Taiyang Xiao Long wasn't certain why he had woken up in the three-o'clock hour, but it wasn't unusual enough to warrant investigation either. He could hear the wind whistling beyond his window. The coming of fall was early, but also not unusual. Zwei lay as a warm lump beside his feet, not reacting as he quietly slipped into his slippers and downstairs. He might as well make coffee before Bart helped himself. He never understood how the man's body hadn't grown numb to caffeine by now.

As it transpired however, the coffee wasn't what he should have been concerned over.

The dining room table was neatly decorated with stacks of dirty plates and bowls, enough to suggest some raucous family reunion or block party had gone down unless someone had been particularly wasteful with his kitchenware.

He checked the refrigerator… Picked clean. Everything that wasn't raw or some manner of condiment or otherwise required cooking was simply gone.

Barty didn't fit the profile on this, he decided, imagining a Viking Funeral for his pocket Lien. But again, Goku was bedridden. Last he'd checked, the man could just hobble to the restroom with another's support… which in itself was impressive.

But then he glimpsed out under the awning, hearing the flap of the plastic sheet covering the broken window from earlier as the wind beat against it. He saw the shape of that unmistakable hair against the moon, dark clouds lining the horizon as Goku stared into it. For a moment Taiyang wondered if he'd been used, but dismissed the notion as he saw his one leg favored, leaning into a post for support.

The door slid open as he joined him. Son Goku didn't react at all. "That fresh air chaser go down smooth after my entire pantry?" Taiyang asked, unable to keep the bitterness from his voice.

Goku gave no indication that he'd heard him, staring out with an intensity he'd never seen of the man.

"Hello?!" Taiyang insisted, stepping around to face him side on.

Goku blinked. "Something big is about to go down. A long ways off, other side of the world even…"

Tai stared, whipping to glance at the moon and back. "They don't have windstorms where you come from?"

Goku shook his head. "The real storm is building somewhere else… There's aggressive energy everywhere. My son is at the heart of it." He lifted a hand up, staring at it. The faintest crackle of electricity fizzled and then vanished along his palm. "I'm in no state to help him…"

Taiyang had nothing to say. Goku had never demonstrated this side of himself. Sharp as a razor, his being seemed awash with an ice-cold fire. His words sounded like mad ravings, but the father of two couldn't help feeling a chill run down his spine.

The massive elevator ground to a stop as it reached the top of Haven Academy, the wind there oddly pleasant against the half-clouded sky, even as it tore 'neath the chasm of the grand structure. The afternoon sun was bright as they stepped off and crossed the great quad, the school as quiet as before. Moreso even.

Five strong, they found Leonardo Lionheart at the steps before Haven Hall, looking pleased, but nervous.

Qrow's pace increased as he reached earshot of the man before coming to a stop. "Alright, I can't wait to hear this."

Lionheart nodded. "Of course, I can fill you in once we're inside, I—" He stopped dead, glancing to the party behind Qrow. "There were… other students who came with you?" he asked, glancing at Oscar, then softly settling on Gohan. "And the child is here as well? Wait… where is Miss Rose? Surely you didn't leave her alone?"

Indeed, neither of the girls Qrow came with were here now.

"Eh, the girls are resting back at the house," Qrow explained with a shrug. "They girl-talked all night. We're just briefing anyway, right?"

"Well yes, naturally…"

Atop the leftmost building of the quad, Emerald Sustrai listened in as Lionheart spluttered on. She didn't envy him his position… but she knew she could have done it better. She took out her scroll. "You catch that? Red's confirmed away from the pack. Her only backup is the ditz with the hammer."

Mercury scoffed on the line. Emerald could just make out his form atop the Hall roof. "She won't be missed."

"Disable Qrow at the first opportunity," Cinder ordered. "Kill the rest. They shouldn't give you much trouble without him."

"What about the boy?" Emerald asked, the ghost of concern in her voice. "He's like a toddler."

"Pity doesn't become you, Emerald," Cinder droned, stern behind the mechanical half-monotone. "You can make it quick if it eases your conscience."

Emerald was silent a moment. "Yes ma'am. And you?"

Cinder herself edged along Masayoshi, the cluttered and labyrinthine alleyways simple to hide in. "Off to give the lovely ladies a rude awakening," she answered, slipping her scroll away as she approached the door.

Someone in the living room of 232 might have noticed the deadbolt lock begin to glow red, the surrounding wood hissing as black crept over the grain. There was only a light clatter as the door forced open, the bolt snapping with fiery sparks as Cinder stepped inside, eyes golden and glowing as her smile stretched to match.

"Now, if you would, might we take this inside?" Lionheart asked, doing all he could not to glance to the rooftops.

"What? Why?" Qrow asked. "I'm trying not to make a huge deal out of this. The place is a ghost town, Leo, this is just about our rogue Maiden, right?"

"Yes, but… I left the data in my office."

"You're joking…"

Emerald watched the two slowly bicker. It was such a stupid delay, and the longer Qrow stalled the more this blowhard academic was likely to give them away. She had already stopped directly observing and resorted to slipping her scroll camera over and watching the screen.

Most of the kids were just watching the argument… but the toddler with the black hair… he was looking directly into the camera lens. Then for a heartstopping moment she saw his eyes shift pointedly to the Hall roof, not deviating at all, as though he could see through the wall to the spot where Mercury was lying in wait.

Cinder practically floated through the halls towards the sound of the girls' guttural snoring. She passed one room, glimpsing the rose-pattern rear end of her target pointed at the door, just peeking out from the rest of the bundled up lump.

Good as handled, but it would have to wait a moment. The louder snore came from the adjacent room. The ginger drifter would only take seconds, she thought, magic tinkling in her palm as she summoned a sturdy, blazing pike.

"Merc, I think we've been made," Emerald said, alert.

"What?"

"That kid's here for a reason, he just looked right at both of us; I'm reaching for contingency one."

Mercury growled quietly. "We're supposed to lock them in and make it quiet."

Emerald took another glance at the Huntsmen. The old man was prattling on as Qrow kept probing, looking more apparently nervous. The facade was about to break anyway.

Below, Gohan and Jaune glanced down as something very wrong happened. Out of nowhere, faster than Gohan could see, a man in grey and black had appeared behind Qrow, knifehand prepared to strike his neck.

They didn't hesitate, not even to ask how none of the others had noticed him yet. Gohan charged forward, leg extended to a flying kick, his takeoff enough to blow Jaune under a nearby bench.

"GUARGH!" Qrow belched in surprise as Gohan's foot connected, slamming him with a crack into the huge Hall door, through the mystery man who had vanished as soon as Gohan reached him.

The others cried out in surprise as Qrow slumped painfully to the floor, his Aura flickering, but still stable.

"Why did you do that?!" Oscar cried, backing off the wunderkind.

"Explain yourself!" Ren demanded, pulling Stormflower from his sleeves.

"I-it was a man behind him!" Gohan shouted desperately, utterly confused as he descended upon Qrow. "I'm so sorry! You didn't see?! He was about to atta—"

Mercury took the moment and leapt over the side, leg guns primed as he fell and aimed to put Qrow's lights out. With him down, they would pick the kids off at their leisu—

'*KUCHINK*'

Mercury felt himself slugged in the chest and found himself flying backwards into the wall, tumbling against it before his foot caught a lamp sconce, which broke off as he slid the rest of the way down.

He looked up. Each of the kids in front of him looked surprised to see him, and the sound of the shot echoed across the mountains. He searched the rooftops…

"No…"

Cinder's pike thrust down through the girl's back, the cloth sizzling as she punched through to the mattress.

The snoring continued.

Even as the pike sizzled out of existence, Cinder's eyes shot open. The body didn't buck in surprise. Her Aura didn't burst into shards. The gaping hole she'd just made was filled with cottony white.

"N-No…!" the artificial voice stammered. She tore the covers off. Instead of a body sat a mound of pillows and wadded towels, carefully shaped. She picked up a small speaker set where the head should be, the awful snoring emanating from it. "NO…!"

The speaker shattered against the wall with inhuman force as she strode to the other bedroom, teeth bared as she failed to control her breathing. A gout of fire streamed from her palm as she abandoned subtlety, the sheets, pillows and pajamas curling and writhing as they burned away. The wallpaper curled back, and the adjacent window was deformed as the glass glowed and slithered into folds with gravity. The quiet snoring began to distort and fizzle out. Yet all the while, the hottest fire was that in the Rogue Maiden's eyes.

A ruse… ALL a RUSE!

Her own voice box chirped incoherently as her breathing intensified into heaving gasps, fingers gripping her temples.

At last, the seething rage boiled over, her voice box screeching. The existing fires fountained up to flood the ceiling a split second before the room and hallways were filled in a flash. Outside, the windows strobed before all smashing out, the front door flying off its hinges as the flames engulfed all.

On two buildings across the quad, on the approach from the great elevator, Ruby and Nora emerged from their sniper/mortar positions and honed in on Mercury Black.

"GET SOOOOOOOOOME!" was Nora Valkyrie's war cry as she plugged the sky with arcing heart-tipped grenades, Ruby laying down fire as fast as she could dispense a bolt action… which was to say, very fast.

Gohan helped Qrow out of the way as Mercury leapt out into the quad, immediately put on the defensive as Ren closed in on his flank and Jaune extracted himself from the bench to join in. A series of quick kicks detonated some of Nora's grenades in midair, but he still couldn't afford to stand his ground.

Gohan kept looking to Qrow in fear, even as he split his attention to Mercury. "I'm sorry, I'm really really sor—"

"Kid, you pack a wallop, I'll grant you…" Qrow said, easing himself to his feet, "don't count me out yet though… I just need a sec to get some Aura back… cover me unless they can't handle this thing, alright?"

Gohan looked to the fight. "I could end this really quickly…"

"Yeah," Qrow said, nodding, "but… he said not to escalate this until we had to. Better we keep them guessing till we need to play that ace. Got me?"

Gohan nodded, sticking to his side like glue as they passed Lionheart, who watched everything with evident unease.

Qrow stopped his ungainly gait all at once, turning to the old headmaster. "Leo… I knew my gut was right… but I really wanted to believe it wasn't. You're a bit old for me to pull the disappointed parent routine…"

The man ever so slightly recoiled. "There are a great many things I wish weren't so."

Qrow sighed with contempt as the two made off past him.

Mercury finally found himself cornered as the sniping girls herded him. Ren and Jaune creeped in on him, Ren and Ruby raining shots that he was forced to weave and guard against, but his Aura was chipping away in the process.

He found a moment's reprieve and used it to deliver a roundhouse, firing three silver shots over his immediate foes with a shout and forcing Ruby and Nora to duck over the roof's edge as they collided, smashing tiles which tinkled to the quad below.

A bonus to this was his pursuers had tracked his shot, even if just a glance. He'd punish that moment of weakness. He closed the distance in moments and circled around to Jaune's back. A solid hit to the dork's neck would put him out…

But as he delivered the lethal kick, he found the flat of a gleaming white shield forcing it to glance high. Jaune pressed his advantage, putting both wrists against his shield and shoving Mercury entirely off balance and onto his back.

Mercury rolled backwards to his feet even as the shining blade just missed as it stabbed down at him. He took a moment to look over the blonde bladesman. Hadn't this kid been entirely useless at Beacon? "Huh… alright, at least this won't be boring…"

Ruby readied another volley as Jaune and Ren managed Mercury, only to find something in her scope that made her blood run cold.

Flaming red hair and gold armor adorned a girl with sparkling green eyes, just standing amid the fight and staring up at her.

"Pyrrha?!" she whispered, looking up from the scope. Where the Invincible Girl had stood before, there was nothing. Ruby looked around as distress seeped into her nerves.

Then she saw it. Emerald beside Nora, who was oblivious to the girl's two khopesh readying a deadly slice.

Ruby Rose wheeled around and took the shot, only to find Emerald had vanished as Nora cried out. Struck in the side, her slight form tumbled end over end and off of the roof.

Before she could call after Nora, she heard Gohan shout her own name, just before she felt a boot slam into her back. She slid a few feet before flipping onto her back, a chuckle rising from behind. She turned to face the real Emerald Sustrai. She stood over her, blades twirling in her hands. "You all keep falling for that one… I'm gonna need to change things up."

Oscar stared up as the second of their foes finally reared her head. "Ruby… what should we do?"

"She needs help," Gohan concluded, preparing even as Oscar flashed green.

"No," Ozpin said, putting Oscar's hand out.

"But—!"

"Miss Rose is far from helpless, and she won't crumble so easily. Have a little faith in her, Gohan. You'll know if she needs help."

Ozpin turned instead to find Lionheart, watching the proceedings like a statue. He approached, measuring each step as he handled the retracted cane.

"Boy," Lionheart said, finally tearing his eyes away, "if you know what's good for you, you'll flee this place. You've no idea what's to come…!"

Oscar's eyebrows rose. "Well if I were to guess, I'd imagine our rogue Maiden won't be far behind her cronies. Am I correct, Leo?"

Lionheart's brows knit as he stared into hazel eyes. Eyes not shining with the novelty of youth, but which bore the fatigue of ages.

"It's been a longer time than I intended, old friend," Ozpin expanded. "And another life besides."

"Ozpin…!" Leo hissed, stepping back. "Y-you've already returned!"

"Does my presence alarm you, Leo? Do you intend to fight me?"

Lionheart pressed his eyes shut. "No… I want nothing to do with this."

Ozpin stepped closer still. "But you've everything to do with it, haven't you? Your loyalties were to her at least far enough back as entering those three into my school for the Festival Tournament."

"W-who told you about—?"

"You just did," Ozpin said, no amusement in his tone. "You know far better than most what's at stake, Leo… yet here you are, poised to give Salem a weapon against all mankind. Just what did she promise you…? Or have you become such a coward that you'd put your own life before the very world?"

Lionheart's nostrils flared as he stepped forward. "You are exactly wrong. While you and yours neglected Haven and Shade, Salem wound her fingers into the Mistral Council! I've done everything I could to avoid being replaced as Headmaster, and leave Haven's Huntsmen in the hands of those who care nothing for their lives!"

"And yet we were incapable of finding almost any of them," Ozpin retorted bitterly. "I appreciate your position, Leo… but be it by your action or inaction, students were killed at Beacon. Your own Pyrrha Nikos among them."

Lionheart's eyes squeezed shut. "Thus, always the young… Ozpin, she's had the power to bring Mistral to its knees for a great long while. The promise of the Relic of Knowledge is the only safeguard."

"Then you've betrayed us all for borrowed time."

"...It is not ours to say who lives and who dies," Leonardo said quietly. "I'll not put even a Relic before the lives of our people, Ozpin. I'm so steeped in blood… but I'll not drown in it. I'm sorry. I must keep my end… but I was never expected to fight either."

Ozpin sighed. "Very well… stay out of our way then. But if I think you a threat… I won't hesitate."

Lionheart stood utterly still, eyes locked with Oscar's. Ultimately, he took a breath, closed his eyes and stepped into the Hall. The doors closed, though not before something pitch black slipped through. Qrow alone took notice, eyes narrowed.

Ruby and Emerald crossed blades, the older woman surprisingly effective as her khopesh deflected the huge scythe's cleaving blade.

Emerald found an opening and kicked Ruby square in the chest. She somersaulted back onto her feet, but no sooner had she recovered than both bladed ends of Emerald's weapons shot out on a length of chain and caught either end of Crescent Rose. Ruby held fast to its middle, pulling back as Emerald slowly retracted the chains.

"And Cinder trained to face you again. Eyes or no eyes, kid, you're— URK!" Emerald grunted as Ruby came close enough, ceased tugging and shoved the broad shaft into her nose.

Freed, Ruby capitalized on this and poked the scythe's pike-end into her gut, whirling with the heavy blunt side and smashing Emerald off her feet to skid near the roof's edge.

Emerald growled as she saw Ruby resume her combat stance. "Alright, red, you asked for it…"

Before Ruby's very eyes, Emerald vanished from sight, and in the corner of her eye she saw Mercury preparing a high kick. Crescent Rose reported as she fired a shot… which passed through as Mercury faded away.

Only then did she feel chains wrap around her, pinning her limbs together as she felt Emerald grab her around the waist from behind, and an arm across her neck.

"Get comfortable, combat boots," Emerald said, before retracting the chains a bit and tightening her grip. "Not too comfortable though… Cinder's got plans for you."

"It was you…" Ruby whispered, her memory stirring.

Emerald's smile faltered. "...What?"

Ruby recalled the Vytal Tournament. She could see it even now. Yang attacking Mercury and being so confused… Velvet talking about Coco seeing Yatsuhashi when he'd already been eliminated. And then Pyrrha attacked by mistake. They'd never gotten the chance to ask what she'd seen.

"I wasn't sure how before," Ruby said, shaking with anger, "but it was you…! YOU tricked Pyrrha into seeing something that wasn't there…"

She couldn't help it, she started to shake, her teeth baring as her eyes stung. "You killed Penny! YOU KILLED HER!"

Emerald staggered forward as the girl she was restraining exploded into rose petals and the enormous scythe blade raked up her back. She whirled around as her Aura flickered. Ruby's eyes were aflame as she brought the blade down again in a chop. Crossing her own blades high, Emerald managed to catch one of the serrations and stop it flat. They strained against each other.

"W-who—?"

Ruby froze at the question. Her arms weakened and her eyes widened for only a second before she slammed down with twice the force, leaving Emerald to groan as she fought back.

"PENNY POLENDINA!" Ruby shrieked, as Crescent Rose's head snapped straight back into war-scythe mode, lowering the barrel's angle to level with Emerald's wide-eyed face.

'*KUCHINK*'

Emerald was blasted back as the shot hit her full force, but Ruby whirled in a petalburst right on top of her as they dueled upon the rooftops.

"She was my friend!" Ruby cried, spinning her scythe as Emerald's revolvers fired shot after shot. "She was a harmless, beautiful soul that only ever wanted to know people!"

Emerald retaliated, firing the blade out along its chain. But Ruby dove right, slipping off the roof. The bronzed woman was only confused a moment as the tip of Crescent Rose caught the roof's edge, and the silver-eyed girl springboarded skyward as the scythe head sprung inward to its blaster configuration.

At the crest of her leap, Ruby fired the high power shot down at Emerald, who was blasted off her feet as roof tiles clinked and clattered everywhere. A great deal of dust half-shrouded Emerald as Ruby transformed her scythe again, firing a shot behind to put her into an interception course, even as she became a living buzzsaw.

Ruby hit with an explosion of petals, blasting the dust away as her scythe speared the rooftop inches to the left of a pale, freckled face and bobbing orange hair.

"Oh!" Penny said with a smile. "Is this who you mean?"

Two revolver blasts struck Ruby at once, knocking her back, Crescent Rose still embedded in the roof.

Emerald's appearance melded back into herself, frowning as she stepped between Ruby and her weapon. "Really, kid? The wind-up girl? Of all we got up to at Beacon, you're upset we broke your toy?"

Ruby got to her feet, the burn in her eyes so close to betraying her to tears. "Shut up…"

"You get she was just a robot, right? Cinder could've used a real person, y'know. That was a mercy."

"No…!" Ruby growled. "It was murder… Penny generated an Aura, she had a soul, and you killed her…"

Emerald sighed, twirling a khopesh in her right hand as she set the other upon Crescent Rose. "Not like you'll get the chance anyway, but part of growing up is to stop playing with dolls…" She pried the scythe out of the roof, examining it a moment. "Or gaudy toys like this…"

Emerald barely exerted effort as she tossed the scythe off the roof, turning her attention back to Ruby.

...And was oblivious as it was returned to Ruby just as casually, lobbed from below and into her hands.

"Wha—?"

A jet-like noise heralded Nora Valkyrie riding Magnhilde's rocket-powered head over the ledge, delivering a sidelong swing to Emerald's middle and punting her off the other side of the slender building's roof.

"Ha!" Nora barked. "See how you like it!"

Emerald recovered, firing both chain blades out to catch the edge of the roof, retracting to race back. She swung up to sprint against the wall as the Huntresses looked over the ledge to meet her. But as she swung overhead, Emerald vanished before their eyes.

They glanced into the air for her, seeing nothing until the sound of clattering tile and a mote of dust struck several feet off.

"There!"

The pair rained shots as they stood sentinel, backs to the proverbial wall, only stopping when they realized Emerald had vanished more completely still.

Ruby leaned in to Nora's ear. "Check your shots… Her semblance can make you see things… she's gonna keep trying to make us hurt each other."

"That's not all I can do," Emerald's voice said from Ruby's left.

Both twisted around, Crescent Rose slashing to strike air. By chance, Ruby caught a glimpse of Nora behind her, to see her with blades crossed over her throat, and Emerald wrestling to work through the flashing pink Aura. Ruby stood helpless as Nora tried to wedge the staff-end of her hammer between the cutting edges.

Then Nora had a bolt of inspiration, and reached for the switch to Magnhilde's upgrade.

She had only used it on a single occasion, but Nora had upgraded Magnhilde to house a Dust-based battery. When activated, it delivered enough juice to kickstart her semblance without waiting for a convenient external source of electricity. For her it was a quick boost.

For anyone else, it was a taser.

"Urgghh…!" Emerald groaned as her grip slackened just enough for Nora to jab her in the gut with the hammer's handle, and the curtain-haired woman stumbled backwards. Full of newfound strength, crackling with pink electricity, she twisted and swung to barely miss Emerald as she bent her gut out of the way. Cinder's servant leapt back as the next blow aimed to smash her overhead like the anvil of a carnival attraction. Tile splintered as a portion of the roof gave way, a sinkhole gaping in their battlefield as if a car had fallen from the sky.

Ruby raced to her side as they squared off again. "Are you alright?!"

Nora nodded. "Oh, you know… almost cut through my Aura, life flashed before my eyes… no big… Kinda want that to not happen again, so… ideas?"

"Maybe…" Ruby said, contemplating, not taking her eyes off Emerald. "Before what she did to Penny, her eyes were locked into the fight… so maybe she needs to see you to put visions in your head?"

"It's worth a shot… So what does that do for us?"

Ruby chambered a round. "We get on both sides of her, keep her busy, but only attack when her back's to you."

"Huddle's over, kiddies," Emerald declared, leaping the gap and blasting her chained blades at each of them, which in their eyes ballooned to the size of ship anchors. The pair leapt apart as the blades embedded into the tile with infinitesimal force compared to their appearance. Emerald retracted the chains to pull herself to them faster than gravity, wrenching the blades from the tile and twisting to rush Nora, whose eyes flashed with confusion as she glanced through her attacker as if she couldn't see her.

But Ruby's eyes were unclouded. She became a whirl of red as she caught up and belted Emerald in the temple with the broad of her scythe.

Emerald staggered, put off her attack completely as she twisted to face Ruby, Nora shaking off her own vision as the girl with the silver eyes backed off her own nightmare. Dozens of Emerald Sustrais swarmed her as she whirled Crescent Rose defensively before her like a propeller.

Before the wave crashed against her, a blast of pink smoke struck one of the Emeralds in the back as the others became fuzzy blotches before her eyes. Nora stood strong, grenade launcher in hand behind Emerald as she tried to keep herself from falling flat on her own face.

She landed upon the length of the huge scythe's blade as its owner caught her bodily, zipping the razor edge across her Aura even as the force juggled her into the air like a video game. This setup left Nora with the perfect pitch for a baseball swing, cracking into Emerald and leaving a trench in the roof tiling as she swept across it, fit to fall off Haven entirely.

But even as she neared the edge, she was suddenly ensconced in a freakish growth of ice which arrested her movement completely.

"What…?" Nora asked, before Ruby noticed the floor beneath the girl sizzle and glow. A familiar noise accompanied it, like a distant and unearthly scream.

Ruby had no chance to warn Nora before she was blasted off into the quad below, a chunk of the building toppling with her. Ruby herself was thrown from her feet and made to gaze skyward… as Cinder Fall descended before her on handfuls of spewing flame.

She landed nearer to Emerald, casually waving a hand as the ice melted around her in an instant. The thing around Cinder's neck glowed with each word she didn't speak, distorting as her pitch wobbled at random. "SEcUre QROw. NOW."

Emerald took one last look at Ruby, —even as she staggered to her feet and changed magazines— with a fearful expression the girl hadn't seen before. Pity? "Yes ma'am."

Emerald leapt from the stage of battle as Cinder turned to face her at last. Cinder was far different from that fateful night at Beacon. The odd thing speaking for her, the left side of her womanly face hidden by her shorter hair to neatly obscure the black mask covering it. Her amber eyes were wide with fury, lips razor thin as her nostrils swelled with her intense breathing. But in a few moments, Ruby could feel what was coming next as Cinder's chest expanded to its greatest degree yet.

Crescent Rose reported as Ruby fired the ice round she'd prepared within microseconds of the inevitable fire blast directed her way.

It had mostly worked, a cloud of frosty, orange-lit mist marking the centerpoint… but Cinder wasn't to be outdone. A flaming gout pierced the cloud as the blast's momentum carried through. She was thrown off her feet with a yelp by the sweltering force, falling into the sinkhole they'd created earlier and onto her back.

She barely started to recover as she heard the woman drop down beside her. "Your deCoY... You THOuGht tHAt WaS EnoUgh to geT rid OF Me?!"

"W-we didn't know it was y—"

Cinder grabbed her by the neck with her sleeved left hand, hoisting her up even as she kept a grip on Crescent Rose. Its strength was freakish, the grip inhuman. "WHO eLsE wOUlD Yearn TO see You suffEr?! AFTeR all yOU dID to me?!" she warbled. "I WaS aT thE PEak of MY sTrengtH… I WaS BeAUTIfUl… I'd WOn! I was eVeryTHing THEY said i'D nEVeR Be!"

Ruby grunted as she was thrown back down. Cinder's other hand scorched with flame, and Ruby had only a split second to pull the trigger as the fist came down.

Ruby felt a number of things in the next few moments. The sting of ice as the dust round struck below her and she was encased. The smash as the ice and wooden structures around her gave way. The nausea of unexpected gravity as both fighters fell through into the dim, warm light.

She struck lacquered oak as she landed in a heap, the wind nearly knocked out of her. She scrambled to her feet as Cinder landed with considerably more grace. Scarcely able to glance, she could see they landed in the pit of a great tiered lecture hall.

"I… don't know what I did…!" Ruby shot back, raising her scythe defensively. "But I remember what you did…!" she growled. Pyrrha had faced her without fear…

Cinder's fury was slowly beset by amusement. She had wanted this for so long. Her voice box normalized slightly. "You don't remember? Fine…*skkkkk…* No one will remember you either… Even so…"

Cinder raised her hand, and the light streaming in from the huge windows began to distort. One quick glance and Ruby could see the glass glow orange and turn molten, globs separating in midair and spinning into hundreds of needle-like spikes

Ruby vanished in a blast of petals and barely threw herself behind the first tier of desks as the glass bits descended upon her in a storm, glancing and tinkling as they embedded or shattered themselves against the hardwood.

It couldn't last though, as even the bits that shattered simply doubled back to pursue her from a different angle, like a swarm of hornets. Ruby reached over to take a shot, but Cinder's palm reached out to negate it outright, barely gesturing as a swath of fire swept through the tier to flush her out.

Ruby vaulted over to the next tier, even firing a retaliatory shot before she ducked out of sight. Cinder recoiled in annoyance as ice crystallized over her arm, a single flex breaking it free as she returned attention to raining the last of the glass down upon the redhead's hiding place.

Cinder waited to hear screams, simpering, but received only silence. She hadn't killed her already? That would make dealing with Qrow inconvenient. All the same…

Her voice box screeched with interference before she spoke, her glass shoes clinking loudly through the lecture hall as she ascended the steps. "YOu RemembeR WHaT I DID? I can only assume you mean Nikos." The winds from the chasm whistled in the newly bare windows. She let flames dance across her fingers as she approached. "But she WASN't on MY liST, GiRL. I HAD tHE cHAnce To kiLl hEr anD HeR LiTTlE FRIenD. I let them pass... *skrrrrrrr*... NIkOs cAME LOOKING For TROublE. Started a fight she didn't have a PRAYER of winning. NiKOS thReW heR LIfe aWAy… aND WOrse, she died in VAIN..."

She strafed the last step, flame in hand, only to find an aisle glistening with embedded glass. The girl was gone.

"SHUT...UP!"

A dozen yards up, Cinder barely got a glimpse as Ruby Rose leapt onto the desk at the highest tier near the exit doors. Her scythe was in its rifle mode, muzzle buzzing with overcharged energy.

'*ZOT!*'

The Rogue Maiden took the blast in the chest and found herself less slammed into the adjacent wall as embedded, the wood creaking and buckling. The second shot struck her before she could even recover, blasting her the rest of the way through and into the chasm.

Ruby huffed, taking the opportunity to go for the nearby exit. She fumbled with the handle. Locked. But the best key was also a gun—

"AGH!" she shrieked, a blistering heat striking her in the back. The door burst through as she was thrown against it, riding it into the hall.

"You're fast, Rose," Cinder said. Ruby flipped onto her back to see the Maiden standing in the vacant window casing. "But not like that night. I've prepared though...! I'm ready, so let's see the fire in those eyes! Spread those wings! Rise To your HeiGhTS so I CaN caSt you bacK DOwn!"

"Wings…?"

Cinder wheeled her arms back, power coursing through her as she readied her attack. Ruby barely got to her feet in time, wedging the scythe's bladed pike under the flattened door and flipping it upright as a laser-like ray of heat careened towards her.

Ruby barely put her arms up as the door exploded back at her, tossing her painfully aside. The beam punched through the adjacent door in the hall, and the crimsonette hobbled just far enough away to be thrown down the corridor by the concussion and not the incinerating flames as the struck room exploded.

Crescent Rose skittered over the lacquered floor in front of her, her ears ringing. She barely heard the clack of heels as a figure sauntered through the flames towards her.

Qrow, Oscar and Gohan found their attention snapped to the building Ruby and Nora had chosen for a perch, as several windows on both floors burst out in a shower of flame and glass. Nora herself was groggily rising from the grass below.

Qrow blinked. "Whoa… what happened?"

"Ruby's in there!" Gohan noted, his senses in overdrive.

"You're certain?" Ozpin asked, hands wringing over the handle of his cane.

"Yeah, she's…" But Gohan noticed he couldn't feel Emerald anywhere in, on, or around the building. Instead her energy was sprinting just before them, headed directly for— "Qrow, watch it!"

"Wha…?!" the Huntsman uttered, turning just in time to see Gohan's palm extend, and paradoxically witness the effect of some invisible force pulse before him and seemingly force Emerald Sustrai to manifest before them, tumbling in from the aether.

"Oggh…!" she groaned, clutching her gut, pupils like pin pricks.

Qrow and Ozpin stood on their guard, looking to each other as the gears wound.

"Hey, if she's here…"

"Then who is Ruby fighting?"

Emerald coughed. "Heh...hehe… take a guess!" Emerald's kneeling form flickered out as Qrow reacted to her attack before she had even made it, back on her feet and locking blades with the grizzled Huntsman.

Qrow turned to Gohan, face pale. "Gohan…! Whatever you've gotta do… keep Ruby safe!"

Gohan saw the fear in his eyes and hesitated, but steeled himself and nodded. "Yes si—"

"GO!"

Ruby had no sooner reached for her weapon than the glass heel came down to pin her hand.

"Nnng!" She winced, willing herself to petalburst, but Cinder's strength was immense. She reached with her left instead, but was punished for it with a smashing kick to the ribs… and then another… and then a stomp to her gut, until her crimson Aura sputtered out and died.

Ruby belched a lungful of air from the force, her entire belly numb with the shock of repeated impacts.

"No no no…" Cinder told her. "You're going to suffer for what you did… Like I suffered… STUPID little girl… You won't give me the fight I want? FINE… We'll just take a minute before going to see dear Qrow."

"H-how dare you," Ruby groaned, reaching again, "talk to me about what you suffered—! Goghh!"

Cinder grabbed her by the wrist, stamping heel digging into her shoulder blades as she pulled her arm taut. Cinder's other hand choked up on her forearm. "I think we'll start with what you did to my arm," she explained, as Ruby felt oddly fanglike nails digging into her skin.

Ruby's eyes searched up to find Cinder's, alight with defiance. "I'm not afraid of you…!"

The woman with her golden eye stared, before cracking a humorless grin. "Then you're a fool."

Cinder redoubled her grip, and pulled the joint of Ruby's left arm from its socket with a sickening 'pop.'

"NNNGKK!" Ruby cried, her teeth slamming unconsciously together before her mouth parted in an otherwise silent howl of pain. Her favored arm felt undone, every bit of muscle roared with a radiating pain unlike anything she'd ever felt before as it was pulled beyond its limits. Even Cinder limply dropping it was agony. She couldn't think to fight back the tears rolling down her face, to deny Cinder her satisfaction. It was beyond bearing. The fact that she wasn't screaming was incredible enough, in whatever corner of her mind remained to appreciate it apart from the pain.

"No… no, that's not GOOD enough!" Cinder cried, her foot scooping under Ruby's stomach and flipping her like a flapjack. She couldn't even stare up at Cinder, her vision too obscured by her tears and the anguish that wrought them. "I've waited too long, worked too hard not to hear you scream!"

Cinder turned to find a display case, and with nary a thought, a piece of the polished glass turned molten, stretching and solidifying into a foot-length needle. She plucked it from the air. "But don't worry too much. You're worth more to me ALIVE for now… but you'll wish you weren't."

Ruby felt Cinder's weight on her as she knelt down, pinning her good arm to the floor and holding the needle high. "Callows is a psychopath, a rabid dog, but he got one thing right… I think I should make our eyes MATCH, don't you?"

Ruby saw the tip and winced, and knew Cinder meant for her to cower. Still, she couldn't help twisting her head to keep out of its path.

"No need to peak your pain threshold so soon though… We'll save that."

The tip drifted away, lower… She felt the point on her shoulder, just above her collarbone. Cinder gave her a chilling grin.

The pressure mounted, a searing sting that only throbbed worse and worse. She grit her teeth, but couldn't suppress a whimper, her arm still a deadweight of anguish. Cinder let out a breath of laughter with her true voice.

"AAAAGGHHHH!"

Ruby screamed, against her will… No, will didn't enter into it. She wailed and flailed unconsciously as the hot, throbbing spire of pain punctured skin and muscle. She could feel it vibrate as the tip scraped the floor underneath. Cinder had punched clear through.

Then the heat she felt before was replaced as she heard a sizzling the instant before her surroundings nerves shrieked. She could just glimpse the glass spike which had begun to glow orange in Cinder's grasp…

"RUBY!" shouted a voice at the end of the hall.

A noise like a jet flyby barely aroused the Maiden's attention before she was kicked off and put a crater in the ceiling, bouncing off and skipping across the hall before landing at the opposite wall, still shrouded in billowing smoke from the blasted lecture hall.

Ruby looked up to see pure rage in Gohan's eyes as he glared at the spot where Cinder vanished. As comforted as she was to see him, Ruby still felt ice run down her back. She had never seen him like this. Angered certainly, but never this.

"A-ah…!" She winced as she tried to move, but any twitch of her shoulder tripled the actually searing pain. "Gohan…!"

The hate in his eyes vanished, and the gentle child returned at once, hands hovering over her as he stared at the fresh wound. "Oh no, what do I…?! How can—?!"

Even in her pain, she couldn't help her heart bursting. Gohan had been so tough and strong despite his years… but here, scared and uncertain how to help, he definitely was a child. "Bring… sssss!" she hissed, once more invoking accidental agony. "B-bring me… t-t-to Ozpin! Under my right—"

But both had failed to notice as a blazing heatray engulfed the hall on its way to the child, who cried out as he was carried by the force until it struck the far wall.

"GOHAN!" Ruby could only shrink away as an incomparable blaze filled her vision and buffeted her against the side wall. It was so bright she couldn't see, but she heard the creak of splintering wood and a cacophony of glass. She felt an awful shudder and then weightlessness before slamming back into the floor and sliding headfirst into a differently angled surface. She'd have sworn the whistling flames were still upon her, but when she finally opened her eyes she found the Sun and sky bright above.

Her surroundings had been transformed. Cinder's blast had all but flattened this half of the building, tearing the roof off and collapsing the hall into the floor below to leave Ruby sliding down a ramp into smoldering debris. A bomb may well have gone off. And adjacent to this was a smoking hole in the second floor of the opposite building, the roof looking as though a massive crowbar had entered the second story window and some godlike being had given a hard pull from above.

She watched with terror in her eyes as Gohan limply fell from the hole with a groan to the grass below.

"The CHILD?!" Cinder demanded, already at the edge of what remained of the second floor. "Wait… no…" She said, a smile creeping over her. "You're not a little BOY at all, are you, Spring?"

Ruby saw Cinder's left arm raise under the absurd sleeve, wreathed in inky black smoke. In that moment, adrenaline got the better of the pain, and she rolled onto her feet. Good arm grabbing the discarded Crescent Rose, she raised it in warding, scrambling to stand between her and the boy. "S-stay away from him!"

"You want MORE?" Cinder asked, her hand twitching. "Wait your tur—"

'*PING!*'

The odd sound hit them from above, echoing across the mountains. Ruby was certain she'd heard it before. Even Cinder's attention was drawn to it, as her eyes tilted up.

"THIS IS THE MISTRAL POLICE FORCE! THROW DOWN YOUR WEAPONS AND…"

But the rest was lost in a mumble as Cinder all but vanished as something stark, burning white and colossal landed atop her like a bomb. Yet more of the upper floor smashed down into the bottom with it. Ruby fought to make out just what she was looking at. A huge figure, crouched from the landing, sword in hand with its fist planted into the floor where Cinder had been. A giant, in gleaming armor, wordless in its vigil.

Ruby collapsed to her knees, the pain in her shoulder overcoming her curiosity, even as something landed softly in the grass nearby with a shimmering noise.

"Ruby?!" The voice… Something stirred in Ruby Rose as feet clattered towards her. Suddenly a hand was gently on her back, investigating before there was a gasp. "Oh my god…!"

She knew she had to be delirious from the pain… it couldn't be. "Weiss…?"

Emerald Sustrai was sweating. Qrow himself was difficult enough to keep in a holding pattern with hit and run tactics, but the kid with the sun-kissed skin and orange suspenders was bizarrely good, and kept tagging her with his damn nightstick. In short, she knew the older Huntsman was too much for her alone.

Qrow himself growled as he suddenly found himself on a crumbling sandstone cliff. He shut his eyes and thrust his blade at the sound to his left. When he opened them again he was back in the Haven quad, and Emerald was on her knees, ducked into a home-run slide to escape his attack and breathing heavily in surprise.

"You're gettin' predictable, kid," Qrow remarked. "A semblance like that, and with a few exceptions you've mostly stuck to blinding me one way or another to sneak in a hit. Pretty wasted on an otherwise talented fighter."

"I don't need your advice, old man!" Emerald spat.

Qrow's expression soured further. "Nah, we're clear past that, aren't we?"

She barely rolled out of the way as he fired both shot barrels, rising to her feet just in time to parry another blow from the farm boy and back off right beside Mercury.

"I'm dying out here, Merc!" she said quietly as they both faced their own foes. "You done messing around yet?!"

Mercury shook his head with a sigh. "Can't land a decisive hit," he admitted. "Pink-streaks is slippery, and the Second-Coming of Blondie over there can take a hit and just shrug it off."

'*PING!*'

Both of them looked up.

"Oh, great…!"

"THIS IS THE MISTRAL POLICE FORCE! THROW DOWN YOUR WEAPONS AND SUBMIT IMMEDIATELY!"

While most of the airships circled, two of them dropped a small payload of human beings, and three males landed with them in the quad. The first was dark skinned, tattooed with a ragged spike of green hair. The second was pale, loosely wearing a gold-trimmed red jacket, hair of the same shade sleekly combed over and trailing down one side of his head.

"Better late than never," Jaune muttered, keeping one eye on the deadly pair.

"Who are they again?" Ren asked, using the pause to switch magazines.

Lastly was a tan youth in red and black, a shock of blue hair somewhat pinned up by his yellow goggles. "Team SSSN, not to be outdone! So what'd we miss?"

"You jokers sure took your sweet time!" Qrow called out.

Neptune Vasilias shrugged in offense as his trident unfolded. "Hey, we made the tip-off just like you said! We can't be held responsible for police response times! Abysmal…"

"And in such an upper-class neighborhood as well," Scarlet tutted, thumb twirling his flintlock.

Mercury sighed as he stared over the steepening odds. "We done with the high school reunion? Because I'm all too eager to kick your faces in."

"Feeling's mutual!" Neptune postured. "Nobody messes with our alma mater!"

Ren glanced over with evident annoyance. "It's only an alma mater if you're not currently attending it."

"Pshh!" Neptune intoned. "It's called summer break, man. They don't have that where you come from?"

"That is not what it m…!" Ren argued. "I AM from here!"

Emerald's expression soured further. "This is seriously my life right now…"

"Shush!" she ordered. "I need to take care of this! The cold should numb the pain a little."

There was more of that shimmering sound as Ruby felt ice lightly encase her shoulder. She winced as a hand gripped the glass needle from the front, the other hand against her stomach to settle her weight into her rescuer's.

"Okay, on three…! One…!"

A searing pain racked Ruby as the glass needle was pulled from her all at once. "AGHHHHH! Owwwwwwwwwwww...!"

Ruby was gripped tight as she squirmed in pain, fresh tears rolling as the red-smeared glass was tossed aside. "I'm sorry! I'm sorry… You absolute DOLT! What are you doing in this place, fighting all alone?! Do you know what could have happened to you?!"

Once Ruby had stopped writhing, the voice's owner stepped around to her front, pale legs beneath a smoky-amethyst dress. She knelt to Ruby's level, and silver eyes stared into icy blue, her usual annoyance belied by a lip that couldn't stay still. "What if you'd died?! What am I supposed to do...?!"

Ruby winced as, almost out of nowhere, Weiss Schnee pulled her into a hug, chin resting on her good shoulder. "...What am I supposed to do without my best friend…?" she muttered, voice breaking. "You idiot...!" She sniffed, sitting a while.

"...I-I missed you too, Weiss…" Ruby replied with a smile even as her heart brimmed and her eyes blurred, willing her partner not to twist her shoulder wrong as she tried to even comprehend how she was here.

With a noise of whistling air, another figure landed nearby, and Ruby heard a gruff voice growl. "Okay, don't embarrass me!" he admonished. "I didn't come here for the sentimental downpour… She's not fully fit yet, take care of it."

"...Yes sir," Weiss sighed. "Come on, Ruby."

They both got up, Weiss supporting her, and Ruby finally turned to see this new man. Clad in an oddly familiar sort of jumpsuit and armor, he wasn't all that tall. His hair rose in a great ragged spike, eyes sharp, features harsh. He walked directly towards Gohan.

"Huh, I thought that energy felt familiar," he said, "but I still didn't expect we'd actually track down Kakarot's kid."

"His kid?" Weiss asked, suddenly taking an acute interest in the boy.

"Caca… wuh…?" Ruby wondered.

Weiss rolled her eyes. "Oh, don't get him started on this 'Kakarot' person, trust m—"

"GRAAAAGHH!" came the screech from the shifting rubble, before the gleaming white giant was split with a sweltering force, and evaporated as Cinder Fall blasted up out of the rubble, staring around for her next victim, a tear of flame trailing from her eye. "Bring whoever you like, girl, you only bind their fate with your own!"

"What a disgrace!" Vegeta cried out suddenly, drawing Cinder's gaze. The man's back was turned to her entirely, instead addressing Gohan, who steadily got to his feet. "All of three beings of Saiyan blood left in the Universe, and you sully that distinction against this embarrassment?"

He officially had Cinder's full attention as he hooked a thumb over his shoulder to indicate her.

"V-Vegeta…?!" Gohan answered, staring at him like he was a phantom. "N-no! You don't understand, she has this magic that—"

Vegeta huffed, turning to face Cinder. "Pathetic! You expect to make any headway against Frieza, making excuses in the face of a woman sworn to vengeance against some feeble girl?" Vegeta locked eyes with Ruby, who could only frown awkwardly being so passingly addressed.

'Vegeta'... she recognized that name…

"Look at her! Not power enough to spook a Saibaman! To take that for a rival paints a dismal picture."

Cinder said nothing, instead letting her palms shine at her side with crimson power.

Vegeta finally turned to face her with a smirk. "Oh! Have I sufficiently offended you, trollop? Hmph! Take it out on me if you dare… I'll give you the first shot."

Cinder's power only built, the air around her spiraling as the glow in her fists vibrated. "Right…" she whispered dangerously.

"Vegeta, seriously, raise your power! Don't—!" Gohan began again, before his hand was taken by Weiss, who ushered all of them well out of the way.

"If you know him at all, you know his mind's made up!" Weiss told him.

Lightning struck at points on the damaged building around them as Vegeta laughed. "That's it, don't hold anything back! We wouldn't want your passing marred by any further regrets!"

Cinder finally brought her hands together, adjoining the two swirling powers as the Saiyan Prince eagerly rooted himself with a combat stance. "Do it!"

"Whoa whoa whoa!" came an annoyed voice racing around the rubble. Nora Valkyrie stared at the situation as she found herself across from no-man's land. "What the heckin' hey is happening here?!"

"Nora, get back!" Ruby called.

Haven itself shook as both Cinder's true and artificial voices roared, and a blinding flash signified the release of an earth-splitting torrent of raw red power. Nora screamed girlishly as she was blown back from the chaos and tumbled backwards over the grass.

Vegeta watched it, a manic grin plastered across his visage as he welcomed the coming blow. Lording himself over the weak wasn't his preferred pastime, but he could never deny his own amusement whenever they finally realized what they were up against.

The attack took an instant to reach him, but for the Prince himself, he knew he could have evaded it three times over. Instead, he let the power wash over him. Even at this minimal output, the Remnant humans hadn't come close to injuring him bef—

"AAAAAAAAAAARGGHHH!"

It was as though Vegeta had been hit by an oncoming train. To any of his onlookers, the Saiyan had vanished amidst the blinding light. The blast carried past him as though he weren't even there, practically hollowing out the smoking building as it burned through. A far courtyard hundreds of yards away erupted with a brilliant scarlet nova as the blast reached its limit, and what remained of the structure was collapsed and strewn along the path of annihilation.

The standoff was stirred as the blast flattened the building as a whole.

Neptune blanched. "Holy…!"

"Ruby…" Qrow breathed.

"The others!" Jaune cried.

Emerald grinned. When one door closes…

The chained blades shot out to grab a nearby bench and wrench it off the concrete, swinging it around and into the three newcomers.

"VEGETA!" Weiss shouted, surprising even herself.

Gohan stared in shock. "Oh NO!"

"CAN PEOPLE QUIT TRYING TO BLOW ME UP?!" Nora demanded from her spot several yards off.

Above them, the police airships were no less distressed. "DEADLY FORCE AUTHORIZED; FIRE AT WILL, REPEAT, FIRE AT WILL!" the PA speakers blared before a hail of gunfire rained down upon Cinder Fall's position, drawing her attention as a force before her palm just seemed to cancel every shot that reached her.

With but a swipe of her hand, the sky appeared to darken as a swirl of wind and clouds manifested. The canyon crackled with energy as lightning split the air with a roar, striking every airship repeatedly within seconds.

The first's sails were ripped apart and set alight, limping off with a mournful siren. A second was left dead in the air as the arcing bolts found the propeller turbine and shorted the engines, leaving it doomed as the third drifted directly into them, belching fire from its aft end as a strike found the vessel's fuel cells.

Both ships ground against each other creaking and twisting until a great silent spark erupted into an all encompassing fireball, the noise only reaching them a split second later in a blast of wind.

Cinder admired her work as embers rained down, and it was hard for the other fighters to miss either. The PA of the surviving ships shrieked indecipherable orders as they shrank off. She turned back to her prey.

They were gone.

She gave a growl. "Can't chase a hunch with all of Mistral breathing down my neck… Better go straight to the source." She looked across the crowded battlefield. Sure enough, she found the grey Huntsman across the quad.

Gohan kept pace as Ruby dragged Weiss and Nora through the air in a whirl —despite her injury— through the various courtyards of Haven. They sailed past the full-size bonsai-like trees to follow the flaming swath of destruction Cinder carved out. But at last, Ruby slowed with a wince. "H-hold it! Argh…!"

They came to an awkward stop in the shade of an awning as Ruby slumped against the wall.

"What's wrong?!" Gohan asked, eyes frantic with concern.

"Seriously, what did I miss…?" Nora wondered, looking lost. "Where did you come from?"

"We can play twenty-questions later! ...It's like Vegeta said," Weiss told him, looking over every inch of her partner for signs, "she's not entirely fine. Where does it hurt?"

"W-wait…!" Ruby groaned. "Those airships…! We need to reach the surviv—"

She stopped, feeling Gohan's hand on her good shoulder. He was staring out into the sky, at the dregs of flaming wreckage. His intense stare softened sadly. His eyes found hers, and he shook his head.

Ruby sagged. Then she shook, stiffening. "It's always just the people in her way…"

Weiss put a finger under Ruby's chin and lifted it up. "Ruby, focus. We can't help them, and you can't help anyone until you let us help you. So… where does it hurt?"

"...S-she pulled my arm out…" Ruby groaned, indicating her left. "It's still…"

"It's dislocated," Weiss assessed with a sympathetic sigh, gently guiding the redhead to a crouch and pivoting to behind her. "Ruby, I need you to try relaxing as much as you can."

She obeyed, and Weiss let her lean back a few degrees. "Nora… er… Kakarot's so—?"

"Ya' stepped in what…?" Nora whispered.

"My Dad's name is 'Goku,' " the boy corrected flatly.

"I… Sure. I need both of you to help me keep her still."

Faces brimming with apology, they flanked Ruby from either side in a sort of lopsided hug. Weiss reached around her and tried to get the firmest grip of her upper arm as delicately as possible. "Ruby… this is going to hur—"

"I-I've seen movies, Weiss," Ruby told her, not clarifying.

"Okay… on three…"

"I'm not falling for that again."

Weiss closed her eyes, allowing herself a humored sigh. "You asked for it… Okay…"

There was a pause as she took a breath. "HMPH!"

"AUGHHH!" Ruby shrieked over the dense sound as cartilage protested. Her eyes slammed shut, and she took heavy breaths, two beady drops rolling down her face.

"Okay…!" Weiss sighed, this time with relief in her voice. "We're done. Your Aura should take care of the rest. Can you move it?"

The red reaper took a moment as she let her eyes open, gingerly pointing her elbow in widening circles until she gave her whole shoulder a good shake. "Thank you…"

"Hmm," Weiss offered with a nod, before getting up and immediately returning to their task. The others had to sprint a moment to catch her. "So what in the world are you doing here, and why… no, how do you know Kakaro— know Goku's son?"

Ruby gave an animated shrug —savoring the fact she could do that now— "He just flashed in front of us someplace! Dragon-whatsits or whatever!"

"That… mostly matches my experience?" Weiss said. "But why are you HERE? I escaped my family to find Winter and the rest of you!"

"And Vegeta just came with you?!" Gohan asked, looking astonished.

"Your guess is as good as mine, kid!" Weiss admitted, ducking a particularly low tree branch. "But I'm only here because the police came bothering the Atlesian Embassy for help, talking about an emergency situation up at Haven with too few Huntsmen to spare! We were trying to see if Winter had avoided the recall order."

"And… VEGETA agreed to come help?" Gohan said, again flabbergasted.

"I think he was bored?" she admitted. "You still haven't said what this is about! How could that woman just floor VEGETA like that?! Wasn't she at Beacon?! I watched him rip up a town square!"

"Weiss, I'd like to answer all of that, but there's really REALLY no time to explain!" Ruby told her as they rounded another corner.

"Short version?" Nora began. "Magic's real, Cinder's a sorceress, she works for the Grimm Devil… bee-tee-dubz, there's a Grimm Devil… she wants four magic thingies hidden under the schools, and Ozpin is CRAZY OLD and also a little cutie boy."

Weiss blinked. "I'm… gonna need the long version."

"Stop the baddies, save the world," Ruby surmised. "That's all you need to know for now."

Weiss sighed explosively. "Well, I was already supposedly on a world-saving mission… Is this anything to do with this 'Frieza' person?"

"Uh…" Ruby considered. "That's…"

"Sorta on the back burner," Nora finished.

She strode brusquely into the melee. Three more junior Huntsmen had arrived, but two were back nursing their wounds as the blue-haired buffoon clashed with Emerald alongside the stoic in green. Somehow the tech-laden trident had snagged one of her chains, and he was staring past their owner in terror at something Emerald had no doubt conjured as he fought to escape. Something he was shrieking about 'hydromancy…?'

Unwilling to relinquish her khopesh, Emerald struggled to fight the other off with one free hand.

They barely noticed her approach as she swept her palm up, a blasting wind tossing the lot, scattering them across the quad. Emerald, wresting the trident from the kid, tossed it aside as she leapt to her mistress' side.

"No more wasting time," Cinder explained. "We do what we came for, nothing simpler."

Emerald flashed a look of concern. "But what if the Maiden isn't nearby…?"

Cinder leered. "Call it a hunch…"

They finally found the Saiyan Prince. A scorched trench in the surrounding lawn trailed all the way back to the demolished buildings. The edges of the blackened swath reeked of the acrid scent of burning sod, smoking everywhere and still aflame in places. One of the bonsai-like trees had been half in the path of destruction, its reaching branches split back, its leaves consumed. Yet the other half remained, a two-faced vision of life and death.

"Ahh— Aghhhhh…!" groaned the flattened Saiyan, limbs sprawled, jaw slack as he bared his teeth. He flickered with a blue energy.

Weiss approached cautiously, kneeling beside him. "It broke his Aura… but if it hadn't resisted the damage, it could have been worse. He's not even burned."

"He… looks pretty out of it though," Ruby noted, the space warrior barely noticing them.

Weiss nodded, frowning. "I don't get it… he did the same thing with me, letting me get in a shot. Said he was lowering himself to my level for that instant, and even then I couldn't touch him while he has full control of his 'Yuu-ki.' "

Gohan shook his head. "He didn't lower his power specifically, but him and I aren't at our best right now. If our energy is raised too high, Frieza can find us, and since I haven't sensed Vegeta, Krillin or my Dad, I think we've all been pushing ourselves low to hide among the fighters like you. But that makes us more vulnerable."

Weiss shook her head. "I don't think it should have mattered. Vegeta said he sensed we should be much stronger than we are. You guys pushed to our level still keeps you well above a Huntsman… So how did she do this?!"

"We tried to warn him," Ruby explained. "Cinder is a Maiden, she has magic."

"Magic…" Weiss repeated flatly. "Let's say I believed that. Magic is that strong?"

Gohan shook his head. "It's not a matter of strength. Ozpin told us magic breaks the usual rules, levels a lot of fields. You can overpower it, but Vegeta wasn't using enough. Without reinforcing his body to take it, she could hit him about as hard as anyone else."

Weiss sighed. "Well that figures. You… Gohan?"

The boy nodded.

"You have this energy sense he talks about," Weiss suggested. "He looks like he'll be fine, but what do you think?"

Gohan nodded, putting a hand on Vegeta's shoulder and closing his eyes. "I… think he's okay. But he's gonna be seriously angry when he wakes up."

"Hmm…" Weiss intoned with a nod. "That's what I think too. And after what he got up to in Atlas…"

Nora leaned amidst them, her eyes comically wide for her flat expression. "What? What's he gonna do?"

"Vegeta's been helpful lately," Gohan said at last, "but even back on Planet Namek he was up to no good! Just the last few days he wiped out a whole village."

Weiss' eyebrows rose. She looked to the man, still heaving with pain. "Yes… He's said a lot of things and made a lot of threats, but I guess I just hadn't heard it from someone that knows him."

She appeared lost in thought, before finally coming to a decision. "Gohan… could you stay with Vegeta?"

"Huh? Stay with—?"

"If he comes to and decides to go on another rampage he'll be the most dangerous thing here," Weiss clarified. "So far he seems to think I'm valuable, but if I get in his way I still think I'm a lot less likely to get away with it alive."

Ruby looked between the Saiyans, trying to conjure that sensation Gohan had given her. It was to no avail. "Gohan is ridiculous levels of strong, yeah… but I don't think they're equal?"

Gohan shook his head. "Vegeta's easily twice my strength. I could hold him off, maybe, if I had to, but besides all that he's a better fighter than me."

"...Right," Weiss sighed.

Gohan wasn't finished. "But I know he's less likely to just kill me. He knows he needs all the help he can get against Frieza, and I'm a half Saiyan… with my Dad, it's just the three of us left.

"And he's the 'Prince of Saiyans,' " Weiss muttered, putting it together. "Talk about fading glory… Wait, half Saiyan? What's the other half?"

"Human. Earth human, I mean…"

Recognition flashed in Weiss' eyes. "Right, he did ask me if this was Earth when I first met him…! How in the…?" She shook her head. "No… later… I'm going to give myself a migraine. Ruby?"

The crimsonette cycled her weapon. "Got it. The others are gonna need our help…"

"Hey…" Gohan said suddenly, staring out. "You guys hear that?"

Weiss nearly admonished him, but then the rest of them heard it as well. For a moment it sounded like the return of police airships, but Mistral's craft were far quieter than this. It began as a whistle on the wind. The canyons reverberated with it, the high, controlled shriek of approaching bullheads.

Even Nora's eyes narrowed with concern. "You don't think…?"

"No! Keep lower!" Adam Taurus demanded of his pilot as they cleared the surrounding farmlands, now brushing the lower ghettos of Mistral's underbelly.

"Much lower and we're tempting the reaper!" the antlered pilot objected as they skimmed the very rooftops.

"Much higher and those defensive guns get their shots," Adam explained, hand firmly gripping the ceiling support. "They won't risk hitting their own!"

Other White Fang cells had joined them as they raced up Anima like ghosts across the vast land. They had already lost one of their bullheads to a freak encounter with a Nevermore. In total they were twelve airships strong.

"He's right," Hazel opined, the faunus regarding him awkwardly, "Use your every advantage, or you won't make it. Haven isn't Beacon… the school is at the heart of everything here."

"What's got you so calm, huh?" one of the nervous fighters demanded of the huge human. "You're stuck on the same ship, your life is in his hands too."

Hazel huffed with dispassion. "Not really."

The ships wound along different paths as they reached the foothills, screeching as hidden turrets across the city tracked them and fired. It was more suppressionary than effective, but it formed the narrowest labyrinth the ships could afford to follow. Fate had a deadly coin toss for them, however, as prior to the final ascent, a hidden set of anti air guns popped up to catch them in the crossfire.

"DAMN!"

They fired their forward facing guns in a heavy chain chatter, but it didn't save them all. Two of the foremost bullheads were struck by the incoming flack, the first exploding outright in a shower of debris, and the second losing its starboard wing to be ground and smeared against the cliffs. Even in the daylight, the clouds of fire glowed to eclipse the Sun. A third of their number evaded the fire and was caught by the other guns, steel shredded like paper as it all but flew apart.

At last they began their vertical rise, too close to Haven and the cliff-nested homes for the defensive guns to risk.

Several of the ones Cinder had blasted away were coming back, but it scarcely mattered. Emerald had joined Mercury to push back the two boys giving him trouble. Oddly, the younger of them had become the fiercest in their desperation. But the Rogue Maiden had eyes only for Qrow, whose weapon projected a staff, its blade breaking to curve into another damn scythe as their eyes met.

"Poor Huntsman… Did you REALLY believe you stood a chance?"

There was a roar from the tan boy as he dove in, his truncheon thrust at her blind side. Her finger zipped to face him before he could reach, a jolt of lightning inverting his momentum and pelting him to roll dozens upon dozens of feet to the neighboring buildings.

"KID!" Qrow shouted, but his divided attention served him ill. A curved, flaming blade raked across him, and he staggered back several paces, dim red Aura sparking. Cinder swept after, skating across the ground on trails of flame.

But he wasn't done. Once in range, still off balance, Qrow let the scythe swing out low. Its curve swept behind her knees, and a strong tug surprised her, glass heels shooting out in front of her. With the remaining momentum his weapon had, he collapsed it back to its blade and blasted the wall behind him with shot. He was propelled onto his feet and back forward, another shot for good measure like a rocket was mounted to him as he brought the blade down. "YAAAAAAARGH!"

There was a slam as both fighters came to a screeching halt, free dust sifted away from the impact.

Cinder's teeth grit as she held the heft of the blade between her palms, its tip inches from her nose. She nearly cracked a grin when both barrels erupted in her face.

She groaned, but shoved the blade to the side, its momentum driving it into the stony floor before she reared back and kicked Qrow in the chest with both feet. He slammed flat against the side of Haven Hall half a flight high, but didn't have time even to fall as Cinder had snapped back to her feet, and the inky black hand beneath her sleeve shot out to pin him there by the neck.

Her harpoon of a Grimm arm slackened, only to literally choke-slam him down against the floor before her. "Unlike your niece, I don't have time to waste with you, so let's cut to the chase."

"Go to HELL!" he managed around her freakish grip. "You better not have laid a finger on—"

"Let's put a pin in that one, shall we?" Her grip only tightened, bony claws drawing beads of red on his throat as he struggled. "She's ALIVE if that's your concern… So tell me… Spring… you disguised her as the little boy, didn't you? Powerful little tyke."

Then the old grizzled bastard did something she hadn't expected. He laughed.

"Sure! She's a super-kid in drag, go find her and get what's coming to you… Waste all the time you want."

She shook as he grinned at her. She relinquished the claws and lifted him up to her level against the wall, none too gently. "You think a child Maiden could stand up to me?! Or is the boy something else?! You may not value your own life, you washed-up old nothing, but I will SKIN your little Rose alive, petal by petal, if you don't start making sense NOW!"

Qrow regarded her with hate, glancing down at the slender black arm. "Knew something about you felt inhuman… Like I said, you abomination, you're wasting your time…" He choked as he laughed. "She's probably already got the Relic by now."

"She…? What?!" Cinder demanded. "This… This was all a distraction?!"

"Nah, I'm not in that good with her," Qrow admitted, "but she's nothing if not an opportunist!"

Qrow couldn't help but laugh and laugh as Cinder prepared to melt his very face off… but then the air was filled with the whine of several large turbines. The battlefield as a whole turned to the sound.

Over half a dozen bullheads soared suddenly over the school, finding almost any clear landing spot they could find, near or far, in a frantic display.

Cinder growled. What were THEY doing here?

Emerald and Mercury had doubled back to guard her in the disruption, the curtain-haired woman turning to her. "Their timing's not bad. Pretty golden opportunity, Ma'am."

"No, NO, you're forgetting what they're here to do!" Cinder shot back.

"Then what's the order, boss?" Mercury asked.

"First I—" But out of nowhere a cluster of loose tiles flew from the wash of the bullheads and smashed over her head. It was but a momentary thing, but Qrow laughed knowingly all the same. She threw him bodily several yards like a ragdoll before turning to the massive Hall doors. "I'm going in to check! Don't let any of them i—"

As if enough things hadn't dropped from the sky, none other than Hazel Reinhardt slammed down between them from one of the bullheads, regarding the scene flatly. "Do whatever needs doing. We'll cover you."

"I never ASKED for your help, Hazel," Cinder told him, waspish. "This wasn't the PLAN."

Hazel shook his head. "And an incredibly public skirmish was? No. The Taurus boy is a loose cannon. But you'd know all about that."

Cinder grumbled, a glass arrow molding from the crystalline dust in her satchel. She drew a dark thread from her Grimm flesh and wrapped it around the arrowhead. "Just don't get these two killed."

With that, Cinder stepped inside. Lionheart hadn't stuck around… and neither had the statue, leaving a great circular hole in the floor. Her twisted heart went cold.

"...I said no…" came a voice, echoing up the shaft. Cinder listened intently, hearing the grind of stone as the lift to the vault ascended.

"It's too risky! This place will be swarming with police!" said a younger voice in argument.

"And I'm wanted in all of Vale," said the other. "Mistral is the perfect place to slip away. Just stay put until I've sent for you. Getting away is never the hard part for me."

They finally reached the surface, and Cinder beheld as a most unexpected pair stepped off, the statue rising the rest of the way back into place.

The smaller of them was a mystery, some punky girl with boyishly short hair, tattooed, with torn clothes. The other needed no introduction. Clad in robes and armor the same bloody shade as her eyes, a waterfall of jet black hair down her back. Raven Branwen…

...And in her hand hung a great golden lantern, breathing within with an otherworldly blue glow… the Relic of Knowledge…!

The talk ceased as they locked eyes with Cinder. A split second and a red blade split the air beside them, a bloody portal ripping into being beside the pair as they prepared to dash through.

"COWARD!"

Both of them stopped in their tracks. "Leader," the smaller woman whispered maliciously, "please, let me uphold—"

There was sorrow in her stare. "I'm no leader, Vernal. There's no need for that."

Cinder's brow rose. Vernal…

Vernal turned to Raven, vaguely distressed. "R...Raven…!"

The bandit lord finally broke eye contact with Cinder. "If I can't take my own honor, I have none. Take the damn Relic through and I'll—!"

A shrill whistling was the only warning before Vernal staggered, eyes like pinpricks, her Aura flaring as it died. The black arrow had struck her just beneath the ribs, a long thread stretching back to its owner, who grinned back even as she banished her bow.

Raven only had eyes for the poor girl as she began to lose balance, dropping the lantern in a clatter. Raven breathed one word. "Rufina…!"

Cinder swept forward, reeling the thread back into her monstrous paw as she readied the flame that would put Raven out for good.

Raven Branwen barely turned towards Cinder before the flames engulfed her point blank, a geyser from the wells of Hell itself. Cinder regarded the gasping, dying breaths of the younger woman. " 'Vernal?' As if you could have made it more obvi—"

But even as she kept up the torrents of flame, a gloved hand reached through and closed over her own palm, and the Rogue Maiden only stared in shock as her flame was reduced to near nothingness. Raven Branwen's blood red eyes were fixed upon hers, lip curled in hate. There wasn't a mark upon her.

"What?!"

At last, Cinder understood, as the fire in Raven's eyes took life as true tears of crimson flame at the margins. "Don't you get it?!" she asked, voice shaking, "You chose WRONG…"

The red blade swished to sever Cinder's fruitless connection to the young bandit, and for good measure, swept a foot to kick the Relic through the lingering portal.

"NO!" Cinder cried desperately, Grimm arm blasting out to retrieve it. But with a motion of Raven's blade, the portal vanished to nothing in an instant.

Taiyang sat at the table with his coffee, watching as Goku stared out into the rain. Nothing he said had been able to persuade the man to come back inside, and he only looked to grow more tense as time wore on. "Downright creepy," he mused.

'*Shing...*'

He sat bolt upright. He knew that sound…

The red flash was there and gone, and as he prepared to stand, he brushed something with his foot. Staring down, he found an ornate little gold and teal artifact. He seized it by its handle, holding the glowing prize to eye level.

"...What the hell is this…?"

A/N: Woooo!

So now you guys can probably see why this has taken so particularly long. This is what we've been building towards for a good long while. It's time to do the Volume 5 Finale right.

As the finale of the story's first act, the Battle of Haven has demanded a LOT more work than usual, incorporating RWBY style combat and letting the various players shine.

As you can tell, I took QUITE a bit of issue with how the canon version went down.

Firstly? Fight our heroes' fight, for crying out loud. With all the talk in early Volume 5 about Leo acting strangely and potentially working for the other side, they walk right into an obvious trap and seem dumbfounded. Even if it's not MUCH of a plan, setting a counter ambush and diverting Cinder's forces is so much better than the nothing they did in V5 Chapter 11.

Secondly, no idiot plot. In Volume 5, the matchups only occur to pair off fighters as individually as possible. Some of it was more sensible, like Ruby wanting to help Jaune but being sidelined by Emerald the whole time, or Mercury picking off Yang, or even Qrow getting mad and attacking Raven for her betrayal.

But then you have Oscar starting a fight with Leo, who wasn't threatening anyone, or Ren and Nora abandoning Jaune to go fight Hazel. All while Jaune enters single combat with a MAIDEN.

Actually, screw the numbering. Going freeform.

The fight is outside, because nobody was dumb enough to be corralled inside a building. They had backup on standby (Team SSSN) who canonically should have been in Mistral at the time, and sounded the alarm before coming in to help.

Ruby duels with Emerald and realizes she's confronting the person who took Penny's life after getting clues from her abilities. The resulting fight isn't long, but features their abilities and ample use of environment.

In fact, all the fights do that. Instead of setting up for duels we see brief flashes of that might as well be stick figures standing in place flailing their arms at each other like Dexter and Mandark, the fights have peaks and valleys. The characters use the combat as an excuse and physical externalization for the greater things DRIVING their character. It becomes a half-physical argument, with philosophies clashing as surely as blades and beams do.

Ruby and Nora use wit and teamwork to counter Emerald's powers. Ozpin and Leo don't fight at ALL. Their conflict is entirely verbal, two old friends at odds. Leo restates what he told Qrow earlier, that he feels obligated by duty to protect his charges, even at the risk of losing something like a Relic.

Cinder arrives on the battlefield with a singular purpose, and unlike in the canon where they've never actually held a conversation —seriously?!— Ruby fights for her LIFE against an extremely powerful demigod of a foe, all the while confronting the source of so much pain. Callous, Cinder turns the blame for Pyrrha's murder back upon Pyrrha herself.

Ruby struggles to keep her head above water, but ultimately Cinder is too strong for her alone.

Even poor Qrow gets to have a badass moment —poor guy rarely gets that anymore— doing his damndest to kill Cinder and greatly diminish the enemy forces even though he fails.

Yeah, Mercury kinda gets the short of the stick, but the best person to fight him in a meaningful way is Yang, and she's not present right now. The difference is, these fights are actually FIGHTS, and we see WHY a character is defeated. I can't tell you how infuriating it was to see Ruby, Weiss and Blake get cut to while Ruby tells them all to surrender, and Mercury just punches the ground in frustration like there was this great fight happening and we just never saw it. To hell with that.

Likewise, enough of this nonsense where Salem's gang, a threat fit to topple nations, is scared of the cops. Cinder literally swats them away, because these people are Huntsman killers. It's hard to believe the writers who made Whitley seem clueless and arrogant for asking what a Huntress could do that an army couldn't turned around and made basic law enforcement a threat to the ones who toppled Beacon.

That's what I love about the escalation in this chapter. It all starts so small, just this little fight between a few actors, and slowly it snowballs into this all out war worthy of Qrow's words, "It'll be the Fall of Beacon all over again," as more people and elements become embroiled.

And I won't sugarcoat it: Cinder TORTURES Ruby. Brutal? Yes… but anything less would diminish Cinder as a believable threat. She's deadly, and she wants Ruby to suffer in exchange for how she'd been humbled. This isn't a game. None of it is permanent damage of course. In fact with some immediate work she's good enough to keep fighting. But it's a sobering moment to see just how much Cinder hates her, and that by herself, for all her courage, Ruby isn't enough to combat such raw power. Caught alone, the best she could do was survive.

I really enjoy the idea that, confused by Gohan's abilities, Cinder assumes he's actually the Spring Maiden disguised as a boy. I mean, what else is she supposed to think of this kid that tagged her in rage like a soccer ball?

Weiss having her emotional reunion with Ruby rather than Yang is personal preference… but still. I don't doubt that after being taken prisoner and escaping Atlas, Weiss would absolutely be floored to get effectively rescued by not just a familiar face, but one of her teammates…

...Buuuut come on. I like this better. Weiss finds Ruby in peril, ambiguous as to whether she'd have survived without her, and seriously contemplates the idea of losing Ruby. The warmest in a family full of the affection she never knew before Beacon, and her partner. Weiss lets her walls down and admits how much their friendship really means to her, underneath the sighs and sarcasm. Weiss couldn't imagine if Ruby had died without knowing she truly was the best friend she'd ever had.

Then Vegeta wades into things, and…

I don't want to HEAR it.

I know some of you are out there, and you'll tell me you take issue with what Cinder did to Vegeta. Firstly… I worked my ASS off to ensure what happened was explained as clearly as possible by Gohan and the others. You can't tell me that doesn't follow the rules, and you can't tell me that sort of cocky behavior isn't in character for Vegeta.

The argument I CAN see being made is… why take Vegeta out of the fight?

You KNOW why. Vegeta set loose would own the entire battlefield in minutes if he wanted. You know it and I know it. You can argue therefore that he should have come in later, but then you don't get Weiss either, and Vegeta's commentary is just too fun not to inject.

Fun fact, Sivam was the one to specifically request that Vegeta roast Cinder in the verbal sense, which worked only too well. Even HE doesn't remember why he wanted that, but it was around Volume 5's release so...

I'm sorry, but if you were hoping the Z characters would totally trivialize and win this thing for them, I'm not doing that. That's boring.

The Battle of Haven is RWBY's fight to win or lose. It is the culmination of all the grief and tensions felt since Beacon. I wanted to do it right since the canon version botched the job, and I therefore wanted the Z characters' involvement to be minimal. This is about the last chance for pure RWBY combat to be relevant, and a total anticlimax would be wrong.

Make no mistake, I'm not downplaying the strength of Gohan or Vegeta. I have a balancing act of faithfulness against crafting an engaging story. Note I sneak stuff in, like Gohan sensing and shutting down Emerald in one shot while she's invisible and leaving her on her face…

...But imagine if the whole battle went like that. Boop… dead. Boop… dead. Where's the fun? With exceptions, this is RWBY's fight to the hilt.

But don't worry. The time for Z to shine is swift approaching, and won't it have more impact if the desperate struggle happens only for these Ki-wielding titans to show they could have wiped this entire battle at any time?

Maximum effect, my friends. Maximum effect.

Also, Raven shows up of her own accord… and calls Vernal by a different name. What, you didn't think the decoy Spring Maiden's name was LITERALLY a name that MEANS Spring, did you? Nah, it would be ABSURD to play that straight...

—Leers at Miles and Kerry—

Oh, also… I just couldn't let this slip by. Guest reviewers, could you PLEASE get actual accounts if you want me to respond?

'Did you read dragon ball R, it's basically your story, but it's way better, because unlike this story, Salem is outclassed by Frieza, and Frieza pretty much turns the white fang into the Frieza force and orders Adam to kill all of Menagerie, get owned Remnant, your pretty much a planet that holds Garbage tier characters and is possibly forsakened by the universe.'

Holy crap, punctuation plz. You can use more than one period per paragraph you know?

I've read SOME Dragonball R, enough to answer this post anyway. That sucker is LONG though. I've said it before, but credit to the writer for being WAY faster than me without his format, spelling or grammar suffering for it.

DBR is "way better" BECAUSE Salem is outclassed by Frieza? I don't see how those logically track. I can see that as your PREFERENCE. And really, Frieza and Salem have yet to meet in this story, so how do you know?

I'll tell you this much: Salem cannot physically contend with Frieza. She lacks the raw power for that. But even if this were CANON Salem, she'd be immortal, right? So she wouldn't have cause to fear him either. Frieza would be an inconvenient new player… unless she plays her cards right.

Personally I didn't really like how utterly demoralized Salem was left in DBR after a mere facetime conversation with Frieza, to the point of sweating and totally losing her composure. I don't necessarily disagree with a take on Salem and Frieza where Salem is outclassed but doesn't quite comprehend that fact, and remains stoic and unimpressed until she learns the hard way… but her practically collapsing in fear? All while Tyrian foolishly subverts her command and orders the Seer to attack?

I get the POINT is to totally deflate their menace, but… doesn't that just come off disrespectful? Like you're saying these antagonists are kid stuff that deserve no dignity?

I don't much like that kind of preferential treatment myself.

And Adam kills all Menagerie? A CONTINENT? Because Menagerie isn't JUST Kuo Kuana, you realize?

I haven't read this part, so I lack context. Is it a loyalty test thing? Like, "prove to me your unfailing allegiance, by destroying the very race you once fought for, and I'll let you live as my underling!" or something?

Either way, didn't Frieza ALREADY destroy a Kingdom just to make a point? What's his plan? Even Frieza usually has a VAGUE reason to systematically kill people, he can't just be culling the population just because or he'd blow the planet and be out. Maybe it's to guilt and pressure the Z Fighters out of hiding?

But the last of your review pretty much confirms you prefer a "dunk on RWBY" story… and you're right, this story doesn't do that, because it respects both series. And I won't apologize for that.