. "I don't take orders from you. Remember who outranks who, here."

"Right, my apologies." Ironwood sighed.

Scythe took in a deep breath, calming himself before having to speak his name.

"Vlad Dracula." Scythe spoke out, his voice holding power. "Come forth."

There was nothing but silence, before the snow around them, began to swirl around in the wind, turning black as it accumulated into a pillar. When the pillar became tall enough, and wide enough, the snow dissipated, revealing a man in a black cape, blonde hair, and and rather pale skin, as well as thirteenth century Romanian clothing, and a sword on his hip.

"You summoned me, my Prince?" Vlad questioned.

"I need you to…"

"He's here, already?" Scythe paused as he heard Ironwood answering his com-link. "No, it's fine, let him land. I'll deal with him myself."

"More Mantle problems?" Qrow asked, after giving a side glance to Ruby.

"No." Ironwood said, as a jet came flying through the air, and landed in the airship zone. "This one's an Atlas problem."

"Am I still needed?" Vlad questioned.

"Yes, just… hang back in my shadow until you're called upon." Scythe said.

"Very well my Prince." Vlad bowed, before disappearing into Scythe's shadow.

Following Ironwood to the landing docks, Team RWBY and the Celestial Knights all prepared for what was in store as the airship landed in front of them. As the doors to the airship opened up, a white haired man with a fuzzy mustache, wearing a white suit, and an angry expression on his face, came marching down the ramp up to Ironwood.

"So let me get this straight James." Jacques Schnee began as he got in Ironwood's face. "In addition to this nonsensical embargo of yours, crippling my business. You've also decided you have the authority to commandeer private property? When the council hears about this, you will never…"

"Actually, I've already informed them, as this is now the sight of a classified, military, operation." James countered, putting emphasis on the word, military. "It didn't even require a vote."

"Didn't require, a vote?" Jacques questioned.

"You might wanna brush up on council law, before you lose this upcoming election Jacques." Ironwood said. "Now, I've allowed you to land here once as a courtesy, the next time won't be a friendly reception."

"Lately, you seem to forget who your friends really are." Jacques stated. "I'm going to get that council seat, James. An' maybe then you'll…" He paused when he spotted Weiss among the troops behind Ironwood. "You… You roped my missing daughter into these schemes of yours too? How long has she been back in Atlas, does Winter know about this?" He questioned.

"It was my decision to come here." Weiss stated, marching up to Jacques. "Just like it was my decision to leave. Or have you forgotten all about that?"

"If you think I'm one to forget anything girl, then you've misjudged the man your father is." Jacques stated.

"Oh, I know exactly the kind of scumbag asshole, you are Jacques." Weiss stated.

"How dare you speak to me that way. I have half a mind to…"

"Half a mind to, what Jacques Schnee?" Scythe questioned walking up to get in his face.

"An' just who the hell are you?" Jacques questioned.

"He's my superior." Ironwood said.

There was a tense moment of silence, as Jacques looked at Scythe in aggression, before he sighed and righted himself, straightening out his sleeves, before looking to Weiss again.

"You know… your mother was devastated when you left." Jacques said, guilt tripping Weiss. "Didn't leave her room for days. You know how she gets, when she's upset."

"An' I'm stopping you right there Jacques. Play the guilt trip card, one more time, I dare you." Scythe growled.

"I don't have time to waste on you." Jacques said, before turning back to Ironwood. "I knew one day, you would over extend your reach. I didn't come here, to beg for an abandoned mine." He stated smugly, as the rest of Team RWBY, as well as Wendy and Scythe, stood by Weiss's side. "I came here to thank you. For personally handing me the noose to hang you." He said, his voice getting more threatening. "You'll regret this." Jacques stated before turning back to Weiss, seeing her team standing proud with her. "So these, are the little friends, you threw everything, away for."

"Not friends." Weiss said. "Family." That statement caused Ruby to smile brightly.

Jacques didn't say another word, as he grunted and went back to his ship.

"Vlad." Scythe said, as Vlad returned.

"Yes, my Prince?"

"I want you to go to Mantle, and try to find the person, or people, responsible for framing Atlas and the General." Scythe stated as Jacques's airship began leaving the ground. "If you need to feed… feed on the assholes you know I don't have a tolerance for, and make sure none of your leftovers can be found."

"As you command, my Prince." Vlad said, before vanishing in a swarm of bats.

"What exactly nourishes Vlad?" Blake asked.

"Blood." Scythe sighed. "Vlad Dracula was once known as Vlad the Impaler, and when he was executed, he came back to life, as a literal blood thirsty demon from hell after making a deal with the devil. The word Dracula, literally can mean either the Son of the Dragon, or the Son of the Devil. So, whenever I have him working for me, and if he ever needs to feed, I only allow him to feed on people like, rapists, pedophiles, molesters. People who I consider not to be worth the air they breathe. It's better than having him feed on innocent people."

"That… makes some form of twisted sense and logic." Ironwood said.

"I don't like it anymore than you, but summoning him is what was needed. Vlad can merge with the shadows, even better than me. So he'll be able to tell who's been killing the people you'd benefit from seeing dead." Scythe explained.

The instant Jacques's ship was off to the distance in the sky, an armored van drove up, and Winter stepped out of it.

"Oh now you show up Winter. You just missed Father." Weiss said.

"I wouldn't say I missed…"

"Get down." Scythe called, pulling Yang and Blake back, while Wendy pulled Ruby and Weiss back, as they jumped away, avoiding Penny as she came soaring down.

"Surprise." Penny cheered as the word, Congratulations, formed over her head in big green neon lights, before she realized something. "Uh, did we not start yet?"

"Apparently, we haven't." Winter sighed, sounding exasperated.

"Start what?" Ruby asked.

---

~Amity Colosseum~

"It goes without saying, that this arena holds, a significance, to all of us." Ironwood said, as Teams RWBY and JNPR stood across from him, Qrow, Winter, Penny, Scythe, Wendy, and even Ben, who'd been invited to the ceremony. "It's only fitting, that we reconvene here, now, when the world needs to be brought together more than ever. The road you traveled from our first meeting, hasn't been easy. You fought for your friends, for your school, at Beacon." He said, as Penny was bouncing on her toes excitedly, stopping when Winter put her hand on the android's shoulder. "You fought for the world, and the innocent at Haven Academy and beyond. You've faced down terrors, people can't even fathom. That's not the behavior of students, that's the behavior of Huntsmen, and Huntresses."

Ironwood looked to Penny, and she took that as her cue, and began walking down the line, stopping and pressing a button on her screen with each person she passed, each of them feeling their Scrolls going off. Eventually, she even passed the Celestial Knights, and they all received the same buzz from their Scrolls. Opening them up, they were all shocked, to see that they had received, their licenses for being professional Huntsmen and Huntresses.

"Wait, what is this?" Ren questioned.

"I'm confused as well." Pyrrha said.

"You, are being granted your Huntsmen Licenses. All of you." Winter explained, turning to the Celestial Knights. "Today."

"I know this is coming, a little ahead of schedule, but Brothers know, you deserve it." Ironwood said. "I only regret that I couldn't do something a little more… ceremonious, for the occasion."

"But, I've been dead for the better part of two years. I haven't earned…"

"Ms. Nikos." Ironwood began, interrupting her. "You fought the hardest against Cinder Fall, at Beacon Academy, and you paid the ultimate price for it. We're lucky that someone here was able to give you a refund on that, and brought you back to us. You, more than anyone, deserve this."

"General, you don't have to…"

"Please, with the threat of Salem still out there, and tensions rising in our kingdom, I could certainly use more trustworthy fighters by my side. I should be so lucky to have all of you." Ironwood said, making both RWBY and JNPR uneasy. "It's okay, it's a big moment." He stated, noticing their expressions. "An' what better way than to celebrate it here? When this tower's ready, and communication's back up, we'll tell the world about Salem, and face down whatever comes at us after that, together." There was a tense moment of silence as the wind was howling through the arena before Ironwood corrected himself again. "That's… just about all the pomp I have in me. If you'll excuse me, I have to get back to running this, operation. Um… enjoy the cake. There's plenty for everyone, including a couple Celestial Knights with black holes for stomachs." He said, before walking off with Winter following.

"I don't know about any of you, but I'm going for a drink. Qrow, you with me?" Ben asked.

"I think I'm good." Qrow said.

"Suit yourself. Scythe mind if I crack open that Tengu Sake you got?"

"Touch it and you lose a hand." Scythe said. "I'm saving it for when Tenrou Island isn't trapped in a time bubble anymore."

"Alright, no need to bite my head off. I'm gonna raid Iskandar's stash of wine." Ben said, before teleporting off.

Later as everyone was enjoying themselves, with four layer cake, Penny used her swords to cut, and Ruby running around Scythe, who was no longer in his armor, but now dressed in a pair of black baggy cargo pants tied at the bottoms with blue sashes, with his original gauntlets, wearing nothing but a black vest, showing off his chiseled abs and pecs, with a sash tied around his waist like a belt, and black martial arts slippers with red souls, begged for him to let her see the armor's blueprints. Nora was eating six pieces of cake, while Wendy ate twice as much, beating her in an eating contest.

"So sleek. So golden, so cool." Ruby said in awe as she examined the armor schematics Scythe sent to her Scroll. "So cool."

"Excuse me my liege." Robin Hood said, materializing next to Scythe on a knee. "I believe I have everything you requested for."

"All the files?" Scythe asked.

"Everything you requested is on this holodisk." Robin Hood said, handing him a circular device with a projector in the center.

"Perfect. An' when you return, could you tell gramps I'd like to learn some sort of sealing method for locking evil beings away?" Scythe asked

"Of course." Robin Hood said.

"Thank you Robin Hood." Scythe said grabbing two more slices of cake, and giving one to the archer class warrior before he disappeared. "If you'll excuse me everyone, I hate to cut and run, but I have some Celestial Knight business to attend to."

"Everything alright Scythe?" Wendy asked.

"Everything's fine babe. Just gotta make a quick house call to someone acquainted with a former Knight we used to know." Scythe smiled, before disappearing.

"What was that about?" Ruby asked.

"Just some personal business Scythe needs to deal with. Don't worry." Wendy said.

"If you say so." Ruby said. "So, you happy to officially have licenses?"

"Well, High Leader Emiya, Scythe's grandfather, already gave us some licenses to use. Guess Ironwood felt it was necessary to give us ones that actually came from an academy."

"Hey Wendy, why don't you come over here and tell us all about your adventures with Scythe?" Yang called to the bluenet.

"We'll chat later, okay Ruby?" Wendy smiled. "Or do you wanna join story time?"

"I'll hear about your adventures later." Ruby said. "But don't let me stop you from telling them of your adventures."

"Suit yourself." Wendy smiled. "By the way, later there's something I'd like to discuss with Team RWBY. So after the party, have yourself, and the rest of the team meet me in my dorm."

"Roger that." Ruby said, before going to the stands and taking a seat, looking out into the arena.

A lot of things had changed since the Fall of Beacon. They'd learned of the maidens and relics existence, they saved Haven from falling and suffering the same fate as Beacon, they learned about Celestial Knights, the truth of Ozpin's past, the Apathy, even a way for Salem to be killed. Scythe had brought Pyrrha back to life, and even took out a Leviathan Grimm before they made their way to Atlas. A lot has happened, but Ruby couldn't help but feel like something wasn't right.

"Big day for you, huh kiddo?" Qrow asked, coming up to Ruby.

"It's… definitely a lot to take in." Ruby said.

"Which part?" Qrow inquired with a smile. "The finally getting to Atlas part, the getting your license part, or the not quite disclosing everything to Ironwood part?" He asked with a laugh. "Or, all of the above?"

"All of the above." Ruby chuckled. "I'm trying to do, what I think is best, but… I really can't tell, if what's best, is what's right. Or if I'm no different from Oz."

"Ruby." Qrow began. "Oz only trusted himself, with the whole truth. You're trusting others, but you're making sure they prove themselves first. I think that's a pretty big difference."

"I hope so." Ruby said, bringing up her license. "This says I'm a Huntress now. But I don't feel, like I know much more, than I did at Beacon."

"That feeling, never goes away." Qrow smiled, with a light laugh. "Your mom, Summer, would be proud of you."

Ruby smiled at Qrow, before a thought came to her, and she frowned.

"Her, last mission… Was that another Oz secret?" Ruby asked.

"Hmm… there were a lot of those, back in our day." Qrow said. "But this one, was a Summer secret. When she didn't come back, Ozpin seemed just as in the dark as myself and your father. Still, who knows what he may have hidden from us over the years." He sighed, looking up at the stars, and the Northern Lights.

"What do you think she would have done?" Ruby inquired. "If she learned the truth about Salem, that she can't be destroyed."

"Pressed on I think, like you." Qrow said, pulling Ruby in for a one armed hug. "She was always the best of us. Bit of a brat though, but hey I like brats."

"You jerk." Ruby laughed, playfully elbowing him in the ribs.

"Hey Ruby, come check this out." Yang called to her sister.

---

~Schnee Manor~

"Who the hell does James think he is? When I get my seat on the council, first thing I'm going to do is destroy the embargo, and have him executed." Jacques grumbled marching to his office. When he opened the door, Jacques stopped in his tracks, seeing Scythe standing there, without his armor, reading one of the books that had been on his shelf. "An' just what the hell are you doing here? Whoever you are, how did you get into my home, and my office?"

"The name's Scythe." He said, turning his back to Jacques, revealing the Archlich emblem sewn into the fabric between the shoulder blades. "I believe you're familiar with the line of work I do. The emblem you spotted on my back should have given you a hint." He said coming to Jacques with one of the two glasses of malt whiskey he poured.

"The insignia. You're a Celestial Knight. That's what James meant when he said, you're his superior." Jacques said accepting the glass. "Are you an acquaintance of Beo? If he sent you to reneg the terms of our contract, then please, make yourself comfortable so we can talk in more detail."

"Wow, we haven't even been talking for a minute, and already you've confessed to me, you made a deal with a Knight who was Ex-Communicado." Scythe said. "No Jacques, I'm not here to reneg any deals you made with Beo. In fact, the very mentioning of having made a deal with him, makes you an accomplice to his crimes here in Remnant."

"I beg your pardon. Do you have any idea who you're talking to?" Jacques questioned.

"Do you?" Scythe questioned.

"Beo had assured me, as the High Leader of the Celestial Knights, I would be…"

"He said what?" Scythe questioned as he began to laugh.

"What's so funny?" Jacques asked.

"The fact… that you think Beo was High Leader of the Celestial Knights." Scythe said, getting his laughter under control. "Velhallen Beo was never High Leader of the Celestial Knights. He was a lower class soldier, who disrupted the balance of this universe, for his own selfish gain." He stated, holding up the holodisk, and showing the evidence he had against him.

"What is that?" Jacques questioned in horror.

"It's a holodisk, containing enough evidence against you, for a literal death sentence." Scythe explained. "If this information were to get out, your chances of getting elected for a council seat, would be shot straight to hell, and your company would be forced to shut down, as you're hauled off to jail."

"Please, I'll do anything to avoid you making this information public." Jacques pleaded. "I'll give you anything. Money, power, just tell me what you want."

"Hmm… well not that I like doing this, but there is one thing, you could do to keep me quiet." Scythe said.

"Anything."

"I want you, to name Weiss, as Heiress to the company again." Scythe stated. "An' if you're elected as a councilman, you'll retire as CEO and Weiss will take over."

"You can't be serious." Jacques said. "Weiss made a mockery of the charity banquet I put out to show the SDC still cares about what happened in Vale. She embarrassed me in front of board members and all our guests when she summoned a Boarbatusk and it attacked one of our guests. We managed to avoid a lawsuit because James shot and killed the thing, but she still smudged our public image. She's an embarrassment to this entire family, and should have been disowned from the family, right after that happened. Isn't there something else I could do instead?"

"Fine then, I guess you're not wanting to be a councilman as badly as you made it seem back at the mines." Scythe said, turning to leave.

"Wait, wait." Jacques sighed stopping Scythe. "Fine. I'll do it, on the condition you'll never show that footage, to anyone ever."

"An' you'll never make another deal with any criminal folk, ever again?" Scythe questioned.

"I swear it, yes." Jacques stated.

"Then we have a deal." Scythe said, holding out his hand for Jacques to shake.

As soon as the elder Schnee shook his hand, Scythe's hand began to glow, which transferred to Jacques's before both hands were glowing, as a ribbon made of magic tied itself to both their wrists, and disappeared into particles of light.

"What was that?" Jacques asked, pulling his hand back.

"Call it a seal on our deal. An everlasting oath. If either one of us breaks our end of the deal, the one who didn't break the oath will be free of their part, but the one who did will still be forced to uphold their end of the core of the deal." Scythe explained. "In this case, if you break our deal, I can show this to whoever I want, but you still have to keep Weiss named as Heiress, and if you try to revoke her title, the magic will force you to maintain your end. But it also applies to me, if I broke our deal and show this to someone, you're free to name whoever you want as heir to the SDC. Just a little insurance to make sure, you don't back out of our deal, and double cross me. It wouldn't be wise to double cross a Celestial Knight."

"Right, I understand." Jacques said.

"An' one more thing. The binding spell prevents you from telling anyone about it, or who you made it with and why. Enjoy the cake." Scythe smiled, vanishing from the office, revealing the slice of cake sitting on Jacques's desk.

"That little son of a… oh I really hate him, and James." Jacques groaned, dropping into one of the chairs of his office.

Jacques sat in grumbling silence, before the door to his office opened, revealing his son, Whitley, had come to the door, and he looked a bit nervous.

"Father, you um… have a visitor." Whitley said.

"I told you I didn't want to be disturbed. Why did you let them in?" Jacques questioned, slamming his glass down on the arm of his chair in frustration.

"I didn't." Whitley said. "They… let themselves in." He stated, before the door opened more and in came Grim Knight, and Arthur Watts.

"A spitting image of you, this lad Jacques." Arthur said. "Creepily so, I might add. He's definitely inherited your… affect." He stated as he looked among the books, while Grim just took to standing in one of the corners.

"Arthur." Jacques said in shock. "Whitley, leave us, and shut the door." There was a pause as Whitley just stared at Arthur. "I said shut the door!" The door creaked as Arthur walked around the room, chuckling at how cold Jacques was to his own son. "I… You're supposed to be dead."

"That is, what I wanted people to think, you're right." Arthur stated.

"Are you gonna introduce me to your little friend?" Jacques questioned, directing Arthur's attention to Grim.

"Oh don't mind him. He's just an acquaintance of mine, who's helping me in my current mission." Arthur said. "However, I've heard things about you too, Jacques. Namely, that you have an Ironwood problem."

"That bastard is costing me more money every day with this embargo. I'd lay off every employee in mantle, if I wasn't trying to get their votes for this Council seat." Jacques said.

'Arthur Watts. A crafty, cunning person, with a devil-may-care attitude. He's like Thawne. A sly shifty fox, who knows how to get under people's skin, and redirect a conversation in the direction he wants it to go. Even knows how to get people to agree with him, and say yes to any stratagem or plan he's cooked up. The perfect tactician for Salem's plans. I gotta be careful and keep my guard up with this one.' Grim thought.

"What if I said, you could have your cake…" Arthur questioned, taking a seat in the chair beside Jacques. "…and eat it too?" He smirked.

---

~Wendy/Scythe's Dorm~

"So Ruby said, you wanted to talk. What is this about?" Yang asked as Team RWBY sat in the Celestial Knight's dorm room.

"Well, Scythe and I had been talking, and I convinced him on an idea Yang suggested back in Mistral." Wendy said.

"What idea?" Ruby asked.

"You can't be serious." Weiss said in shock, knowing what the Dragonslayer was talking about.

"Mmm… I'd say I am pretty serious." Wendy smiled.

"Oh yeah, the party's gonna by continuing tonight." Yang cheered.

"Wait, hold on. The two of you are married aren't you?" Blake asked. "Not even my parents are into this sort of thing."

"What are we talking about?" Ruby questioned.

"Scythe and Wendy want to start a harem, and want us to be the first to join." Weiss said. "Not sure how I feel about that. An' Blake's right, aren't you two happily married?"

"Well, the thing is. I convinced Scythe to agree to this, to make himself more comfortable with who he is."

"What, is he all muscle, but has a baby carrot?" Yang asked.

"No that's not it. Scythe's actually got quite the monster down there." Wendy chuckled. "No what I mean is, Scythe isn't comfortable with his other half."

"An' his other half would be…" Weiss began.

"His dragon half." Wendy said. "In dragon culture, it's normal for male dragons to take on multiple mates, with his first wife being head of the pack. In fact it's so common, they'd ostracize those who only stuck with one mate. I was able to convince him to agree to this, as a trial run, so he'd be able to be more comfortable with his dragon heritage."

"I get it, we're gonna be the ice breakers for opening him up to the world of his draconic half." Yang said. "Is there a form we have to sign our names on to know we're in the harem?"

"No forms, you just have to write your name down in this book so we can keep track of you." Wendy said, reaching into one of the back pouches and pulled out a 6"-4" leather bound journal with a multicolored pen.

"Convenient." Blake said.

"Gimme." Ruby said, grabbing the journal.

"I was not expecting you to be excited about this Ruby." Yang said.

"Are you kidding? Ever since I first met the guy, I've… sort of had a bit of a crush on him." Ruby said, writing her name down in the journal. "I mean, his armor, his weapons, he's the whole package."

"Of course you'd have a crush on him for that." Weiss chuckled.

"But, won't us being part of it, be a bit awkward for him since he knows our counterparts in Earthland?" Blake asked.

"It'll be fine. Scythe knows the differences between you and your Earthland counterparts." Wendy said. "For one, none of you are Demonslayers, so your scents are different. For another, your Earthland counterparts are about ten years older than you, so there's that age difference as well. Except for Ruby's. He counterpart was about the same age as our friend Natsu Dragneel."

"Was, as in past tense?" Weiss asked.

"Yeah, Natsu got stuck in the time bubble he mentioned earlier, on Tenrou Island, so while he stays ageless, Ruby's counterpart is growing up." Wendy explained.

"Oh, I thought the worst had happened." Weiss sighed in relief.

"Aw, Weiss, you do care." Ruby smiled.

"Of course I do you dolt. I did call you my family when my father confronted us earlier, didn't I?"

"She's got you there Rubes." Yang laughed. "Speaking of the time bubble. What is that about anyway? Scythe mentioned something about his mom being trapped in it too."

"That is, gonna be something you'll have to discuss with him. I can tell you that it's taken Tenrou Island itself, and everyone on it, out of the timeline. But how it happened will be for Scythe to tell." Wendy said, taking the book back from Ruby. "Any other takers on joining?" She asked, holding up the book.

"Well, I suppose if this dolt is joining, I'll join as well." Weiss said, taking the book and writing her name in it.

"I'll join if Yang joins." Blake said when the book was passed to her.

"Oh you know I'm gonna be joining." Yang smirked.

"Great." Wendy smiled, before there was a knock at the door.

"May I come in?" Pyrrha's voice came through.

"Of course. Come on in." Wendy said, before the door opened.

"Sorry for intruding, but I'd like to be part of this too." Pyrrha said, coming through the opened door.

"You sure, what about Jaune?" Weiss asked.

"As cute as he is, I just don't feel that spark anymore. It might have just been a fleeting feeling of romance I felt, when he didn't know who I was, making me feel normal for a change." Pyrrha said. "Plus, Scythe brought me back to life, and the least I could do to pay him back is help him get used to his draconic culture."

"You heard that?" Yang inquired.

"I didn't mean to eavesdrop, I came by to see if Scythe and Wendy might be interested in… opening up the relationship a bit." Pyrrha said. "So when I came to the door, I heard everything Wendy said."

"The more the merrier." Wendy smiled, holding the book out to her.

"I'll do my best." Pyrrha smiled, writing her name under Yangs.

"Great, now everyone back to your dorms. We've got a busy schedule ahead of us as Huntresses." Wendy said. "We're gonna have a lot of work to do tomorrow, and we won't have much chance for rest between. So let's get as much as we can."

"Right." They all said with a smile.

---

~The Following Morning~

"Sal-u-tations." Penny said, rather loudly, waking the team up. "Good morning Team RWBY."

"Ugh, Penny, what time is it even?" Yang questioned.

"Time to be Huntresses of course." Penny smiled, taking an anime girl pose.

Weiss, Blake, and Yang groaned, while Ruby, somehow already in her battle gear, was the only one excited, and cheering with enthusiasm.

---

~War Room~

"Eyes up Huntsmen." Clover began as he came into the room, with Wendy and Scythe at his sides. "Time to get used to the new normal in Atlas."

"Here's how things are gonna be going down from here on out." Scythe said as a holographic screen popped up behind them. "An' Ben stop pouting you're in the crowd, you weren't here for a debriefing so you get to learn like everyone else."

"Your top priority is Amity Tower. That means protecting supply runs from Grimm and Bandits." Clover stated. "An' protecting the sight itself."

"Diverting all construction resources to Amity Tower means there are gonna be gaps in Mantles defenses against Grimm." Wendy said. "They'll need help on the perimeter."

"But there's still plenty to do in Mantle itself." Scythe added.

"I think you'll find, everyone appreciates having a, Huntsman around." Clover stated.

"Jaune, that means be prepare for a lot of single mom's to flirt with you, and giving you lots of casseroles as thanks for watching over their children's safety." Scythe stated.

"Got it." Jaune said with a thumbs up.

"An' Marrow, if you want a coffee, grab your own, don't beg for it from someone else, like a treat." Wendy scolded.

"Yes Ma'am." Marrow said.

"You're of course free, to enjoy your time off as you see fit." Clover said. "Whatever helps you take the edge off."

"The Huntsmen around you, can be a valuable resource, if you're willing to pay attention." Scythe said.

"But make no mistake, school's over." Clover stated. "You get to choose what type of Huntsman…" He paused, gesturing to Scythe. "Or Huntress…" He paused again, gesturing to Wendy. "You are."

"So, what's it gonna be?" Wendy questioned.

---

~A Week Later~

"Not that I'm bored, but why can't we just use an airship to take these supplies to Amity?" Ruby questioned, sitting in a heavily armored truck filled with construction supplies, next to Penny, and Scythe, driving the truck.

"The components for Amity's construction are far too heavy." Penny said. "All that weight would require precious Dust we should be saving for the launch itself. An' the Grimm that will come after."

"An' you're totally bored." Scythe chuckled.

"It just makes for a long, very long, supply runs." Ruby said, as she began falling asleep.

"Here." Scythe smiled, holding his finger to Ruby's neck, and giving her a little zap, causing her to jolt awake. "Feel more awake now?" He laughed.

"Not funny Scythe."

"A little funny." He snickered.

"At least the tundra is scenic." Penny said, as they drove past a couple penguins.

"Totally." Ruby sighed.

"Ruby." Penny smiled, looking to the reaper girl. "I just wanna say how excited I am to be working with you in a professional capacity. As friends."

"Heh, me too Penny." Ruby smiled.

"Relationships are so interesting, and varied." Penny said enthusiastically.

"Speaking of friends, have you been able to make any new ones, since… you know?" Ruby asked.

"Now that I'm the official protector of Mantle, I don't really have a team anymore. General Ironwood says I don't have time for friends." Penny said.

"Well, then it's your lucky day." Scythe smiled. "You can consider Wendy and I your friends."

"What about Ben?" Penny questioned.

"Uh-oh, is the Android getting her first love interest?" Ruby teased.

"I don't know what, love, means. But whenever I do see him, I feel something weird in my core, like he's more special to me than just as a friend." Penny said.

"That's called, having a crush Penny." Ruby smiled.

"Something I'm sure you know all about Ruby." Scythe chuckled. "Did you seriously develop a crush on me just because of my armors and weapons?"

"W-who told you?"

"Wendy did, when she showed me you were the first to write your name in the journal." Scythe smiled.

"Stupid idiot." Ruby grumbled, smacking at him.

"Hey watch it, I'm trying to keep my eyes in the road." Scythe laughed.

"Everything going alright up there?" Qrow called from the back.

"Just fine Uncle Qrow." Ruby called back.

Deep in the back of the truck, Wendy, Qrow, and Clover were playing a game of cards, trying to pass the time and keep from falling asleep.

"I win again." Clover said.

"Nope. I win." Wendy said, showing she had a royal flush.

"Damn. I thought I had both of you this time." Qrow said.

"Maybe we should, call it quits?" Clover suggested.

"Let's play old maid."

"Shut up and deal." Qrow sighed.

"Okay, okay." Wendy laughed as she began shuffling the cards.

"Your niece, sure is one of a kind, huh?" Clover asked.

"They all are." Qrow said. "Been through a lot together."

"It's a good thing they had someone to look up to, and get them through it." Clover said.

"Yeah, Scythe can be a good role model for them." Qrow said.

"He was talking about you Qrow." Wendy said, as she began dealing the cards.

"Not everyone is so lucky." Clover smiled.

"I don't know about that." Qrow scoffed. "Thanks by the way, for looking out for them. You and your team."

"What good is saving the world, without another generation waiting in the wings?" Clover asked, picking up his cards. "Hopefully they'll leave Remnant, better than we've left it for them."

"Once upon a time, I'd a drank to that." Qrow said, grabbing his cards.

"You shouldn't do that, you know."

"A don't worry, I gave that up." Qrow stated.

"I meant, deflect a compliment." Clover said. "Those kids wouldn't be where they are, without you. You've had more of an affect on them, than you realize."

"It's true." Wendy said. "Even if Scythe and I hadn't come along, you'd all still have gotten this far. The only differences being, Pyrrha would still be dead, and Cordo wouldn't be comatose. All because you lead them, not us."

There was a moment of silence as Qrow thought over what they said, before it was stopped.

"Qrow, Wendy, Clover, you might wanna come and see this." Scythe called out.

"What's going on?" Qrow questioned as they went up front. "Grimm?"

"No, worse." Clover said. "Qrow and Ruby with me. Scythe, Penny, Wendy, stay in the vehicle, and watch our six."

"I'll handle anyone who try and come at us from behind." Wendy stated.

"Actually, if you all don't mind, I might have a different strategy we could use. An' Wendy would be the main Actress in this plan." Scythe smiled.

Standing in the road ahead of them, was a tan skinned woman with platinum blonde hair, wearing a black sleeveless coat with gray accents over a red double-breasted sleeveless vest, a brown high neck shirt, and a light gray short-sleeved shirt with one right short sleeve that has a black cuff whilst the other sleeve is longer. She also wears a brown belted waist clincher with matching brown pants tucked into black knee-high boots with dark brown cuffs. Around her neck she wears an olive green scarf with tattered looking tails hanging behind her. She also wears a pair of black archery styled gloves with the index finger missing on both of them, with what looked like a folded weapon, on her left arm.

Beside her was one of the spies that had spotted the military operation, Fiona. Both of them were standing in the way, with a blockade in the road, stopping them from going further.

"Alright ladies, time to show them our teeth." Robyn said as the armored truck stopped about fifty feet away from them.

To Robyn's surprise, it wasn't who she was expecting, to come out of the truck. She had expected Clover to come out, but instead, she was greeted by a busty blue haired woman, who didn't look dressed for this weather.

"Mantle's hometown hero. Robyn Hill, I presume?" Wendy questioned, as Qrow and Ruby hopped out with her.

"You're guess right." Robyn said. "Who are you?"

"Name's Wendy Marvell Strauss." Wendy stated. "Is there a reason you're blocking the road to an official military operation. You do realize this could cost you your seat in elections, right?"

"Standing up for the people, won't cost me a thing." Robyn said. "Maybe you could help me understand, why this truck, hauling construction materials to fix Mantle's outer wall, is on its way to the middle of nowhere."

"Alright I don't have time for this." Wendy sighed, before she stuck her thumb and index finger in her mouth whistled loudly.

Almost instantly, the back of the truck burst open as Scythe came rushing out, and disappeared for a second, before two women came flying past the truck and slammed into the barricade.

"Where this truck is going, is of need to know information, and you don't need to know." Clover said coming out of the driver's side of the truck. "Clever, having your subordinate with the camouflage Semblance sneak up behind us to take the truck by force, but unfortunately, you weren't expecting us to have these two on board the team."

"An' just who are these two?" Robyn questioned.

"Scythe Strauss, Wendy's husband. An' we're Dragon Faunus." Scythe said, landing in front of the truck in his Satan Soul form, with his wings spread out. "Now open the barricade, or I'll remove you by force and open it myself."

"You don't scare me." Robyn said.

"Well you should be scared. This is the guy who took down the Leviathan in Argus, without any weapons. The attack he used, was his own breath attack." Qrow stated.

That shook Robyn a bit, before she looked up at him, and sighed, motioning for Fiona, and the other two, who were picking themselves up, to open the barricade.

"Now was that so hard?" Scythe questioned. "Get in our way again, and you'll lose an arm."

Scythe marched back to the truck and hopped on top of it, as Clover began driving it through the opened barricade, keeping guard over it.

"What now?" Fiona asked as the truck drove off into the distance.

"I want to know why Amity Colosseum, is suddenly so important." Robyn growled. "An' find out who those two are. Even with their advanced senses, they shouldn't have been able to detect Joanna and May so easily, let alone know where direction they were coming from."

---

~That Night~

"Damn, I didn't think we'd run into opposition so soon against Robyn Hill." Scythe sighed, sitting on his bunk. "It was crazy."

"It was nerve wracking." Wendy said.

"So how'd training with Winter and Weiss go?" Scythe asked.

"Pretty good. Weiss has gotten better at her summonings, and is now able to somewhat keep up with Winter." Wendy said. "An', I found out where the Winter Maiden is being held, but I left before I could learn anything else about what they planned on doing with her. She really is an old lady, on the verge of taking her last breath."

"Well, at least we know she's here for real." Scythe sighed, before his Scroll went off. "Huh, a news report, notification from Ironwood. Probably from Robyn about earlier." He said, opening up his Scroll. "No, not Robyn."

"Jacques?" Wendy asked.

"Big time. Listen to this." Scythe said, producing the image on a holographic screen.

*"If I'm elected Councilman, I've made it no secret that I'm opposing General Ironwood and senseless embargo that is crippling all of Atlas."* Jacques announced. *"It is my belief that these measures are not only reckless, but criminal. With no shipments allowed to leave or enter the Kingdom, I know many are suffering."*

"I don't like where this is going. Jacques Schnee doesn't have a heart. An' talking like this won't be enough to get Mantle's vote. He has to know this, so what is he up to?" Wendy questioned.

"I think we're about to find out." Scythe said, as the video continued on.

"My family has been weathering the same storm, as many of you. Effective immediately, I'm forced to shut down, all non-essential SDC Operations. If elected to office, I would make the changes necessary to fix, what Ironwood has broken. I hope you ask yourselves, before the vote, can you trust anyone else to stop Ironwood? Will Robyn Hill be able to get your jobs back?"

"Not good." Wendy said.

"Jacques just provided Mantle the spark, that's gonna set Atlas on fire." Scythe growled.

"Wait, Scythe rewind the footage. I think I might have seen something." Wendy said.

Scythe rewound the footage, and sure enough, there was something that neither of them would have expected. Off to the side, they both caught a glimpse of familiar looking armor, belonging to a Dark Knight, without any sort of powers. But more central of the screen, behind Jacques, was someone with red hair, wearing sunglasses, with pale bone white skin, and barely visible black veins on his neck and a katana on his hip.

"Grim Knight." Scythe growled.

"An' Adam." Wendy said. "I thought you killed him?"

"I did." Scythe stated. "Seems the Dark Knights recruited him to their fold after bringing him back to life, and he's now one of them."

"So what do we do now?" Wendy asked.

"We prepare for war."

---

~The Following Day~

*"Although rioting in Mantle is now under control, how does it feel to know that a majority of those involved, were your supporters?"* An anchorman asked, interviewing Robyn.

*"I don't condone rioting. Especially when our city is denied aid for the hardships we've already had to go through."* Robyn explained. *"But Jacques Schnees latest stunt, is holding the city hostage, for his own political gain. So I understand their anger, but ask that they not show it in the streets. But in the polls today."*

"Are you just gonna sit there all day watching the news like an old man?" Scythe looked up to see Ben standing over him, looking like he was expecting an answer from his superior. "Or are you gonna come train with the rest of us? You're still needing to get used to how your armor feels when using it."

"Right, I know." Scythe sighed, putting his Scroll away. "It's just, ever since I saw Grim and Adam in the news article last night, I've been looking to see if they've been doing anything else to warrant my attention."

"Knowing the Dark Knights, probably not." Ben said as he put a clay jar, the size of a mason jar, with a giant cork, and seal written on the front, beside Scythe with an instruction manual.

"What's this?" Scythe asked picking up the manual.

"It's the answer to your request." Ben stated. "High Leader Emiya sent it too me via Robin Hood, last night."

"The Evil Containment Wave?" Scythe asked, reading the title.

"It's sort of like a sealing spell. It was taken from the world you and Marvell will be going to, for martial arts training after you've finished up at the DWMA." Ben said taking a seat next to Scythe. "It should come in handy for sealing Salem away."

"Thanks. I guess I should get to practicing this." Scythe smiled. "Might need it for Adam or Grim."

"Leave Grim Knight to me." Ben said. "I have a personal score to settle with him."

"If you want that, I won't stand in your way." Scythe said.

"Also… remember that ghoul world I was supposed to take care of?" Ben asked.

"Don't tell me you messed up the balance in that world." Scythe sighed.

"Alright, I won't." Ben said. "But, High Leader Emiya is wanting you to take care of it after you've finished your martial arts training. The timeline has already been reset to before I got there, so there won't be anymore do-overs after this one."

"For crying out loud." Scythe groaned. "Those do-overs are only for last resorts, how the hell did you screw it up that badly?"

"Sorry, but High Leader Emiya shouldn't have sent me the news about my partner when I was in the middle of that mission." Ben said. "I was so broken up about it, I couldn't think straight."

"Speaking of, you ready to talk about her?" Scythe asked.

Ben was silent for a moment, before he let out a deep breath and leaned back to the wall.

"Her name was Harley Quinn. She was from a Universe where she was a heroine, fighting against a villain called, Owlman, alongside her mentor Red Hood. I met her, when I used my magic to create a breach from Earthland to that world. I spent years there, before I met her, and years later, we were living happily as husband and wife, and eventually High Leader Emiya found me, on our fifth wedding anniversary dinner no less. Told me everything I did, was supposed to happen, and offered me, us, a place among the Celestial Knights." Ben explained. "My wife and I went on a few missions together, but eventually we each went on a solo mission. I went to the ghoul world, and she went to the world an author in Earthland, has a connection too, writing manga about heroes with Quirks, and One-for-All."

"The My Hero Academia universe." Scythe said.

"You know it?"

"Haven't been myself, but I did train alongside All Might for a while in the fifth level of the Armory when Earthland had been absorbed by Edolas." Scythe said.

"Lucky." Ben chuckled. "Anyway, Harley went there to try and stop a Yakuza Head from disrupting the balance of the natural evolution and order of things."

"Overhaul." Scythe said.

"I… made it back… Harley didn't." Ben said. "The bastard killed her, tore her apart with his Quirk the first chance he got. Even has her weapon hung in his office like a damned trophy. An' Grim helped the bastard take her down."

"I'm sorry man."

"High Leader Emiya told me to leave the mission to you when it gets assigned to you and your partner." Ben said. "Promise me, you'll get her weapon back for me, when you do go."

"I promise man." Scythe said.

"You know, it's funny. Before I became a Celestial Knight, Grim offered me a chance to become a Dark Knight." Ben chuckled. "I turned him down because he was spouting crazy. Balance coming from Chaos? That's insanity."

"Might be, but people do often tend to lean towards the easiest solutions." Scythe said, before spotting Ironwood and Clover entering the training facility. "Ironwood's here, let's go."

"Clover wasn't kidding." Ironwood said as the teams circled around him. "You're really giving this your all."

"All of us except Scythe." Oscar said.

"I've actually been a little busy Oscar. Adam Taurus and Grim Knight were behind Jacques Schnee in that news article last night. Wendy and I both saw them in that clip." Scythe said, coming by with the jar.

"What's the jar for?" Yang asked.

"A new type of sealing. It's not gonna be easy but I will learn." Scythe stated.

"So, speaking of my father. I got a letter this morning, stating I've been named Heiress to the SDC again. You wouldn't happen to have had anything to do with it, did you?" Weiss asked.

"Can't say that I did Snowflake." Scythe chuckled. "Back to the topic at hand."

"Right. Things aren't going well, are they?" Ironwood questioned, producing an update of the polls with 70% going towards Robyn Hill, and 30% towards Jacques Schnee.

"Better Robyn than Jacques Schnee." Yang said, leaning on Oscar like a counter top.

"I suppose so." Ironwood said. "Either way, this election doesn't bode well for our stability."

"It could be a chance to work with Robyn, and get Mantle on your side." Ruby said.

"The likelihood of that working…"

"She's right." Nora said. "You have to do something about Mantle. If you could get Robyn to trust you…"

"I bet if you opened up to her, she'd understand you're being framed." Jaune said.

"Perhaps, but… it will only work, if she's open too." Ironwood said. "What's say the Celestial Knights about this?"

Scythe, Ben, and Wendy looked to one another, before looking back to Ironwood, with Scythe being the voice of reason.

"Schedule a meeting with her James." Scythe said. "Robyn will be open to talk. She's not just some bandit out on a thrill chase. She's a reasonable person who will ask first, and shoot second."

Ironwood sighed looking to the ground, before nodding in agreement with the Celestial Knight.

"I take it, you're here for new mission assignments?" Ren asked.

"You could say that." Clover said, speaking up, and stepping forward. "The General and I want you to take the rest of the day, to recuperate."

"You're giving us, a night off?" Blake asked.

"Ordering it. After tonight's election, we'll be waking up to a very different Atlas tomorrow." Ironwood said. "I need you rested and ready, for whatever that may bring."

---

~Later at Sunset RWBY Dorm~

*"We still have hours ahead of us, but as votes come in, it looks more and more certain, that Robyn Hill, will fill the council seat."* The Anchorman said.

"There's no way my father thought layoffs could have done anything but hurt him." Weiss said, shutting her Scroll off. "So why announce this, the day before the election?"

"He was wanting to cause a riot." Scythe said, standing in Team RWBY's open door. "Whoever he's working with, wants Mantle and Atlas to fall, just like Beacon did, but on a much larger scale. The rioting caused a lot of negative emotions which brought on a lot of Grimm to the city's walls. Wendy and I had been dispatched earlier this morning to deal with them, to avoid panicking and more rioting in the streets."

"Won't matter in a few hours though." Yang smiled getting up from her bed and heading over to Blake.

"Where you going?" Ruby asked.

"Team FNKI invited us out dancing." Blake said. "Yang and I thought it'd be good to get our minds off the election."

"I thought you said Team FNKI was annoying?" Ruby inquired.

"That's the best part about dance clubs." Yang smiled. "I can't hear you." She whispered.

"Anyways, I'm here to grab Ruby. Nora, Wendy, Ren, Pyrrha, and I, are waiting on her." Scythe said.

"I still can't believe you're going to that thing." Weiss said.

"Just because Ironwood dislikes Robyn, Weiss, doesn't mean we all have to." Scythe said. "An' Ben agrees with what I said."

"Where is Ben anyway? How's he spending his night?"

"AA Meeting with Qrow." Scythe said.

"But a victory party?" Weiss asked.

"Invite's still open if you want in." Ruby said. "Scythe's Celestial Teleportation has been returned to him, so long as he stays on Remnant until his mission ends. So we'll be going there like Celestial Knights."

"Actually, I'm afraid we'd draw too much attention with how big our party is, so we'll be going to Mantle in an Airship." Scythe said.

"Eh, still cool to go." Ruby stated.

"I personally think it's a bit early for her to be throwing a victory party, a bit cocky even, but eh it's her money she's wasting." Scythe chuckled.

"Penny's gonna be working security." Ruby said.

Weiss turned back to Yang and Blake, who were practicing their dance moves, well more Yang laughing at Blake's failure, but were still having a good time.

"Hey, Oscar and I are hitting the movies if anyone wants to…"

"Yep." Weiss said, interrupting Jaune.

"Oh okay." Jaune said, as Oscar looked excited to have her coming along.

---

~Mantle~

"I understand Weiss's point though." Ren said, as a truck full of Robyn Hill supporters drove past them. "Like Scythe said, a victory party does seem premature."

"Aw let them have one sure thing." Nora said.

"Probably the last sure thing they'll have before Amity Tower goes up, and everybody learns of, what we're fighting." Ruby added.

"Hopefully, the timeline won't take a nasty turn." Scythe said. "Vlad's been looking, but he's had no luck so far finding the culprit framing Ironwood."

"I'll tell you why your friend isn't having any luck finding a culprit, because Ironwood is responsible for the murders." Some random man said, coming up to Scythe and getting in his face. "Ironwood is a tyrant who wants to control all of us in Mantle, so he's been sending his personal lapdogs to do his dirty work for him to keep us in line, and silence those who stand up for us."

"Out of my face pal." Scythe said, pushing the guy away.

"At least leave one of those girls behind. Why not you sweet cheeks? Ditch the tyrant's side and I'll show you a good time." The man said, grabbing Wendy's arm.

Before the man could say anything else, Scythe pushed him against a wall, with his arm up, and two of his blades on either side of the guy's head, barely above his ears as they pierced the wall. Slowly, Scythe's third and middle claw came out and stopped a millimeter away from the bridge of the guy's nose.

"Touch my wife again pal, see what happens." Scythe growled, before letting him go.

Ruby stuck out her tongue and pulled down one of her eye lids at the guy, as they walked away.

"You okay big guy?" Nora asked.

"I'll be fine. I just lost my cool there for a second." Scythe said.

'The more he suppresses his draconic heritage, the harder it fights to come out. He's gonna have to learn to accept it soon, otherwise Acnologia will be the least of our problems.' Wendy thought.

"We should be training right now." Ren stated.

"We've trained enough, take some time to…"

"We don't have time." Ren said sternly.

"Ren, calm down." Scythe said. "Nora's right. We need to be able to relax, and enjoy ourselves."

"We're almost there, come on." Wendy smiled.

"I for one, am looking forward to a fun party after being, dead, for two years." Pyrrha said.

"Well, get ready for some fun." Ruby smiled as they entered the building.

The room was almost packed, and there were security drones flying around, with kick me, signs on their back ends.

"Ruby, Nora, Ren, Wendy, Scythe, Pyrrha." Penny cheered spotting them.

"Hey Penny." Ruby said.

"I am so glad you made it. It's just Marrow and I tonight, so more friends, means more fun." Penny stated. "Where are the others?"

"Weiss is off with the boys, and Blake and Yang are off doing their own thing, again." Nora said.

"At least they're back to being friends." Ren said.

"Friends huh, just friends?" Nora asked.

"What else, would they be?" Ren inquired.

"Two people who've gone through that much, I think there's more going on." Nora stated.

"Well maybe one of them feels that way, but the other might be worried." Ren countered.

"About what?"

"It's just… there's a lot of things going on right now."

"Oh boy, a bit of tension between lovers." Wendy said as the rest of them sank to the floor, sprouting up by Penny. "We'll just leave you two to hash things out."

"Are they still talking about Yang and Blake?" Penny asked.

"Nope, now it's all about them." Pyrrha stated.

"Penny, where'd you go?" Marrow's voice came over the com-link.

"Ah, please don't leave me." Ruby said, hugging Penny's arm as the android girl began walking away.

"You enjoy yourselves. Pyrrha and I are gonna go wonder around." Wendy said.

"That leaves me with the two of you." Scythe smiled.

Scythe and Ruby followed Penny to the back, where they found Marrow on guard duty as well.

"Oh hey, what…" He paused, as did his tail wagging, as he fully turned to them. "What are you doing here?"

"Just uh, hanging out with a friend, while she's on the job." Ruby said, holding out a fist for a fist-bump.

Penny gasped in excitement, and brought her arm up to do the same.

"Ah-ah." Scythe said grabbing her arm. "No robotic super strength, a nice gentle pound, like this." He said, pounding Ruby's fist with his own, gently.

"Oh, I see." Penny smiling, mimicking him.

"Yeah, real cute." Marrow said. "Look, try not to be too much of a distraction. We need to be vigilant in case…"

"In case what?" May questioned, stepping up to Marrow.

"In case, someone tries to start trouble." Marrow countered.

"Oh funny, that's why we're here. So feel free to take a hike." May glared.

"Listen, the General's trying to help. Just 'cause you can't understand that…"

"What's going on here wags?" Robyn questioned, announcing her presence behind Marrow. "Oh, and the pipsqueak and dragon is back."

"Your subordinate doesn't trust that Ironwood sent Marrow to help in case someone starts a ruckus, so she decided to pick a fight with him." Scythe said.

"You shut your mouth." May said.

"Watch it. Scythe's not in the best of moods right now, so he's a little testy right now." Ruby said, remembering how close Scythe was to skewering the bystanders face less than half an hour ago.

"Fine, but you Atlas puppets stay out of the way." Robyn stated, before walking up on stage. "If I get elected tonight, we'll all have to learn how to get along. Surprisingly, I did get a meeting request from the General, a couple hours ago."

"That would be my doing. I convinced him that you're open for talks, so you could smooth things over, face to face." Scythe stated.

"That's surprising of someone who beat two of my best fighters in less than two seconds the other day." Robyn said.

"I was just doing my job." Scythe said, before a loud, high pitched noise came from the mic on stage.

"Well, that worked." Fiona laughed as Robyn turned to head out on stage.

"Scram you two, we've got a job to do." Marrow told Scythe and Ruby.

"Fine. Whatever you say." Scythe said, as Ruby blew a raspberry at Marrow, making Penny laugh, as the crowd was cheering for Robyn.

Making their way back to the front, Ruby and Scythe sighed in annoyance when they saw Ren and Nora still arguing.

"Can we please just not do this right now?" Ren questioned.

"We should have just gone to the movies." Ruby stated.

"I want to thank everyone, for going to the polls today. This is Mantles Moment." Fiona said making the crowd cheer. "I know, that like me, you're all thrilled, that we chose Robyn, as our voice, in Atlas. No one, has fought harder for Mantle, than she had, and… I know Robyn will continue that fight, on the council. Will you share a few words?" She asked, turning to where Robyn was standing.

"This should be good." Scythe smiled, as Robyn came out.

"I've never been really much into public speaking, probably wasn't my best idea to go into politics." Robyn said. "Thank you so much everyone, for choosing me. You said you believe in me, but I'm the one who believes in all of you. You've proven to me, that as individuals, we are strong, but together we are unstoppable."

"She's better at this, than she gives herself credit for." Scythe chuckled, before he noticed a vulgar scent in the air.

"So no matter what happens tonight, win or lose, we will continue to fight for our city." Robyn said. "Because it is this city, that brings us together."

"Something isn't right." Scythe whispered to Ruby. "Go let Marrow and Penny know. I've got this handled. An' if Marrow argues, tell him I'm pulling rank on this."

"Right." Ruby said, rushing to where Marrow and Penny were.

Looking around through the crowds, Scythe tracked the vulgar scent to its source, and it wasn't far off as he found the source being a cloaked figure, with a mechanical scorpion tail.

"Tyrian." Scythe growled, as the duo made eye contact with each other, while the Scorpion Faunus just smiled insanely, before the lights went out, and everyone began to panic. "VLAD."

Unfortunately for Tyrian, Scythe could see in the dark, better than any Faunus, and at lightning fast speeds, rushed at the Scorpion Faunus as he'd locked onto his first victim of the night, and grabbed his wrist before his pincer like blades could strike, and a shadowy figure grabbed the girl Tyrian was about to kill.

Pushing Tyrian's arm up, and kicking him in the chest, Scythe raised his hand as a ball of black flames ignited and he slammed it in the center of the floor, lighting up the darkly lit room. The sudden change of light took Tyrian a moment to adjust to, before he was able to see properly, and what he saw intrigued him. Practically everyone who'd been at the party was now on the stage, being protected by a Hard Light Dust generated barrier, with Wendy and Vlad standing in front of it as the main line of defense. Along the edges of the ground, were spikes, pointed towards the duo on the dance floor, courtesy of Vlad's abilities, with a wall of black flames on top of the ends, like a battle arena of some sort.

"Interesting. You were able to act swiftly as soon as you realized what I was up to." Tyrian smiled insanely.

"Stick around, I'll show you my next party trick, it's a killer with the ladies." Scythe growled, throwing his vest off, giving a good percentage of the single, or unhappily married women there, nose bleeds at his godly physique.

"Oh, give me a good show then." Tyrian smirked, taking a battle stance.

"Tyrian, what are you doing? You need to get out of there, the plan has fallen apart with your part of it being stopped like this." Scythe heard the faint sound of a voice coming from Tyrian's ear.

'So that's it. Good thing he has the volume up to its max.' Scythe thought.

"Party pooper." Tyrian said, relaxing his stance. "Alas, I must bid you farewell my good sir." He bowed, speaking like a poet writer. "This show was not meant for the spotlight to be on me."

Scythe didn't stop Tyrian from leaping towards one of the walls of flames, before he was thrown back, panicking as his clothes began to burn, and he could feel his skin already starting to blister.

"Hot-hot-hot." Tyrian cried out, rolling on the ground, putting the flames out.

"Inverted Flame Wall. As thick as a brick wall, as sturdy as a titanium wall, but still as hot as the fire of my soul." Scythe glared. "You're not going anywhere unless one of us is defeated. Normally it's used as a barrier to protect against attacks, but when used like this, it ensures no one gets away from their punishment."

"Seems like I'm the one being forced into this fight. So this is what it feels like, to be on the receiving end." Tyrian said getting up, and patting down his burnt clothing.

"We gonna just stand around, or are we gonna fight?" Scythe questioned.

"Do it quickly Tyrian. The longer you're there, the higher chance we risk our plans being discovered." Arthur said.

"I know, shut it old man." Tyrian stated, before throwing his ear piece to the ground and stomping on it, before taking a fighting stance. "Let's dance."

(Cue Music… Heathens: Suicide Squad)

Scythe took his fighting stance again, and a the sound of Fiona dropping the mic she still held, in shock, they charged at each other.

As the two combatants neared one another, Tyrian swung his arm forward, aiming to take Scythe's head off in one swipe, but the young Godslayer ducked down and slid around Tyrian getting behind him, before he grabbed the Faunus by the tail, and pulled hard, damaging some of the mechanical parts.

Tyrian hissed in annoyance, before jumping back and swinging around to swing a strong kick at Scythe, only for the strike to be blocked. The Scorpion Faunus continued to kick at Scythe, occasionally switching to using his pincer like blades.

Each strike was blocked or redirected by Scythe, using either his magic, or his skill set in martial arts. But He soon found had had to be careful when it came to Tyrian's blades, as he managed to leave a couple gashes on his chest, and they didn't heal as fast as they should have.

'His blades are laced with the same metal Grim's bullets are made of for canceling out my healing factor. A bonus to his new team's weaponry for combating me, no doubt.' Scythe thought.

Jumping back, Scythe evaded another strike from Tyrian's blades and sent a black ice attack at the Scorpion Faunus.

The icicle spears zipped past Tyrian as he proved to be moving faster than he should have been. Upon impact with the flames, they melted, and created a sheet of steam that blanketed the entire battle field.

"You're able to see in the dark, but let's see how you do, in a fog." Tyrian said with a maniacal laugh, echoing around Scythe.

"Oh trust me Tyrian." Scythe growled, before ducking down, evading a swing from Tyrian's blades, before he placed his hands firmly on the ground, and slammed his feet into Tyrian with a double kick like a bucking bronco. "Compared to the dark, a fog is nothing."

"Damn it." Tyrian growled, after he stopped rolling back.

Jumping forward, Tyrian retracted his blades, and started firing shots at Scythe, only for them to bounce off his arms as he deflected them once his skin hardened with Godslayer Metal.

"You are a slippery fella, ain't ya?" Scythe questioned, jumping into the air and slamming his knee in Tyrian's chest, causing the wind to be knocked out of him.

The instant Tyrian fell to the ground, he rolled over, evading Scythe's knee slamming into his chest again, and used his stinger to pierce him, multiple times and pump poison into him.

"No." Robyn shouted.

"Relax, he'll be fine." Wendy smiled as Scythe fell to a knee.

"Let's see how you handle my poison flowing through you." Tyrian laughed.

Tyrian's boisterous laughter was stopped short when Scythe hit him with an uppercut, sending him into the air, before Scythe was above him again, and slammed him into the ground, with a double punch to the stomach, shattering Tyrian's aura.

(End Song…)

When the smoke cleared, Tyrian was lying on the ground, and the lights had come back on, just as the Inverted Flame Wall died out, with Scythe standing triumphantly over the fallen Scorpion Faunus.

"I'd say I handled your venom pretty well." Scythe smirked, as his wounds healed, scarring up like before.

"Scythe, that was incredible." Ruby said in awe. "Team RNJR could barely stand up against him when we fought, but you handled him like it was nothing."

"That's a Celestial Knight for you." Marrow said.

"Unfortunately, now's not the time for celebration." Wendy said.

"I believe the monitor should show you why." Vlad added.

Looking up at the monitor, Scythe's eyes widened when he saw Jacques Schnee, won the election, and was voted into the council.

"No, this wasn't supposed to happen." Scythe said, looking into the book on the timeline. "Robyn was supposed to win. The only way this could have happened, was if Tyrian's attack had succeeded. So how…"

"Poor little Celestial Knight." Scythe looked to Tyrian who was back up on his feet, and smiling insanely. "Grim had a contingency plan for if I failed, and all that was needed to execute the contingency…"

"Was to keep you preoccupied."

Scythe froze before turning around, and looked directly down the barrel of a gun. Grim was standing there, and just as he was pulling the trigger, Scythe managed to cover himself in metal at the last second, but at point blank range like that, the bullet still caused some damage and Scythe was knocked to the ground, the journal on the timeline falling out of his hands, as Tyrian caught it.

"Thank you. Now we know what we need to do, and how to do it." Tyrian smiled as Grim grabbed him, and they both vanished in a burst of violet light, right before Vlad could get his fangs into them.

"Scythe." Ruby called out, as Scythe lay motionless on the ground. "This isn't good, he's not moving."

"The young lord is still breathing." Vlad said. "I can hear his heart beating."

"Somebody quickly, call for an ambulance." Robyn called. "All hell has broken loose on this night."

---

~Author's Note~

I know some of you are gonna hate me for cucking Jaune like this.

But I'm still a little upset with him for listening to Penny at the end of Vol8, when there were other options.