Author's note: It's always cool to see OCs being well-received. As far as the story goes, all Five of the cabal members are very important. From here on, we'll be following multiple plot threads together as we move forward.

Chapter 22:

Dante landed lightly on the rooftop. As he undid his Devil transformation, his scales, horns and wings disappeared in fiery sparks. A quick look around revealed that no one was aware of his presence. Most of the buildings in a five mile radius were largely empty. The few individuals who were in them weren't moving, and going by their smell, Dante hazarded a guess that they were most likely squatters. That in turn made sense: he was in the less prosperous part of the city. The neighbouring blocks were mostly condemned and dilapidated buildings that were stuck in developmental hell, meaning they could not legally be used for any purpose, making them a place of refuge for the otherwise homeless. Dante was reminded of red neon lights and loud, blaring music, the sights and sounds of the districts he himself had grown up in, and even the one where he had set up the Earth branch of the Devil May Cry agency. While that was a separate world, it wasn't so different from the place where he now found himself.

Guess Vale isn't all sunshine, lien and rainbows, huh?

Walking over to the edge of the roof, he focused his attention on the neighbouring building. Inside it, on the ground floor, was an individual whose scent stood out from the others in the area. It smelled of perfume, coffee and burnt leaves. And nervousness.

Guess that confidence didn't last long, huh? Oh well. No point keeping her waiting.

He stepped off the roof, landing silently on the ground. Going up to the front door, he knocked, noting mentally that at least she hadn't chosen a warehouse this time around. Hurried footsteps approached, and a moment later, the door opened, revealing the usually-smug Cinder Fall, except she was lacking her usual swagger. Her eyes widened slightly as she looked at him, and he noticed that she unconsciously took half a step back. The nervousness he had felt her emanating earlier multiplied, turning into fear. It was a reaction he had seen a few times before in his life, always from those who had seen his true self. Cinder too had seen it, albeit only indirectly, in the form of video footage. It was clear, however, that the air between them had changed forever. No longer could she keep up the facade of confidence and power, of holding the cards. She had seen the face of the devil, and hidden though it may be behind silver hair and blue eyes, she knew it was there… staring right back at her.

Something Cinder's life had ingrained in her was respect for power. It was likely the only thing she respected. Without even meaning to, she found her head lowering. Dante spotted it right away. A lifetime of dealing with actual monsters and those born in human skin had given him an excellent ability to see one's true character. He knew that Cinder had little regard for life or those weaker than her. She was cunning and treacherous too. Nevertheless, it made him uncomfortable to see her bowing to him. A long time ago, he had made a decision: he would live among humans, as a human. And that meant treating others and being treated as such.

"Save it," he said aloud. "Kissing ass won't get you anywhere with me."

Cinder blinked a few times rapidly. She hadn't realised what she was doing until he had pointed it out. Not knowing any other way to react, she simply nodded. Their gazes met briefly. While she was a little calmer than before, the fear hadn't disappeared yet. It probably never would. Dante looked away, breaking eye contact. This was one of the reasons he didn't Trigger in front of people. But then again, this was Remnant, not Earth. There were those who actually liked that side of him here. Putting aside thoughts of Glynda Goodwitch for the moment, he decided to focus on the task at hand.

"So, this Woman in the Tower. Where does she live?" he asked.

"Her name is Salem," Cinder replied, glad for the distraction. "She is the ruler of the Land of Darkness, and that is where we are going."

"Land of Darkness, huh?"

"It is a continent of its own, apart from the Four Kingdoms."

Dante whistled.

"A whole continent, huh? That's a big place to rule. You're telling me this Salem person isn't satisfied with all that?"

Cinder shook her head.

"Her war against the Kingdoms has nothing to do with land or dominion over people."

Dante's eyebrows rose.

"So what's it all about then?"

"... It would be better if you heard it from her rather than me."

Dante shrugged.

"Fair enough. So how do we get to this Land of Darkness?"

"Navigation technology fails as we approach the continent, meaning Bullheads cannot fly there. The only ones who can find their way there are the Grimm. As such, Salem has seen fit to arrange transportation for us. It is… waiting outside the city."

"Outside the city, huh?"

It was clear from Cinder's explanation exactly where this was going.

"Well, lead the way, then."

The two of them made their way through the district and past the outskirts until they crossed the wall and found themselves in the wilderness beyond. Here, surrounded by vast, open fields and trees, they waited. A few seconds later, Dante heard the distant flapping of wings. Looking up, he saw a large black bird flying in their direction. As he looked on, the Nevermore began to glide, coming lower and lower, until it finally landed mere feet away from them. It screeched loudly. Ignoring the noise, Cinder approached. The bird lowered its neck, and she placed her hands upon it, bracing herself as she climbed on.

Dante chuckled.

"Transportation. Right."

"This is the only way to get to continent," Cinder said, looking at him uncertainly. She had already informed Salem that the one known as Dante would be coming. She was more eager to meet him than anyone Cinder could think of. If he were to refuse now, all of her anger would likely fall on her. Dante, however, had no such plans. Although, he had absolutely no plans of riding the unliving bird either. Cinder had already seen his other side, so there wasn't really much point to hiding it from her. A bolt of red lightning crashed down from the heavens, and Dante transformed into his Devil Trigger state. The Nevermore reared backward in fear, screeching again. Cinder struggled to stay on, holding on to its neck tightly. She could feel the beads of sweat rolling down her neck. The footage was one thing, but seeing him in this form in person, she knew instantly: he was powerful beyond imagination.

"Can't say I've done any long-distance flights before," he said. His voice distorted, echoing slightly. "But there's a first time for everything. Lead the way. I'll follow."

Cinder didn't understand what he meant, until what she had assumed before for an organic version of his jacket unfurled and spread out as he jumped, revealing themselves to be wings. She almost laughed slightly.

Of course. He can fly too.

It shouldn't even surprise her at this point. There probably wasn't a thing Dante wasn't capable of.

"All right then," she said. A slap on the Nevermore's neck caused it to screech once more before it took to the air, beating its wings rapidly as it set course for the Land of Darkness. Dante followed. He had to fly significantly slower than he normally did, but hey, as long as he was making progress, right? Still, it did seem like it would take a while before he made it to his destination. He wondered if the others would be alright in the meantime.

Well, Glynda's there. And on the off-chance something really big pops up, Trish is there too.

That's right, Trish was there.

… Why do I feel like I should be more worried?

Ozpin looked over the reports on his desk, eyes flicking between them and the screen, where footage of the Hoperow incident and the subsequent public declaration was playing. He exhaled heavily. At the time, he had allowed Dante exclusive control over the demon situation. That decision may very well have been a mistake. It wasn't as though he had many options, however. The footage spoke for itself.

An Aura-empowered hunter was several times as powerful as a human who hadn't had their Aura unlocked. With the addition of specific techniques to focus Aura, along with Semblances, weapons and fighting skills, a hunter's effective combat capabilities could equal that of tens of regular troopers. However, even with all of that, the vast majority of hunters needed tactics, numbers and teamwork to take down high-level Grimm. Grimm themselves came in varieties. Much like a human army, there were various pieces, each with their own place on the board. Among them were the heavy and super-heavy class Grimm, Nevermores, Goliaths, Deathstalkers… and creatures even larger than them. The most powerful Grimm were calamities: their presence spelled the complete destruction of a city, if not an entire Kingdom.

And then… there were the Demons.

Even if Ozpin closed his eyes, he could vividly see the footage.

The attacking force, led by hundreds upon hundreds of Beowolves who raced ahead of the others using their superior speed. But they were followed closely by an entire battalion of Goliaths. This was no ordinary pack or horde: it was an army, specifically put together to wipe out an entire settlement. To face that army, a singular Demon had stepped forward. Its frame was massive. Ozpin estimated its height to be well over twenty feet. Its entire body seemed to be made of solid rock. With each step it took, the ground cracked. Positioning itself to face the approaching force, the titan's shape had shifted. As it held both of its enormous arms outstretched in front, its stone fingers had slid apart, and its palms had opened up, even as its forearms had divided into sections, rearranging themselves.

It had taken Ozpin a few seconds to realise that its arms had turned into cannons.

That hadn't been the scary part.

After all, Remnant had plenty of heavy armaments, and hunters armed with RPGs or miniguns weren't uncommon.

Except, the titan's strange rock-like frame had not shot forth bullets, grenades, or any implements of war made by man.

What had been released was a blast of pure energy so bright that the entire screen had turned orange for a moment. When the cameras had somewhat adjusted to the massive increase in light, what had come into view was a scene of destruction so effortless, Ozpin had temporarily felt cognitive dissonance.

The twin death-rays had gone through the entire advancing horde in straight lines, as easily as a flaming knife through butter. Any Grimm unfortunate enough to have been in their path were simply deleted. Not even the usual black smoke and dust had remained.

That hadn't been the scary part.

No, that had come right afterwards.

As the giant's arms had turned back to normal, another of the demons had walked into the frame, and the cameras had managed to pick up what she had said to the titan.

"You need to get over your habit of holding back, Atlas."

This demon had the form of a large, powerfully built, athletic woman. In place of two arms, she had four.

"They are drawing nearer," Atlas had replied. "From here, we must engage them in close quarters."

The woman had held one hand out to the side, and in it, a gold zweihander had appeared.

"Good."

That was all she had said before she had leapt into the fray.

The force of her initial step had caused a crater in the ground, crushing the rock in a three metre radius, and propelling her instantly out of the camera's view. By the time it had caught up to her, she had cleared the mile of distance, and reached the Grimm horde.

It was like watching the old tales and legends come to life in front of one's eyes.

Each swing of the golden blade sliced through scores of Grimm: the mere air pressure cut through foes entire metres away from her. As for those actually hit by the sword, they were blasted apart to smithereens. One of the Goliaths charged at her, and instead of dodging, she reared back and headbutted it, crushing its flattening it like a pancake against the ground. As a Nevermore flew by overhead, shooting its feathers at her, she leapt up, flipping over and landing on its back. Grabbing both its wings with two of her arms, she ripped them clean off, while driving her other two arms right into its back. Ozpin winced slightly as she pulled out the avian Grimm's entire spine, beaked skull still attached. Without missing a beat, she leapt up again, and hurled the spinal-column downward like a bone spear. The Nevermore's beak pierced through several Beowolves before dissipating into smoke.

Still in the air, the demon swordswoman flexed, raising one arm upwards, and roaring a command.

"Impale."

At her word, thousands upon thousands of spears rose up from the ground, seemingly out of nowhere, their blades all golden, like her own sword. All of a sudden, an entire section of the battlefield had turned into an execution ground, every Grimm on it run through brutally by the unforgiving spears.

As though that weren't enough, the titan Atlas, who had also entered the thick of the fight, drove his hands into the ground, and tore that entire section of it clean out, flipping it over as though it were an omelette. It was as if an island had been thrown into the sky. Turning over, it fell on yet more of the Grimm… spears-first.

While all this was happening, other cameras had picked up the action elsewhere on the field. Ozpin recognized the green-skinned woman who had come to Beacon earlier, Nevan. Except, her expression was nothing like the seductive smile she had worn then. Her face was twisted in fury, sharp fangs bared. Her lower body was completely covered by sheer darkness, which grew larger and larger, until it had lifted her far above the battlefield. From there, she hurled down bolts of lightning that flash-fried anything they came into contact with, whether it be Grimm, rock, earth or wood. Ozpin realised belatedly that the entire mass of darkness was actually writhing because it was composed of many small pieces. At Nevan's will, those pieces broke free. Grimm the size of houses died in excruciating agony, eaten alive by a sea of bloodthirsty bats.

Elsewhere, a gigantic serpent had appeared. Cameras picked up a voice from it, chanting in some unknown language. Moments later, Grimm of all kinds, enormous centipedes, insects, Deathstalkers, Ursas, Nevermores… all began tearing each other to pieces. Ozpin couldn't believe it. They had someone capable of overriding Salem's mental control. As for the survivors of the Grimm-on-Grimm violence, the Serpent chanted yet another spell, and they spontaneously corroded, their bodies flaking away. The snake demon laughed loudly, clearly enjoying his handiwork.

Even the least imposing and threatening looking of the Five, a slender woman with deer antlers growing out of her head, and a jet-black body, was carving a path of slaughter through the horde. She moved with incredible agility, twisting and leaping from Grimm to Grimm, all the while viciously stabbing and cutting them with a pair of twin knives made of energy. Every now and then, phantom swords appeared around her, which automatically shot towards enemies, never missing their mark.

Ozpin opened his eyes. By his rough estimate, each member of the Five was a war power capable of destroying a kingdom on their own. What was terrifying was that he did not know if that was the extent of their might. And worse still, he had no idea what their intentions were. After all, they had protected Hoperow from certain destruction. They had even allowed the news crews to approach them and ask questions, taking the chance to deliver the message that had now become the talk of all of Vale.

"We are the Council of Five, and we represent the one, true Demon King."

Meaning, there was someone out there even more powerful than them.

And of course, there was Dante too. Given his true nature, it was very likely he was connected to them. This was further backed up by the fact that Nevan already knew him.

Turning off the computer, Ozpin leaned back and sighed.

Things were moving fast, faster than they had in hundreds of years. Not just that, they were headed in directions he hadn't even known were possible. The arrival of demons, possessing power on par with gods, changed everything. What he had originally planned to do over the course of many more centuries must now be done in months, weeks, days. Arranging his thoughts carefully, he turned the computer back on again, and contacted his associates.

On the screens around the office, the faces of headmasters of the other hunter academies appeared.

"I assume you're all aware of the situation," Ozpin said without preamble.

"That we are."

"Make sure the Relics are guarded well. Increase security, and prepare to move them."

"Move them?! Surely you can't be thinking of…"

"Yes. But do not remove them from their vaults yet. We must not let even a single one fall out of our hands. Wait until I've completed preparations. Only when we are fully ready will we gather them all. We will only have one chance at this. It is imperative that we do not fail."

"... Understood."

With that, the transmission ended.

That was one aspect of the plan. Once upon a time, Ozpin would have said it was the most important aspect. After all, his entire work for all these centuries had been preparing Remnant's people to receive the Twins again. Now, however, things had changed. While summoning them back was still the goal (and one that must be accomplished quickly, before things went out of control), there were other fronts that must be handled too. Prominent among them were all matters related to a certain red-clad devil hunter. Going up against Dante directly was suicide. It was an unwinnable battle, at least until the Twins arrived. In the meantime then, Ozpin's hope was to count on Dante's humanity… and to exploit it as a weakness.

And in order to do so, he would have to aim for those close to him.

Of course, several of those people were important to his plans for other reasons too.

Which was why he had called certain people today…

Fittingly enough, the elevator beeped a moment later, announcing the arrival of the carriage. The doors slid open, and his visitors walked in.

Ozpin's nose was assaulted by the smell of alcohol that lingered around his best covert agent.

Qrow Branwen walked forwards with quick steps, the expression on his face one of anger as opposed to the usual tired annoyance.

"You better have a good explanation for everything I've heard, Oz."

He wasn't the only one either.

The individual next to him did not even spare him a glance, which was incredible, because it was a well-known fact that she despised him vehemently. On this occasion, however, her attention was focused entirely on the wizard.

"Explanation? I doubt any will suffice, headmaster," said Winter Schnee. "Nevertheless, I demand one."

Ozpin raised his hands in a gesture of peace. This was all part of his plan. He needed them to have this anger, so that he could make them direct it at the right targets.

"I apologise," he said. "The situation has come to this because of certain errors in my judgement. However, given the circumstances, my options were limited. I would even go so far as to say this was the least harmful outcome."

Qrow leaned forward and slammed his fist on the desk.

"Least harmful? Least harmful? Have you seen the news? Demons running about. Actual fucking demons, straight out of storybooks. Tossing trains into the sky, wiping out entire armies of Grimm like they're nothing, and pulling students out of school", he said.

"About that…"

"You were supposed to look after them, Oz! Not let them run away chasing after an actual monster."

Ozpin closed his eyes.

"As I said, I made some mistakes. The one known as Dante is indeed a demon. However, he possesses humanity as well."

Winter scoffed.

"Humanity? That thing? This isn't the time for jokes."

"Remember," said Ozpin. "He did save a city from the Grimm. He has also saved Beacon students multiple times. The danger here is not what you think: Dante is not an out-of-control monster."

"Huh," grunted Qrow. "So we should roll the red carpet for him again? Is that it?"

"Not so," replied Ozpin. "While he isn't out-of-control, make no mistake about it: he is a monster. One that we cannot allow to side with the enemy."

Ozpin did not add that the even bigger danger was that Dante would deem both sides unworthy, and destroy the existing order of Remnant completely.

"It is easy to see why so many of our students chose to follow him: he is an exceptionally skilled hunter, and it is clear that he does have the protection of humans in mind. However, good decisions in the short run might not always lead to the best results in the long run. While the ones who followed him out of Beacon may have had the best of intentions at heart, they may soon find that continuing to follow Dante might not be sustainable. Before that happens, they must be brought back.

"There is a war ongoing, and it is being fought on two fronts now. Against our old enemy… and against the demons. We cannot afford to miss so many good young soldiers at a time like this.

"So go forth, and bring team RWBY back to Beacon."

To counteract the influence of someone as charismatic as Dante, Ozpin could rely only on those the young team had known from the beginning: family. With Ruby Rose' return, the power of the Silver Eyes would be a viable piece again. Also, the older sister, Yang Xiao Long, would follow. This in turn would ensure that Taiyang could be called upon if needed as well. Likewise, Weiss Schnee's return would keep the team together, and might serve as a useful means of ensuring the Schnee Dust Company's cooperation, at least to an extent. With three members returning, Blake Belladonna would most likely come back as well, which would open up Menagerie as allies.

Most importantly, all of them could be used to influence Dante. If he could somehow be persuaded to return to Beacon, it would greatly help in buying enough time to gather the Relics.

Ruby looked around the store.

"We're running out of money, aren't we?" she asked.

"Because we haven't asked Dad to send any over recently," replied Yang. "Hmm, come to think of it, we haven't told him that we left Beacon, have we?"

Ruby looked down guiltily.

"We should give him a call," she said.

Following Dante wasn't a decision she regretted, but Taiyang needed to hear that she had left from her, not Ozpin.

"We should," agreed Yang. Things had been busy recently. Leaving school, helping build and set up the shop, finding out that the demon situation had escalated and that Nevan's group was doing something, being visited by Dante's older brother, and now Dante himself going out on a mission to find this "Woman in the Tower". Things had been crazy.

"Far as money goes though, that shouldn't be a problem. Soon as the Devil May Cry starts getting some gigs, we should make some money," she pointed out.

"But isn't Dante chasing down that lead on his own? It's not like anyone hired him to do it."

"That's… actually a good point."

Yang remembered Trish and Lady both saying that Dante wasn't very good at running a business. She wondered if it had anything to do with the fact that he kept doing important work for free.

"W-well, it'll be fine. We have Miss Goodwitch too, remember? Even if Dante's not great at the business side of things, she'll make sure we turn over a profit."

Ruby laughed nervously. She certainly hoped so. She didn't want to be broke.

As the two continued with their shopping, another individual entered the store. Around the same height as Ruby, this girl had a slender build, with short orange hair. There were freckles on her cheeks. Her eyes were a vivid red that almost seemed to glow slightly. Ruby recognized her.

"Hey," she said, elbowing Yang. "Isn't that Penny?"

"Penny?"

The blonde took a moment, but she remembered the unusual girl they had met in town the day Blake had run away. But that wasn't the only time they had met.

"Hey, she was at the docks that night, when we were trying to bust Torchwick!" she pointed out.

Ruby's eyes widened.

"You're right. And… she helped us out, didn't she?"

While the group had been occupied fighting Dante, she had taken out the White Fang members.

She waved as she walked over to the girl.

"Hey, Penny! Long time no see!"

To her surprise, the orange-head went into a low stance, her hands raised and ready to fight.

"You…" she said. "You smell of demons."