Ruby's rifle and Nora's grenade launcher reported several times, firing over the numbers of White Fang that were already flat on the floor. The ones still standing had retreated into the burnt out buildings Cinder had demolished and were firing from cover. It almost wasn't worth dealing with, the shots that landed being readily absorbed by their Auras, but that would just be poor planning.

"Urgh… Stupid…!" '*KUCHINK*' "Guerrilla…!" '*KUCHINK*' "Warfare…!"

Nora hummed. "I don't see gorillas… Just a red panda dude, and an antelope chick, and a gator girl…"

Ruby spared a momentary glance of confusion before her face went blank and she snickered. "That's funny…"

It was Nora's turn to blank. "What's funny?"

Ruby was spared answering as the green-haired, dark skinned swordsman of Team SSSN slid between them on his face, blade clattering as it followed.

"Sage!" Neptune cried, as Ruby turned to see Mercury, his foot still extended and smoking from the attack even as his standing leg pivoted as Scarlet closed in with his cutlass drawn. Mercury leapt to his other foot in kicking with the first, catching Scarlet's wrist and sending his blade sailing off. With sleight of foot, his heel reached over to couple with Scarlet's neck, and a swift follow-through with a hammer-kick slammed him headfirst into the ground. He prepared a finishing stomp…

Jolts and rounds from Neptune's plasma rifle and Crescent Rose respectively blasted before Mercury could manage the execution. He fired back twice with the same leg before planting it behind himself and backflipping several yards, before kicking up and onto one of the angular wooden supports for the Haven CCT Tower nearby.

"Okay, I'm officially over this… Put your money where Remnant's mouth is, deadeye." He leapt to one of the slender windows on the tower and kicked up to the balcony before vaulting over the central beacon to the very top spire. A mighty hit from his heel and the gilded Haven Academy ornament snapped off with a whine of metal.

"Heads up!" Ruby cried, before the point of the ornament struck the stone below, fracturing it as the several foot long spear embedded itself.

They watched as Mercury took its place at the top and, from their limited perspective, appeared to start some kind of frenzied breakdance, whose purpose was evident in moments. Cloudlike silvery projectiles filled the air around Mercury Black one by one and circled the tower, spiraling lower and lower in vaster numbers until there was very nearly a wall shielding the tower.

And like a swarm of ravenous insects, bunches of shots split from the mass to rain down upon the battlefield.

Jaune Arc, busy holding his shield against a fire blast from Hazel, was strafed from his side and blown sideways off his feet. Weiss took frantic shelter beneath a glyph as she shrank against the ground and the shots slammed around her. Ozpin's cane tip met every single projectile aimed at him with precision, canceling them out and spinning his weapon like a fan for the next volley, turning them back around on their master.

For the rest of them it was down to scrambling for cover until the siege subsided.

"For cryin'...!" Nora began, leaping foot to foot. "Rub', we gonna take care of that?!"

Crescent Rose whirled in defense. "No, he was talking about Haven's CCT… that he's now standing on. We can't risk losing another tower! Keep up crowd control. WEISS!"

The black Schneep heard her and sidled within shouting range. "OH no! I can give you an opening, but I just blindfolded Sustrai, and I don't trust her alone as far as I can throw your bonnet over this particular windmill!"

"I… umm…" Ruby replied, utterly lost, "It's a hood, not a bonn… What are you saying?"

Weiss took a breath, hating to admit that she'd been nostalgic for this. "I have to watch her, find someone else, and I'll help you up the tower for whatever it is you're planning."

"Oh! Uh… okay! Neptune!" Ruby called.

She caught his eye, and he gave a nod while flashing the whitest grin as he jogged over.

"Hey, Ruby! Nice uh… weather we're having…" he remarked, evading another silver shot and gazing into the maelstrom overhead.

"Yeah, gonna need some help to blow this one back."

"It's been a while, huh? You've really filled out since I last saw you."

Ruby blinked, not at all expecting this line of question. "I... um... What... do you...?" It was particularly odd, because she'd seen that look on his face, but never directed at her. Usually just Yang, or Weis—

An uncomfortable thought crossed her. Her face felt warm.

"Well you're bigger than— TALLER! ...Is what I mean..." Neptune continued, paying her more attention than he ever had at Beacon. A split second lower glance not missed by her.

Ruby remained silent, flushed and uncomfortable, willing herself not to follow his eyes down her growth-spurt ravaged physique. Barely realizing she'd done so, her hood raised over her head like a turtle with its shell.

She turned on a dime. "Sooooo! Scarlet! You have a sec? I gotta take care of—"

"I'm sorry, I'll be good!"

There was a meaty 'thwack' as Bulma punched his lack of nose.

"Ook!"

"OKAY, ANSWERS! NOW!" She shrieked, startling even Ilia who watched the strange affair with exasperation as her eyes repeatedly sought the battle which had yet to explode into being.

Bulma had staunched the blood flow from Sun's wound with part of his pant leg and he was presently just lying face down, taking every other few breaths to suck air through his teeth. She then immediately turned to slug Krillin, who seemed to expect this abuse.

"If YOU'RE here then this is DEFINITELY something YOU GUYS did!" Bulma reasoned. "I KNEW you knuckleheads would find a way to screw this up without me! Sounds like you found the Namek Dragon, so WHAT HAPPENED?! HOW DO YOU SCREW UP WISHING THE GUYS BACK?!"

Krillin sighed. "You done, or are ya' gonna keep venting your spleen?"

This did not help. "I JUST MIGHT!"

He sighed again. "Look, we did find the balls and summon their dragon, but believe me nobody got what they wanted. That little Namekian we picked up before? He had to help us, because the wishes have to be made in the Namekian language! Then Frieza showed up—"

Bulma sighed explosively. "And just WHO is 'Freeza…?' "

"The bigge— well… the baddest guy on Namek… and probably anywhere. He's the reason Vegeta rode with us up 'till then."

"Yeah, I tried asking about that, but you all were too busy to even—"

"Okay, Bulma?" Krillin began, his patience waning. "All due respect, whatever you've had to complain about being left behind without answers is VACATION compared to all the hiding and fighting for our lives that's happened since we set foot off the ramp and onto Namek! We've been doing you a favor!"

"Oh save it," Bulma dismissed. "Didn't need you to have an adventure on an alien planet anyway! Did just fine with my new friends here on Remnant and their little equality struggle. I dropped a lake on that guy with the sword over there." Bulma snickered illicitly. "He HATES me…" she relished.

"Yeah, Yang seems to recognize him too. And your friend with the ears," Krillin noted as the three fighters across the way continued talking, too quietly to bridge the gap between them.

" 'Yang?' " Bulma asked. "The biker blonde is with you?"

"That's a story in itself," Krillin noted. "You seen any of the others by chance?"

"If I had you think I'd be letting these kids fight that psycho themselves? What about you? I thought Goku showed up on Namek, how'd we step in this crap with him around?!"

Krillin shook his head. "That Ginyu thug put Goku through the wringer, and he was healing before. I've seen flashes of the others, and Frieza is definitely on world, so if they're like me, they're hiding their power."

"Well how'd you find me then? The phrase 'needle in a haystack' springs to mind!"

Krillin shrugged, eyebrows rising. "Got me! We showed up because we were in town and then heard all this chaos from lower in the city! Airships exploding, and these masked jokers crawling over this underside were about the first threat we saw, coming up. Yang in particular made a beeline for them. Don't know how, but I think she was expecting this little showdown."

Both of them turned. The talk between the two girls and Adam was coming quietly to a head, and Krillin could feel the tension building.

"Speaking of," Bulma began, looking pointedly at Krillin, "you want to maybe take this guy out for 'em? I know you can."

He smiled, nodding. "Oh sure, I could do that… but Yang wouldn't forgive me for it."

Ilia finally couldn't contain herself. "Who CARES?! Look, cueball, if they're anywhere near Adam they're in the lion's den!"

Krillin laughed as the freckled faunus stared, offended at his nerve. "Just watch… Lion's den, huh? Trust me… Those two have chairs and whips coming outta their ears."

Bulma groaned while Ilia balked. " 'Chairs and whips?' "

"...You know… lion tamer things…"

Ilia's freckles flashed pink. "I-I know!"

Across the way, at the final bend, weapons were drawn and tensions were set to explode. Each of the three were waiting for their opening. The wind whipped through, Yang's hair trailing in it like fire.

Adam's grip tightened… and he sheathed his blade. Yang's eye twitched.

"YANG!" Blake shrieked as she saw her partner take the bait in horror, both Celicas blasting her forward. The black cat raced to throw her kusarigama and catch her…

...But neither her ribbon nor Adam's blade found anything as the gauntlets took aim and shot her down to grind and slide headfirst over the floor, prosthetic kicking up sparks as it supported her over the steel plates until she was close enough. Another blast of lead shot propelled her into a soaring uppercut, catching Adam's floored visage under the chin with a sound like thunder.

Even as he carried on from the momentum she arced higher, aiming both fists back for another blast which threw her into a full flip kick to his shoulders before he could even appreciate her opening strike. He smacked the floor hard, nearly winded as he unevenly picked himself up, but Yang wasn't finished. She'd overshot the railing, fit to fall the length of Mistral, but with Ember Celica this wasn't an issue. Another pair of well aimed shots rocketed her back over with the aim of landing on him.

But Adam was just fast enough, lifting Wilt and bracing his other hand against its flat to block the oncoming train of Yang's fist. The red blade flashed as the force of Yang's blow shot out to counter her, throwing her straight into the air out of control before he followed up with a deadly moonslice.

This close to Haven's outer edge, Yang could plant against the ceiling and kick away, neatly evading the slice which rent an inch-deep weal into the metal as she knelt with the impact of the landing, back beside Blake.

"Don't hit the sword," Blake told her.

"What?"

"His semblance, every hit powers that attack! The more you clash, the stronger it gets."

Yang sighed. "Sounds familiar. Great. So attrition's out… gotta put him out hard and fast." She smirked. "No wonder you were having trouble."

"Timeout's over!" Adam cried, blade sheathed again as the girls widened their stances. Instead of the dreaded slice however, the blade blasted out hilt-first. Yang's counter was unexpected.

Taking aim, the false arm shot off like a missile, meeting Wilt in midair and sending it spinning behind him to embed six inches into the steel pillar as the arm bounced back to its owner. Adam stared between the blonde and the blade, floored, before gripping its handle and tugging on it with all his might. He groaned angrily with the effort.

Yang reattached her arm before racking her guns. "Huh, looks like you're not worthy to rule after all, Arty. I'm shocked…"

Adam continued to struggle. "Hold… your tongue, you… impudent cow!"

Yang scoffed. "Racist much?"

Adam growled as Blush emerged in his hand to spray a burst of fire at them. Blake winced as she copped a round to the side, Aura flaring, while the back of Yang's fists raised to catch the two aimed at her.

Either made to storm in as he returned both hands to freeing his blade, prying as his teeth ground and he made a sound like he were trying to shove a train off its track barehanded.

Yang reached him first, but failed to notice his herculean effort had borne fruit, metal discoloring as he wrenched it steadily through the corner as though it were viscous and molten, screeching at all times.

Her fist aimed for his gut, but the emerging sword finally delivered its stroke as it slit through the last inch. Blake watched, frozen as Yang flashed and the blade stood pointed at her belly.

Yang grunted, arm still extended… her steely fingers above the sword's hilt.

Even so, Wilt's point pressed against her gut and caused her Aura a localized distress. She slowly forced it back.

"H-hey, big guy… just the tip, okay? I'm not that kind of girl…"

Shaking with rage, Adam pulled back, the sword sliding through her fingers. But for an instant, her eyes burned red, and a glimmer of flame danced through her hair. Just before the sword cleared her grasp, Yang Xiao Long's mechanical mitts squeezed with bone-crushing force, and three inches of the blood red material splintered like glass as the eyes went lilac again.

Adam staggered back to behold the damage, his jaw dropped.

"Aww, don't worry, happens to every guy sometimes."

"Rotten tramp, you'll pay for that in inches!" Adam seethed, brandishing the blade, still deadly even if shortened.

Yang snorted. "Threaten me with a good time…"

Blake stood stunned at the scene. She couldn't quite comprehend it. Where had Yang regained this degree of confidence and composure? Why didn't Yang despise her? It was like she had dusted herself off, grafted this mechanical arm on, and marched her way to Blake's rescue like nothing had happened. A risen phoenix, wreathed in flames of gold…

She shook herself back to reality. Yang had gotten some good hits in, but Adam would only become more dangerous the angrier he got. What they needed was to play to their strengths and cancel Adam's. A fight on level ground was absolutely to his advantage. But with no means of catching himself from a fall…

She spared a glance behind them to the catwalks. Blake didn't want Adam dead…

But...

"Yang! This way!" Blake cried, vaulting across to the suspended platforms.

"What? Why?" Yang demanded.

"I need you to trust me!" Blake said, locking eyes with her.

Yang hesitated. Provisional forgiveness was one thing… "Don't ask for much, do ya?"

All the same, she leapt over just as Adam swept in for a lethal swipe.

"COWARDS! Don't you feel ANY shame?! Fight me!"

Yang sprinted with Blake to the end of the platform, left severed from before. "So what's the plan? I was doing fine!"

Blake shook her head, slicing a cable as they passed it. "You don't know him like I do; we need to cancel out his advantage. Follow my lead. We've got some bridges to burn."

There at the end, they leapt above to a platform that had yet to receive damage, a loop connected at a far end to a spiral stair mounted to the great arch that spanned Haven's underside like a suspension bridge, leading up eventually to the school proper.

Once they'd landed, Blake took aim and fired her pistol at the last cable holding the severed platform's left side, and before Adam leapt, it dropped, swinging as its right railing turned into a set of monkey bars.

Despite this, Adam stuck the landing, if wobbling at the poor footing, and he began to steadily work his way closer. "So this is your ploy? Let gravity do your dirty work for you? I'd expect nothing less, Blake. You'd never have the nerve to face me alone."

Blake waited for him, eyes narrowed. "You only care about that, Adam… because you're alone."

He gave a growl of frustration as he leapt up to join them, blade flashing as Blake leapt away, Yang keeping pace behind her.

Blake's kusarigama zipped as she kept Adam at arms length, working in small shots as he advanced relentlessly, occasionally deflecting Blake and leaving the red razor aglow. Sparks flew from Wilt's broken end as a result.

She frequently missed her mark, but in punishing this with his own counter, Blake repeatedly vanished as smoke, and Yang would use the opportunity to land a hit of her own and back off. Adam's rage omitted the noise behind him, or the shotgun blasts ahead that were coming nowhere close.

On the third instance of this pattern however, Yang fired a flaring concussion shot, and Adam's years of training and combat experience honed in. With a roll of the hilt across his fingers and a flick of his wrist, the shot skimmed across Wilt's blade, which became a ramp. With that simple motion, the concussion shot was turned upon its owner, who took it to the face and fell flat on her back.

Blake spared a glance in concern, only to retaliate as a length of ribbon wrapped itself around Adam's still extended wrist. Surprised, he tugged with all his might, but Blake coiled a leg and arm around the catwalk railing to anchor herself. He reached for Blush.

"Blake! Down!" Yang warned, her partner obeying as with a double shot she vaulted over Blake, spinning sideways in midair before planting her feet on his horns and riding them to the ringing steel below.

She rolled back as he bounced several feet from the vicious slam, but Adam recovered before even hitting the ground, splitting the air as his deadly semblance went to work. Blake hit the dirt, avoiding the shearing shockwave entirely. Yang took the hit, gauntlet and steely arm catching the lethal line, only her elbow and part of her shoulder kicking up sparks of Aura as she winced. All the same, she was thrown back, her back bowing the corner rail and painfully absorbing the impact.

But much of that was moot, as Yang felt the sinking feeling in her gut and Blake's face found hers. Adam's attack had also snipped the cables supporting Yang's corner platform. "YANG, NOW!"

Yang caught the kusarigama as it was thrown to her and the section of catwalk fell beneath her, the cables dangling overhead. She swung below, waited for the proper point in her arc, and kicked off the underside as her shotguns blasted.

Adam awaited an attack that never came. Instead, he saw Yang swing out into the distance, then firing at the height of the swing, at which point she yanked back upon the ribbon to hurl Blake off the platform and ahead of her. They threw themselves into the yawning gap to the perimeter catwalk he'd strolled in on, over a hundred feet away.

Blake spawned a shadow, which linked arms to pivot them still further. There was another blast of Yang's guns, but they had already crested in height and were steadily falling. Another shadow allowed Blake to telegraph a great vertical leap, but her heart stopped as her fingers fell short…

...But there was a slap around Blake's wrist of something banded silver and yellow. As they swung right towards the new pendulum, Blake stared up to see Ilia's exerted face, Bulma's arms around her waist behind to weigh her slight form down.

"Hang on! I've got you!" Ilia told them, both hands clutching her whip handle for dear life.

Adam beheld the scene, his rage mounting. "You come all this way to face me, just so you can RUN?!"

Blake took a breath as she finished helping Yang the rest of the way up. She projected her voice, if only because of the distance. "It's over, Adam! Look around you!"

He tilted his head at the statement. It was only then that Adam finally took stock of his surroundings.

The catwalk ring was no more, ending where he had severed the last space the two Huntresses had to fight on. In his fervor, he'd missed entirely that they had traced the circle as they fought. The noise behind him, the pathetic misses the two committed again and again… hadn't missed at all.

Behind him, every section of catwalk had been cut loose. Every adjacent section as well. Every point that might have served as a stepping stone, only evidenced by the rustling cables that once held them, too thin and slick to serve as a means to cross. Adam Taurus was trapped.

"We both know you can't cross that gap alone, Adam!"

If they could have seen his eyes, Adam might have blinked. "What… when?!"

Blake's chin raised as she took a step forward. "This is why you're the wrong person to choose the future of the faunus, Adam! When you're blinded by hate, you can't even see your road leads to a dead end. You can't tell that your actions have consequences, and the way back is already gone! You find yourself with no way out, alone and powerless."

Adam leered. "Is that all you have for me? Some poetic irony?"

"It took both of us with all our might to cross that gap, Adam! We've been apart, but I know you're not that good."

Adam's lip curled thoughtfully. Then he crouched low. "And you'd just let me fall?"

Blake's mouth parted. "Adam, don't try it—! HEY!" She cried out as three pairs of hands restrained her as she sought her ribbon. "Let me go! NOW!"

"It's just a bluff!" Ilia told her.

"And what if it's not?!"

Yang redoubled her grip on Blake's forearms. "Then you give him exactly what he wants!"

Adam laughed as he watched it unfold. "Powerless… That's what you called me? Even in death I'd hold sway in your heart, Blake."

"Oh, SHOVE IT, you creepy sociopath!" Bulma blared.

"And I don't plan to be taken alive…" Adam told Blake, sword in hand as he dropped to his knees.

Blake's mouth went dry. "Adam, it doesn't have to end now!"

"Why not?" he returned. "My life will be over anyway."

"You need help."

"And I'll get it HERE?!" he demanded. "Yes, the Mistral courts, so famous for treating the faunus fairly! Do we still have our own special water fountains? You've as good as slipped the noose on with your own two hands… but now someone else bears your burden."

Adam pointed the blade at his own stomach, placing Blush beside himself.

Sun groaned nearby, drawing Blake's attention.

"We make our own choices… He made his… The consequences are on him… not you…"

Blake froze, staring between her friend and her former mentor. At once her muscles relaxed, even if her head drooped. "Do whatever you want, Adam. It's none of my business."

Adam's grin vanished… for a moment. "Hmm… As you wish."

They all backed off and broke away as Adam twitched, Blush suddenly in hand, and a shot rang across in a flash to the upper staircase to the school… part of which exploded.

The spindly steel rocked and rattled, swaying as the mounts clamping it on snapped free. Most of them watched on, mystified as to Adam's power and plan. But then Ilia's face tensed with understanding. "The bombs! He's aiming for the…!"

With another burst of gunfire, a second plume of flame swept out above the first, and yet more mounts burst free.

Bulma could scarcely comprehend it. "He's just shooting—?! But…!"

Ilia nodded. "I know, but the charges are just fire Dust; shooting them will set them off!"

Yang growled. "So he's just gonna bring it down on our heads?!"

The third blast went off, the highest yet, blasting the fire-escape-like stairs entirely off from that point and higher. More supports snapped… and then the entire light edifice began to sway, a science-fiction sound of metal under tension zapping through the air. With nearly two-hundred feet of stairs bobbing free of the supporting arch, it creaked as it slowly sagged outward under its own weight.

Blake gasped. "No! He's making a bridge!"

The others stared at the sinking steely mass in a new light. Indeed, the scaffold-like stairs were peeling away from the understructure like a thick anchored bush of vines being pulled off a brick wall. As if by some greater cosmic will, it was slowly bending, as though reaching out to Adam's stranded platform.

"Screw this!" Yang declared, prepping a concussive shot and aiming for the anchors of Adam's platform. But Blake's hand closed over Ember Celica's muzzle.

"Don't! You'll kill him!" Blake pleaded.

"How many chances does he get to kill US before the gloves come off for real?!" Yang demanded.

Blake sought her eyes, pleading. "Yang… please…"

Yang grit her teeth, tore her eyes away and lowered her arm. "Damn it!" She turned on her heel and sprinted along the catwalk towards the start of the staircase. Blake tore after her, as did Ilia.

Bulma glared at Krillin. "Still think they've got this?"

Krillin nodded. "I do… Please, understand Bulma… if I jumped in now, all their struggle would cease to mean anything. This is their fight to win. If I honor what they fight for, I can't intervene unless I have no other choice."

Bulma sighed explosively in exasperation, marching off after the others.

Yang reached the staircase and didn't bother climbing, blasting off the ground to plant against the massive arch support above, kicking and blasting off that with a flip to reach the spindly mass of twisted steel just as Adam took hold of the foremost tip of the stair.

The girl in gold didn't hesitate, firing not only a blast, but a spray of concussive shots within a second's worth of time. They wove through, screeching like fireworks on different paths. Adam tugged hard and launched himself up as the majority of shots shredded a flight of stairs he'd stood upon into pipes, planks and assorted shrapnel. A flash of red, and the shot that came closest seemed to smear in two directions as he cleaved effortlessly through the projectile, spraying its contents behind himself in a burst of flaming red powder. With the weight cast off, the bent staircase settled somewhat, bobbing higher, relaxed in spite of the ominous creaks.

Blake ran along the arch support, gaining height before leaving a shadow to redirect her momentum and land lightly upon the scaffold piping. Where they stood, at the most extreme end of the structure's stress, several outermost pipes extended beyond their fastenings as they curved and snapped straight to whip the air above. Without a doubt, there was nothing stable about Adam's improvised bridge, and it had to be stressed that man-sized gaps made up much of it. One wrong move could easily lead to any of them plummeting in seconds.

Yang used one of the stressed pipes as a springboard once it snapped, launching at Adam too low to reach him, but high enough to grab the bar he stood on and swing under, popping up on his other side upside down. Adam wasn't fooled, twisting to guard as her fist connected with an air-shattering shock.

Blake brought up the rear, watching as even in midair Yang's fists pistoned to meet his every swing. She'd never seen her partner move like this.

Yang finished the exchange with a blast of shot that righted her, and she planted a few yards away onto her feet. Her eyes met Blake's for a second. This was her opening.

Adam tilted his head, twisting to evade Blake's charge, instead grabbing her at the wrist and slamming his knee into her gut. Before she could even process that, the same leg lifted to punt her off, hitting one of the support bars with her back. She scarcely gripped the edge of a stair lower down as she regained her faculties, only to notice Gambol Shroud's katana was missing.

Above her, Adam held the blade, examining the weapon before tossing it past her, out of sight even as Blake reached for it with white knuckles.

"You all think so little of me, don't you?" Adam asked, as Yang made to crack his skull.

But suddenly it was like there were three Adam's, surrounding Yang like apparitions of sheer speed. Her skills were honed and her mind alert, but even at her best she wasn't this fast. She was taking a hit to her Aura every second. It would bolster her semblance, but only if she survived!

With the fist gripping his blade, Adam finished with a slam to her jaw. She fell back, catching herself towards the end of the bridge with three limbs.

"Give the people of Mistral my warmest regards," Adam asked her, before his deadly semblance sliced the automobile's worth of bridge clean off, its occupant sinking with it.

"YANG!" Blake shrieked… but as she followed her partner's progress, she saw a whip latch below.

Yang barely believed as the freckled hand reached for her, and she took it with her left. She, Ilia and the bit of steel shorn off swung as the stranger grunted with exertion. She noted half of Gambol Shroud, safe on her belt.

"H-hey… need a h—?"

"Okay, thanks for the save and all, freckles, but I will break your arm if you finish that joke."

Ilia stared at Yang's arm, flashing pink. "O-oh… I didn't mean it like that… C-can you let go of the dead weight?"

Yang took a glance below herself, seeing that she had indeed held onto the bit of staircase fallen with her. One perk of her new arm, it didn't tire out, and in general she was strong enough to handle the weight. This new girl however…

She nearly let the mass go, but considered. "Can you hold out a minute longer? I have an idea."

Up above, Blake and Adam looked down upon the scene, enraptured and enraged respectively as she returned to her feet on the mid tier of the bridge under him up top.

"Looks like humans and faunus can work pretty well toget—"

Adam surged down at her, granting no quarter as she met his fevered swings with shadows until she retrieved Gambol Shroud's cleaver sheath. Beneath, she heard the sound of Yang's guns. A spared glance and she saw the two sweep past, one way, then the other. Yang couldn't draw enough momentum from there. Unless…

She wove around Adam as he plunged and swiped, and her evasive strategy just kept her out of Wilt's reach.

"Fight me like a faunus!" he demanded, rending through a set of steps as Blake vaulted over it. "Quit slipping off like a COWARD!"

His patience ended, he spun into a whirling storm, tearing steel apart to tatters until even Blake Belladonna was pressed against a sidelong staircase. She crouched low as her sheath warded off the blows, but only just. At last, her weapon was knocked aside, still in her hands as they sought balance on the spindly steps. Adam's blade sank low…

She winced as the jagged, broken point circled her stomach, and the scar. Red arcs of power snapped from the sword's jagged end.

"When I gave you this, I gave you a promise. Sad to say, you won't see it fulfilled."

She saw his arms swing back as the red glow filled him, fit to split her across. She heard the pair below swing behind her. Blake braced, willing Adam to get on with it already… She couldn't move.

Adam's blade lashed out with all the force he could muster. Blake was split apart at the navel, flickering and drifting as she vanished.

"Sorry to make you a liar," Blake said from behind him, as her work played out.

With the bottom-most supports buckled by Adam's attack, the half of the bridge dangling behind them swiftly bowed ninety degrees, steel shrieking as Blake held tight. Sensing the shift, Yang kicked off the bottom at the height of her inward swing, shotgun blasts emitting every second.

With the slashed half of the bridge dangling at nearly ninety degrees —and Ilia's whip latched on near its end— the length of Yang's swing and the momentum gained were sharply increased…

Blake had needed Adam to go for the kill… the timing was necessary for Yang. She couldn't move, lest he not damage the bridge how she needed…

Adam barely turned to meet Blake's defiant eyes as Yang rose up behind her like the Sun… Her eyes were red, she burned with power, carrying a veritable meteor of steel.

"RAGHHHHH!"

Yang slammed the metal mass into Adam with all her might, and at last their bridge buckled as steel rent, and the Usurper of the White Throne flared red as his Aura died. Steel screeched at the arch supports as the bridge began to crumble and fall, piping and planks raining down.

Blake caught Ilia as she fell short of any handhold, in turn receiving the other half of her weapon. They leapt and swung and blasted their way back to the safety of the anchored platforms.

But then there was a scream as they reached near their destination. Looking back, Blake and Yang saw that Adam had caught Ilia as she passed by the hair, preparing to gut her…

"Tr… aitor…!"

In a flash, several things happened. Blake's ribbon clapped around his wrist, and with this opening, Ilia pulled the trigger on her whip. Adam spasmed as an electric jolt ran through his unprotected body, releasing her at once and swinging free as the ribbon still gripped him.

Risking nothing, once Adam swung into range, wrist twisting to block them, both the blonde brawler and the brunette bibliophile delivered a crushing heel to the flat of the blade and into his yet masked face.

Adam's mask and sword disintegrated as the force threw him back over the railings, skidding across metal plates only to slam heavily into the opposite rail twenty feet past. The railing buckled, molding to his shape as he was made to lean against it in a heap. He groaned, disoriented, the ceramic shards falling off his face as a tired blue eye beheld his blade… little more than its hilt now.

The trio landed as the bridge fell off entirely, wind sweeping over them like a plummeting elevator passing. In seconds the sound was gone, naught but the clatter of stray pieces left.

Seconds more, and a dull roar returned from below, echoing off every surface of the Gap of Mistral as the scaffold staircase no doubt splintered upon meeting with the ground far beneath Haven.

They all looked upon Adam... Blake and Ilia almost shamefully. Yang only sported a furrowed brow, curiosity overtaking caution. Bulma and Krillin rounded the corner, the former stopping in her tracks at the sight as Sun hobbled behind.

Adam Taurus was… handsome, or had been once. His lone blue eye was bright despite his exhaustion, almost boyish. The other eye to the left was a ruin, permanently bloodshot and faded, almost certainly blind. Faded and muddled, an angry red scar defined the left side of his face and forehead. Lines running parallel to frame the letters between: 'SDC.' A brand. Any that might have questioned the firebrand's fervor need only look upon it; the picture that told a thousand words.

"Surrender, Adam," Blake demanded, stepping forward towards the fangless beast. "It's finished."

He looked her in the eye, wrinkles in his forming, the veins in his neck protruding as he struggled to get up, uselessly. "Finished?! And what… about the revolution?! What about JUSTICE?!" he screeched, the word lingering as it echoed.

Blake thought back… to a long time ago. To an exchange that set her on the path that led them all here.

She turned her back, only glancing behind at him as she answered. "What about them…?"

Adam stared, the only one present who could appreciate those words for what they were, as Blake walked away, past her friends, glimpsing the monkey boy as he caught up. She hurried towards him…

"N-no…!" he grumbled darkly, eyes darting around. And then he saw it, within his reach, discarded by the poor demolition girl who fell from this spot…

"HEY! DROP IT!" Yang ordered, Blake whipping around to see Adam holding a small device with a covered red button. A detonator.

Adam coughed as he laughed. "Or WHAT?! You'll kill me?! You had your chance! It's not how I preferred it, Blake, but there's plenty of room in hell, for ALL OF US!"

He prepared to hit the trigger, when Bulma laughed. He paused, teeth bared.

"Bit late for that! Me and Ilia went all over this place and took the huff out of your puff. That thing might set off a garage door somewhere, but—"

Incapable of much else, Adam growled as he hit the trigger regardless, crushing the device as he did.

...And to their horror, a rapid series of beeps accompanied red flashes of LED light from the large duffle nestled against the structure. A bag filled with unused charges, with a single unplanted charge armed and idle at the top of the pile.

Ilia acted before any of them, as Adam reached for Blush. Like lightning, her whip snapped around the bag's handle, and she whirled it once around her head before another snap sent it flying directly at the mad bull. Before he could fully raise his weapon, the mass of unexploded ordnance hit him in the chest, and the weak steel behind him gave way. It, and Adam Taurus, slipped over the edge as Blake shrieked. She was barely held back by Yang and Bulma, as Ilia stood frozen to watch it play out in shock.

Krillin was too surprised to move even while Adam howled, but snapped to attention and leapt clear over everyone's heads, diving after—

The burst of heat and noise that erupted from below was enough to rattle all of Haven, let alone their perch in its understructure as they held each other for dear life.

Beyond their sight, the blast would have engulfed a football field. The handle of Wilt spun off from the angry red cloud at the center, the echo of its owner, while the cacophony of the detonation rang endlessly through Mistral. Adam had taken but one life in the course of it.

Krillin hung in midair, staring down into it all. He'd been too stunned to act in time. "Senseless…"

Blake peered down, numb. In an instant a thousand feelings fought for facetime. Adam was gone. It was over. The day she feared most had come, and she emerged free. She never had to look over her shoulder again. She would never see him again…

She would never see him again

Blake slammed her eyes shut and turned away, hands on her elbows as she shambled back.

Yang stared ruefully into the abyss. Like that, it was done. So sudden, unexpected… yet the fated encounter passed with her as the victor. So this was revenge? She wasn't sorry the bastard was gone, caught in the midst of another killing spree… but there was no satisfaction. His damage hadn't been undone, and the phantom of her right arm ached as her left tremored. She'd done what she had to, for Haven. For Sun. For Blake.

She blinked, looking up to see— "Hold up, since when could you fly?!" she demanded of Krillin, still hanging in midair.

"Is that a problem…?" he asked, unsure.

Blake ignored it all, eyes still shut… Inwardly, she was glad there was no cheer of celebration. She didn't think she could take that. Nobody present truly understood. They had, all of them, only met the thing that replaced the boy. Eager to prove himself, to fight for freedom and justice… whatever hadn't been a calculated lie she recalled admiring and adoring. Well, none had known Adam but—

"B-Blake…"

Her amber eyes opened, falling upon Ilia, both hands on her weapon which clattered in her shaking grasp. Ilia's eyes brimmed and overflowed. "I-I'm sorry…! H-He wasn't going t-to stop! He was never going to STOP!"

Her face twisted as she nearly collapsed, tears flowing freely, but Blake caught her as they dropped to a kneel. Just as quickly, a weight settled on her back as golden hair entered her peripheral vision, a reassuring hand on her shoulder. Ilia buried her face in Blake's collar, sobbing uncontrollably. "I know…" Blake told her, barely above a whisper as her own eyes burned.

Bulma flanked them all from the side, a hand seeking real estate on either faunus' shoulder. "It's okay," Bulma whispered with well-meaning ignorance. "He can't hurt you anymore. You'll never see him again."

Blake couldn't blame her. Even she who had lived it could scarcely understand.

She repeated. "I know…"

Blake burst into tears.

Two fingers reached out, and the bright snowflakes dotted the CCT in a line. Weiss and Ruby both looked upon the sight with unease. For Weiss, this had been the prelude to seeing Ruby conscious for the last time until this very day, and the news that they'd all lost another friend. For Ruby, it was the moment before she arrived to a waking nightmare, where friends were gone forever, the world was in chaos, her sister was broken and bitter and angry and she had to weather it utterly alone…

"Ruby…?" Weiss asked, getting the redhead's attention. "Don't… don't leave me this time, okay?"

Ruby couldn't help but smile at her sincerity. "You either."

Weiss smiled back, puckishly. "Right."

Ruby grabbed Neptune's hand. "C'mon, Nep'!" But she stopped before she could take off, glancing at their hands. "Don't make this weird…"

Neptune shrugged. "You're the one who just called me 'Nep.' "

"Don't make that weird either."

Before he could respond, she tightened her grip, and Neptune was pulled alongside her into a scarlet smear streaked with bits of sky blue. They ricocheted between the tower's wooden braces before planting upon Weiss' glyphs and seemingly rematerializing as human beings running up the walls.

The cloudlike projectiles swirling around the tower took exception to this intrusion, breaking ranks to home in from the left side with a burst of speed.

Neptune was on point, however, shifting his trident into its rifle form and zapping the errant things from the air. "What even are these things?!"

Ruby caught the spares, the reach of Crescent Rose useful in swatting them. "I-I dunno, fire-tipped steam rounds with some kinda guidance—? TWELVE O'CLOCK!" she cried, grabbing Neptune again suddenly as Mercury himself peered over the top and emptied the clip of his left boot down at them.

With a whirl and a shout from Neptune, Ruby summoned her semblance again, spiraling clockwise up the tower at odds with the existing silver swarm. She determined in what she'd seen that the missiles couldn't turn on a dime, so with this last gasp they orbited the gleaming lighthouse-like core of the tower and twirled over the top, hurling Neptune at Mercury with a yelp.

Neptune made to stick the attack… only for Mercury to sidestep him with a gentle roundhouse kick to propel him off the other side of the tower with his own momentum. Mercury was even fast enough to twist and cross his arms against Ruby's own feet diving in at his face. She watched Neptune sail off with concern for the split second before Mercury shoved her back into the air and fired shot after shot, forcing her to turtle up against the assault as she was struck again and again—

'*ZOT-ZOT!*'

Mercury doubled over as he was shot in the back by azure plasma bolts, he and Ruby turning to see Neptune quite recovered, astride a giant gleaming white hornet that rose from below and began circling the tower.

"What?!" Mercury cried.

"Whaaaaaaaaat!" Ruby drawled appreciatively, looking down to confirm her suspicions.

Indeed, Weiss' blade was raised as she commanded the spectral lancer, shaking her head with a sigh. "Still cleaning up after you… glad to see things haven't changed."

With a nod, Ruby swooped back in, catching Mercury in the side and punting him off the tower. But this only waylaid him for a moment, righting himself and launching back with a pair of blasts from his boots.

As soon as he touched down a melee took shape on the tiny arena, Ruby forced frequently to engage her semblance and prod for openings as the literal foot-soldier paradoxically rooted himself to the spot. If Crescent Rose had a weakness up close, it was in its reach. While Ruby could short-staff it up close, its size limited this, and the barehanded Mercury could reach under the deadly scythe and knock its staff away before it reached him. It was an intimidating thing to try, reaching a limb in where a single tug from the crimsonette could amputate it… but Mercury Black was a trained killer, and it would require more than the huge weapon's shock and awe factor to prevent him exploiting i—

"ARGH!" Mercury cried in surprise in the midst of another parry as Ruby changed tact, the previously fixed scythe blade collapsing in to nestle against the staff as the weapon shifted. He'd been caught above the wrist, his Aura flashing as he pulled it away before it could be caught in the mechanism. He only got a glimpse as he realized the weapon had shortened into some kind of bulky rifle, before a blue flash caught him in the stomach and he staggered back.

He heard the scythe change form again and took up a stance, but only saw her standing there with the weapon in one hand like a walking stick. She glared at him.

"You know you're on the wrong side, right?" She asked, eyes fixed on his.

Mercury scoffed. "I'm on the winning side, short stack. That's all that matters."

Her eyes narrowed. "When you figure out you're wrong, I'm gonna remember you said that."

Finally, Weiss Schnee found the opening, as Ruby got them to stand still…

Mercury felt it coming, weaving to the side as a stinger like a harpoon speared past him.

Ruby gasped as it stopped two feet short of her, falling onto her backside. Looking up, Mercury had seized the stinger's spool in his hand, the remainder of it going slack.

"You've got to be kidding!" Weiss muttered under her breath, assessing the feat from below.

Mercury only gave Ruby a sinister smile as he let the stinger retract, his boot catching under the single barb and using it as a foothold before he let it carry him off.

Neptune, still aboard the luminescent beast, prepared as he saw what was coming, switching his rifle to the halfway form between his trident, a split leaf halberd. The assassin rode the stinger all the way up in seconds, stepping off just before it went taut and rising up from behind the lancer.

He came down on top of Neptune with a hammer kick, blocked by the halberd's staff, but causing the lancer to sway from the impact regardless. Neptune took a chance and electrified his blade as Mercury landed close to the hornet's head. The halberd swung, and as Mercury's boot met it he recoiled with a grunt of pain as he stumbled, whole leg twitching.

Rather than capitalizing, Neptune's eyes widened. "That worked?! Man, you picked a bad day to decide on steel-toe boots."

Mercury's teeth grit at the fool's ignorance. He'd already had enough of this one. If he couldn't easily attack HIM…

It was too easy. Without even getting up, he blasted one of the lancer's buzzing wings and both of them were tipped off the fuzzy body as it spiraled out of control.

Ruby dove out of the way, dropping to the tower's balcony ring as the lancer smashed to ethereal smoke upon the precipice. She gasped as she saw Neptune drop lower. He managed to slam his blade into the tower's side as he fell, grinding to a stop halfway down and spraying plaster. He stared back up, doing several pull ups as he tried to free his weapon.

Mercury landed on the balcony, knees bent, and slowly rose to full height. His eyes met Ruby's as she stood ready. "Two on one didn't go so great with you and Emerald… and 'tween you and me, Em's a bit soft."

He struck like a cobra, and Ruby could only defend herself so well against his onslaught, feet striking her arms and knees in rapid succession and creating an opening to kick her flat on her back.

"Bit too reliant on that sneaky semblance of hers," he continued, as if nothing had happened. "See, everyone assumes I have my semblance, because… come on, I make it look easy… But no. Old Man Black thought that was a distraction, and his little party trick was locking people out of their semblances… for as long as he saw fit."

Ruby went on the offensive, dashing along the safety rail and zipping back across with a slash. He bent low, missing the blade entirely before grabbing her across the shoulder and knocking her head into the glass casing of the tower's core. She saw spots as it cracked before a round kick sent her colliding painfully with the railing sideways, which she gripped quickly to keep from falling flat again.

She caught her breath as Mercury stood.

"Hypocrite that he was, his semblance meant the guys he killed had to play his game on pure skill, like he played it. He had that luxury. I had no choice!"

Ruby raised Crescent Rose weakly in her favored hand, but a sudden blast from Mercury blew it over the side and out of sight.

"Now, neither do you."

Lie Ren circle-strafed the giant with fire, as a torrent of frost followed close behind. He leapt behind a shrub planter as he hurled Stormflower like boomerangs through the ice, catching the massive hand as they were encased. Hazel recoiled, if only for a moment, before turning his right hand on the frozen cover and advancing.

It seemed Hazel was no fool, as the icy stone subjected to sudden intense heat caused Ren's cover to explode into shrapnel, bowling him over the grass as he cried out.

"Ren!" Jaune shouted, charging Hazel's position with his shield raised as Oscar drafted low behind him, for reasons that became apparent as soon as a stream of brilliant flame surged upon them.

Together they fought their way closer until, like a screw, Oscar rose out of the flames with his truncheon spinning. He aimed a thrust directly at the man's eyes… but a gorilla-like hand closed around much of his forearm.

"You blinded me once, old man… never again!"

Oscar bellowed as he was flung without mercy against the pavement, but Hazel didn't leave it at that. He was slammed again… and again.

But Jaune was still inbound, his smoking shield lowered as he began his atta—

Hazel seamlessly turned his next slam into a toss, and Jaune had little choice but to duck as Oscar bounced heavily off his shield and over his head. Both slid to a stop, but Jaune found himself directly under the man. He raised his sword, but a boot swiped into his wrist, flinging it away from anyone on the battlefield. On his back, Jaune brought the shield up in warding as another foot came down upon it. Barely keeping himself from being crushed outright, he wheezed as the wind was knocked out of him. Another kick, and the shield was also punted away. Hazel Reinhardt prepared to crush the life from him.

Through Oscar's eyes, Ozpin looked up in horror at the sight, before something clattered beside him. He dared himself a glance. "Oh dear…"

Hazel's foot came down.

'*KUCHINK*'

"ARGHHH!" Hazel roared, Aura barely dulling the shot striking him between the eyes. He staggered back, clutching his face before glimpsing through his fingers to see the cause. It was hardly a treat for the rest of them either, Hazel's semblance broadcasting his pain as to make them all reel and see spots…

There stood Oscar, cane twirling in his right hand… Crescent Rose in his left, barrel smoking.

In fury, Hazel's fingers interlocked as Jaune scurried away, ultimately bringing them down as he let loose both extremes from his Dust-enhanced limbs. Crystals of ice accompanied molten stone vomiting from below as it rippled out.

Oscar cracked the ground beneath him as the whirling staff planted down, propelling him into the air and over the elemental wave. The tip of the great scythe embedded into an already melting spear of ice, and with a thought, it snapped into war-scythe mode, the buried blade immobile as the staff he held became a catapult. Firing the weapon as the head and rifle aligned, the ice exploded as the combined forces turned Crescent Rose into a mechanical pole vault aid and flung Oscar forward at several times the speed.

Expecting a slower target, Hazel's arms missed as the blurred boy, blade and bludgeon buzzed overhead. The blunt head of Crescent Rose smashed him in the temple, and the rooted giant stumbled as he lost focus. Oscar landed behind him with his teeth grinding, the scythe snapping back into form as he shot it back, hooking Hazel's one planted leg and chucking his cane at the back of the man's head like a spear.

The added encouragement brought Hazel staggering forward as Oscar pulled with all his strength, the caught leg shooting out as Crescent Rose tugged it out from beneath and sent him falling flat on his front.

Oscar caught his rebounding cane before moving in, feet planting on the giant's shoulders as the scythe's edge slipped under his thick neck. The boy held it taut, wincing as he felt every scrape of the blade himself...

"This weapon belongs to one such as you, Hazel! A gentle soul who would take any course before she took a life. A soul, likely in peril as long as I expend precious time consorting with you!"

Hazel regained his senses, immobile. He groaned with effort, his arms incapable of reaching behind himself as he was. When he tried to heft himself up, Jaune and Ren pounced on his wrists, holding him down.

Ozpin continued. "I don't want to spoil this blade with the blood of a living man, I don't want to bring the Reinhardt name to a sudden, ultimate end… but I shall if you make it so."

Hazel went utterly still, breathing hard. "I see… the Silver Eyed girl. You… destroyed her kin no less than mine… if only she could know what fate you resigned her mother to…"

They all blinked. "Ruby's…?" Jaune began.

Oscar's teeth gnashed, grip tightening. "What are you talking about…?"

"I think you know… deep down… I think you've always suspected," Hazel continued vaguely.

"Enough!" Ozpin demanded, suddenly incensed. "You think such aimless taunts will distract me?"

"I think if you're absent such fears, you'll find them quite… founded…"

Oscar cycled the weapon. "One more lie, and I'll have your head!"

"Then TAKE IT!" he demanded. "Complete your BETRAYAL!"

Oscar stood immobile. Whatever literal conflict stirred within him faded promptly. Instead he cried out as he raised the cane and took aim for Hazel's crown.

But with a roar, Hazel moved at a speed unthinkable for a man of his size, Jaune and Ren dragged as his arms shot in to shove himself off the ground. Oscar barely gripped Crescent Rose one-handed as he was flung back, and the scythe was brushed away from his neck almost casually to throw him off entirely. Ren slumped off at this as Jaune held on to draw his sword, the other massive hand grabbed his wrists, which allowed the other to grip his calves. He raised Jaune high, prepared to break the blonde's very back upon his knee...

This was BAD.

Ruby knew she was all but useless without a weapon, and given their last encounter, so did Mercury. He even visibly relaxed, forgetting for a moment that he'd remained cold and calculating throughout the ordeal.

"I guess here's as good a place as any to babysit 'till boss comes back. Supposed to take you alive, but that's just because she wants to do you herself."

She looked around, weighing her options. Hoping to be saved was a bad one. Even if she knew hand to hand, challenging Mercury's greatest strength with her worst weakness wasn't much better. Behind him strobed the CCT core, but trashing it to save her own skin was no plan at all. By the same token, retreat only left a fox in Haven's henhouse.

Her eyes scanned her surroundings… and she glimpsed something, looking sharply away as she did. Mercury noticed, glimpsing as he sighed, twisting his neck and cracking the bones within.

"Or I can beat some soft spots into you first… your call, kid."

At that moment it plunked down towards the spot where Ruby had stared, rattling steel as a current ran through it: Neptune's trident.

"URGH!" Mercury growled, leaping straight up as he took a licking from the volts. Ruby leapt to her feet, suddenly very thankful for her choice in footwear. Boots with thick rubber soles had their advantages. She ran toward the weapon.

A crack of gunfire made her wince as the trident was struck and spun over the side. She saw him in the corner of her eye and slipped back towards the railing as he landed with a slam. Plan A it is.

"I hope your friend's man enough," Mercury began, sending a shot her way as he advanced, but evasion was something she could do well enough without her scythe, "to come up here again! Can't kill you, but…" he trailed ominously as she found her back against the rail. For a moment she cowered… but no… that wouldn't work. She made to throw a feeble punch.

Mercury punished it, foot shooting out to smash her as his weapon fired.

But as her fist raised, her other hand pulled herself back over the railing in a misdirecting feint. His attack instead found the junction box, and more specifically, the pigtail of wires feeding down to Haven Hall. Given the nature of the CCT, most of this was fiber optics for telecommunications, and conducted no electrical current.

But the center of these held a live wire for everything else the CCT needed.

Mercury didn't even scream as his Aura and body were overtaken, paralyzed as his own nervous system took marching orders from white noise and flailed without agency. His torment was over almost as soon as it began as the wires severed by his gun began to fall away.

But Ruby seized the opportunity, and the cable, tying a knot around the young assassin's leg as he went limp. With a hard tug, she dragged him over the edge.

She saw her target below. With the cable linked to a corner of the much shorter Haven Hall, Mercury wouldn't swing so much as fall like a sack of potatoes. And indeed, fall they did… however…

"Sorry to cut this short!" Ruby half-quipped, waiting until the right height to dash against the tower wall, skid against it, and then kick off, grabbing the slack of the cable as she whirled towards the spot above the Hall. "I know it hertz!"

She missed Yang...

In pulling the cable taut and dashing this way, she effectively became the pivot point for Mercury's —even as he began to regain his faculties— to swing away from the tower and towards Hazel's unsuspecting back.

"RGGLLLLLL!" he roared, his Aura flaring like the Northern Lights as the electrical current tagged him, dropping Jaune in a heap in front of him. Hazel reached for Mercury like a particularly loathsome mosquito and hurled him bodily into the base of the tower, the steely foot slipping free of Ruby's hastily made macramé.

Ruby landed upon the corner of Haven Hall in time to glimpse her work, but it didn't end there. She gasped as Hazel twisted around, livid in search of his assailant only to find Oscar, still on his back. Crescent Rose sat idle, and the giant scooped it up as readily as a machete, raising it high for the deathstroke.

But something clapped onto his back yet again. It was Jaune, the end of the cable in his hand, still spitting sparks. Without a moment's hesitation, wincing in anticipation of what came next, Jaune jammed the cable into the piercing red Dust crystal. The whites of Hazel's eyes went huge.

There was a flash before Jaune and Crescent Rose were flung in separate directions as a thick red blast engulfed the man's right side.

Several of those in sight of it cried out in sudden, splitting agony as they felt Hazel's pain, like their arms had been impaled by flaming spears. A few of them fell over completely, tears budding. Even Ruby, who Hazel had been unaware of, felt a debilitating blast of fire, like her other arm had been dislocated this time.

Once they could bear to open them, all eyes all locked in silent shock as the ruddy fog cleared. Hazel too stared at his right arm, seemingly unable to say anything. Or he would have, if much of an arm had remained.

Well above the elbow, there was only a raw, ragged ashen mass of muscle. He slumped to his knees with surprising calm, cradling it, his mouth agape.

In particular, Ozpin couldn't help but notice that Hazel's semblance was no longer needling them. It was fairly clear, apart even from his own tolerance for pain: his body had gone into shock.

"O-oh god…" Ruby breathed. It wasn't the worst sight she'd ever laid eyes on… but it was among the most gruesome.

Blinking, she dropped down. "Jaune! Oscar! Are you guys oka—?!"

But then she found it, her beloved scythe with its point sticking out of the wall. It was unharmed. In fact, it even had a grisly new feature.

"Oh ew ew ew ew ew ew ew ew…!" Ruby repeated like a mantra, and in yet further Zen-like behavior, tried to pry off the fingers clutching her weapon without touching them.

"Hey Ruby!" Neptune shouted, dropping the rest of the way down as he retrieved his own weapon and jogged over. "I didn't catch all that, how'd you ggggggyyyyyeeeeeergh?!"

Neptune recoiled in disgust at the huge torn-off hand still gripping Crescent Rose, thankfully cauterized and therefore not exsanguinating all over her precious scythe.

Neptune realized how his reaction probably looked and made an effort to compose himself. "Okay, h-hold on hold on, let me…"

Ruby blinked in surprise as he made his own effort to remove it.

"O-Okay…! Just uh…!" Neptune began, fumbling and shaking as he pried his own fingers under… "See, a… *Hurkk…!*" His cheeks bulged, doubling over a moment. "A lady shouldn't h-have to deal w-with…"

"I-it's okay, I'm not 'a lady…' " Ruby uttered, wishing it would stop.

"N-No, I…" Neptune steeled himself, putting his all into peeling the thing away, finally freeing it and holding it as though it were the tail of a plague rat. He spun on the spot, before sighting Hazel. "HERE THIS IS YOURS!"

Hazel barely blinked, still seemingly in shock as his limb flopped to the ground in front of him. Ruby stood bemused as Neptune bolted for a corner to be sick. She glimpsed Ren, Jaune and Oscar uneasily picking themselves up. And again, there stood the mountain of a man, still.

Ruby only considered for a second or so, before collapsing her weapon and approaching the man.

"Ruby, wait!" Ozpin warned, barely able to catch her as she neared. She turned her gaze upon him as Oscar's hand clapped her shoulder.

"Professor… please."

When he said nothing, she strode forward and away, reaching into her pack. The great bronzed man barely acknowledged her presence. She pulled out a small spray bottle and a roll of gauze.

"Sir… sir? Can you hear me? You're really hurt."

She carefully held out her hand within his field of vision, thumb rubbing against her fingers to make a soft sound as she gently waved. Hazel blinked, eyes rising to meet her.

"Yes," he croaked.

"I don't have much, but I want to help you… will you let me do that?"

His eyes narrowed. "Why…?"

"Uh… yeah," Jaune added from behind Hazel. "You saw he just tried to kill us, right?"

She frowned. "Because… he's not doing any more fighting like this," she argued, meeting Hazel's eye. "Right? You're done."

Hazel closed his eyes, nodding, and Ruby immediately got to work. He groaned as the antiseptic spray doused the wound. "You should just kill me."

She started in on his shoulder with the wrappings. "What happens later isn't up to me… You've done wrong… you'll pay for your crimes."

"It's even odds however Salem goes about fixing this… You've seen one method she uses for 'healing' her servants. I don't envy that."

Ruby recalled Cinder's monstrous limb, nodding. "You sound pretty sure you'll escape to her."

Hazel seemed to cough, but an instant later she recognized it as a bark of laughter. " 'Escape,' " he repeated. "Falling in with Salem… marks a man. Nothing can keep her from you but the icy grip of death. A cell in Mistral would be far preferable to returning in disgrace at her feet."

Ruby had little to say to that. It only made sense that a Queen of Grimm ruled through fear. "One of yours… Adam… did this to my sister. I wasn't awake to help her through this part."

"Hmm," Hazel uttered, nodding. "I'm familiar with the boy. I don't care for him."

Ruby finished the dressing. "You're lucky. The fire caught-her-eyes'd most of it. You won't bleed out."

"Cauterized?" he offered.

"That's what I said."

He huffed, the corner of his mouth twitching. "The Old Man was right to venerate you."

Ruby tilted her head. "He what?"

He ignored her. "Just don't let your desire to do good blind you. Ozpin is no man to trust with a life."

"I'm not doing this for Ozpin."

"Heh… good."

Raven zipped left and right, evading the colossal sword and meeting the granular fist with her own arcane punch, blasting it apart. Problem was, this was only a stopgap as Cinder possessed unlimited material to reform it.

The dispersed sand swarmed her in a ravaging wind fit to strip bark. She'd learned to freeze Cinder's smaller missiles, and thanked the gods for her powers being magical and not merely elemental. This desert dimension was so arid, she doubted that she could have drawn water from the air to freeze, rather than conjure it outright like she was.

The glassy sword sank into the sand beside her, and she latched on as it was pulled back up. Her own blade was nearly useless in this encounter for the fluid nature of Cinder's colossus.

The elemental lifted the blade high, its burning orange eye of glass appraising it as Raven prepared to lob the thing's hand off at the wrist. But a rumble was the only sign she received before she was struck from below by a thousand piercing spears and hurled into the air.

She was very very glad Aura was a thing that existed, looking down. It was a bad hit, but nothing compared to what she'd experience otherwise. Below, she saw that the cobbled glass blade had erupted to become more of a spiked club. She'd have been skewered by crystalline spears.

Still airborne, like a demigod, she raised a hand to the sky as she grew wrathful. There was a crack and roar in the sky, and as her hand cast down at Cinder a lash of lightning split the air.

The thing seemed to wince as multiple sustained arcs traced chaotic lines across its body, vein-like burns of blackened glass forming as a hand reached out to shield itself. Sheer luck, the glowing eye was struck, cracking and bursting like a lightbulb.

"Argh…!" Cinder groaned, her speaker echoing as Raven landed. "Not bad, Raven, but we BOTH know it's futile here! To kill me, you'd have to FIND me first."

"Really?" Raven answered, the hulking thing turning towards her voice. "I don't think so… but cling to that hope if it makes you feel better. If you've resorted to hiding and gimmicks like this, then I've already beaten you."

Cinder said nothing, instead looming over her to crush her under the suffocating weight of the mass.

Raven finally called upon her blade, but instead her left hand reached under her scabbard cycler. Now was as good a time as any. She switched it to emergency purge mode.

Aiming the mouth of her scabbard, the device suddenly became a gatling Dust thrower, emptying her revolving stores of Dust blades in seconds to pepper the sand giant from head to toe.

"Rrrrghfff!" The form of the goliath was disturbed as wind blew holes through it. Fire melted pockets of it. Icy rivulets ran through it, stone displaced it… and all burst with power. The grainy golem fell apart into a neat, unassuming mound, the finer dust blowing over the infinite dunes as silence overtook the battlefield.

Raven dared to take a step forward. "I'm not buying this ruse. And if it's not a ruse, keep me out of your last thoughts. I want nothing that was ever yours—"

And then, in an instant, she was sucked beneath the sands. Her Aura was assaulted from every possible side, and though it held, she couldn't filter air from the thick sediment. She summoned every ounce of will and used every method she could to keep calm as she was ripped through the darkness.

Like a bomb, she unleashed every store of magic she possessed, and the sand around her detonated as she launched skyward.

Now.

Raven hit the gas and almost literally rocketed away towards the exit, smashing through the glass obstruction that blocked it and scattering shards across the glowing path outside. Cinder's golem reformed, rising from the ocean of silt, and even like this her body slouched in stunned amusement. "Really? All that tough talk, and you RUN, rather than finish your work?!"

Raven touched down, the cooler air of the cavern a welcome sensation. She turned on her heel, a hand on the doorframe. She gave a crooked smile… and then the frame began to move. If Cinder's colossus could have held any expression, its mouth would gape with fear.

"It's not as intimate, no… but for what you did? I'd rather you starved to death!"

"NO!" Cinder's voice box screeched, the sand exploding in a storm, a single tendril of desert reaching across the endless dunes. "NO nO No No nOoooOo!"

Raven pressed both hands against the frame, willing it to work faster. One by one, like a hand fan, panels rotated out of the walls like ticking second hands on a grand clock. Bit by bit, the portal to Haven was growing smaller, as was Cinder's hope of surviving this trap. She'd been played, allowed to wander so far from safety when Raven held the only key. She'd suspected Ozpin had laid some kind of trap. That Raven WAS the trap had never occurred to her.

"YOu cAn't! I'Ll Kill yOU! I'LL KILL YOU!"

Raven urged the panels to shut faster, staring out at the sandstorm. Extending a hand, she unleashed a storm of her own, sleet and lightning, pressing back and sloughing off the layers of silt and sediment. It wasn't much, but it was slowing the unseen Maiden down.

"D-don't worry!" Raven told her. "I'll let everyone know you're down here… on my deathbed!"

"RottEn WhoRe!"

The last of the panels were shutting the realm off once more, until the next Spring Maiden might seek its missing treasure. Cinder shouted, fighting for her life as her speaker distorted into furious noise. Raven heard it less and less, the Rogue Maiden's voice slowly snuffed out alongside its owner…

But as the final panel sealed, a fiery blur slipped through, landing a bus length outside her would-be tomb. She twisted, eyes alight… to find nothing. Cinder stared around for her foe, teeth grinding, eyes wide from her lethal encounter. Finally, drawing her eye, she found a lone black feather fluttering down.

And then a weight was on her shoulder.

Cinder barely turned to see blood red eyes as a palm clapped over her face, and her very flesh froze over. Literally.

Face locked in surprise, Raven's arm followed through, toppling her over the side of the great bridge in a slow spin. Cinder Fall was carried off into darkness in seconds, stiff as a brick. Where, Raven neither knew nor cared. It wasn't worth the effort even to expunge the awful woman for certain.

"Hmm… no question where she had sand," Raven jeered idly. "Besides everywhere." She allowed herself a calming breath before shaking her head. "Ugh… Yang's rubbing off on me."

She sheathed the hilt of her odachi, working at the device for a moment. She'd expended all her Dust blades, but she always kept a final Affinitite blade locked in for emergency getaways. Affinitite was a byproduct of Dust refinement, but it served as the perfect conduit for certain unusual semblances, known for its blood-red gleam.

Raven paused for a moment, frowning, humorless as she swiped the blade in resignation. She knew that one anchor was certainly go—

The black and red vortex sucked into being, and Raven gasped. She was alive!

Not pausing a moment more, she leapt through the portal and before Vernal, huddled and bleeding against the stairs of Haven Hall. Her eyes were open, and they drifted up to find her with a smile.

"Y-y… You won…" she managed, wincing, her eyelids dipping. "I knew you'd…"

Raven dropped down, inspecting the wound, utter fear on her face. "Rufina, stop that, you'll make it worse by talking."

"H-heh…" the younger woman smiled. "We both know it's too late… for…"

Raven summoned red power into her hand, crackling overtop the wound. "Please…"

"You know you could never heal with the power…" Vernal reminded her.

Raven's eyes winced. "He gave the powers to help people! It's magic, it can't just be to destr—"

Vernal's hand closed over her own. "I-it's… it's okay… The decoy… the plan worked…"

"I was supposed to protect you… when..."

Vernal took a ragged breath. "That's… not the point of a… body...guard… But I was glad not to be myself while it lasted… I was happy to be your Vernal…"

Raven shook, eyes welling, ready to speak when something fiery shot out the top of the elevator shaft, arcing to a landing across from them with a slam. Eye literally aglow, Cinder stood, her face twisted in rage. The Maiden tearsign burned, her hands full of vengeful magics. She was sopping wet in places and still half frozen in others, though her arcane fury was swiftly rectifying that as she literally steamed herself dry.

"Just… DIE!"

Her hands were thrown forward, and Raven could never have prepared for it, the river of crimson power headed for her scorched the tile as it passed.

But in this case, Raven didn't need to be prepared. She grabbed her blade and swiped towards the oncoming storm of death, a portal forming before them… and a second tearing open a few feet beside them. Rufina's mere presence had saved her twice.

Cinder barely understood what was happening as her attack was swallowed by the portal, suddenly barreling at her from an angle before she was hit by what felt like an oncoming train made of magma. She was carried off by her own power like a bug on a windshield. There was a splintering of wood as she struck the huge double doors and the combined forces blew them off their hinges.

The Rogue Maiden knew daylight as she sailed across the quad at an angle to ultimately crash into and destroy the central water fountain, stone spraying as surely as water. There was silence as she sat, disoriented against the now crooked Haven ornament fixed at the fountain's middle. Somehow her Aura was still there after all of this. The cooling water being pumped under her confounded her senses and made her wonder for an instant if she'd soiled herself as she took stock.

Eyes darting, she saw the students staring at her, looking as confused and alert as she did.

Aside from the blob of blue, white and yellow growing larger and larger in her vision.

"YAAAAAAARGH!" Jaune Arc screamed, plunging the blade down at her heart… only for a black hand to grab it and hold it steady inches away, its owner's eyes bulging out.

The two fought for a moment, Cinder's iron clutch fit to rip Crocea Mors from his grip. As she twisted to wrench it away however, he pulled back with all his strength. Cinder's true voice yelped in pain as the razor steel split her Grimm flesh as he freed it, leaving a slice upon her inky palm and claws. The boy reeled back, off balance, and stopped himself to square up again. Cinder lifted herself up, even as she cradled her wounded hand, examining the damage and contemplating the pain. She saw the boy lift his sword, eyes peering with cold fire over the top edge of his shield.

Raven slammed a fist into the floor. Nothing was working. "I'll take you to a Kingdom hospital."

"B-boss…" the woman named Rufina groaned even as she bled.

"If I'm careful they won't even see me and they'll tend to y—"

"Raven… I-it's too… mnng…"

"Rufina shut up and let me SAVE YOU!"

"You CAN'T!"

Raven went cold. She couldn't move. She knew it was true.

Vernal… Rufina fixed her with a stare, even as she fought to keep her eyelids open. "You're… n-no… coward… and neither am I… I don't fear death. I did what was… asked… of me."

"I…"

"The weak d-die… the str… ong survive. That's the Law of Branwen…" Rufina recalled. "So in… in weakness… I'm sorry I challenged her. I… She was so quick to throw it… away… Ungrateful for… what you wanted to give h-her… wh-when I always just wished…"

She blinked as Raven leaned in, listening closely, and a glistening trickle tracked down her temple.

"...I wish I had a Mom… like you…"

Raven winced, unable to keep herself from shaking. She brushed the trickle off the poor girl's face. "You did."

In a heartbeat, Rufina let out a sigh… before going unnaturally still. Raven Branwen took a ragged breath, and repeatedly gasped in mourning.

A/N: Vernal is dead again, Merry Christmas! Or er… Non-Specific Winter Holiday!

Not quite here in time for the big day, but definitely in time to fill the gap of RWBY episodes. Not to get specific, but Volume 7 is pretty damn good so far, but it's all about how they handle the last few Chapters here, and I'm worried for so many characters and things… Yeah, there's a reason I think we ALL pretty much excitedly await the end of the annual hiatus with an equal measure of DREAD, because our favorite characters… the expendable ones anyway… are once more at risk.

Though the one I'm worried about is the one we all thought laid to rest in the first place… Somehow, zero plus one, and then subtracted back to zero… is FAR worse than the first zero… Rooster Teeth, swear to Deha and Doya (I'll explain later) if you go THAT route without a mulligan, we'll have some serious beef. But I'm hoping you KNOW that. I can see how you'd have your cinnamon bun and eat it too, here, and that's fine… but you don't get to hurt us TWICE the same way. Don't do it.

***FIRST THING'S FIRST: I have a DISCORD SERVER!***

Yes indeed, if you want a place to hang with people who love RWBY and Dragonball, I can't think of a better place… or I'd already have joined it!

Basic rules, fun, themed member roles according to user preferences! Not crowded, so don't worry about getting lost in the shuffle! A more individual experience for a more laid back setting…

HERE'S YOUR INVITE!

TPrSvY9

Ahem… Right, the chapter.

Chapter 12 was originally THIS, but nearly doubled, which is to say it was nearly 24k words and intended to put us straight into Chapter 13… which will henceforth be known as Chapter 14.

Yeah, more on that in a bit.

So yeah, maybe Vernal/Rufina's dying words were a little on the nose… because I decided that since even Rooster Teeth told us Vernal wasn't her real name, I'd give her one and tie her into a similar character. And I went with Rufio, from "Hook."

Yes, logic being that the name Rufio was a corruption of "Rufus," and the female version of that is "Rufina." Why freaking Rufio though? Well, it fits, doesn't it? From Chapter 7 there are already Lost Boys, and in "Hook" Rufio is the leader Pan left in charge once he left to grow up. Pan showing up without his memories, threatening Rufio's leadership as a stuffy adult made him defensive.

VERNAL is Raven's second in command, and basically would be the one to inherit leadership of the Tribe if not for Yang… a wannabe Huntress that's never been there, never lived the bandit life or the Branwen creed, disrespects their lifestyle and traditions… all while being fully capable of schmoozing in and accepting her birthright if she chose to, because Raven loves her. And before they met, Yang didn't even know that, nor wanted it, when Rufina Bangara (yes, Bangarang shortened, I'm a dork) secretly would have given most anything for it.

Yeah, the whole Vernal thing always bothered me, so there it is.

Backtracking… Yeah, I figured Neptune MIGHT take interest in Ruby now she's physically developed somewhat. I also figured there's little in this world that Ruby would desire LESS than this kind of attention. Not necessarily out of asexuality or anything specific… but blindsided like that, having NEVER looked at Neptune that way? And I always loved the bit in Volume 6 on the Manta, where Ruby desperately tries to deflect praise because she's FULLY aware she was the MVP of the day, and as a socially awkward nerd the attention and praise is uncomfortable.

I like how much mileage I got out of Mercury and Hazel's scenes. I'll be first to admit, Hazel is boring to choreograph, and maybe he could have done with an actual weapon… but I dunno, there might be room for that now. It always struck me as unduly dangerous that he just jabbed his biceps full of Dust, so I asked myself what would happen in the inevitable event that you overloaded one of those Dust crystals? My answer? Yeah, an M80 stuffed into your muscle tissue MIGHT result in a dismemberment…

Though honestly, I just liked Ruby being good hearted enough to try and help him in spite of his loyalties. Hate doesn't come easy to Ruby Rose, nor cruelty. I feel like that was a genuine little moment between those two characters.

Raven vs Cinder concludes, with echoes of the original fight, but capable of so much more with the Relic out of play. Giving them use of the Vault pocket dimension as a battlefield, threatening Cinder being sealed in, and all without it taking too much focus. Nope, not until the two of them have worn each other down some and Cinder gets kicked to the curb and back out among our heroes for the attrition match of the arc!

And lastly, the conclusion of Adam vs Bumblebee. No lie, I always intended it to go down like this, and the canon simply managed to meet my expectations. I even guessed that Adam had blue eyes, so all I had to change was the brand mark, because why not? Originally I wanted there to be nothing wrong with his face, for the mask to have always been a part of his mystique that suggested he was hiding something, but was merely a tool of intimidation upon a beautiful face that didn't match what was inside it. His own face WAS the real mask.

Still, LONG though it was, I'm pretty proud of how the blocking of the fight itself turned out, and as always making the fight a philosophical confrontation as well as a physical one. Yang is emboldened by her strong start to the fight, borne of her recent success against Vernal and Raven, but needs Blake's cool temperament to keep herself in check. She fights smarter, but Blake knows Adam better than her, and it takes both of them trusting each other and leaning on the other's strengths to bring it to an end.

I mentioned before that I split this chapter, and there's a reason for that…

The gap until until the next chapter might be particularly long, because in that chapter I hope to debut the very first "Transposition F" animation!

Yes… I said "animation." Not Source Filmmaker, not some weak OC-driven trailers with no production value… I mean a fleshed out 3D animation with original environmental assets I've made myself, rendered with a real production package like RWBY is, and with real ambitious effects you won't find in some video games. I mean complex particle systems, mass physics, building destruction and much much more.

While I'm definitely relying on as many fanmade character models (and video game assets, like Grimm Eclipse, FighterZ and Xenoverse) it's all animated by hand with few compromises. To save on texturing, it will be rendered in a sort of manga-style black and white with strategic use of colors like in Sin City.

Yes, since the early 2000's I've always wanted to tell stories, loved crossovers, and taught myself to write and animate in 3D. While I've dialed back my ambition to only animate important sequences, I've always been more geared towards a visual medium than writing, always been drawn to spectacle.

Not only does it have all these things going for it, but KRWBY Productions has graciously agreed to lend their vocal talents to the work. We have visuals, voices, music, and technology for all of it.

I'm actually in the midst of building a new PC to handle the grunt-work for all this, featuring (already purchased) the Ryzen 9 3950x, a 16-core processor that stands as the most powerful consumer-grade CPU on the planet, a Geforce 1080 Ti graphics card (already owned), and 64 Gigabytes of DDR4 3600 RAM to handle the memory requirements of any simulation I can throw at it! With Tyflow I'm already capable of production-grade effects on my old quad-core, and this will just be icing on the cake to smooth out production.

So you can figure something important is coming next chapter, and some of you could probably guess what… and I want it to have the fanfare to launch more such accompanying sequences, because I truly feel that much of the best bits of Transposition F will only be done justice with visuals, acting, and most importantly… music. This first one won't be an extravaganza for effects, but that's okay since I need to finalize the assets and rig the character models for animation (especially their faces) and get a handle on the very anime-style speedlines and impact/slice effects that give those hits extra oomph!

So yeah… It's all written, but this is why the next chapter might take longer than usual. My hope is, it will all be worth it.

Comments time!

alaude hibari: That's CANON Salem. Salem in this story has a different origin. Anything that was revealed in "The Lost Fable" is basically null and void, because this story was planned out well before Volume 6, and I'm going in a much different direction. And that's not to say I dislike the canon version, it's perfectly fine and finally gives Salem some presence as well as character. It's just not compatible with THIS story.

X3runner: Ooh boy… No, as Vegeta wasn't physically damaged, I don't think a Zenkai boost is applicable here. Whether Gohan has any distinct feelings over waking up one day missing his tail is decent fodder for conversation with Sun, though clearly the kid isn't going to be as broken up about it.

Yes, giving Weiss a much needed victory against a non-Grimm opponent was sorely needed. She definitely fought for it, but I didn't miss that "This is Basically RWBY" remark about her losing every one on one fight she's ever had.

Didn't we see some angry Gohan when Cinder was torturing Ruby? It wasn't long, but he was definitely in rage mode before noticing she was hurt.

Thanks as always man!

Guest1: Dende making new Dragonballs? Indeed, he's Dragon clan… but who would TEACH him that? If only we could talk to the dead somehow…

Using a whole wish on Sun's tail would be a bit overboard. You'd want to lump that in as something like "Undo any damage done by evil in the past year," especially if you want to get Salem AND Frieza's work in there. Hell, that might even give Yang her arm back. Not lives though, you'd need another wish for the lost lives.

Weiss got a FLASH of ki sense, but she isn't there yet. That bit was mostly just to suggest she WAS indeed on the right track, but that's a far cry. After all, SENSING ki requires ki to be used, if we remember what Krillin said to Gohan after the Namekian spirit bomb.

TF2 Crossover Man: For the benefit of readers, I had a nice long PM conversation with him regarding this post, but I want to reiterate a thanks for the kind words, and an appreciation for taking the time out to pop in!

Mr.J316: I'm glad you think so. Given how much planning went in to bring it all together in Haven, it would be a sorry thing if I botched the Volume 5 finale as well, and a serious indictment of any criticism I levied against it.

Also yes, the move went very well! My wife landed a full time job in two weeks, and with the holidays ending and the last of the leftover expenses behind us, it's looking to be a far more relaxed state of affairs from here on out.

Vikasa: Thank you! Yes, it was important to me that Adam not lose his menace. I always hated his prideful grandstanding and petulant behavior. Less Anakin, more Terminator, please.

And indeed, I enjoy writing scenes of these characters bouncing off each other as much as you seem to reading them. It's nothing but fun to find the most intriguing ways they can mix and clash. Their parallels, their differences… I think crossovers are one of those things with so much potential to them, so historically squandered because there's almost always too many cooks, not enough time, and more often than not it's just a jumbled mess.

Also, I googled that last bit expecting a TV Tropes article, only to find it was a reference to One Piece… How very dare you…

Guest2: I've explained this so many times, so of course somebody still doesn't get it…

Vegeta's power level was lowered to hide from Frieza, he didn't raise it when Cinder attacked, he got more than he expected. OBVIOUSLY at full power Vegeta would one-shot Cinder. My GOD some of you guys need to get over this.

Also, Salem wouldn't cower before Frieza regardless. In canon she's arrogant AND immortal, so while in NEITHER this story nor the canon can she actually harm Frieza (and no, she couldn't do that to Frieza, because Frieza never hides his power level aside from being in his lesser forms) she's not likely to feel anything in the sense of fear. Salem and Frieza are obstacles to each other, Frieza moreso an obstacle to Salem of course, because Frieza could just largely ignore her unless he can benefit somehow from her.

"also remember, powerful magic exists in DBZ, much stronger than Remnant's, didn't Bardock and his men destroy an entire planet of exceptionally powerful psychics/magic users?"

Much stronger than Remnant's based on WHAT? Sure, Bibidi and Babidi almost certainly are, but who said the psychics of Kanassa were magic? Checked wikis to be extra sure, and no… you made that up.

Magic is the only raw asset on Remnant that can even really STALL a ki-using DBZ character. If you can't handle that much, seriously how much of a child are you that these characters can't be made to even SLIGHTLY struggle? Characters walking through all resistance without challenge gets boring, fast. Even Frieza should encounter SOMETHING that stalls him, offends him or gives him the slip now and then.

Jackalope89: Indeed… there's been more than one flare up at Haven. It's rather conspicuous.

Wait… Cinder copied Weiss' semblance? Huh? You mean the explosive runes, because that's definitely not the same thing.

Also, are you Kyle Hebert…? I loved you as Kamina! ;-)

Kyotodsg: Already got confirmation that this guy is a troll. Note how none of his post has anything specific to the story. He goes through random review sections for fun looking for consistent criticisms and plops down chestnuts like this. Move along.

nickz24: Holy crap… Gimme a sec after that one…

Thanks for your sentiments, and patience, as I can see why you might be averse to slow stories, lol

One reason I found an adjoining point between Ki and Aura was just the fact that they're too similar. Both involve soul-power of some form, and I think it would be poor taste to allow Ki abilities to outright REPLACE Aura.

I think this compromise works because it provides an inroad for the Huntsmen and Huntresses to advance, for already having SOME notion of how to use these powers. It also explains why they're not already at Z Fighter level, because they're missing something while maturing their powers in a different direction. It also allows the Z Fighters to enhance THEMSELVES, because the ways of Remnant are unique and useful too.

kyugan: Yes, Ginyu is the Maiden now. Regardless, he killed her, and there's no way her last thoughts were of anyone but the thing that just stole her body. You can argue Ginyu is spiritually male, but the BODY is not. I don't think the powers make distinctions like that.

Sabo88: Nah, there's nothing physically blocking King Kai from contacting them, there's no magic crockery at work like in This War of Mine. It's more that… well… why would King Kai be searching in another galaxy? He has no logical reason to do that aside from desperation.

You rubbed shoulders with a definite concern though… After all, West Kai would give King Kai grief for AGES about his own dirty laundry from the North Galaxy messing about on his turf. And Frieza no less? "Pawning your problems off on ME, eh Northy?"

G119: Yang should have hit Goku with her… wha…? She hasn't MET Goku, they're on opposite sides of the planet… and Goku steps on… uh…

My brain is melting, that's enough for today, okay, I love you, buh-bye...