"Please burn through the formula at an accelerated rate. Please burn through the formula at an accelerated rate. Please burn through the formula at an accelerated rate." Peach turned around after repeating her mantra. It did not at appear that Cinder was burning through the formula at an accelerated rate. So much for that mantra but it was worth a try.

With the contorting, tearing, and repairing of muscles and flesh, it was more accurate to say that Cinder Fall—or whatever name she decides to give this hulking version of herself— was growing in size. Was it a product of the original formula? Or was it the addition from Merlot's Grimm experiments that made it so? Could Grimm even grow to these sizes if they were kept fed negativity? Peach regretted not reading Jekyll's notes as comprehensively as she did. Perhaps the transformation itself has yet to be completed.

Peach's gun only clicked. She cursed. Of all the times to run out of ammunition, it had to be now. Not like it would help in the slightest even if she did have a few. Cinder's monstrous form barreled through much of the traffic. Civilians abandoned their cars as the scent of oil and smoke filled the air while waters from destroyed fire hydrants mixed with them. Street lights and those electrical wires were pulled down, making much of Vale's streets dangerous to walk on. Hardly a problem for Peach since she could fly but not everyone could.

Huntsmen and huntresses did what they could to keep every civilian safe and away from her. What Atlas ships that provided support kept their distance. Cinder had quite the leap to her when one of the Bullheads had gotten too close.

"What do we do, professor?" Blake asked. She still had some ammunition on her person, for what good that would do against Cinder. She was panicking and defaulted to her for any sort of direction. Her aim was terrible but given the size of her target, accuracy was the least of anyone's concerns. One would have to try in order to miss.

"Just keep running, Blake." Peach dropped any formalities. They need what seconds they could get and Blake's last name had too many syllables to them. Peach will save what breath she could. "Keep civilians away and survive." In the meantime, Peach was racking her brains for any and all sort of solutions.

Tranquilizers had failed and there was no time for her to make any stronger dosages. If her partner were here, perhaps they would have some sort of idea. Peach certainly wished she remembered more from his notes. Her mind was drawing blanks here.

Small buildings were destroyed with the bigger ones having gaping holes if the remaining foundations were still capable of holding it up. In particular, those of higher status and reputation were most affected. Social elites fled alongside the commoners with those who had been stuck in their towers being unfortunate enough to not be physically fit. There were those among them who cared too much about their luxuries that they clung to it.

"Animals trapped behind bars in a zoo!" Was Cinder singing? "Need to run rampant and free…" Yes, yes she was. With a voice so loud that it reached many blocks over. Nearby glasses shattered into pieces with those stones and rubble closest to Cinder having cracks on them. At least, she was on key or so Peach thinks; she never heard it before.

The only cover that they had going for them, other than physical, was that Cinder wasn't too focused on them much. General destruction and mayhem seemed to be her apparent goal. Reveling in chaos and murder, only huntsmen and huntresses had any hope of surviving on account of having their aura's unlocked. Any location that had the most concentrated of huntsmen is the next target of Cinder.

Peach could hear them cursing as well. "Grimm shouldn't even have aura!" one declared. No matter where they shoot their shots, no matter where they struck, Cinder still had access to her aura. Did her growing pause? Peach couldn't tell. A dark thought entered her mind. Her reserves better not be increasing along with her size. It hadn't been noticeable before but it was most certainly the case now.

"…and I feel I'll live on forever!" Cinder stood atop one of the roofs that could still hold her increasing weight. "With darkness itself by my side! And I know now that tonight and forever the name to remember is the name Cinder Hyde!"

"Are you kidding me?" Peach would sooner have her partner married to a Beowolf than that woman. She would drag her partner out of that wedding even if he was deranged enough to say yes. Why am I even debating this? I'm losing my own mind.

Cinder even looked like she wanted to cry tears of joy. How Peach was able to figure that out was anyone's guess. Not even she was sure herself. She most definitely has lost her mind, spending enough time with Hyde must have done something to her.

"Such a feeling of evil inside! Is this what you feel, Edward Hyde?" Cinder even wept as she kept going, as though the song she was singing touched her deeply.

"She's nuts. She's gone absolutely bonkers" Peach shook her head. "And I'll need a drink after this." She was hiding behind a wall in an alleyway. Her wings were aching with many of her feathers ruffled. Gasping for air, Peach took a quick scan of her immediate surroundings. The stench of nearby garbage didn't even register to her.

Blake kept running and zigzagged as she leapt across the buildings' rooftops. Cinder didn't quite follow her so much that she simply went in that direction by coincidence. That is where most of the huntsmen and huntresses had come from and that is where Cinder wants to be. She just craved destruction like a hyperactive child high on sugar. Each piece of destruction that Cinder caused only fed into it, like her next high.

One wouldn't think that a singular entity would be capable of causing this much mayhem. There was no sign of any other Grimm in the area which was the only solace thus far. In the distance though, Peach could see that there were many figures in the air. Whether they would come here or stick close to Amity is up for debate. The negativity here was mainly Cinder's presence.

Would Hyde make things worse? Two entities embodying negativity enough to draw Grimm from the other side of Remnant. Exaggerated? Probably. But Peach didn't exactly have many good options nor did she have any ideas beyond stalling and giving out prayers to every deity that bothered enough to listen, real or fake. She didn't want to imagine bringing Hyde into this. She didn't want to imagine Hyde losing to this.

The earth beneath Peach shook for a moment. Cinder had stumbled and fell. Taking a peek outside of her hiding space, she could see a disappearing green barrier that tripped the monstrous size of Cinder. Ozpin and Qrow had just arrived. Peach sighed relief. At least with them, there was help that knew of enough of Cinder's circumstances. She was certain that they could figure it out quickly enough.

Both huntsmen had that initial shock at the sight of Cinder's current form. Neither were sure what to make of it. Apparently not quick enough. Driven to act by duty, both men bore the brunt of Cinder's wide-sweeping counterattack with Ozpin being the only one to give back as much as he took. In the end of their quick exchange, the two had to retreat and back away. The fire was too hot for them to handle.

Cinder was on them immediately, arms outstretched, reaching out to grab them. She had been mostly successful against the headmaster but he broke free from her grip. Against Qrow on the other hand, Cinder was always unfortunately out of reach. That aura on Cinder's person was still active.

There was a pause between the three combatants. The contorting of Cinder's flesh stopped. Steam was emitted coming from her as her the blackness of her form had a bit of red to them. She was burning. She had to be. Cinder was shifting between the two men, her crimson-red eyes squinted as she focused on them both.

Ozpin acted first. Swinging his cane like a baseball bat, a resounding bang was heard as Cinder tripped once more. Surprising Peach, the headmaster managed to strike at Cinder's head when she returned back to her feet. She was certain that she would have been too tall for Ozpin to reach.

Qrow backed Ozpin with a swing of his weapon, now in its scythe-form. Steam came from that fresh cut as it began to heal itself almost immediately. Cinder reacted swiftly against this one. Before either had been aware of what had just happened, both men were tossed to the side.

Both men split once more as Cinder's arm barreled through the walls behind them. Mixing deafening roars and growls, she fought with Grimm-like ferocity and human-like intelligence, albeit rudimentary.

At least, Cinder stopped singing. "You were there, too." Her bulky arms kept reaching out to Qrow. Whenever it had been certain that he would be crushed, Qrow turned into a bird just before those hands could close. He changed back soon after. The huntsman ran towards Peach's direction.

"What in Remnant is that thing?" Qrow demanded at the sight of Peach. He ran closer towards her, bringing Cinder along with him.

"Oh you know." Peach's voice had been raised as well. Shaking her head furiously, the sight of such sizeable creature charging at her like a juggernaut fed into her own fears as well. "A little experiment gone wrong, no big deal. Partner of mine is having a bad day. Do you think I would know, birdbrain?" She nearly had the bayonet of Steadfast pointed at him just to keep him away.

Perhaps the stress of the situation was getting to her. Just a little bit. She definitely would need that drink after. She could only hope that her cover was sturdy enough to handle the weight of the oncoming Cinder.

Misfortune followed Qrow. Peach's hiding spot had been broken quite easily and revealed a grinning Cinder. "Found you!" She cackled. Cinder paused and tilted her head. She was looking at Peach. She sniffed, taking a big whiff. For a moment, Peach had hoped that the stench of the garbage would repel her. It did not.

The two of them split in an instant. Luck did not favor Peach at all since Cinder chose to follow her instead. Qrow was right next to her as well.

"Damn it, Qrow!" Peach blamed him for this. She knew his semblance. Anybody working with Ozpin would know that.

"Hey, what makes you think this is on me?" He defended.

"You have his scent! Where is he! Where is Hyde?" Since when did Peach have a scent? The tight space of the surrounding buildings only slowed Cinder down. Still, what inches that Peach could increase between them was absolutely welcome. "I see now! I see what he sees! This feeling! This beautiful feeling!"

"You know." Qrow gave Peach his condolences. There was genuine remorse behind it. "I wish it really was me. I would have been used to it."

Peach swung Steadfast wildly. Cinder didn't have as much combat sense in this state as she initially thought. Craving only whichever way her impulses brought her. A blissful indifference to every damage that she left behind, Cinder kept chasing Peach like a dog would a squirrel. Qrow kept his distance but that only made her Cinder's only target.

Blake was nowhere to be seen. Peach could only hope that she was either under cover or aiding civilians out. The cat faunus wouldn't be able to take her on her own. She wouldn't be able to even with help.

She didn't want to risk with going too high above. Cinder's jumping ability was frankly impressive for her size no matter how many times Peach had seen it already. The same couldn't be said about the airship heading in. Giving Peach cover fire, those Bullheads, hopefully remotely controlled, put themselves between her and Cinder.

Before Cinder could resume her chase, Ozpin had come between them. A blast of green light pushed Cinder back far enough that she fell. Buildings were destroyed as Cinder's bulky form made the dust clouds rise upon impact. Vale shook with the many having lost their balance.

Peach could faintly hear the mechanisms of Ozpin's cane slowing down. Whatever he did, it had packed quite the punch against Cinder. The headmaster began tapping repeatedly with his cane, as if storing the kinetic force behind those simple taps.

"Any word on James' Paladins?" Ozpin demanded from Qrow.

"I don't know, Oz." Qrow shook his head. "Communications are down. Jimmy still had his hands full."

Ozpin turned to Peach. "What about Hyde? Where is he?"

"I thought he came with you," Peach replied. When Ozpin shook his head, there was only one conclusion that Peach had made. "Left him back in Beacon."

"Beacon, you say?" Cinder heard them. "Hyde. My dear Hyde. I now see it! I now see as you do!"

"By god, and they say I have a problem." Qrow took this moment to down his flask. "Never going to be drunk enough for this."

"Stall her for as long as you can," Ozpin commanded. "We can't let her reach the tower."

Qrow sighed. "We just got here."

Vehicles were being crushed, buildings were destroyed, and streetlights fell, dragging the wires along with them. Cinder had a single-minded purpose as she neared Beacon Academy. Huntsmen and huntresses ran in all sorts of directions just to avoid being squashed by her rampage.

"Tonight! I'll plunder heaven blind, steal from all the gods…" Cinder resumed her song. Peach was certain that it was the same song.

Stretching her wings, Peach followed. There was nothing that drew Cinder away. The thought of seeing Hyde, for better or for worse, was drawing Cinder more than moths and lamps. What Atlas machinery was there could only slow her down. Those large paladins certainly helped but they too eventually fell to Cinder's rampage.

At times, Cinder would pause and focus more on the immediate rampage. Wait. Peach squinted her eyes as she did a double take on Cinder's monstrous form. Was she fluctuating in size? Cinder had to have been larger before.

Peach never noticed it before but with the paladins being more resilient and serving as a reference, Cinder's size fluctuated between sizes. She had to hit own head many times; ideas and assumptions were all making their way in Peach's head that she had nothing. Too many things were trying to be the answer.

"Professor!" Blake called out.

"Blake!" Peach replied. "Are you alright?" When Blake nodded. "Good. Notice anything off about the… thing?" She needed a second opinion and Blake was the only other one who had seen Cinder as long as Peach herself has.

"Uh, no?" Blake shook her head. "Was I supposed to? What is there even to notice?"

"Her size, miss Belladonna," Peach insisted. "Notice her size."

"You telling me she was smaller before this?" Qrow interrupted them both. "How much bigger could she get?"

Eventually, she found the one answer that she could form words for. "Giving in to evil."

"What?" Qrow asked. Blake shared the same sentiment.

"Jekyll feeds into his evil, that's how he becomes Hyde." Peach gripped onto those ideas tight. Many more were threatening to take over. Now is not the time to entertain other ideas, maybe later and if this one didn't work out. "Cinder grows the more she feeds into the evil, I think."

"We keep her down," Ozpin said. He took quick command after listening to Peach's ramblings. "Hit and run. If we're lucky, we can keep Jekyll out of this. I don't even want to think about Hyde getting involved with that."

"Oz, I'm not sure we could even slow her down." Qrow pointed towards the paladin who valiantly gave its metallic life in stalling against Cinder.

It did its duty though and Peach used this moment to observe. Cinder had grown after that. Ozpin was quick to return with his own. Keeping himself as agile as he could while he slowly and aggressively tapped on Cinder's shins. Nothing more than an annoyance but Peach had Blake observe as well.

"It is," Blake said. "It's shrinking if it couldn't hurt or destroy anything."

"Great, how does that work?" Qrow wasn't quite satisfied with it. Aura? Grimm? Negativity? Personal vices? If Jekyll were here, he would probably have better ideas.

"We're on a timer," Peach declared. "A timer that can go a little longer but a timer." Unless someone had any other ideas, that was the only assumption that they could make. Really, any other idea was welcome. The assumption Peach decided to stick with was something in the formula. The added Grimm element probably had some kind of impurity or compound that turned Cinder into this.

Peach stared at Qrow's flask. Next time you want to get rid of your inhibitions, Jekyll, just drink alcohol like everybody else! She needed one desperately after this. Her gun clicked again which made her curse again. She didn't want to get anywhere near Cinder right now. I feel like it should be wrong that I'd rather be close to Hyde right now.

The two professionals were the first to reinforce Ozpin. Blake had to stay behind them and observe if there was anything else that they could exploit.

/-/

"Still nothing, general?" Mulberry demanded.

Trapped in Amity Colosseum, there was little that they could do. Before anyone could even respond, Watts had already taken over both the security and the technology of the floating arena. With threats of having it all crash down, none could make any hasty moves. The lives of everyone here was at stake, civilian and huntsmen.

Participants were at least brought out. Those that tried to stick around failed when Watts used the entire arena against them. They were still students and their inexperience did not aid them even if Watts himself had never been trained. The man was accustomed to dealing with huntsmen. Exploiting their weaknesses, those with the most straightforward of approaches struggled against opponents like him. Most of the students were like that during their early years.

"None." Ironwood shook his head. The edges of his table had a clear mark on them. If his fingers were teeth, that edge of the table would have been bitten off by now. "Communications are down; my best scientist wouldn't be able to help us here."

The ones present were certainly doing their best but against Arthur Watts, they were limited in their usefulness. It didn't help that Watts knew this enough that he had put counter measures in place. Atlas' technicians couldn't even shut down Amity. Not only would that endanger the people there, but Watts locked them out of that as well.

There were no airships, Watts had saw fit to destroy their means of escape and evacuation. Any airship that would approach would be relentlessly attacked by avian Grimm. None could approach him on the arena either; he had closed off with a barrier that would severely harm anyone that would try to force their way through.

Mulberry had tested it with a piece of metal. The only thing that remained was destroyed metal. Few of them were confident in reinforced metal. Even if they were, there was the matter of dealing with Watts. Normally, someone like Ironwood would have been sent there. Someone with his experience and military training should have meant some adaptability. But the general was needed here. Winter had her sister to rescue.

When he left the room to think of something, after walking quite the distance away in the hallways, Mulberry saw his partner carrying the weapons locker as close to the barrier as she can without having the metal touch it. There were layers on it, hastily built onto with the parts of other weapon lockers that had been dismantled. There were others there as well who were just as confused as he was at Greene's latest project.

"Is this really going to work, professor Greene?" Pyrrha Nikos asked. Poor girl doesn't even know what was happening.

"You could still use your semblance, can't you?" Greene replied. When Pyrrha nodded, she continued. "Then, that is all I need, miss Nikos. I'll take it from there."

Mulberry approached them both. "What on Remnant are you thinking of doing, Greene?" He knew her partner long enough. Jack-of-all-trades when it comes to weapons and tools, poor taste in beverages, and with an enthusiast's preference for anything explosive, Greene had an idea and it was so obviously blunt. Not at all when one thinks of Beacon's professor of Stealth. Mulberry knew her though. That was a habit she was never growing out of.

"I think you could figure it out." Greene didn't even look up to face him. She was busy placing layers of metallic plates on the one locker, even covering the holes that would have let air flow inside. It looked like a death trap; the only thing missing was the spikes on the inside. When she was done, she turned to Pyrrha. "Now then, miss Nikos, wish me luck."

Greene laid down on the locker. Pyrrha turned to Mulberry for a second opinion. Poor girl. She didn't know just how resourceful Greene can be.

Mulberry could only shrug and shake his head. "Just make it as quick as you can, miss Nikos." If nothing else, it would distract Watts while the general's technicians would get to work. After giving it some thought, though, Greene probably is the best option to send in.

The top had been closed, giving it the final look of the thickest, most ridiculous-looking coffin that would ever grace Remnant. How much air would she even have? Pyrrha's presence here certainly helped things along. Mulberry was certain that no one would be able to push the heavy lid open.

Pyrrha raised her hands. With the use of her semblance, she raised the reinforced locker and aimed it just beyond the barrier. Great effort came from her as she flung Greene through the barrier. The screeching noise it made as the metal endured the barrier's cutting heat made their teeth grind. How much more painful would that be for Greene? Knowing her, she probably had some kind of ear protection ahead of time.

The locker made it to the other side with a loud bang. Pyrrha did not waste any time before she directed every bit of her semblance towards removing the top. It popped right open with Greene quickly getting back out of it. It certainly worked and Greene was now in the arena. There was a successful grin that decorated her face.

Mulberry returned to the room only to be met with the questioning look of general James Ironwood. "What is your partner thinking?"

"Distraction, mostly," Mulberry replied. "If there is anyone who could match Watts, it would be her."

Looking at the feed, Greene was already making her ascent into the arena proper. Platforms were raised and much of it had been split into different terrains. Watts was going to use all of Amity's features to give himself an advantage. However, his opponent was Greene.

Greene may be a Jack-of-all-trades when it came to weapons and tools but Mulberry knew her enough that she was better than masters of one. It had been her commitment ever since they became wiser and more experienced.

"I'll have my men deal with the Grimm." Ironwood reloaded his weapon. He was soon enough outside the room. "I want you to contact me once we have taken back Amity."

"Will do, general," Mulberry replied. "Will do."

AN: Okay so funny thing, this particular chapter came out later than it was supposed to mainly because I wanted a different name. "Cinder Hyde" was just a placeholder until I could come up with something else. Nothing stuck so I went "screw it" and rolled with it.

Lastly, if any of you are reading this on desktop at least, I updated the cover photo for this fic. Mainly added some text to make it look closer to the poster of the musical. I'm making references to other JnH related media already so I might as well.