Hey, just wanted to open this with a clarifying note. I mentioned the closure of RT and the uncertain future of RWBY and RvB, and some people got concerned for the upcoming stories. Let me clarify, I am NOT stopping writing. I love writing these stories and seeing the support they get. If anything, this has only pushed me even more into writing, to ensure I do my part to support not just this fandom, but ALL fandoms I write stories for. With that, enjoy these Epilogues for RvBvRWBY: Incursion, and get a peek at what's next for what I have taken to calling "The Defenderverse".

- Shad

RvBvRWBY: Incursion

Epilogues

Qrow Branwen

Qrow sat alone at an empty bar, unwinding from another fruitless day of searching. It had been nearly two months now since the Battle of Beacon. Two months since Ozpin had died. But it was only a matter of time until he came back. that was why Qrow was back out here in the first place. He was searching every nook and cranny he could find for whoever Ozpin had reincarnated into next, looking for the unlucky sap whose world had just changed forever. Qrow glanced to his right where Ozpin's cane sat propped up against the stool next to him, as if the weapon itself was a patron.

He was the only one in the bar. It was actually supposed to have closed by now. The chairs were all stacked on top of the tables and the entire floor was cleanly swept. The bartender was wiping down and cleaning the other used glasses further down the bar, clearly fine with a paying customer spending more money on liquor. Qrow chuckled to himself at the thought as he sipped his drink. Where are you, Oz?

Qrow heard the bar's doors open and slam closed behind him, followed by a few footsteps and a boy's voice. "E-Excuse me..." Qrow glanced over his shoulder at the young man. He had dark hair and tanned skin. He had bright hazel eyes and dirty freckles speckling his cheeks. He wore a worn and dirty white long-sleeved shirt with a popped collar and sleeves rolled up to his elbows, as well as muddied up brown work pants held up by orange suspenders with a patch on the knee. On his feet were worn dark work boots, on his hands were orange worker's gloves, and around his neck was a torn white bandage.

Qrow smirked at the boy's mere presence in a place like a bar. He looked like he belonged on a farm somewhere. "Y'know, I don't think they allow kids in here, pipsqueak," He remarked to the boy, turning on his still to face the child directly.

The boy, who couldn't have been any older than in his mid-teens, looked uncomfortably and awkwardly at Qrow for a few moments, then glanced to his side as if he was talking to someone. "Shut up, I'm getting there..." he whispered. Qrow raised an eyebrow in curiosity, wondering if the kid was crazy or not. The boy shifted on his feet anxiously, and stared down at the floor the entire time he talked. "Um... I'm supposed to tell you... I'd like my cane back?"

Qrow's expression changed from scrutinizing to surprised, but he didn't wear it for long. he stood up from the stool, pushing it back and making it scrape against the wood floor. The farm boy took a few steps back almost instinctually. He didn't trust Qrow, despite the situation he was in. That made him smart, Qrow thought.

Qrow retried Ozpin's cane from the seat next to him, and after handling it for a few seconds, tossed it to the boy, who quickly scrambled to ensure he had a hold of it. The boy then examined the weapon in his hands curiously, then looked up to Qrow with an unreadable expression on his face. Qrow felt bad for the kid, but there was nothing that could be done about it now.

"It's good to see you again, Oz."

Cinder Fall

As Cinder Fall came back into consciousness, something she had been slipping in and out of for two months now within Salem's palace, her head ached and throat still burned. It made her body feel as if it was on fire any time she tried to do anything as simple as speak. She took short breaths, anything more than that sending her pain receptors into a craze. She turned her head back and forth, trying to get her bearings as her skull pulsed. Before she could move further, the voice Emerald Sustrai echoed around her, despite the young woman only being at on side of her bed.

"Cinder! Take it easy..." She said worryingly. Cinder slowly turned her head to look at her underling. She saw Emerald's hands were resting on the grips of her guns, her attention switching between Cinder herself and the door out of the room. As Cinder's senses came to her, she began to hear a commotion outside of her recovery room. She was still too dazed to know for sure, but is sounded like a fight. And clearly, Emerald was ready to protect her.

As whatever battle was happening out their raged on, Cinder began to push herself up into a sitting position, painful as it was to do so. Agonizing, even. Emerald's eyes rounded as the maiden forced her way up.

"Cinder, you should take it easy-!" Emerald began to protest, but then the door to the room sounded out as something slammed against it. Emerald quickly drew her twin firearms and aimed them at the door. The sound outside had silenced. The door was slammed against again. Then again. Then again. Then, finally, the door burst open, and the unconscious body of Tyrian Callows went high into the air, then slammed onto the ground. Left standing in the doorway with a blade in hand was the Grimmaster, his singular red eye peering through the dark hall of the palace. Emerald immediately began to open fire. Grimmaster used the flat side of his sword to stop each bullet dead, and began to slowly walk further into the room.

"Come on, Emerald, you know better than that," Grimmaster chuckled before then activating the Cosmic Dust gauntlet on his right arm, then used it to send out a blast of pure white energy that slammed Emerald into the opposite wall. Cinder glanced at the defeated Emerald, then Tyrian sprawled on the floor, then at the man in front of her. he looked like a man she knew, but it couldn't be him. He was dead. Murdered. She had to have been delirious, suffering some side effect of her injuries. "You miss me, Firestarter?"

"A-Antho-" Cinder rasped before breaking out into a harsh cough that made each convulsion feel like she was being stabbed over and over.

"Take it easy, Cinder. It's me..." Masters sheathed his weapon and crouched next to Cinder's bed. It was now he noticed Cinder's missing left arm, and saw burns under her dark locks of hair. He swept the hair off her face to see that mast of the upper-left part of her face had been scorched away, leaving the skin wrinkled and burned, and her left eye socket empty, her top eyelid remaining though, forever petrified in a half-closed state. "What happened to you?"

"R-Ru-" She coughed again when she tried to speak.

"I can read lips. Just mouth the words, don't push yourself," Masters warned. Cinder took a few moments to recover, then did as he asked.

Ruby... Rose...

Masters chuckled. "She always seems to be at the center of it all."

How... are you... alive...? Cinder mouthed.

"Long story. One I can tell later."

Salem...

"To hell with that witch. I'm here to get you somewhere far out of her reach," Masters said.

But... I must...

Masters shook his head. "You're done being her tool. You've had to have realized by now that's all you are to her."

Without her- Cinder began to mouth.

"'Without her, I am nothing', I get it. Heard the story. But I'm tired of hearing it. And I'm not stupid. I know Salem was the one who told Mason to inject me with Grimm Matter. She wanted me dead. She didn't like what we were. She wanted full control of you, and you know it. If you were really nothing without her, what would she have to fear?"

Cinder didn't reply immediately, but before she even got a chance, Masters was swatted across the room and slammed into the same wall he had sent Emerald into, cracking the brick before hitting the ground. Standing where he stood now was the bulky, brawny figure of pure muscle that was Hazel Rainart. Behind him, just now entering the room, were Mercury Black, Arthur Watts, and the woman herself, Salem.

"You think me fearful, mercenary?" Salem smirked. "You must truly be full of yourself." Masters groaned as he pushed himself up to his feet.

"And do you think me stupid enough to not realize who wanted me dead?" he growled.

"You talk as if Mason didn't also despise you," Salem replied. "It seems almost natural for you to make enemies wherever you go."

"I could say the same for you. You would make enemies out of your own underlings," Masters said.

"I never considered you an underling. Simply a tool," Salem said coldly.

"I wasn't talking about me," Masters said, then looked at Cinder, who was watching the entire exchange from her bed. Salem eyed her as well. "No, I don't think you fearful, Salem, I know. If you weren't, why try to have me killed in the first place? Because you were scared of the possibility that the key to your victory would develop a mind of her own, that she would see further than your end goal, that you couldn't control her anymore!"

Salem's eyes narrowed, and without batting an eye, she ordered her subordinates. "Tyrian, Hazel; kill him." The recovered scorpion faunus and the mountain of a man both began to cross the room, but before they even reached the middle point, a solid wall of flame erupted between them and Masters. The two stopped, and the entire room turned to look at Cinder, who had her one remaining arm out, sparks of flame still emitting from her fingertips.

"Oohh, she's getting feisty!" Tyrian cackled.

"What are you doing, Cinder?" Hazel questioned.

Cinder was panting heavily, the effort of using her power taking a toll on her. Emerald was on her feet and at Cinder's side in an instant. Cinder pulled Emerald closer and whispered into her ear. "Get... me... up..." Emerald hesitated at first, but reluctantly helped Cinder off the bed and onto her feet, throwing Cinder's one remaining arm over her shoulders to support her.

"Cinder," Salem said. "I would choose your next action very wisely."

"Cinder," Masters said. Emerald turned Cinder to face him. "You took the maiden's powers. You killed Ozpin. You struck fear into the world again. You've got it wrong; It's with Salem you are nothing. Without her, without your chains... you are everything." Salem frowned and sent out tendrils made of Grimm matter that quickly wrapped around him and slammed him into the wall, pinning his arm with he Dust device to the wall and wrapping around his neck, preventing him from escaping. He squirmed, but Salem was simply too strong.

"Don't forget it was I who pulled you out from the dark, gave you your new purpose in life," Salem hissed. "Without me, you would've been left rotting in the gutters of the world. Without me, you would have been nothing. Is this the kind gratitude I receive for promising you the power you now have, for bringing you in when the world turned it's back on you? I have given you everything you've wanted."

Cinder seemed indecisive, glancing back and forth between Salem and the subdued Grimmaster. As she did though, watching as the Grimm tendrils tightened around Anthony's throat and prevented him from speaking, she furrowed her brow and turned back to Salem, and managed to rasp two words loud enough for everyone to hear. "Not... everything..." She then let loose a torrent of flame from her hand again that burned right through the tendrils, setting Masters free. Just as he hit the ground, Masters used the Dust to create a barrier of white energy between them and Salem's cabal. The only other person left on their side of the barrier was Mercury.

"I can't hold this for very long!" Masters warned. "We need to go!"

Emerald began to help Cinder towards Masters, but stopped once she noticed Mercury wasn't following. "Mercury? What are you waiting for? Let's go!" Mercury still didn't follow, and Emerald wore a concerned expression. "Merc...?"

"You can't seriously think this is a good idea," Mercury replied. "Running from Salem? It's suicide!"

"Not a multiverse away, it's not," Masters said stressfully, still holding the barrier that Salem, Tyrian and Hazel were all hitting away at to break.

"Salem can't be stopped! You think you'll escape her?" Mercury questioned.

"I get it, kid; you want to serve the strongest one around. But if Salem was so strong, so all-powerful, why does she need you? Why does she stalk shadows while sending others out to do her bidding? What would a god have to fear?" Masters posed to Mercury. Mercury thought about it for a moment, then, with one last glance to Salem, began to step backward towards Masters and the others.

"You will all pay dearly for this!" Salem howled.

"And like every witch, you will burn," Masters smirked. Then in a flash of white light, the four of them were gone, and the barrier shattered.

No one said a word. Between those who were left, being Tyrian, Watts and Hazel, they knew better than to be the first to speak. Salem's fingers curled up into tight fists, and then she let out an inhuman shriek that made the very palace around them shake violently. The windows of the room not just shattered, but burst, fractals of shattered glass exploding across the room as fractures on the walls quickly spread. The three subordinates clamped their hands over their ears before the sound could burst their eardrums. It was long, painful moments before Salem's scream subsided. Only then did they uncover their ears, a harsh ringing still lingering.

"Arthur..." Salem said lowly.

"Y-Yes, my lady?" Watts stuttered while straightening his tie.

"I want you to find out as much as you can about this Dust Ironwood has begun producing. If we ever want our plan to continue, we will need the maiden powers present in Cinder's body."

"Yes, my lady. I will begin right away," Watts bowed.

"What do we do in the mean time?" Hazel asked.

"We wait. We will find Masters and Cinder in whatever hole they will hide in, then I will drag their corpses back to Remnant myself," Salem replied. "If we must begin from square one, I will ensure they will regret what they've done today... If Anthony Masters wants to know what a god is capable of, then he will find out firsthand…"

The Multiverse continues to grow….

What's next?

Spider-Man: Born Again and the all new, re-written and redone Smash: Emissary will be posted and updated simultaneously. They're both still in the pre-writing process, but once I finish outlining, work on chapters will begin immediately after. I don't expect to take too long, so keep an eye out. Thank you all for the support you have given my stories so far, and I hope you enjoy what lays ahead just as much.

- Shad