Glynda Goodwitch hurried up the sun-drenched forest path. Copse Landing wasn't as difficult to skirt as she feared, but all the same, the risk of being recognized on this little island was significant. And it would invite unwelcome questions.

She passed the barrier. Invisible as it was, she was well attuned to the presence of magic. She smiled. It had been a great while since the feeling crossed her, the surge of endorphins… the slight lift of her hair.

It was a time before she even sighted the house, but oddly, once she did, the wind seemed to pick up. Leaves caught in the blustering breeze tumbled as she approached the house, and the blue-haired woman in pink emerged from the shed with a cardboard box of tools.

"Oh! Pardon me, miss, but…"

The woman blinked… and then she walked out of the shed again. A second one of her.

"Neo, did you say…" Bulma turned to see Glynda with surprise. "...some…thing… I'm sorry, I don't think we've met."

She peered off into the distance as Neopolitan's body was engulfed in pink shards and returned to normal, box under her arm as her other fist ground into the side of her waist.

"How'd you pass the barrier?"

Glynda lowered the hood of her cloak as she smiled. "Certainly not a local then… I'm Professor… Counselor Goodwitch. I passed the barrier because Professor Ozpin specifically invited me. Is he in?"

"Oh! Sure, probably just with the others."

The wind gusted suddenly, blasting all three women's hair and fluttering their clothes as they braced, and the earth pounded as a sound of collapsing air accompanied it like miniature sonic booms.

Glynda drew her crop in alarm. "What in the world…?"

"Oh, that happens all the time," Bulma said as Neo rolled her eyes and nodded. "Come on."

Bulma jogged to the corner of the house as Glynda followed and Neo strode past towards the parked Manta. "Hey guys! We have a visitor!" she called, leaning around the corner.

Glynda followed walking past as the wind only intensified… only to freeze to the spot.

Ruby's crimson aura washed over the grass as her power climbed, beside her sister whose burning aura vied with hers. "Bring it on, REMORA! Y'know… 'Cause you're clingy and stuff!"

Nora's pink power seemed to electrify the air as it vied with Yang's, with Ren's green sifting quietly as it gently billowed.

"Don't hurt yourself! 'Cause we're gonna RANG your bell!"

" 'Rang?' Both their names?" Ren asked.

"I knew you'd get it," Nora beamed proudly, leaning to kiss him on the cheek.

"Hey!" Yang interjected, fists colliding. "Gonna smooch or fight?"

"Give you one in the kisser, how's that…?" Nora said smugly, crouching to spring.

"Dance first," Yang said. "Watch your step…"

And in a flash, it began.

Nora leapt spot to spot, hammer tracing the dirt left to right as she used it to alternate directions before Glynda saw them vanish, and the whole property erupted in a flurry of smearing movement and gut-churning collisions she felt in her chest.

She turned to see the ragged-haired Goku, the slight but imposing Vegeta and the stocky Krillin watching the invisible fight with their eyes synchronized as they tracked from place to place in absurd fashion. Whatever they saw, it was plainly visible to them.

"Man they've improved!" Goku opined, grinning.

"You said it," Krillin added. "A few days hammering the chamber and they're totally honed-in! Not a sound from those bells!"

"Hmm…" Vegeta offered, noncommittal despite the lift in his brows.

The Deputy Headmistress seemed to sway in place as the air burst all around them at seemingly random. She glanced behind her in alarm as there was a hard clap of shoes and creak of wood on the house roof by an unseen source.

As she began to collapse from her feet… she found herself falling gracefully into a plastic lawn chair that had not been there moments ago. Neopolitan walked off smugly as she took her hands off its back. She didn't need Ren's empathic ability to see the venerable woman's reaction coming.

As far as Glynda was concerned, Nora popped into existence a dozen yards away before swinging overhead onto an advancing Yang who similarly spawned from the ether. The burning brawler caught it in both hands, bracing against the cracking earth as their clash erupted in a shockwave.

Above, Ren dodged Ruby's heavy slashes to unleash a spray of automatic fire. But with a dashing whirl, the spinning scythe deflected every shot into the afternoon sky to smash against the unseen barrier above like mortars, before Ruby whirled to appear with her hands on both his ankles and flipped towards the ground to slam him into the lawn.

She paused as she landed, turning in surprise. "Hey Professor Goodwitch!" She waved… before getting slugged across the face by the back-end of Magnhilde and digging a fifty-foot trench next to Ren with her head.

"Focus, Ruby!" Krillin critiqued.

Midair, Yang grabbed the end of the great hammer as it swung past, boosting it faster and wrestling with its owner in deep angled orbits before slamming her feet into the ground and twisting hard. Nora yelped as she became the one to be flung around as Yang gave another rotation, flinging Nora high and wrenching Magnhilde from her grip as she flew like a rocket.

With mechanical clicks, Ember Celica cocked as Yang twirled and swung the hammer high after its owner, screaming through the air like a broad-headed javelin. Yang's arms swung left and right as she fired a series of flares after it, like supersonic fireworks.

Above, Nora leveled out, rolling out of the way of her own hammer as it sailed past. Glimpsing the coming flares, she grinned, before reaching high for her hammer.

With an ear-splitting crack, lightning crashed from the clear blue sky. It tracked through the hammer, through Nora herself to turn stark pink… then forked through each flare, exploding them as Yang shielded herself.

The resulting smoke shrouded Yang as she took the full brunt of the strike, and Nora's hammer returned to her.

"Now to FINISH IT!" Nora crowed triumphantly, as she dove, flipping as she reared Magnhilde behind her head.

But there was a burst of air, as the smoke was blasted away. Eyes burning, hair ensconced in brilliant flame, Yang's power surged. Hands to her sides, a brilliant blue glow was gurgling between them as she took aim.

"Hameeeee…!"

Nora's face fell. "Aww cru—"

"HAAAAAAAAAAA!"

Concentrated, sharp and burning blue despite billowing like waves in a storm, a true Super Kamehameha erupted to carry a swirl of dust, leaves and stone around the swirling beam as the branches whipped around them.

Nora's dive was too committed to escape, even as her arms and legs flailed. "OH CRAP OH JEEZ OH GAW—!"

But she dove straight through the beam even as it dissipated into the blue of the sky, thinning until it was a pencil-thin stream of diamond sparkles in the air.

Yang held the pose, clawed hands out, before she took a single step back.

"HWUFFFF!"

Nora smacked into the grass on her front, slightly smoking as she groaned.

Yang's eyes returned to their usual lilac as her wrist wiped the sweat off her brow, smiling as her hair dimmed.

Krillin laughed jubilantly as Goku hooted. "Good control, Yang! Textbook Super! And vanished it fast! Didn't even scrape the dome!"

Vegeta huffed. "And she managed not to vaporize her training partner by mistake…"

Yang blew a raspberry. "Aw, Nora's tougher than that, wasn't gonna really hurt her."

"Thmks…" Nora groaned, barely moving apart from a feeble thumbs-up.

Goku laughed. "Sorry, Nora, but take that as a lesson! Always leave yourself an out!"

"Got it…"

Glynda's knuckles were white as she kept a firm grip on the arms of her chair. At least until her spectacles slid just too far forward over her nose, and she reflexively set them back against her glabella, blinking as she stood up, still staring at her former students.

"Oh, I've seen that look a few times…"

"W-what?"

She looked to the side to find the diminutive monk, his arms crossed. "Yeah, most people don't know what to do when they see this kinda stuff for the first time. I think people have a pretty firm notion of what's possible, and when that notion gets challenged, hoo boy!"

"Yes, I…" Glynda was still shaking. "I knew these students from Beacon, and…" She paused. "I'm sorry, who…?"

"Oh, name's Krillin," he said, offering his hand.

She took it, and waited. "Krillin…?"

"Oh!" he said. "Krillin, from Earth. The planet, not dirt or something… We call the planet Earth."

"Of course…" Glynda sighed in polite exhaustion. "My name is Glynda, Goodwitch… My surname, not this world."

Krillin blanked. "Right!" He leaned conspiratorially over to Goku. "What's a 'sir-name?' "

Nora practically peeled herself off the ground as Ruby pried her head out of it. "Ugh… grass stains…"

But her eyes bugged out as she saw Ren, sitting up curiously as he was offered a cold drink by a smiling—

"Oh heck no…"

Ren took the drink from Neo in polite surprise, standing up. "I really could use this, thank you!"

"Hey! I warned you!" Nora growled, stomping over. "He's taken! By a different shorty with a thing for pink!"

Neo shrank behind Ren in fear, gripping his arm.

"Nora, we talked about this," Ren told her. "She just wants someone to talk to. My ability to read her—"

"...feelings makes you 'a comfort for her to adjust to the group,' " Nora finished, still sour. "Come on, Ren! You know that's not all she wants…"

Indeed, behind Ren, Neo's look of fear turned devious as she stuck her tongue out.

"And Neo… taunting Nora is unproductive."

Neo's tongue fwipped back behind her teeth as she blinked in surprise.

Ren chortled as he turned to her. "You shouldn't be surprised. I'm reading your feelings… I'm very flattered by your interest, but as Nora has repeatedly told you, I am not available for a relationship."

Neo crossed her arms and pouted, but Ren's hand found her shoulder.

"You are a friend to me though… and I appreciate you. Just not in that way."

Nora looked somewhere between miffed and constipated as she snatched Ren by the arm and tugged him away.

Neo stood awkwardly, but found another's shadow falling over her… a frequent occurrence at her size.

"You're a brave one, but I wouldn't even sneak french fries out from under her," Bulma told her, patting her head. "Come on, we've almost got a stable mount! I'm eager for that test flight… and I know you're eager to fire that gun…"

Indeed, Neopolitan begrudged a smile as she followed.

At last, however, the door to the gravity chamber opened, and out stepped a small crowd.

"This is what I'm TALKING about!" Sun celebrated.

"I know! Ten times gravity! We're practically used to it now!" Jaune added, a glisten of sweat on his forehead.

"Speak for yourself…!" Blake laughed, still breathing hard, her hair wet and matted as she dripped. Weiss was scarcely better off.

"Don't be too proud," Vegeta called. "Ten times this world's gravity is the standard on Planet Vegeta. Any Saiyan is adapted from birth."

Raven hummed. "It's almost a waste of my time. We need more sessions at the chamber's maximum."

Vegeta huffed. "There's hardly a difference at our strength between ten and fifty. We need to return the chamber to its full capacity. If only that little fool hadn't traded it for—"

"Ah, hello Glynda…"

The Councilwoman was caught off guard as Oscar appeared at her flank, Ozpin's demeanor clearly overtaking him. "Professor! I'm sorry this visit is unannounced… I can't be certain my scroll conversations aren't being tracked. I didn't even bring it with m—"

"Just… start at the beginning. Come inside, where it's perhaps… quieter?"

Glynda sipped her coffee at the dining room table and took a breath. "Vale is planning to infiltrate Vacuo… The military is preparing a sweep of the Kingdom's periphery, to purge any nearby Grimm and create a buffer against invasion. Then, they'll send specialized Huntsmen in to steal or disable the 'superweapon.' "

"Part a' that's just sensible," Taiyang offered, leaning against the counter. "With all that's happened, keeping any threats at arm's reach from the Kingdom…"

"Particularly after news of Mistral reached here," Glynda added. "Yes… except…"

" 'Cept it'll spread Vale's forces too thin," Qrow finished for her. "They've got too much invested in that Cordon around Beacon, with Grimm still infesting the school."

"The other part's just pointless," Yang said. "Frieza is the superweapon."

Raven huffed. "And if your men get caught making that grand discovery, they might just provoke that slime into making a move."

Glynda blinked in surprise at the bandit's sudden presence. "Raven Branwen. How… unexpected."

Raven smiled. "Glynda… Moving up in the world… lost a bit of that brown on your nose too."

Yang winked at Blake. "Wait till she hears Neo rolled with Torchwick…"

"The point is…" Glynda stopped, sighing. "I can't give the rest of the Council a reason to stop this. My reservations have been difficult enough to justify, but I can't defend holding back against a threat to the entire Kingdom. Even Persimmon is siding with the others."

"I'm surprised they're not considering open war," Jaune pondered from the doorframe.

"Of course not," Weiss told him. "They're not stupid. They saw what happened when Remnant's strongest military rode in… Vale's strength is not in its spartan defense force; its strength is in its Huntsmen."

Glynda smiled. "Still a quick study, Miss Schnee…"

"And… if I might ask…?" Weiss said carefully.

Glynda nodded.

"Did… Do you know how General Ironwood is…?"

Glynda clasped her cup in both hands, peering into its murky brown depths and curling steam. "At great risk to my reputation, I managed to visit him before he was returned to Atlas. There's not much to tell. Unresponsive… burns over his whole body. Saving grace, I suppose, even the Vox crowd are moving away from conspiracy theories surrounding Atlas. James was a fool to blunder into Vacuo so confidently, but he inadvertently averted Atlas of suspicion."

Ozpin, finally, saw fit to speak. "These are dire tidings… But I don't know what you are asking, Glynda. How do we help?"

Glynda seemed surprised by this, and she nearly stammered, before an unexpected voice cut in.

"It's obvious, isn't it?"

A number of them looked over to Ruby, standing at the table matter-of-factly.

"We need to tell them the truth," Ruby continued gently. "All the secrecy… it's more trouble than it's worth. Maybe before all this, it kept people safe to think the Grimm were just mindless animals… but… look at what it's doing now!" She found Oscar's eyes, pleading to him, her uncle, her father. "Now Salem is using that as a shield, and it's like Uncle Qrow told us… people are just pointing at each other. And Frieza won't stay a secret for long. They might as well know what they're dealing with…"

Vegeta huffed from the doorway. "It pains me to agree, but Frieza will happily tear your cloak of deception apart while he's razing your nations to ash. Not that it matters what they do…"

"Kiddo," Qrow started, exasperated, "it won't matter what the truth is if they don't believe it."

"I'd say it doesn't matter if they believe it," Blake said, standing next to her team leader. "At least when it comes to crush their homes underfoot… they'll have some idea what they're up against."

Ruby nodded gratefully. "People deserve to know. They deserve the chance to come together against the real dangers."

Glynda shook her head, sighing in disbelief. "What's deserved is irrelevant! The ones we need to convince aren't the people, it's the Council. And if I bring this to them… how do I prove it? How do I explain this? How I know this?!"

She stood up, clapping the cup down and wandering to the windowsill, staring out into the blue sky.

"The Council could vote on my fitness to hold this seat. It would take a unanimous vote, but none of them could risk an endorsement of my words; it would be political suicide…"

"Hmph," Raven uttered. "Afraid to lose your seat? So much for the fearless Huntress…"

Glynda twisted in ire. "I don't care about the seat! But without an in to keep this Kingdom from pitching itself over the ledge, they're blind!"

"And this is that moment," Raven said. "The precipice. This is the time to hold your ground. If this could decide your Kingdom's survival, what choice do you have?"

Glynda still frowned, lost.

But then Ozpin spoke. "Indeed. If proof is what they need, then proof is what they shall have."

"O-Ozpin…?" she said, blinking.

"I'm afraid we still cannot entirely abandon secrecy," Ozpin explained. "Being frank about these powers and our efforts here will do more harm than good. Demands to arm other Huntsmen and proliferate these abilities we've learned from our Earth kin… I fear this must be jealously guarded."

Qrow hummed. "If I'm honest, the Relics, the Maidens… the kid Brothers… That all still strikes me as unproductive information. With Barty Oobleck as a barometer, no telling what certain people might try if they hear what the schools are guarding. And validating a religion whose gods don't want to be worshiped? It's bad vibes all the way down."

Ruby nodded solemnly. "Yeah… maybe after we've settled things we can give the whole truth… But we can let them know we're out there, looking out for everyone!"

Ren stepped forward. "Yes… If we insist that the Kingdom's forces hold here, they need a sense of security."

"They need to know someone's got their back," Yang added, as the idea took root.

Nora grinned devilishly. "And they have a Grimm problem they need gone…"

Qrow's eyes went wide. "Whoa! You're talking about Beacon? That's a major shot across the bow. She's been focusing there since the Fall. Kicking her pets outta there…"

Yang scoffed. "What? She'll summon more Grimm? I think we're past what she can throw at us by now, aren't we?"

"Besides," Weiss said, "you're the ones who said Salem held back the Grimm for some grand move she's been planning. She's not going to change-up just for that."

Ozpin's eyes found hers through Oscar, his expression serious. "Such assumptions are dangerous. We cannot ignore that Salem is in possession of the one and only extant repository for man's lost knowledge. We cannot know what she is capable of wielding if driven to desperation." He sighed. "But nonetheless, this IS war. And if Vale is to weather this storm, then the Cordon must fall…"

Glynda let out a breath. "Very well… Then where do we start?"

The Capitol building of Vale was set into a peninsula where the River Ambroise forked, at a meshing point between the various districts of the city. Its windows gleamed across the river, a statuesque edifice bursting out the top of a short cliff. Its sheer face was broken up by tall, blunt towers as high again as the base structure. And regardless of stature, the edge of its sloped roof was lined in miniature spires like the points of an enormous crown.

It had no proper name, but colloquially it was Churnwater Common, so named for its place at the river estuary. As a place for the various districts to meet, so too was it where freshwater from upriver and saltwater from the bay clashed in eternal struggle. A lot of choice jokes were made regarding the politics within, and whether they influenced the tumultuous waters or vice versa.

Glynda was let into the conference hall, themed in green banners, rolling chairs and warm walnut finishing to the walls. It wasn't the autumn warmth of Mistral, but if any doubted where they were, they need only glimpse out the ceiling-high windows and over the river fork beyond. Wrought iron set clear glass around the stained green shape of the twin axes and wreath circlet, filtering green over the great oak table that ran the length of the room.

It was not a round table that all might look each other in the eye, but tradition dictated none be seated at its end either.

Nonetheless, Glynda saw the brown eyes of Lier Lasalle boring into her own from the instant she entered, and he continued to exude the demeanor that he and he alone commanded their number.

"Goodwitch!" Lasalle barked nasally, knuckles steepled as he tilted his head, perfectly slicked-back burnt-orange hair unmoving for all the product he had applied. "Finished all your errands, have you?"

"We can't abide your stalling further, madam Huntress," Darcy Dandelion's crystal clear voice found her from the opposite side, still up and standing to her considerable height as her straight straw curtains of hair shimmered. The frumpy arms of her sunny dress flapped as she paced dramatically. "This plan of action has been meticulously reworked, and the people are beginning to believe we are taking no measures in light of the Vacuan crisis!"

Priam Persimmon stood up promptly, nervously wringing the papers in his hands, his short cobalt hair frayed in places in his stress. "Please, Glynda…! If you have cause to abstain, share it! I am on your side, but we cannot afford to ignore this!" He adjusted his red scarf.

Glynda took a breath, and nearly spoke… but stopped as she glanced around the room. "Wait, where is Councilman Obero—?"

"Powerfully sorry, gentlemen-ladies," Oxford Oberon offered in an excitable manner for a man of his broad stature, his open vest fluttering as he trudged through the doors. "Driver caught a stomach flu and didn't call out, left with all the fortitude of a crêpes Suzette! Had to take the wheel myself, good lord! What do I pay him for?" he laughed, mustache rustling as his whole face screwed up in a manner that looked almost painful, his huge teeth glinting as his spectacles danced on his nose.

His voice was deeper than Lasalle's, but Glynda had entertained the notion that either would be capable of spot-on impersonations of the other's voice if they only tried. Oberon spoke less with his nose, but it was the tone that set them apart. He always spoke as though to some unseen, hammy radio —not ham radio— audience, and in a similar tone as well.

"Oxford," Glynda greeted dryly, as the man only seemed to just notice her.

"Glynda Goodwitch, you ol' bearcat!" he boomed into the cavernous ceiling, offering his broad hand. "Swell you made it! These gargoyles had about given up hope!"

She took it, bracing at the firm shake.

He ALWAYS did this… Greeting as though it were the first time in ages, or at all. Boisterous, friendly and all too forward, it was no wonder he had garnered a following in spite of the ramifications of his aims. He had pushed in every way available for the diverting of Kingdom funds to military expenditure, more for building up an army than rebuilding damage from Beacon.

And this meant removing funds from public works, cutting aid and oversight. For all his outward jovial appearances, Oberon was an ironmonger in the most literal sense. He owned a celebrated ironworks in The Carlo. A businessman, not a politician. And flouting tradition against emoluments —sadly never written into law, seen as a gentleman's agreement— he never liquidated that business. It was clear to anyone paying attention that Oberon directly profited from his seat.

And while it mattered little for him if his forge pressed swords or plowshares, he had many powerful friends in the area of defense contracts. And he was a very friendly sort to them as well.

"Well, seeing as we're all here," Glynda began, trying to hide the shake in her soul. "I believe I do owe you all an explanation for my hesitance."

There would be no going back after this. Not even magic could scrub this clean. Not all the king's horses nor all the king's men, not even her semblance could reconstruct the smashed vase that was the normalcy Remnant believed themselves a part of…

"Are we getting that explanation today, Councilwoman?" Lasalle asked, barely disguising his irritation.

"The explanation, Lier," Glynda said firmly, "is that there IS no superweapon to retrieve, nor disable. Sending Huntsmen into the lion's den is suicide, and all we can learn is what we already know: that Frieza has Vacuo. And there's not a thing conventional weapons will—"

"Is THAT it?" Oberon chuckled, his eyes huge as he stared at her. He wasn't the only one either. "You've been taken in by the rumors of the refugees? Oh posh and dosh, Miss, smoke and mirrors!"

"I'm inclined to agree, Goodwitch!" Lasalle said, nearly rising from his seat. "You are a public figure, you CANNOT stoke unfounded rumors and—"

"Lord Frieza?" Dandelion said, her brows askew. "The bogeyman with godlike power, purported as a lone invader from the stars themselves… Have you taken all leave of your senses?"

Even Persimmon seemed to shrivel in disappointment. But Glynda did not back down.

"I'm afraid he is very real," she told them. "A usurper, wielding Vacuo's people against the world for sport. It was no weapon that killed Mistral; he owns a power we cannot contest! Attacking is pointless; we can only hope to limit our engagements and shore our defenses as long as we ca—"

Lier ran clawed fingers through his hair before whipping his hand across the table. "This Council has heard ENOUGH! I propose an immediate vote on Miss Goodwitch's fitness to hold her seat. The press is going to crucify us for letting her near these halls of—"

"Unless she has proof?" Priam Persimmon interjected, staring between the two desperately.

Lier froze, eyes darting between him and Glynda. He straightened his tie as he stood up. "Very well, since we're not beyond making a mockery of these proceedings… Have you any evidence for these exotic claims?"

Glynda took a breath. "Actually, I have a witness."

There was silence.

"A witness?" Darcy Dandelion repeated. "As in a court of law?"

"Who gives a DAMN about witnesses?!" Lasalle demanded. "Some credulous, gibbering nomads, half-mad from the Sun?!"

Glynda only smiled, as Oxford's gaze searched past Lasalle. "My word; whose child is that?"

Lasalle only stared as he processed his words, and jumped as Dandelion turned and recoiled into her seat. Lier's chair swiveled with a squeak as he twisted to find… a tan, freckled boy in green, smiling back at them.

"Councilman Lasalle," Ozpin addressed with familiarity. "It's good to see that anger has no place in the politics of Vale…"

"This is a confidential meeting," Lier replied.

Persimmon only continued to register surprise. "Was he always standing there?"

"Councilwoman, is this your doing?" Darcy asked, growing more cross by the minute. "Is this your witness?!"

"Yes," Glynda answered, feeling the balance of power shifting moment by moment. "And for most of you, he needs no introduction. I present Oscar Pine of Mistral… but you will know him better from his past life, as Tippenhauer Ozpin."

The silence that followed made the rustle of clothes and the creak of leather cushions sound as cannon-fire, and the squeal of reclining swivel chairs was rending steel.

"Well that's just daffy," Oxford said under his breath, though still loud enough that the whole room heard him easily.

Lasalle's eyes burned. "Not another WORD of this! SECURITY! SECURITY, WE NEED YOU!"

"They cannot hear you," Ozpin told him. "See for yourself," he invited, palm sweeping toward the door.

Oxford Oberon blinked, reaching for the oversized doors and pushing one of them open… to reveal a murky green void.

"OH! Would you look at that!" he said, staring in fascination, his face occasionally retreating into his trademark smile, despite the chill behind his eyes.

"What is this…?!" Darcy asked in fear, hands on her elbows.

"Glynda…?" Persimmon pleaded nervously.

"There is nothing to fear," Ozpin told them. "I have merely isolated us for the time being, for the sake of this conversation."

"This isn't real," Lasalle insisted. "This… there's something in the air!"

He leapt to his feet and hesitated only slightly at the door frame before marching out… and then directly back in seconds later, as if the door had simply looped back to itself.

"GadZOOKS!" Oxford blasted, stepping back into the wall.

Lasalle looked lost, sweating as he twisted around to the void again, before his head pinged back and forth.

"Well, Leary-Lier," Oxford finally managed, wheezing, "I've heard 'em say 'go chase yourself,' but—"

"If I MAY," Ozpin said clearly. "I'm afraid we have much to discuss."

"You…" Lasalle whispered. "What is this about Ozpin? The man's dead!"

"I have taken many faces across human history," Ozpin explained. "All in the aim of preserving our fledgling race. Once I was Obadiah Ambroise, and helped to lay the foundations of our post-war society…"

"Ambroise?!" Persimmon said, staring up at the raven-haired portrait up on the wall, of a steely-eyed royal. "The Warrior King?"

"The very same," Ozpin said, nodding. "Another time I was Phadrig of Alfheim, and helped deliver its refugees overseas to the cliffs of Alsius, overlooking what would one day be Mantle. I have even been a faunus a few times."

Lier backed into the wall. "There's still no proof of this! Th-this is a coup! Goodwitch, you traitor! You…!"

"My last conversation with this Council ended on a sobering note," Ozpin said. "You effectively threatened my position, pending further meetings that never occurred." He chortled. "And, evidently, never needed to. My tenure as Headmaster, beyond your lacking authority over it, was decided for me."

Dandelion fell into her chair. "All a matter of public record; anyone could guess as much. The appointment of the Vytal Festival's security to the Atlas delegation was not a private affair."

Ozpin's cane lifted to point her way. "You, Darcy, are the last descendant of Vale's founder, the famed Arturo. It is a great source of pride in your family, and expectation, but always you have labored to escape his shadow and do great things in your own name."

"Th-that's…" she stammered. "The Dandelions have never surrendered that history!"

Oscar nodded sadly. "It is also a point of shame, as your line survives from a misbegotten tryst between Arturo's eldest son and a scullery maid. It is as much a touch of greatness as it is a rotted vine. I know this, because I was once borne to your family on your mother's side."

Every word was a dagger to Darcy Dandelion, who merely reeled in her seat. But then Oscar turned to the frozen Lier.

"I would ask how your nephew Cardin was getting along, but I have heard his team have come into their own patrolling the Cordon," Ozpin continued. "It's good to see he took a rather stark and sudden series of improvements following a rather wanting first semester. You might recall offering me a bribe to secure his entry as a legacy admission. His transcripts were substandard and his temperament… less than ideal. But his admission was not a favor to you, but his grandmother, a talented student from when I took the second post as Beacon headmaster under the name of Balthazar Diggs."

Lasalle just stared. "Ozp…? No. No, he must have confided in Goodwitch, that's the only—"

"Pity sake, Lier!" Darcy said, frantic. "This isn't cold-reading, we are stuck in an enchanted conference room!"

"Then what is he?!" Lasalle demanded. "A man who reincarnates across the ages, bending reality?"

Ozpin clapped the point of his cane down. "I am what remains of a branch of humanity that existed prior to the Moonfall, a wielder of real magic, rendered functionally immortal until mankind's safety is assured. We haven't the time for much nuance, but suffice to say, the Grimm are not wholly undirected. There is a mind at their center, a powerful being called Salem, for whom the Grimm are an extension."

Oscar pointed out the vast window, the smile leaving him. "You have seen her influence, when she withheld the Grimm on the night Vale was addressed, concerning Mistral. It was clear that you all, the Kingdom entire, expected a second wave on the scale of Beacon. You took every precaution, and yet the beasts never struck. I do not pretend to know her reason for this, but her will alone held them back. Perhaps for the sake of some grander final move, or to marshal her strength against the threat posed by Frieza…"

"Nonsense compounded upon nonsense!" Lier insisted. "I won't be taken in by this gaslighting! For all we know, this is a Vacuan plot to eliminate resistance! We're meant to hear anecdotes and whispers of private conversations, and justify inaction?!"

Ozpin smiled. "Not in the least, Councilman." He reached behind his back, drawing nothing less than the Relic of Knowledge, which floated over the table as it ballooned from a trinket to its full size. "This is not an immediate concern, but this is The Lamp of Knowledge, forged by the Fraternity itself."

"We're fraternizing with Fraternism now?" Oberon noted, adjusting his wire rims as he stared. "This is one lofty Lollapalooza, Ozzie…"

"I've heard of this!" Priam gasped excitedly. "Yes yes yes, the four Relics granted to man! By the Brother Gods of Light and Darkness… Of all the forsaken ideas…"

"Yes," Glynda confirmed. "If you're prepared, I would have you touch the Lamp, and ask it what happened to Mistral. I warn… it is intense."

"Mother didn't raise a coward!" Oxford expressed, standing tall as he strode forward, reaching out. "Very well, ancients of olde! Do your worst!"

"No!" Lier cried. "I'm putting my foot down! This could be some kind of—"

Blue light streamed from Oxford Oberon's eyes, and moments later, he backed away in fear. He struck the wall and slid as his chest heaved, mustache rustling with every breath as his eyes shrank. "That thing…! The devastation… I… We're DOOMED!"

Lasalle's face went pale as his finger jabbed. "Do you see?! This thing is some manner of Aura-tampering device… or something!"

"Oh STOP IT!" Dandelion said. "Vacuo has created mind-control devices now, have they? Priam?"

Persimmon eyes flickered with fear, but he took a breath and frowned with a determined nod as his whole squat body tensed, throwing the tail of his scarf over his shoulder.

Both reached out. The effect was identical to Oxford, though each stepped away pale, but upright.

"Sakes alive…!" Priam gasped.

"That creature…! It's nothing like a man! Lord Frieza…!"

Persimmon's hands found his face as he slumped into his seat. "That laugh… those eyes…! Those horrible red eyes…!"

"Pure evil," Darcy whispered, voice shaking as she stared into the wall. "It… and that man! Th-they tore Haven apart! And the Atlesian fleet!"

Priam shook his head. "Those poor children… CLINGING to life in the rage of battle! The girl in blue, her sister…"

Darcy Dandelion frowned. "Those children… Did they seem familiar?"

"The… Tournament…" Oberon choked out, still against the wall. "Those kids were… A bunch of them were in it. 'Specially remember the Schnee girl."

Lier just kept staring from one speaker to another, looking lost and alone.

"Yes YES!" Darcy said as her eyes went wide. "Students! Transfers to Haven perhaps…?"

"What a cruel fate to be caught in such horror twice…" Priam said, solemn as the grave.

"We must do something!" Oxford said, eyes still unfocused. "But we can't send mere MEN into the desert, it's a meat-grinder! What can be done against such ruthless power?!"

In the hysteria, Lier took a breath and stepped up, consulting the Relic at last.

He alone was steady as the azure light left his eyes. He froze for a whole ten seconds, before folding his hands behind his back and approaching the vast window.

"Very well, Councilwoman… Ozpin… You clearly have this Council's attention," he offered, staggeringly calm. "I assume you would not have wrung together this dog and pony show if all was yet lost, so pray tell WHAT… do we do about this…?"

"I'll bet it's to do with those three on the OTHER side," Oxford suggested. "Seemed to have the inside track on it all…"

Ozpin nodded. "We are unfortunate to have become embroiled in the conflict of cast-offs of our own human race, and Frieza himself, torn from an empire on the other side of our Universe. But we are fortunate to have his opponents on our side, who like Frieza himself have mastered the full potential of the soul. That power alone can avail us."

Lasalle turned his head. " 'Cast-offs…?' Nevermind… Why ally ourselves with these others? If our world is at stake, what do they want from it?"

"Frieza was dragged to our world by the same means as they," Ozpin explained, "and his motivation is not merely to destroy them, but ensure their suffering. He deliberately allowed us to leave the cinders of Mistral for a future encounter, and has chosen to while away his days in the… noble sport of conquest."

Lier Lasalle turned back to the twin axes, his face a mystery. "Then why harbor his quarry? Will we be rid of him if we deliver his prey?"

"The cruelty in those eyes," Priam said, his voice low, "Lier, I believe it would be naive to presume Remnant would be spared his wrath. To do as you suggest, leaving our fate in the whims of that monster…!"

Ozpin stepped closer. "Councilman Persimmon is correct. We have an alliance with the ones he fights, and they are making steady progress to teach a select few their ways. Together, we have a few avenues through which we may have victory."

"Well BULLY, good man!" Oxford said, slapping the surprised boy on the small of his back. "Can they teach others? Our finest contractors?"

Ozpin blinked, but sighed. "This, I fear, is where our cooperation must remain limited. Numbers will not defeat Frieza's strength, and if we proliferate these abilities, making their wielders subject to nations and self-interest, potentially making every Huntsman a continent-razing titan of aether…"

Priam hummed cautiously. "There's something to that, Oxford… Huntsman are not without their rogues and mercenaries."

Dandelion huffed. "So we're to stay out of your affairs and hunker-down while you and yours ALONE foster this power?"

Lier nodded. "What gives you the right, Ozpin? To act in our stead with such impunity?"

"Nothing," Ozpin said simply. "Merely experience, spanning infinitely more years than these four Kingdoms have stood. And I admit that is not enough. But I have already gathered nearly everyone I would trust with this knowledge and power, and I see no benefit to laying all of our cards on the table."

"What will we tell the people?" Darcy asked in desperation.

Glynda frowned. "Your operation in Vacuo was secret to begin with. To the average citizen, you'd have been doing nothing regardless."

Ozpin smiled. "If you wish, take credit for our present alliance. Or disavow us entirely as the rogue element we are…"

Lier turned at last. "We cannot endorse your actions officially. We can't have you dragging us into conflict with whoever you might cross, acting as judge, jury and executioner… but clearly we cannot stop you. If you do not interfere with us, we will not interfere with you."

Priam clasped his hands. "Regrettably so… Without true evidence, it will be difficult to justify our actions to the people, but if this Council is firm, we can weather reprisal. Perhaps long enough to do what is necessary to keep the peace."

Oxford hummed. "Never paid me no mind to what people think… 'Sides! It'll be like those superhero serials, with the stone-faced commissioner bringing in the man who can get things done outside the law! And covering for 'em within it. Kinda boring from this end, but I'm the one who chose to run for office…"

Ozpin approached the window. "Understandable. But we will not leave you with nothing. In one fell swoop, we can offer evidence for our advocacy, and lessen your own burdens here."

With but a tap of Long Memory, Oscar had vanished, and the walls rippled green as the world dimmed.

With a snap, as if waking, the light returned to the world, and the Council within the conference room reeled.

"Where is he…?" Lier asked. "What did he mean…?"

"Oh, so we're talking about it?" Oxford said, relieved to see the ice broken. "For a sec' I wasn't sure that happened! A man is but an ass if he go about t'expound this dream…"

"Just watch the window," Glynda said. "Though you'll want a better view of the Cordon."

And in moments after, a series of multicolored missiles streaked overtop the stained window, over the spires of Churnwater, rattling the building as its occupants flinched.

Across Vale, something remarkable had been set in motion. Two disgruntled police officers cited a sedan lacking a handicap placard jumped into the dock railing as something screamed overhead, turning the sea breeze violent for but a moment.

An old gray-haired shop owner swept the front steps of his store, obscured eyes turned-up in alarm to the streaking trails of color passing overhead like cropdusters carrying the Aurora Borealis.

The midday Sun's light was filtered as several tiny square shapes flapped overhead, until he realized it was a swarm of printed papers… now littering the streets and every inch of his storefront.

Shoulders slack, he let his broom fall with a dramatic clatter.

Miles East, four men shambled past the massive black vehicles, anchored down with bracing legs like cranes, past scuffed buildings gouged by claws and splattered with dirt and dust.

"Lodestar Plaza, Carroll Cross," the green-haired punk muttered with his single spiked pauldron. "Lodestar Plaza… Carroll Cross…"

"Russ, shut up," the dark-blue haired youth in armor droned.

"Make me, Sky…"

The tallest, brown slick hair in polished silver and gold armor, lifted his mace in threat. "I'll make both of you shut up. The job is the job."

"Man, Card, you got dull," Russell Thrush told him, kicking a loose piece of rubble. "We should've blown this place for Vacuo like CFVY, that's where the action is."

Cardin Winchester froze, not flinching as Russel walked into him and bounced off.

"You kidding me?" he demanded. "We lived through the school falling apart, and you still want action?"

"I want to get somewhere away from Vale," Russel told him. "Really don't want to bite-it a mile away from school, like Nikos—"

The mace pressed in against Russel's chest as Cardin held it in reverse grip, stepping into his teammate, who could only stagger back.

"Stow the attitude!" Cardin demanded. "She went down like a Huntress; makes no difference if it was here or halfway around the world. Vale needs people HERE, so here we are. If everyone left, this place would be a Grimm buffet."

Russel adjusted his shirt as Cardin walked off, continuing their patrol. "Whatever, man…"

Suddenly, there was a series of shrill noises overhead, and Team CRDL ducked instinctively.

"An attack?" Dove Bronzewing suggested, as they drew their weapons.

But as they braced, papers fluttered among them. Cardin grabbed one from the air, eyes still darting high as he edged up to a wall in caution.

" 'We're here for you,' " he read dryly. " 'People of Vale, we want nothing from you, but as you read this we are ridding Beacon of the Grimm. Don't be afraid, but the world is not as you think…' " He frowned as it continued for a great while. "The hell is this?"

And then a series of howls and snarls from the other side of the Cordon were drowned out by cracks, snaps and heavy collisions.

CRDL all looked at each other, before sprinting for the nearest rooftop.

Team RWBY, The survivors of JNPR, Sun, Goku, Gohan and Krillin soared over the bay on their approach.

"Can't believe we're really doing this!" Yang exclaimed. "This is gonna be wild!"

Ruby nodded, staring down at the approaching docks. "Operation Truth-Bomb ready?"

Each of them had wrapped stacks of printed leaflets —couldn't risk fingerprints— ready for dispersal over the city.

"Really wish we'd gone digital for this," Blake lamented.

"Don't want it traced or shut down," Jaune explained.

"At least it's biodegradable!" Weiss offered.

"We go in fast!" Krillin said. "Don't stand still for long, just keep moving."

Jaune nodded. "If we keep at least moderately up to our full speeds, no camera shutter will see anything but a blur!"

"Not such a problem if we get seen," Goku said. "But you guys might get recognized…"

"Wow, never figured I'd show up to the docks again like this," Sun noted, recalling his first frantic moments in Vale.

"Alright, so we meet-up where the rivers meet, right?" Gohan asked.

Ruby offered him a fist to bump. "That's the plan! Aaaaaaaand… BREAK!"

And so they scattered. Across the Mistral quarter, Little Hana… The commercial regions, from Pushkin Meadows to The Carlo. Some of them pushed north over the uptown burgs of Basile Heights and Upper d'Aulnoy, some south to Villeneuve and King's Lea… from Wilde Circle to Lang Centre. Below with eyes like hawks and reflexes like cats, they saw the people straining to watch as they passed, gathering their missives off the floor.

And only when signaled by Oscar's scroll did they meet over the river again, passing Churnwater for what was sure to be an impressive display.

They streaked towards the Cordon, its massive black walls towering over the streets. Beyond lay Beacon, under a pall of gray fog, its spires and towers intimidating in the murk.

"Alright," Krillin said, "no blasts unless you're clear and away!"

Weiss nodded. "We want to save as much of the school as there is left."

"We'll need to be thorough!" Ren said. "Grimm likely infested the grounds or burrowed."

Nora laughed, pulling Magnhilde. "I've got an answer for that!"

Sooner than they thought, they crested the top of the Cordon walls, the boiling black masses sprawled out before them. The Grimm milled about in a multitude of forms, rooting and sniffing. Winged bodies perched, docile upon every raised surface. Massive black mounds and strange shapes shifted slightly amid the hordes.

All seemed to stir from the disturbance as they breached their territory, heads raising, eyes burning. Calls and snarls sounded as claws scratched the earth.

"Alright… here we go!" Goku growled.

They pitched down, plummeting as they flipped to drift down feet-first onto the empty, half-demolished plaza.

One by one, starting at the head of the pack and working backward, they landed hard on their feet, to a brief kneel as dust plumed into the air.

For one moment, they stalked through the shroud, towards the beasts, towards the school, towards the spires and broken tower above. The black swarms galloped, slithered, skittered and gamboled as they sprinted towards the inevitable clash. Shapes blotted the Sun as beating wings carried them.

In a split second, Weiss swept her hands as the air gleamed with a field of white glyphs as Sun launched himself ahead and steepled his hands in midair. In a torrent of gold and misty white-blue, a small army of Sun's avatars burst out to sweep through the black hordes, as a swarm of Queen Lancers emerged from the glyphs beating their wings thunderously.

The sky flooded with ash as lesser Grimm were cleaved through like tissue paper by the avatars, their golden light shining through the black and white flecks as the air above filled with harpoons singing through the sky. Griffins were killed outright, while some of them glimpsed a massive Nevermore screeching as it was pulled both ways by harpoons in its wings, the Queens grappling nearer to savage the corvid with their mandibles.

Ruby and Weiss shared a look, before a series of glyphs appeared opposite each other spanning the plaza and air-docks to the beheaded remains of the CCT Tower. Ruby whirled ahead and swatted a charging Beringel in a spin before firing her rifle at the first glyph.

Like a laser beam off mirrors, the Dust-amped round ricocheted from glyph to glyph, sweeping through the remaining herds on the ground. In a blistering second, the bullet had rent its way through every glyph, finishing as it struck the side of the massive paunch of a galloping goliath. The beast blew open like a water balloon, its tough inky flesh ejecting its shapeless red viscera out into the quad as it collapsed with a wailing trumpet, crushing fodder Grimm that were swarming forth to replace their lost masses.

The noise was tremendous, only diminished in those moments following the invader's devastating attacks.

Already, on the other side of the Ambroise, onlookers were gathering by the river's edge. Not all could peer past the Cordon as Beacon's cliffs wrapped around, but those who could watched in buzzing awe at the immense, colorful displays of power clashing.

"Who is that?"

"Some new weapons…?"

"No, read the flier!"

"This is crazy! Never seen the Grimm this stirred-up!"

A blue van, tipped with antennae screeched to the curb as Cyril Ian and a weedy blonde cameraman hefted equipment out and set up their shot, the reporter adjusting his blue hair moments before putting on an expression of cautious optimism.

"Cyril Ian, here live at the Basile Heights waterfront, with an immense commotion stirring behind the Cordon. Something appears to be attempting to dislodge the Grimm infestation, and hundreds of notes dropped over the city suggest it is not the work of Kingdom forces! You can feel the impacts across the water!"

Savant rang as it cleaved through Grimm, as Gohan raced through the perimeter thinning out the fodder, before three furious Goliaths fought to round a corner too slim for their enormous weight, the cliffs to one side and an Academy tower to the other. One of them was ground against the wall, roaring out anger as brick and stone crumbled in its wake. In their mindless fury, even the long-lived proboscideans were blind as they edged out the third nearest the cliff, which trumpeted in surprise as its massive foot slipped off, and the rest of the building-sized beast toppled over the side to roll down the sheer face to smash into the river hundreds of feet below.

The other two freely charged the entrance courtyard, preparing to topple the arches and decorative viaduct that lined its perimeter.

"Kienzan!"

Gohan watched as Krillin fired the golden disc to topple the pair, but knew immediately that they would still collapse and do further damage to the courtyard. Timing his actions, he speared an Alpha Beowulf's shoulders with his blades, and vaulted off of it with a spray of wind Dust. His feet struck the Kienzan's flat end from below, spinning it as he kicked off to send it at the Goliaths with the broad-end facing them.

With shrill noises from the creatures, the added drag had enough stopping power to halt them altogether as the ki blade bore a circular hole through their sides, the red facsimile of meat threading like stringy subcutaneous fat as they fell over with a thunderous crash.

On the planes facing the Emerald Forest, Ruby tossed Crescent Rose, locked in war-scythe configuration, through the tail of a skittering Deathstalker. With barely a gesture, Ruby locked eyes with Nora, who aimed Magnhilde as the dark sky rumbled with a thunderclap. The pink lightning strike used the scythe as a ground and guide, causing the arachnoid to suddenly be blown to chunks into its fellows.

Crescent Rose spun through the air, but it was no less than the Saiyan of Earth who had caught it, grinning back at its owner before underhanding it back, as he dropped to the ground in a wide stance with a slam.

Goku stood, waiting as the thinning Grimm sought targets, now piling out from the trees as they stamped and circled to engulf him. He crossed his arms loosely as he waited, before they were nearly on top of him…

"YEAAAAAAAAAARGH!"

Both arms lashed out on either side as a burst of power tossed the advancing horde into the air, flailing as he brought his arms in again… before raising them up with a sharp cry.

A huge white cone erupted into the air above him, and the black beasts became little more than smoke as their mass billowed and boiled off into the air like sublimated ice.

Meanwhile, Yang was busy atop one of Beacon's towers, shotguns blasting as airborne Grimm sought her out in a spiral. They were like waterfowl against the power of her amplified Dust, as each pellet simply melted through their stygian forms. A pair of Nevermore joined the circle, but she spooked its partner when she switched to a flare and shot a burning hole in the other's ribcage. It screeched as it drifted like a plane shot-down, its heft slamming into one of the conical spires of Beacon as it glanced off and disintegrated in its fall.

She watched the other change tact, dropping low to crest her tower. Yang smirked as she saw its ploy and remembered their initiation.

"Ooh, careful…"

She took a running start and leapt as its beak opened wide, easily passing through its throat and into the dark.

But no sooner had it clapped its razor jaws shut than its eyes widened as it screeched, its tail feathers aflame as Yang blasted out the other side with barely a fleck of fluid on her, floating around to behold her work.

"That spicy food really goes through ya," she quipped, as its heavy body dropped limp atop the tower, slamming and skidding to a stop until its head drooped off the other side, stone scattering off its beak as it gave a forlorn cry before flaking into ashes like papier mache.

Yang laughed as she fired both fists into the air and blasted herself into a barely-controlled dive, gliding around spires to find Gohan and Krillin standing their ground against a pair of charging Goliaths. She idly scooped an Ursa off the ground by its belly with her foot as she passed. A well-aimed punch turned it into a missile, which streaked into the bony skull-plate of the right Goliath and stunned the grumbling Grimm as it stumbled to a pause, head and ears shaking like sails.

The short human pair turned to see her, before Gohan smiled and let Savant's blades spring out. The still-charging proboscideans barely noticed the boy move as one slice crippled its front right leg, and it trumpeted in pain as it fell onto its chin and made the earth tremble with its grinding stop.

But Krillin didn't let its momentum stall, snagging a tusk as it passed and tugging it into a swing to toss it into the air.

At the crest of its rise, Gohan plunged both blades into its belly as he punted it at its dazed fellow, which toppled with the monstrous force. There was only a moment's pause before the tossed titan's belly swelled as it groaned, before both were skewered as a blossom of stone spears emerged through both of them. As they both were mangled and torn apart, a razor tower of rock continued to build, like a colossal parasitic tree bursting from their bodies.

Blake dashed through every facet of the inner yards outside the dining hall, leaving clones behind as Beowulves, Creeps and Ursai poured out of doors and windows, defending their hard-won dens within.

They snarled and swiped at each foggy shadow, but every time they came within reach, Blake solidified to blindside and slay them with slashes that radiated well beyond the reach of her blades. She was far too fast for the creatures to respond, and the expansion of her semblance made it virtually systematic. The overgrown, weed-strewed grass smoldered with the Grimm's dissolving bodies as ashes and smoke became a fog of war hanging over the campus, thickening the haze that had lingered for months.

Lie Ren, meanwhile, sped by unopposed as his semblance rendered him invisible. Even as the perplexed creatures fell with every swipe of Stormflower, they were caught consistently unawares. He found them straining to storm through a covered promenade and found an Alpha Beowulf, leaning low to fit as its fellows fought to pass him at his slower gait.

He leapt and slammed the heel of his palm into its snout, which crumpled, crunching into its face as the resulting shockwave forced it and the entire line back as the walls and the few unbroken windows rattled. Dust and dirt swirled, shaking off the walls and unswept floors as the Creatures of Darkness hit the opposite wall and crushed each other, as their ashes filled the air as well.

Ren took a breath as the color returned to his body, the back of his fist wiping his forehead. He gazed at his own sweat in surprise.

Jaune Arc's greatsword whirled as he clubbed crowds at a time as Grimm piled out of the trees. No longer did he wield it with the same resistance and heft. It was like a rigid wooden toy for the ease with which it zipped along. He could wield it one-handed, especially against the feeble resistance of the Grimm.

He slashed with his semblance, the multicolored force cleaving over the grasslands and towards the trees as piles of limbs and upper bodies toppled, bisected crosswise.

Rather than carrying through the treeline, however, Jaune had improved in his control, and the severing force faded before it could touch a single —wooden— limb.

But it was clear the beasts —or their master— were not ceding the grounds without a fight. Trees were toppled as another Deathstalker screeched and tore its way through, as fodder Grimm scrambled around its chitinous legs. An almost casual swipe from Jaune split the fiend diagonally, through its face, anterior and had snipped off the base of its tail completely. Its legs worked frantically until it locked up and died, while Jaune was swiftly surrounded.

He waited, raising his blade, reversing his grip in both hands and pointing it down.

As they closed in, the blade struck down, shaking the ground as dirt and dust spurted from radial cracks in the grass as it sank half in. Every Grimm swayed and staggered, snarling as they fought to remain upright.

But Jaune raised the blade again, only slightly, before SLAMMING Crocea Mors down and making the very planet its sheath.

A hundred yard circle around Jaune seemed to collapse, chunks falling below as dust plumed from underground. The Grimm lost balance again and fell towards the fresh sinkhole, but only for a moment, before purest light flashed through the seams in the earth and erupted. The sagging ground instead bulged as the entire circle erupted in a bright plume.

When Jaune lifted his blade again with a heavy metallic scrape, the Grimm had been vaporized, dust pattering down in sprinkles as the rubble around him jostled.

He relaxed his limbs in the reprieve. After the initial thrill and terror of being mobbed by the creatures, his full power reminded him how far he'd come since standing stiff in the shadow of a single Ursa.

And yet, it bothered him how tired he already felt. They could spar at full strength far longer than this, and while their feats here had been visually impressive, they had barely exerted themselves. Or at least he had.

And yet, his breaths were heavier. Rest was helping, but… it seemed so strange.

Meanwhile, Nora Valkyrie was surrounding the grounds, slamming her hammer's head into the ground at regular intervals and triggering a grenade to blast the earth below. As she promised, the effect was immediate, as an entrenched seep of Grimm ichor was forced up from the underground cavities like bubbling crude. The ichor congealed, taking the form of lesser Grimm, who were born just in time to be diced by Nora's fellows.

Like Ruby, who soared along the periphery as the numbers thinned, dropping low to cleave through black bodies left and right.

Grimm had never been overly difficult to handle, aside from the biggest ones… not for her anyway… but despite their intimidating numbers, they had virtually posed no threat. She had never so thoroughly outpaced them like this. She sliced through the thick muscle of a Beringel like it was barely there. It was almost dreamlike. She shoulder-charged an Ursa, which bumped off into the air like it were a balloon, something that would have been impossible before with her negligible weight.

She felt a tinge of sadness at it. Slaying Grimm had always been something she had taken seriously… but also enjoyed. And the risk, the resistance, the strength of the fabled creatures of Darkness had given it the weight of satisfaction.

This was a true power fantasy… but it was so easy. This was an epic overthrow of Beacon from its invaders, and yet it had become little more than an extermination of lesser vermin.

Or so it seemed anyway… In the moments between moments, far too fast for the Grimm to respond, Ruby took notice of the others around the grounds. Still strong, but… diminished. She could see Jaune, who looked heavier than usual. She could see Nora, who was becoming steadily less rambunctious and far more purposeful in her strikes.

She fired at the Grimm crowd below her, demolishing them as the recoil shot her high. She fired another shot skyward, angling low at a coiled Taijitu, diving as the eyes of its first black head watched her.

The massive snake struck, uncoiling, taut as it snapped past her. It's aim was true, but it was trivial for her to avoid even as she screamed towards it. She passed its middle as she scraped the ground, Crescent Rose hooking the most slender point of its thick body as she slid to a stop.

Both heads of the Taijitu hissed as it was dragged, the taut black head swinging like a whip to slam into dirt below. But the drag was brief as the scythe tore through all but the thinnest strip of connecting flesh. Ruby whirled her blade around as she twisted, firing at the connecting point, blasting the ground as the two-headed snake was split. Sparks erupted from both ends as the serpent twisted and contorted, consuming it like a kerosene-soaked fuse.

Ruby stared around the battlefield. The Grimm were largely scattered and routed, falling left and right.

But the very air seemed to rattle and darken, as the noise of some great rasping breath filled the air.

A number of them paused, but she knew exactly what this was, even without being able to sense the Grimm with her energy. The black clouds shrouding the tallest tower, the broken CCT, were stirring. A sound of crumbling stone crossed the plateau, as the massive dark shape latched to the tower cracked and smoked. Stone clattered through the black clouds, and despite her prior observations, Ruby felt a chill as she saw three glowing red dots peering like searchlights through the ink.

The air rumbled as a squealing cry pierced the air, like some colossal boar. But they all recognized that noise, as the dormant beast, petrified in a layer of stone since Ruby's eyes had been brought to bear on it in Beacon's Fall, stirred for the first time since.

None of it went unnoticed as Vale's people watched from vantage points along the river, on rooftops and balconies, buzzing with anticipation, and memory.

Cyril Ian dabbed at the sweat on his face as the visions from that fateful night returned, momentarily speechless. "Something is happening! I'm hearing suspicions that… it's waking up…"

Even at Churnwater Common, on a north balcony overlooking the river, the Council watched in awe and trepidation amidst a crowd of other onlookers who had dropped their daily duties to watch the phenomenon.

"We had better not regret this, Goodwitch…" Lasalle said under his breath.

But in view of the entire Kingdom, the solid layer of stone crumbled as black flesh and white armor was revealed. Its massive tail swept as it shook off its granite chains. But finally, it climbed, gripping the tower as its shadow vanished into the black clouds. Its rear legs clawed at the sides as it hauled its enormous mass up onto the broken top. Through the ink, they could just see its red eyes illuminating the darkness enough to see the black shape of its arms raise to spread batlike wings with a span greater than any airship.

It squealed to the sky in fury and freedom, as the massive wyvern's wings beat once… twice… and finally it took to the air, directly towards the river.

They remembered the beast, its oily, dripping flesh already splattering the ground as it passed. The shapes of small Grimm took form from the fresh puddles that rippled out as if from portals, the excess black slime sloughing off as they were birthed. It looked almost exactly as one might expect a dragon would —apart from not being a dragon at all, which would have unique limbs for its wings, rather than being part of its forelimbs— with a two-pronged bony crest sprouting from the back of its head.

But as it roared, its most unique feature was displayed. Its mouth did not end where it seemed to when shut. Rather, its jaws stretched and seemed to tear lines down its very throat like gills, as if the esophagus had merely become more maw by which to consume. And as if to accommodate some insatiable hunger, teeth had sprouted along the tear to truly forge its freakish, abyssal mouth.

But as it sought the fear of the townspeople, it slammed heavily into a pearlescent wall of air.

Below, hand extended, Jaune watched as its fatty flesh rippled and contorted as it bounced off his shield. Its wings beat frantically as the wyvern screeched in confusion and anger, dropping altitude as months of accumulated dust and debris plumed from the wash of air forced to the ground.

The beast sought an edge to the obstruction, and nearly found it, only for a pair of feet to slam into the side of its bony skull.

Goku grinned, cocky as the beast turned back like a stampeding steer. But one more flying roundhouse sent it crashing into the cliffside planes.

But the creature was hardy, and managed to keep enough momentum to lift once more, gaining more and more altitude as it began to circle the school grounds. More and more of its dripping ichor spread Grimm like a plague.

Team RWBY gathered before the courtyard. Ruby didn't need to look at them, honed in on the hunt. "Clear out the other Grimm… I've got it."

And indeed, Ruby took off, soaring on an interception course. She wound between the spires of Beacon. She saw its six eyes find her as it turned and squealed. It was too slow as she dove under it, planting her feet into its underside and lifting it dozens of feet as it cried, but kept flying. Crescent Rose shifted as she zipped past it, snipping off half of its tail as it gave a shrill scream that rattled the rafters.

Ruby watched it struggle to wheel itself back around as its eyes burned, but couldn't help but feel sorry for it. She just didn't see Grimm the same way anymore, not after what she had learned about Salem. There were nothing but bad memories tied to this creature, even if it hadn't been the one to hurt the people she loved. And yet, she felt no satisfaction in seeing it come to harm.

She steeled herself. That was just fine. This wasn't about satisfaction, nor revenge. This was just her duty.

Ruby fired behind her, lighting up the distant mountainside as she screamed towards its great broad head, taking aim with Crescent Rose as pure light ensconced it.

"Silver BULLET!"

Her barrel fired not a true lead bullet, but a piercing ray of power with a deceptively broad head trailing it. It streaked across the sky like a shooting star, straight for the wyvern's mouth… but for once, the beast was ready.

With its pig-like squeal, its massive jaws yawned open, and from that gaping maw erupted not a jet of fire… but a black swarm of Grimm.

This time, even Ruby was caught off-guard as the inky fluid coagulated into grasping claws and razor teeth in midair. The creatures were actually stemming the progress of her attack!

The Grimm she didn't destroy were streaming past her, blocking much of her view as they tumbled past like she were caught in a hurricane.

She strained to overpower the torrent, realizing what Vegeta had already discovered once before… While relatively frail, the Grimm were still comprised of Occult Energy, anti-divine, and as a result they were ever more hardy to damage than such beings should be. That was why the others were showing such premature fatigue…

And here, blasting her way through so much Grimm flesh as her beam served the only ray of hope in this blackness, it was finally taking its toll.

She cried out, digging in, even as she saw the wyvern itself approach nearer… and nearer. And finally, she found herself eclipsed by its very looming jaws stretching above and below her, moments from snapping shut!

"HYYYYYYAAAAAAAAARGH!"

But at last, her aura burst, shrouding the world in red as her beam shined to compete with the night she felled this fiend before.

It fell back, groaning forlorn as its jaws slackened, and it fell away as the beam speared down its throat and shimmered out its back.

From every vantage in Vale, they saw the beast catch fire with a glowing white flame as it inverted, ashes drifting off its form as it tumbled. Its six red eyes faded dark. And before it had reached halfway towards the ground, all that remained to fall was a cascade of ashes, billowing over the grounds to rise. And like a spell had been broken, the black shroud of fog that encompassed Beacon Academy gave way second by second… to a pristine blue sky.

The ever-shaded grounds received dots of sunlight as heavenly spotlights of crepuscular rays shone through the thinning clouds.

Silence overtook the Kingdom as the black pall that had hanged over them for a year melted away in mere minutes.

But even from across the river, the swell of the crowds carried on the air. It was a shapeless chatter of noise as the blobs of color that represented human beings boiled.

As the superhuman crew mustered together, floating around the rooftops, they peered at the sight with certain suspicion.

"Is that good… or bad?" Nora asked.

Yang gave Ruby a leering smile. "So… 'Silver Bullet,' huh?"

Ruby's cheeks pinkened. "Just something I've been working on… Thought I'd lean into the whole eyes thing… an' silver bullets kill monsters… y'know…" She coughed into her fist. "That whole classic deal…"

Goku chortled. "Works for me! Making a whole new technique can be rough."

Krillin frowned. "When've you made a new technique?"

Goku crossed his arms with a pout. "Hey! There was the Super Kamehameha… and I did it from my feet that one time…"

Krillin's grin turned devilish as he snickered. "Guess not every artist makes his own tools…"

Ren only smiled as he peered out. There were tinges of fear in dark blue, but… the air over Vale was flowing with gold and green blossoms.

It was overwhelming. He clutched Nora's hand as his eyes pinched shut, and he brushed a tear from his eyes.

"Hon…? What is it?" Nora asked, eyeing him with sympathy and concern.

Lie Ren swallowed, smiling. "Hope."

Their work wasn't done though. As the Cordon walls retracted and the black wall sank out of sight, never to blight the skyline again, their group retreated indoors to route any Grimm that might be lurking inside the school.

They fanned out. It wouldn't be long before Vale's modest armed forces had their own search of the grounds.

They all started from the entrance hall, but Ruby, Weiss and Gohan opted for the classrooms. It was short work. They found a King Taijitu coiled in the pit of Glynda's sparring amphitheater, but only Grimm already trapped in specific situations were left. Usually they had trapped themselves behind mounds of collapsed rubble or outgrown their rooms in their sloth, lacking the strength to break out.

The story was the same everywhere. The school was dark, cold and musty, only lit by broken windows and breaches in the walls. The Grimm left no true stench behind, only a carbon scent like charcoal that wasn't obvious against anything else. But they had certainly busied themselves.

Bathrooms were full of a litter of porcelain, pipes pulled out of walls, stalls collapsed into folded boards with clear evidence of mold and moss. Rugs were cracked, shredded and rolled up against the walls merely for the constant clawed traffic of the Academy's new tenants. Nary a window was intact, as summer air moved freely through. Light filtering through was dotted with constant currents of traveling dust.

It was eerie, to the point that encountering a Grimm was actually comforting by comparison.

Port's classroom had collapsed mere steps into the tiered lecture theater, walls crushed into Professor Peach's smithing studio below, where rust and sulfur wafted up to them from steel and equipment that had been rained on throughout the winter months.

Ruby's team met with JNR and Goku in the dorms.

"Couldn't resist, huh?" Jaune asked, faking a laugh.

Blake, Yang, Sun and Krillin walked quietly through the dining hall. Unlike most of the school, much of it was scorched and collapsed. Yang and Blake certainly remembered it being ablaze.

Yang gave a chuckle. "Think if we look hard enough we'll find it?"

"Huh?" Krillin asked. "Find what?"

Yang sighed. "Don't worry about it… Grimm definitely found and ate it or something… Kinda weird to think about. Just be bones by now anyway."

Sun's eyes went huge. "Whoa, you mean your arm…?!"

"Sun…!" Blake admonished.

"Blake, it's cool," Yang told her. "Yeah… this is where it happened. It's kinda…"

Even Yang couldn't help the pall of memory as that night returned to her.

"Hey, what's that…?" Krillin asked.

"Hn? What?"

"That…" he said, pointing into the corner of the room, under a heap of decaying, half-burnt wood from tables.

Yang peered into the mass, making nothing of the sight apart from a yellow glint.

"No way…"

Astonished, Yang scurried over, reached with her prosthesis to pull out a cylinder with a familiar stylish swoop on one—

"Celica!" Yang breathed in disbelief.

"It's still here…?!" Blake exclaimed.

"Poor girl…" Yang said as she looked the forsaken weapon over. It was caked in dust, rusted at the seams. She forced the carousel open and found it full of shells leaking a crimson fluid. "Dust powder's ruined… wiring's all messed up." She pulled the rounds out to let them clatter. She tried to force it to compress into its more compact bracelet form, but it hardly budged. "All rusted shut… Guess it's the wall for you, Righty…"

Krillin watched in fascination as he compared the ruined weapon with its maintained twin on its owner's left arm. Blake, however, was watching over her shoulder. "Let's get inside. We're exposed out here, half the windows are broken. If we get on film…"

"Yeah," Yang agreed, grip firm on Ember Celica as she jogged her way towards…

"Man," Sun whistled, "I've heard of hitting the books, but…"

The library looked like a massive hand punched in from the ceiling and flailed around as furiously as possible. The books were practically a film of pulp where the shelves had toppled. Computer desks were cracked in half, the computer screens shattered into blue shards.

"God, is anything salvageable?!" Blake wondered aloud.

"Yeah, probably won't take you up on that board game here now…" Sun commented, prodding a half smashed-in globe on the floor, whose laminated paper surface was steadily peeling.

Yang peered down at it. "Hope that's not an omen."

But up in the dorms, another discovery was being made.

"I don't know what I expected," Weiss sighed as she, Ruby and Gohan stared through the remnant of a door, its top half broken off. A single hinge swung like a fence to admit them.

The dorms had gotten off easy compared to the lower floors. Not as easy for wandering Grimm to reach, and there were so many of the rooms on each floor that the beasts were hard-pressed to do good on destroying them individually.

But the smashed-in bay window was virtually inevitable… as was weather eroding the rope rigging. One rotten cord held a corner of Ruby's bed sideways to clatter idly into the wall. Weiss and Blake's beds were largely shredded and stank of mildew. Books were clattered on the floor in pieces while Yang's bunk lay half-crushing Blake's.

"To be fair… I don't know how Yang's lasted in the first place," Ruby said ruefully.

Gohan looked around the bare, cracked walls where posters had been blown off their mounts. "So, you guys used to live here?"

Ruby dared to smile. "Yeah. This… was home."

Gohan saw his father watching from the door as their groups drifted apart in their own meanderings.

The boy pondered and puzzled over all they had seen. "It must have been really bad… I can hardly imagine this place when it was still…"

"Well," Ruby said, beaming kindly his way, "this place was great once… maybe it can be again?"

Yet further upstairs, Jaune opened the door to roof access atop the dorms. He froze.

That rooftop, where they'd talked and practiced under the moonlit sky… it collapsed mere steps from the door. Not merely to the next floor, or the next. The entire face of the building had crumbled into a pile of debris and twisted rebar. Merely the shifting of his feet scattered a few stone flecks over to echo back at him from the cavernous bottom.

The surprise, and the life blinked out of Jaune's eyes as he winced. "Of course…"

We're here for you.

People of Vale, we want nothing from you, but as you read this we are ridding Beacon of the Grimm. Don't be afraid, but the world is not as you think.

There is no Superweapon. We are under assault by a being from another world, with godlike powers. His name is "Frieza," and it was his sheer might that destroyed Mistral. He has subjugated Vacuo, and is using its people against us all. When they attack, know that these people are innocents, FORCED to fight their own kind.

These people are not your enemy. Frieza alone can subjugate Remnant. This may seem hard to believe, but by the time you have read this, you will see that we have used similar powers to remove the Grimm occupation that overwhelmed the combined strength of Vale and Atlas.

Yes, occupation. Because the Grimm are not just mindless monsters. They are a single being in many parts. We call this being "Salem." She is intelligent, jealous, and she has worked tirelessly to extinguish humanity. She has enlisted criminals, the White Fang, and others cast out by society who she can seduce with promises of power. It was her influence, NOT Atlas, which conspired to conquer Beacon. She has labored in secret to cast doubt, suspicion and chaos between our Kingdoms. But we are ONE people! We are ONE Remnant!

Frieza is a new threat, while Salem has existed for eons. We don't know if they are aware of each other, but it is important now that YOU are aware of THEM. You don't have to believe us, but allow for the possibility.

Whatever you believe, we MUST rally around our fellow man, regardless of our borders, regardless of our species. Protect your friends and neighbors, cherish your loved ones.

Sadly, weapons and Kingdoms, even Huntsmen, cannot defeat a threat like Frieza. But take heart… WE are out there, growing, learning and readying for the day we stop him. Our identities and location must remain secret for now, and we are not associated with any Kingdom, nor speak for them. But we pledge to protect Remnant.

We are out here, and we will NOT abandon you.

Signed with hope,

Your Warriors In The Woods

"No doubt a puzzling and provocative series of statements," Lisa Lavender opined, looking nearly as stunned to be there as any citizen in the B-roll footage rolling behind her, as the transcript of the air-bombed missives concluded and left the screen. "While little has been independently confirmed about this anonymous group's claims, it comports with warnings from anonymous refugees who claim to have escaped the purported dictatorship growing in the West."

The footage changed to a series of dubious, shakey, far-off video captures from personal scroll cameras and a few more professionally centered ones. But even these only captured the trails of incredibly small smears in a multitude of colors trailing across the sky. Distant shots of black hordes showed the colored trails sweeping through them, causing shockwaves and ash clouds that were constantly obscured by heat haze and noise muffled by the distance.

"But despite the radical nature of these claims, Beacon Academy undeniably sits vacant of Grimm, as you can see by this footage VNN has acquired from the secured grounds."

More B-roll crossfaded between striking shots of the broken courtyard statue, and the decapitated CCT. There were shots of dark, dilapidated classrooms and hallways gouged by claws. All were interspersed by images of the same regions taken prior to the Fall.

"Only yesterday, these images would have been impossible to procure from the constant presence of mass concentrations of Grimm that surrounded Beacon since last year. They now sit eerily vacant, following a show of force only matched by the silence following the unseen departure of these Warriors."

They switched to live footage within sight of the school's imposing silhouette, where Cyril Ian stood beside a small crowd trying to preen into the shot from the sidelines.

"Indeed, Lisa!" Cyril said. "And here we are, standing in no-man's-land behind what used to be the Cordon! We have men and women hard at work behind me clearing a year's worth of debris and assessing damage to the businesses that bordered the campus grounds. But of course, the excitement on everyone's minds, are the ones responsible for it all, The Warriors In The Woods."

The microphones were nearly blown-out by the cheers of the people.

"WAR-RI-ORS! WAR-RI-ORS…!"

Some of the crowd even held cardboard signs. One simply read "Thank you, Warriors!" while another demanded "Show yourselves!"

"You can feel a completely different Vale out here, Lisa!" Cyril said, talking over the crowd as best as he could. "A Vale where these people with unbelievable abilities have pledged their protection. Speaking to that, the Secretary of State for Defense, Sian Einri, held one of a litany of press conferences that occurred today throughout every branch of Kingdom authority."

The footage changed to a tight shot of a podium bearing the Vale crest, where behind stood a tall, broad woman in a similarly huge navy suit and dress slacks. Her square chin and barely-hidden musculature belied the kindness and calm in her coral eyes. Her dark complexion and no-frills short-cut black hair told not of a career politician, but of a blue-collar champion risen above her station.

"Secretary," Cyril asked from off-camera, "these people… can we assume they are people? There are quite a lot of theories cropping up."

"We can't be certain of anything, Mister Ian," Einri told him. "The Kingdom is pouring over footage from all over the city, and thus far we have no clear footage. We know what we've detected is too small to be a vehicle, yet somehow powerful enough to completely deplete a Grimm infestation… that a small army of Huntsmen with military backup had made little progress removing. As a career Huntress before I took this position, I've never seen anything like this, and I can only hope these Warriors are true to their word. Their name pretty clearly stems from an old folktale about a secret protector." She smiled wistfully, shaking her head. "Suppose the spirit of that idea makes me think they're well-intentioned, at least."

Another voice, a female, tinkled from the sides. "Secretary, some less optimistic speculation has sprung up, suggesting that these might be an Atlas weapon. During the Vytal Festival, one of their competitors, going under the name Penny Polendina, was revealed to be some kind of artificial Huntress. And until the brutal events of Beacon's Fall, it had been capable enough against real opponents to reach the finals. Is it possible that this is the finished version of this humanoid weapon?"

Sian barely blinked. "The construct at the Vytal Festival was formidable against students, even a particularly gifted one, but nothing we have ever seen from Atlas suggests the degree of propulsion or firepower these 'Warriors' have exhibited. The force brought to bear upon Mistral itself and Atlas' reserve fleet are the closest we've seen to the group who liberated Beacon."

"And we're meant to accept that a being from another world has the power of a god? Secretary, why are we not discussing…"

The footage and sound faded as Lisa Lavender's voice returned, over a multitude of shots of celebrating city goers. "Clearly there is much left to speculate onto exactly who these Warriors are and whether their claims are fact or fantasy, but—

"Ugh!" Yang groaned. "Cosette Romaine is still pushing this anti-Atlas crap?!"

They had kept their ears to the ground about how Vale had received their words and deeds, the living room television almost constantly tuned-in.

"Who?" Blake asked, ears pricked as she reached for another slice of pizza.

"Reporter for 'Hightower'," Yang explained. "Extremist rag that just blames Atlas for everything. Even Fenris Gray isn't this committed to a narrative." She just shook her head. "Even after Ironwood got blitzed in Vacuo, you'd think they'd walk it back…"

Ruby nodded. "Doesn't help that her hair is longer than Yang's."

Yang threw both hands up dramatically. "Hey, I could do the same thing! Anyone can use Goody Gothel's hair care stuff. You just can't fight with like ten feet of hair…"

"Wasn't stopping you after Beacon," Ruby muttered.

"Hey, I was down, but…I wasn't ready to tap-out. Would have just been… surrender, y'know?"

"Huh," Weiss said, checking her scroll as the tinny trill of a woodwind sounded from the speakers. "Wow, the hashtag 'warriors' is even trending on Piper…"

Blake grabbed the remote. "Let's check someone a little more independent."

She switched from normal channels to the Mewtube app, finding the channel of a suited, green-haired young woman in a clearly private in-home studio. A custom neon light behind her read "Pia Groening: Gone to the Mat."

"Pia's got a real feel for the things people usually miss," Blake insisted.

"So we all know today's big story… been uploading all day. The others, I'll get to them, but this… this is big. Mistral seriously shook something loose, because I think there's a clear pattern of escalation." Pia shook her head, letting out an exasperated laugh. "These Warriors, the message… they're just sayin the quiet part loud, guys. We've been hearing consistent stories from refugees for weeks… we've heard major scientists telling us there's no weapon anywhere that can wipe out a Kingdom like it just got hit by a comet. The energy required is multiples more than all the Dust expenditure since the Great War. I didn't want to leap to some woo-woo conspiracy about supernatural shenanigans, but this… this is wild, man… My ASS-CHEEKS, this is something Vacuo made! Not a chance."

Weiss winced. "A wonder she's not on television…"

"The Council, you'll see in the clip in a few," Pia continued, "they gave their whole ass-covering 'thanks, but can't support unsanctioned acts' speech, but even Lasalle and Oberon sounded ready to play-ball and leave them be. Both are corporate, establishment stooges from the word 'go,' even though Oberon ran on a populist platform, he just used that to win."

She paused for only a moment, frowning. "You'd think Oberon would be saber rattling, throwing red meat to his base with some kind of kabuki-theater about not trusting the Warriors, about keeping others out of Kingdom business. He was huge about what a problem Atlas was with all their military stationed here for Vytal… Y'know what I think? I have zero hard evidence… but I think someone talked to them in person. These guys are never all on the same page… I think we got the cliff notes, and they made peace with the Council. Again, nothing solid… but doing this so long, it's like a rock in my shoe…"

Ozpin laughed. "Indeed, Miss Belladonna… very perceptive."

Salem's eyes burned into the distance as she leered across the table. She wasn't here… she was everywhere. Her eyes were legion… and a great many of them had just been put out. She could barely see Beacon Academy anymore. Only from a distance and not with any clarity.

It was… annoying.

"Dear Ozpin… Strong as ever you've been… yet all the more desperate."

She stood up. A black portal burned open before her. Through it, she saw the boy.

"Mercury…" her voice slithered, as his eyes snapped up to find hers. "Find me the master of the house…"

Frieza stood before the great black and gold fortress of a building, as ostentatious as any place in Vacuo. This, the Dis Pater Bank of Sanus was the subject of… restructuring.

"Sir, we meant no offe—!"

Ginyu kicked the blonde-haired yuppie down the steps, rolling as his perfect, pressed, void-black suit was coated in rusty Vacuan sand.

"So, this worm is Kin… What was his surname, Ginyu?" Frieza asked.

"Plutus, sir. No offense, huh?" Ginyu said, stalking down after him. "Those undeclared assets ring any bells?"

"What does it matter?!" Kin Plutus asked, terrified. "You banned Lien as legal tender! Switched to social credit! It's worthless here now!"

"...Meaning you have hoarded that which could avail our enemies," Frieza finished.

The Uplifts scoffed as they carried whole cabinets of files out the front doors.

"Yeah, this guy was about to skip town too. In contact with some nomad smugglers. How many a' these guys try to stiff the Emp'ror really puts my balls in a salad-shooter…" the Uplift in chainmail and a coat of arms snarked, shaking his evenly-parted black hair. "And the staff always fight back! I implore you! Who likes their boss so much they'll attack his pursuers if he just runs past you shouting 'get him…!' ?"

"That's enough, Argent," Ginyu ordered. "Burn the enemy cash… n' put this guy on the wall…"

Kin protested quietly, stunned to his fate as he was dragged off.

Mercury Black watched the Uplifts pass with the man as he approached.

"Lord Frieza," he began, the seriousness and propriety of his address still so alien to him. "She… wants a word or two."

Frieza turned, just in time to see the black portal open before him. She didn't step through, but Salem stood just on the other side as their red eyes met.

"Well… this is a rare pleasure," Frieza said flatly. His demeanor was waspish… but he retained a welcoming facade. "To what do I owe this…?"

"Our enemies are martialing strength," Salem told him. "It would seem they have finished licking their wounds and taken to drastic measures."

Frieza smiled, chuckling. "Is that all? Their strongest nation already tested their mettle against our position here. I am not so vulnerable."

"I speak of Ozpin… and your friends from… Earth," Salem specified.

"Ha! I should hope so…" Frieza scoffed. "Their feeble resistance could not weather the weight of fury I mean to inflict. Their torment is fated to last…"

"You misunderstand," she said. "They seek to lift the veil of secrecy that has swathed both of our conflicts. Beacon Academy is now freed, and the path to Cinder's Relic lies unsecured. Even your name was invoked to forewarn Vale's people of your coming."

"I should think so!" Frieza laughed. "Regardless, it can be little more than rumors and secondhand accounts. Dear Cinder saw to it that communication is scattered to the four winds."

Salem didn't hide her disdain. "If Remnant galvanizes against us, you'll find our goals infinitely more arduous to achieve."

"Yes, precisely," Frieza said, his hover chair drifting idly. "You plan for failure, my dear… So many plans, so many irons in the fire. You have planned and maneuvered for so long, for you've not the power to simply crush your opposition. Whereas I find amusement in any resistance that can find even the wherewithal to oppose my lieutenants, leave alone myself."

"Power alone is no guarantee," Salem warned. "...Or have you forgotten the unexpected avenues that brought you to Remnant in the first place…? All from a litter of human vermin you could crush as easily as you say… You've learned little from this lesson."

Frieza felt his teeth creak as they grinded in his shut mouth at this slight, but wrangled the death in his eyes.

"Ah, but they've not deigned to divulge to their public the secrets of the academies or the precious Relics within, have they?"

Salem didn't answer. She didn't need to.

Frieza grinned. "So you've rope enough to hang them… If the peasantry were to learn your Ozpin had shielded his treasures with the bodies of their young… or perhaps that withholding such treasures has been the root of their suffering…"

Salem shook her head. "A trump card is best employed as a last resort… You tread a dangerous path, my Lord…"

With that, the portal faded away, leaving a pregnant silence in its wake.

"You run along now, lad," Frieza warned, not even looking at Mercury. "Lest you inherit the wage of her cheek…"

Even someone as irreverent as Mercury knew a threat worth taking seriously. "You got it, boss…"

"Just one last thing, boy," Frieza called, stalling Mercury in his tracks.

He turned. Frieza didn't.

"The good lady…" Frieza began. "I might be seeing a shape in the clouds, but her countenance continues to strike me… A likeness I cannot place… I don't suppose you've the faintest idea to that which I speak?"

"She seems familiar? That what you're asking?"

Frieza tensed. "If that is more readily digestible, then yes."

"Don't have much of an eye for faces, but… nobody I know."

"Very well, Mister Black, be on your way then…"

But Ginyu stood by, arms crossed, face inscrutable. "Permission to speak, sir?"

Frieza didn't meet her eye either. "What have you to say then, Commander…?"

"I'm concerned about the prospect of leaving Vegeta and his allies to fester out there… Vegeta himself barely had a power level of seventeen-thousand as long as I've known him… He was stronger still when fighting my Ginyu Force, and you said he challenged your first form…! You! With a battle power of five-hundred n' thirty-thousand…!"

"I feel you're suggesting something…"

Ginyu was careful, but frowned as she constructed her argument. "And that… that other Saiyan they called Kakarot… A hundred and eighty thousand! Eclipsing ME before I took this form! This rube from nowhere! My Lord… If these Saiyans just keep advancing at this rate… I'm starting to wonder if these two might be Super Saiyans—"

"Enough," Frieza hissed.

Ginyu blanched, adjusting her hair nervously. Had she gone too far?

"...Do you truly suggest that I, Frieza the Mighty, fear the paltry scratchings of two simians and a half-breed? That after decades of mediocrity, the throneless Prince could injure and self-improve beyond the station of the greatest being to ever live…?!"

Ginyu backed away, her eyes gaping. "N-no, sire! Of… of course not…"

Frieza turned his back, his nail idly tapping his armrest even as little white cracks formed in the polymers under it.

"Never forget who I am, Commander. I am Lord Frieza… None surpass me… No one even comes close…"

Ruby sat on the roof in the twilight air, peering over the trees. You could just see the lights of Vale across the water from here.

"It's all the same, but… different now."

Ren nodded contentedly. "Not everyone reacted well, but… I think people believe we're here to help."

Gohan had to stand up to see the lights, but that didn't seem to bother him in the slightest. "It's kinda weird that they know about us, but don't know who we are…"

"I think that's for the best," Ozpin said, smiling serenely. "Our identities —mine especially— will inevitably call our motives and allegiances into question. But per Miss Rose's inspired suggestion, instead we invoke an avatar of protection. More an idea than a person. Guardian angels, for whom Kingdoms and politics are immaterial."

Below, Taiyang listened from the covered deck, just listening to the crickets and gazing at the stars.

But he heard the creak of wood as someone joined him, and saw a familiar silhouette.

He sighed. "Qrow…"

"Nice night," Qrow said idly, falling his spindly frame into one of the wooden lounge chairs. "Some real eve of victory stuff going on tonight."

"Pretty sure 'eve' means before, not after…"

"R'gardless," Qrow sighed, "sure is a change of pace to go somewhere, raise cane, and find the place we left is better off for it… Damn near cock-a-hoop…"

Tai snorted. "Like you were there today? I don't even know what it is you do around here anymore…"

Qrow winced just slightly, more in frustration than any manner of shame as he stared skyward. "Why? You want me to get more involved? I've backed-off 'cause you seemed none too pleased with my even being here. Been dry two weeks."

"Wow… a new record."

Qrow finally turned, head leaning on his fist. "Tai… how long's it been? We used to be friends. Well… 'cept that one ti—"

Taiyang grimaced. "Yeah, it was one-time… let it go…!"

"Well…" Qrow said, "you first… You know I don't deny it… I have no idea if my semblance… If Summer…" His eyes were downcast as he remembered. "But can we STOP… pretending like I wanted it to happen? Like it's not just my fault, but something I did?"

Taiyang didn't answer, just heaving a sigh.

Qrow's red eyes pierced the dark as he sought his teammates. "You know I'd do anything to protect this family… You know Ruby was going to chase after Salem's goons after Beacon, no matter what we said about it. At least my way she had someone lookin' after her."

"I… I know…"

"Tai, I…" Qrow froze. "...What?"

"At least… she didn't go out there alone," Tai admitted. "Thank you… for… watching over her."

Qrow blinked, sitting up. "Sure… I'd never let her face this alone. I love that kid…"

"Course… she wouldn't be as alone if you watched over her in the first place."

Qrow's countenance darkened. "How many times I gotta apologize? It wasn't just Summer at stake, it was you! If you both ran foul of Salem, what was gonna happen to Ruby and Yang?!"

Taiyang watched him in silence.

Qrow shook his head. "I couldn't do it. I couldn't sit and wait to realize both of you were gone."

Taiyang just sat quiet.

"That's always what it's like for me,Tai. Every situation, I don't know if I'm gonna help people, or seal their fate. I have to choose between letting the chips fall, or intervening. And I didn't become a Huntsman to sit around, saying it's better for everyone if I warm the bench!"

"I get it," Tai snapped at last, before softening. "I'm just… so damn scared… I don't know how to protect her anymore."

"It's easy, isn't it?"

Qrow and Taiyang turned to see Raven sitting on the rail, hopping over to lean against it from their side.

"You arm her, so she doesn't require protecting."

"Wow, nice to see you without your new toy grumbling behind you," Tai jabbed.

Raven smiled. "Even Vegeta has his limits. You're not jealous, are you Tai?"

Taiyang couldn't help snorting. "Rae, I had a long time to accept that nobody was ever gonna pin you in one place for long. I'm over it."

"Really?" she asked. "Not worried I might be a bad influence on our daughter?"

"Not really. I raised her right."

"Ha!"

Taiyang couldn't help his mood shifting. "Sheesh, look at you… Giddy as a schoolgirl. Never figured that guy could inspire a positive attitude. Don't think I've seen him crack a smile."

"I thought you weren't bothered."

"M'not… I'm just sayin'..."

Qrow let himself recline again. "So by arm her, I assume you mean something specific?"

Raven frowned. "Do I have to think up everything?"

"Well, once my ship's done, you guys could help me get materials to really arm them better," Bulma said from the ground as she passed. "If the kids are too busy bulking up, I could stand to roll with some has-beens…"

Tai shrugged. "Well hey, we were Team STRQ once, that's gotta count for something. Or… what, Team Turquoise? Nah… still missin' our 'S'..."

"You know you almost were Team TRQS…"

They each looked up as Oscar swung in under the awning from the roof. "But as keen a leader as you were Taiyang… she simply edged you out."

Qrow snickered. "Yeah, that tended to happen where she was concerned…"

Ozpin nodded, memory in his eyes. "Still… perhaps it would do the pair of you good to contribute in other ways."

"Sure," Qrow huffed with mild enthusiasm. "Be like old times."

There was a sudden commotion above before Ruby's red hair appeared upside down, hanging over the edge of the deck roof.

"Hey! Someone set off fireworks over the school!" Ruby said excitedly, before her face blanked as an idea struck her. "...Or artillery for more Grimm…" She vanished for a moment, but returned almost as quickly. "Wait, nope… There's rainbow-colored ones, we're good."

She vanished again. Raven smirked as she rolled her eyes. "A bit too much like old times with her around."

"Hmm," Qrow grunted. "Like we never lost our 'S' after all."

The next day's training was almost completely derailed when Nora insisted upon learning the Multi-Form technique.

"Aaaaand…" Krillin turned partially transparent as he separated into two beings before them once again. "...It's just like that! I find it easiest to imagine I'm sorting hate and sadness…"

"...or that the other is walking out of a mirror," the other said. "Imagery helps a lot here. Just remember, separate your energy while trying to keep its shape as much as possible. It's easier than it looks."

They each took wide stances and gave it a shot. It was a lot of flexing and tense looks at first, but…

Within a minute Weiss couldn't help but sigh as she whispered to the others. "So apart from the niche benefits of splitting into multiple bodies… are we just not going to act like Nora just wants more options in the bedroo—?"

But then Oscar made a noise of surprise, and with an unexpected flare of light… two Oscars stood on the lawn.

"Whoa!" The first said. "I did it…?!"

Even Goku was floored. "Whoa! You're a natural! How'd ya…?!"

"I believe it might be a matter of our unique circumstances…" the other Oscar said, looking pleased, but unsurprised.

Jaune blinked. "...Ozpin…?"

"And Oscar…?" Blake said.

"At the SAME TIME?!" Ruby concluded.

Indeed, Ozpin strode gaily over, a hand on the freckled boy's shoulder.

"It's a pleasure to finally, truly look you in the eye, Oscar… Such an unexpected benefit, but… liberating, I'm sure you'll agree…"

Indeed, Oscar took a few deep breaths. "Yeah, I… It's… I'm not alone in my head, but… it's like you've moved to the back of my mind! I feel like me again…!"

Ruby gave him a slap on the back. "Congratulations, Oscar! That's great!"

There was a mutter of assent as the former farmboy's existence became that much more tolerable in that many minutes. Only Nora seemed lost in thought.

"Huh… So if they're gonna do this from now on… if one of them drinks a bunch, will the other need to use the bathroom…? Or if they both eat a big meal and fuse back together, does their stomach explode…?"

Krillin scratched his head. "Huh… know what? I'm not sure… Never done it that long. Just be careful, huh? Remember… using the Multi-form technique splits your power in half. Be careful how you use it."

Oscar was an outlier, however.

"Almost got it…!" Yang grunted, glowing as a specter of energy shaped like herself peeled away and began drifting to her left.

Krillin, Goku and Gohan all watched in surprise.

"Whoa… that's not like Tien's—"

"HIT THE DIRT!" Krillin cried.

An instant later and the specter snapped back onto its owner and burned extra bright before she vanished and flattened everyone within a dozen yards with the resulting explosion as gold billowed into the sky.

Yang spread-eagled on the lawn when the dust settled, grumbling into the grass.

"Yeah…" Krillin confirmed drunkenly. "Pretty sure we saw Yamcha do that on the Lookout…"

It took nearly an hour for the second split to occur. This time it was Weiss… then Ren. Ruby was actually middle of the pack by the time two of her were staring at each other.

"Whoa! It's so weird!" Ruby said.

"Yeah! So weird…!" Also-Ruby said.

"Wait! It flipped your hair!"

"Yours too! You're backwards!"

Weiss crossed her arms. "Ruby, you're not backwards… The image you see in the mirror is backwards. Have you not ever looked at yourself in a photograph?"

Two Yangs walked over too. "And why are you talking to yourself?"

"...You don't have a twin now, you're controlling both at the same time…" the other Yang said.

"Oh, I know…" Ruby said, as the other finished her statement. "...It's just fun…!"

"I'll say!" Nora said, as she did a chin-up with the extended arms of a smiling Ren on either side of her. "This is everything I EVER wanted…"

"YEAH THAT'S NICE, NORA!" Yang projected as if she might drown her out.

Blake just giggled. "Oh come on, do you really blame her? It does open a lot of possibilities…"

Weiss sighed. "I really don't want to know what they're going to get up to in that house tonight…"

Blake crossed her arms. "What, no plans to practice a little 'self-care…?' "

"Self… are you suggesting…?"

"Sure," Blake laughed. "Alone in your room with someone on your same wavelength, who wants what you want and won't judge you…? Or tell?"

There were red faces all around as her words sank in.

Blake locked eyes with her monkey-tailed compatriot. "Close your mouth, Sun…"

"Sometimes," Jaune said, "I forget the books you like…"

Yang chuckled. "I remember the time Ruby tried to sneak one of her comics…"

Ruby's eyes went distant. "...I was scarred for life."

Meanwhile, Neopolitan's attention was split between helping Bulma with Manta Five-One and beholding the odd sight of the multiplied teens.

Bulma slid open the magazine of the Gungnir Lance and beheld the series of shaped metallic pucks within. She took one look, gave a tap, and sighed. "Yep, tungsten, like she said… Can't use Tai's printer to make more of these, even if we had thousands of pounds of it lying around. Melting point is too high."

Nonetheless, she took a scan of the shaped-slugs. "We'll have to keep test-fires to a minimum and make this gun count. Ideally I'd find a way to make this thing modular so we could detach it as needed. A monster like this with such heavy ammunition, it'll definitely compromise our speed…"

She stood up, barely noticing that Neo was only half listening. "Still, we'll have to fire this thing off to make sure it even works in the first place."

That perked Neo's ears right up, as Bulma took the thick electric cable and screwed it into her heavy fusion battery. She attached three braces —bent into shape by Krillin— which anchored with stakes driven into the earth. They had already adjusted it to take aim roughly for a rock tower in the distance…

"Alright! Pretty sure I have the firing mechanism wired-up right… but just in case…"

She stepped into the seat of the Manta and let its engines hum to life. It wasn't ready to fly yet, but she gently drifted it a safe distance just over the ground before setting it back down and killing the engine. From the pilot and copilot seats, Bulma and Neo watched as the former pulled out a simple, single-button remote.

But Neo couldn't help herself as she swung up to stand on the wing of Five-One, leaning out with Hush against her shoulder as Bulma hit the high-tension button…

'*DYONNNNNSSsssssssSSSsssssss…!*'

With a noise like a taut wire strumming, a searing red jet crossed the sky as it bore towards the rock tower. A keen eye —though it hurt said eye with its brightness— would have noticed an undulating, silvery core gleaming and reflecting its own light. A molten, ultra-dense needle, piercing a few layers of rock deep before blowing its top off altogether. The residual, glimmering droplets had rehardened prior to impact. It wasn't an energy blast, but it was enough to draw attention as Neo's parasol lifted and opened triumphantly against the patter of dirt and stone flecks that rained down upon them.

"So… cool…!" Ruby whispered in awe —just one of her now— as Yang cocked a brow.

"Eh… kinda mid. Pretty sure you can do more than that with Crescent Rose by now."

Ruby blushed, smiling as if it weren't a simple appraisal of facts. "Aww… Well sure, but it can do that without life energy! Molten tungsten can penetrate ANY armor and has so much stopping power! The Gungnir Lance is such an awesome idea!"

Weiss couldn't help a wry grin. "I'm shocked you can pronounce it. You tried to say 'egregious' the other day and said something like 'egredguous.' "

"It's a weapon," Ruby said, as if this distinction explained anything.

Blake, meanwhile, was twirling her kusarigama while another Blake slid a hand between the generous openings every time its blade zipped by.

"When Krillin first showed us this, I was worried about multitasking, but…" She stopped as she snatched the blade out of the air, a length of ribbon between her hand and the other Blake's. "Splitting our attention is no problem…"

Weiss nodded enthusiastically as both of her seemed to strand back into one like a spectral, reverse mitosis. "I… I think in the moment we literally are thinking with multiple brains. Our soul is split between them, but we each have something akin to agency despite being ruled by a spiritual whole."

Ruby frowned as she nodded. "I wonder if that's what Salem feels like at all…"

Nora suddenly gasped as an idea hit her. "Wait…! It makes more than just another you! It includes your clothes, your weapons…"

Yang pinkened as she considered it. "Yeah, wouldn't be jazzed about this if my clones popped out naked…"

Ruby seemed paralyzed by the vision conjured by her mind, absolutely red-faced as her eyes darted occasionally to Oscar.

"No no! Well yeah," Nora laughed uncomfortably, but coughed. "I mean, what happens if we do this…!"

One of her duplicates pulled out Magnhilde and set it in a lawn chair a distance away before skipping back over. Again, the reverse mitosis happened as she became a single Nora again. She then pranced over to the—

"Awwww!" she complained, seeing the duplicated hammer was also gone. "Ripoff!"

Jaune snickered. "Thought you found a real-life dupe glitch, huh Nora?"

Blake frowned as she laughed. "I guess you could probably still pay someone with duplicate Lien, and reform after the transaction… but since it disappears, that's basically stealing."

Weiss crossed her arms. "Well, ideally, we can be trusted to use our powers respectfully and responsibly…"

Nora sat red-faced as both Rens…

Both Rens… The one behind the other… The other's face, flushed as he… as they…

"N-Nora…? You're drooling…"

She did nothing to rectify it. "Yeah…"

Jaune's face was red as his copy's face was smushed idly against his shoulders.

"Well…" he grunted from below. "Th-that was different…"

"Different… good?" the other asked, already knowing the answer.

"Yeah… Little sore, but…"

There was a pause as they caught their collective breath.

"So… We still like girls?"

"Oh, definitely…"

"...Wanna go again?"

"Oh… definitely…"

Blake was wrapped up in her own arms, quite content, her ears flat with the calm.

"Wow, it… really does feel like sandpaper."

"But… in a good way…?"

They sighed.

"Ruby's right… talking to yourself is fun."

Yang clutched her own thigh as she wrestled her duplicate beneath her while she rode out the last of it, her face scarlet and glistening. She plunked heavily beside herself as the bed creaked in protest and the waves of sensation crashed again and again.

"O-okay…!" she laughed. "We are… never… doing this solo again…"

"Hell yeah…" the other agreed.

"Screw virginity… We should really just ask him…"

"Ask?"

"With a PHYSICAL question," she clarified.

They both glanced at the door. "Coast still clear?"

The third duplicate was flat against the floor, peering under the crack of the door and listening intently. "Duh… Ruby's still in the bathroom. Enjoy your 'afterglow…' "

Ruby Rose sat on the edge of the tub, pink as she stared at her own toweled body. She saw as much and more when looking into a mirror in this very room, so she wasn't sure why it still felt… scandalous. Of course, the mirror was fogged from her shower right now.

"So… not like Dad does it…"

"Yeah… like the movies, with like an open mouth…"

Neither of them moved. But then, the standing Ruby leaned closer… closer…

"What do you do with your tongue?"

"I think… in his mouth…?"

They continued… until their lips met awkwardly. Both concentrated briefly, before they each leaned back, blinking.

"That's weird…"

"That can't be how it works…"

"Super… weird…"

"Nnk! Come on…! Nnnnk! That's right…"

Sun worked to lift himself… again… and again… as his duplicate form sat on his knees.

"Seventy-three… Seventy… four…!"

"So much better for partner exercises," his spotter clone commented as he continued his sit-ups. "These abs don't just happen…"

"Seventy-FIVE… seventy-SIX…!"

His spotter sighed. "I miss Neptune…"

Around Ren and Nora's little slice of heaven, a dozen Rens a half a dozen Noras were scattered around every available surface. In most cases, a Nora was sandwiched between two Rens, though a few Rens and Noras had entangled with their own copies too.

But in the aftermath, they were silent as they heaved and huffed. Then, one by one, they began vanishing. They merged and melded one after another, until only the pair in the bed remained, their eyes wide as saucers.

"Y'know what…?" Nora asked.

"Y-yeah…?"

"I think this's run its course…"

Ren leaned over. "You mean… you don't want…?"

"Yeah… I'm… kinda over it…"

"Mmm," Ren nodded, agreeing. "You want to cuddle…?"

Nora grinned with a sigh. "That's more my speed…" she threw her arms around him… and they just slept.

"So this is the place, Gohan?" Krillin asked, as they dropped individually into the cavern. "How'd you find this cave?"

"Oh," Ruby laughed, "he knocked me in here during training a while back."

"Yeah," Yang confirmed as she landed on her feet, "Ruby made this little entrance we're using with her head… and then the rest of her."

"And at the right time of morning…" Gohan said, as he peered at the time on Ruby's scroll.

And as they watched, a sliver of orange sunlight crept onto a vast, pearlescent metallic crystal. It reflected and spread to smaller and smaller crystals across the room, glimmering as the light spread in smaller dots and shapes like a disco ball. The whole room was illuminated, revealing stalactites of crystal, like frosted glass hanging as though melting in slow motion.

"It's beautiful…" Blake commented.

"Schnazzy…!" Nora said, nodding appreciatively.

"Yeah, that ain't half bad!" Krillin said, pivoting on his heel as he blinked around the cavern. "Buuuut it's not why we're here…"

"Why are we here…?" Ruby asked, unable to resist following the conversational breadcrumb.

"For this training, we wanted somewhere quiet and peaceful," Krillin explained, as they heard the distant drip of water deep in the cave. "Today, we show you guys how to do image-training!"

"Like… what an AI does…?" Jaune asked.

"How would that work…?" Blake asked him.

"It wouldn't; total shot in the dark…"

Krillin blinked. "Uh… What I mean is… training by battling an opponent in your mindscape! You can imagine one of someone you know, to test how a fight plays out… or you can fight another person by linking minds with them!"

"So wait… like… telepathy?" Weiss asked.

"Like meditation," Krillin explained. "But yeah… remember when we helped you guys sense powers?"

Ren hummed his assent. "Yes, of course…"

Yang gave an explosive noise as she stood in disbelief. "Okay, we're pretty good by now, but I don't know how to… mind-bullets and whatever."

Gohan smiled. "Aw, it's not that hard. Your ki does all the work… You just have to reach out…"

Ruby sat on the floor. "Well, okay, if we're doing it, then…"

Krillin and Gohan were surprised, but smiled as they nodded to her example. In seconds, they all found a spot and planted down.

Krillin shut his eyes. "Just focus on that dripping noise… and think of me and Gohan. Imagine us… feel our energies… Reach out to them with yours…"

Ruby did indeed reach out, listening to the steady, calming drip echoing over to them.

She wasn't sure it was doing anything… but then…

"I think… I think I've got it…!"

Gohan tumbled suddenly backward with a yelp as a red flare blasted out from Ruby's forehead.

"OH! I'M SORRY! Gohan, are you okay?!"

But Gohan burst out laughing as he limply lay wedged between two stalagmites.

"She literally shot mind bullets," Yang noted, eyes wide.

"I hadn't really thought of it coming from anywhere but the hands…" Ren uttered thoughtfully.

Krillin snickered. "Yeah… I kinda guessed something like that might happen…"

Several minutes —and only a few more such incidents— later, and Ruby slowly felt the world around her fade… as Krillin and Gohan appeared before her, gleaming against a black backdrop.

"Ohhhh…! Holy schnikes! I'm in my own BRAIN…! Or… your brain…? Brains?"

Krillin chuckled. "Don't blow a bulb, kid, it beats me too. Best not to think about it…"

"Is it that different from when the Relic was showing us the past?" Weiss asked, arms crossed.

"This is surreal…" Blake noted as she joined in, like a conference call.

"Dude! My hand! It's my real hand…!" Yang cried suddenly behind them, as she tested and gazed at her own flesh-and-blood limb.

"Ah man!" Sun cheered, waving his tail around, no longer a leftover stub.

"Hmm," Krillin nodded. "Yep, everything here is a mental projection, so it's more how you see yourself."

Yang took a breath as her fingers flexed. "It's like… lucid dreaming… Okay, this is an awesome perk…"

"Oscar, is it just you?" Ren asked, as they realized he was alone.

The boy considered. "Well, we're split right now, but he's still here, technically… I guess just not enough to be here…"

"HEADS-UP, RUBY!"

Ruby became a whirl of petals as Gohan passed right through her. She reappeared at his side with a firm swat from Crescent Rose' blunt end. He tumbled a few feet over the nonexistent floor.

"Oh! Sorry… again…"

Gohan flipped to his feet, rubbing his back as he grinned. "Wow, your semblance is tricky…! It's a lot harder to handle in this place…"

RWBY all looked at each other.

"Why?" Blake asked.

"Because speed and strength don't matter for image-training!"

Suddenly, Goku stood among them, a pep in his step they weren't used to seeing as he strolled right in.

"Wait… how did…?" Weiss asked.

Goku tapped his forehead. "I can talk inside your heads over a great distance!"

A number of them froze, before crying, "What?!"

Goku laughed. "Nah, I'm kidding… I can only do that for a short ways, and it takes a lot of concentration. Frankly, it comes and goes… I just followed your powers in this neat cave…!"

"Wait, we can talk in each other's heads?!" Sun asked.

Weiss huffed. "We're literally in an abstract mindscape right now! How is that less impressive to you…?!"

Sun's lips pouted as he nodded once… and then again. "Fair point… this is cool too."

Blake considered. "I think there are semblances that do that too… but not needing one is a serious advantage…"

Ruby gasped. "Wait…" She pointed at Goku. "Are we gonna be able to fight you at your BEST?!"

Goku experimentally gripped the joint of his shoulder as the other arm steadily windmilled in its full rotation. "Well… Like I said, not my full strength or speed… But skill for sure… IF I haven't gotten rusty…" he finished with a hungry leer.

Ruby's face seemed to morph back and forth between excitement and shriveling terror, the corner of her lip turning up and going slack repeatedly…

Oscar raised his hand. "Wait, what happens if we… uh… die in here? Like… I've heard if you die in a dream you…"

Goku waved it off. "Nah, if your body takes too much damage in here, you just get kicked back awake."

"Well that's great, but… hold on…!" Weiss said, standing between them all, as her eyes lit up. "This place is a construct of our collective consciousness, right? There have to be more applications of this than just sparring in our own heads. For instance… maybe… we can show what Beacon was like before—"

As this crossed her mind, she froze as perfect white stone was laid out beneath her feet, and like a painting, they were surrounded by the airship docks… the distant, decorative viaducts, like a modern Stonehenge over the gleaming shallow pools.

And behind it, the entrance hall, the dining hall… and the imposing outline of the dark spires and fully intact CCT tower, like a gleaming lime lighthouse wearing a wizard's conical hat…

"Huh…" Krillin scratched his head. "Never tried that before…"

Goku shrugged, before taking to the air and darting off to investigate. Gohan nearly followed, but saw the others milling about, caught up in memory.

Gohan blinked to see… two Rubys… two Weiss' and two Blakes. Their sizes were barely different, but Blake looked more guarded, stony, wearing a cute black bow where her ears were. Weiss had an outfit that seemed more… prissy, with red under her collar.

And Ruby…

"Wow, how long ago was this?" Krillin asked, looking at Ruby in her far blacker, dressier outfit. She looked like a doll.

The real Ruby found their stares uncomfortable. "Uh… a year ago… plus a few months?"

Gohan chuckled. "You look so much younger though… And why are you so… pale?"

Krillin nodded. "Yeah… like a ghost…"

Ruby blushed. "It's a trick of the light! It's cause my outfit's so black… and… I wasn't very tan, I spent a lotta time inside! Yeesh…"

Yang frowned at the frozen scene. "Is this when you three first met?"

"Yeah…" Weiss admitted. "It was somewhat… incendiary."

Blake shrugged. "Well… I recognized you, and… couldn't help myself. Never guessed we'd be teamed-up."

Weiss blinked. "Oh, no… I meant how I met Ruby… I was… not terribly patient."

Ruby nodded. "I walked into her luggage by accident and blew us up by sneezing on her Dust."

Ren frowned. "Wait… Your Dust was leaking…?"

Weiss winced. "I… might have discovered while unpacking that some of my phials were less… than… secure…"

Jaune went as white as the frozen Ruby. "Wait… If a sneeze was enough to… Then could our airship have been…?"

"...Blown outta the sky…?" Nora finished for him.

"And hey, this is where I met Jaune!" Ruby said, sparing Weiss as the images drifted away, and the younger Ruby was on her back, with a young, weedy-looking Jaune in piecemeal armor standing over her with a hand extended.

Krillin turned to Yang. "Where were you in all this?"

Ruby snorted. "Found her old Signal friends and ditched me…"

"Hey," Yang said uneasily, "Dad told me to give you space to figure things out. You would've stuck to my side and never talked to anyone…"

"Friends?" Weiss repeated. "I've never seen you with frie—"

Suddenly the skies and Sun changed in the sky, later, in the evening. It was a different time of year. Ruby turned to see—

"Whoa! That thing's cool…" Goku commented, returning from his short sojourn. High in the sky, the roughly conical shape of Amity Coliseum sat parked in midair, flanked by several Theia Class Atlas ships.

Ruby stared ahead to see James Ironwood and Winter Schnee mid-stride heading into the school. And frozen in mid-action, twisting briefly to offer a warm wave…

"Uhhhhh… let's head inside," Yang suggested, as she and Blake glimpsed the brewing issue.

Ruby's eyes were fixed on her brilliant green eyes, her copper curls on both sides of her face… those cute little freckles.

"Who's that?"

Ruby jumped, realizing that Gohan was behind her, watching her.

"This… This is Penny. She's… She… was my friend…"

Ruby's hand was stretched out for Penny's shoulder… but she gasped as her hand made contact with the construct.

Gohan's face fell as Ruby's voice caught in her throat. He'd heard enough of these names before.

Ruby carefully, slowly stepped closer… and wrapped her arms around the memory with a hard squeeze.

It was alarming how real it felt. Real as she was, at least… She wouldn't cry in front of Gohan.

She looked up, once more seeing something she… probably should have expected.

"She's… warm…" Weiss sniffed, latched to Winter's side. She stepped back, using the edge of her capelet as a handkerchief as she dabbed the corners of her eyes. "I… we shouldn't do this to ourselves. This is dangerous, we'll drive ourselves insane, subsisting in memories…"

Ruby took a glance back at Penny as she stepped up to Weiss' side, taking her hand. Weiss squeezed her hand back.

They strode through the dining hall, where a raucous food fight was frozen like a photograph. The mood was alleviated as the Earthlings took note of the improvised weapons forged from swordfish, melons and entire turkeys… sausage links and soda cans.

"Hahahaha! You kids know how to party!" Krillin told them, as Jaune's eyes passed over the blazing red hair of Pyrrha in silence.

Gohan winced. "So did all this food just go to waste…?"

Goku nodded sadly in agreement. "Yeah, this is kinda bumming me out…"

"Are there food shortages on Earth?" Blake asked.

Krillin blinked. "Huh? Yeah, in some places… There's billions of people on Earth, and towns all over… N' some do better than others…"

"Billions…?!" Weiss asked, though she was hardly the only one shocked.

"Well that explains that," Nora muttered.

Ren nodded. "Remnant only has a total census of… no more than fifteen million."

"After the Great War, new agricultural methods made food production more reliable, but populations have still been relatively small despite greater population densities," Oscar explained. "So, except for more isolated towns, food has been in excess for decades…"

Ruby blinked at him. "Is that Ozpin knowledge, or do you know that much about farming…?"

"I… kinda both…"

Nora leapt beside herself onto a tower of long tables.

"Well NOW we gotta see what Earth's like! Come on, you've HAD the Remnant Grand Tour…! Let's step into the EARTH one!"

Ruby blinked. "Earth-what?"

"Step into the grand tour," Weiss surmised.

" 'Grand tour?' " Ruby asked.

"GRAND TOUR!" Nora cried, jumping up and down.

"Step into the—"

"Yes!" Weiss cried. "Are your mental ears full of wax…?!"

Goku seemed to concentrate. "Hmm… Alright, let's start simple!"

Krillin laughed. "You'll have to give him the floor, gang…"

And indeed, as they backed off of their memories of Beacon, their surroundings melted away, and they found themselves in a hill-strewn forest clearing, beside a tiny brick pagoda with a blue sloped roof.

But at the center of that clearing, an overturned car, and…

"OH!" Ruby squee'd her hands tight to her chest. "Is that BULMA?!"

Blake snickered, reading the name clearly written across the bluenette's little pink dress. "Would never have guessed…"

Yang could only laugh. "Who wears merch with their own name on it…?"

Krillin laughed uncomfortably. "Yeah… that's sure…" He knew very well there was a hat Yang should never see, even in a memory.

Ruby circled Bulma, whose hands were half-raised in an annoyed surrender. "Oh my gosh, she's so cute…!"

Ren couldn't help smiling. "I think she's about your age, Ruby…"

Weiss, meanwhile, was leaning over to investigate the boy with the familiar tangle of black hair, wielding a red pole at Bulma in threat and suspicion.

"So this is you…?"

Nora snorted. "Is there any mistaking that do…?"

Gohan was taken with the sight as well. The young Saiyan in his blue clothes had barely any size over Gohan despite his advanced age.

Weiss' attention was then taken by the thick-ended brown tail sprouting from the young Goku's pants. "Oh my god, you really did have a tail…"

Sun crossed his arms. "Gettin' a bit too familiar in here," he said, flicking the full-length shadow of his lost tail, restored as Yang's arm was in this dreamscape. "And what's with the car?"

Goku blinked, looking over to the sedan on its side missing two wheels. "Oh, Bulma was driving too fast and hit me with it. I'd never seen one before, so I tossed it."

Blake blinked. "Pretty sure that's how she met Sun too…"

Sun scoffed. "I mean I couldn't exactly pick up a car back then…"

Yang's gaze managed to peer into the distance. "Man, you'd never know this wasn't Remnant… Except the mountains. How'd they get so round? They're like torpedos or something…"

But the vision changed to the inside of the tiny pagoda, which despite not having nearly enough space to house their party, merely let them occupy black space beyond the walls to look in unobstructed. Bulma and the young Goku were peering over a tiny table, where three orange orbs illuminated the small space.

"Whoa…! What are those?!" Ruby whispered in awe.

"Hey, there's little red stars in 'em!" Nora noted. "This one's got two… five…"

"And four," Goku said with some satisfaction. "Those… are Dragonballs…"

"Oh, so that's what they look like…" Jaune remarked.

"They're beautiful," Weiss said. "And these things grant wishes? Even bring back the dead?"

Before that thought could emanate further, Bulma and young Goku changed to standing positions. Goku was holding the four star ball in placid indifference, while Bulma…

"What…" Weiss croaked, "w-WHAT is happening here?!"

"Oh…" Blake uttered, a hand drifting over Gohan's eyes as Ruby just blinked rapidly.

Bulma had a preening look of mischief on her face, and both hands lifting the side of her dress to reveal her underwear…

"Riiiiight…" Yang groaned. "She wanted your ball… and that's how she tried to get it… I remember you guys saying that…"

"Ugh…" Weiss recoiled. "Bulma… how… shameful…!"

Oscar met Ruby's eyes and immediately turned his back to the spectacle in shame. "I'm not looking! I'm not LIKE that, I swear!"

Ruby couldn't help a grin as she watched him.

Nora, meanwhile, was fixated on the young Goku's face. "Look at him though! That's not some kid's awakening; he looks like she's showing him the living room wall!" she laughed.

Krillin couldn't help laughing himself. "Yeah, Goku never was much of a romantic. Figures he got himself engaged in the ring!"

"Hey, so…" Ruby began, "...can we see a wish getting made?!"

Goku's eyes lit up. "Ah! Sure! I was busy busting us outta this guy Pilaf's dungeon, so I didn't see Shenron come out the first time, but I did see what happened after that! Oh, and I think I can get some movement and voices this time…"

Suddenly there was a low, booming voice, like distant thunder given words.

"Rrrrghhh… Who has summoned me…? Tell me your wish… but beware, for it will come true…"

"Wait…" Oscar began… The dragon talks?!"

"I want to have… the world—!" a warbly-pitched voice replied.

"...The world's most comfortable pair of ultra-soft UNDERWEAR…!" a nasally grunt finished as the scene changed at last.

Before them stood a castle in the midst of a desert of tall, enormous mushrooms. It was blackest night, but darker still were the skies… save for the twisting, flowing green shape gleaming overhead, a blue ridge along its spine and its yellow underbelly, as the area was illuminated by the pristine golden glow of the seven little balls.

"Whoa…! Get a load a' that!" Yang said, looking up.

"Kinda hard to miss…" Sun said, neck craning.

"THAT'S the Dragon…?!" Blake asked.

"It's HUGE!" Nora added.

Ruby was caught in absolute awe. "That's the coolest thing I've ever seen…" she whispered.

Shenron was like a massive floating serpent, four tiny legs arranged across its segmented body that were barely noticeable as it wound through the dark clouds. It looked like a massive loosened knot of scaled flesh curling infinitely.

But it did have a beginning, and it did have an end. The tip of Shenron's tail pointed down at the Dragonballs, and of course, his head.

Shenron's long snout was as broad as his head, full of dagger-like teeth, jaw stuck in a permanent, vaguely-sinister smile whose nature was simply unknowable. Two mustache-like barbels trailed the length of a bus. Behind his head sprouted not horns, but massive, branching brown antlers that looked like whole tree trunks.

But most glaring and intimidating were his brilliant red eyes. Not red like the Grimm, but perfect, infinite pools as red as blood. It was impossible to know where he was staring, and so the sheer intensity of his gaze seared all that he surveyed.

Weiss glanced at Ruby, but couldn't quite take her eyes off the Eternal Dragon. "I mean… coolest? It's up there, but we saw a star explode… Gods being born… A Universe being created AND unraveling…"

"Can't hear you… looking at a giant dragon…"

"Wait…" Nora said suddenly. "What was that about underwear…?"

One by one, they looked down to see the rest of the scene. A pale blue imp of thigh height with pointy ears, in a frilly black and green tunic with red trim and a striped red and blue hat was stunned as a humanoid pig in blue slacks and a white tank top used him as a step, fist to the heavens as he cried out to the immense being above.

Weiss leaned over, as Ren investigated another two, a woman with curtains of black hair in a jumpsuit, and an upright walking shiba inu in a purple ninja suit, wearing a wakizashi on his back.

"AAiiiiiiigh!" Ruby and Nora squealed as one.

"Oh my god, lookit the little PIGGY-MAN!" Ruby cried in glee. "His stubby arms and legs…! His suspenders!"

"And check out the NINJA-PUP!" Nora added, constantly shifting from side to side around the humanoid canid. "He's even got a sword…!"

Blake couldn't help but smile despite her own fascination. "So these aren't just faunus… they're… really animals…"

"Why does his tunic say 'fried rice?' " Ren asked, reading off the little imp's clothing.

"I've never seen these guys," Krillin muttered, hands in his pockets.

Nora frowned. "Ren, you can read West Mistrali too?"

"My parents insisted."

Sun and Yang stared down at the little blue man.

"Is this guy even human?" Yang asked. "Because this is pretty wild…"

Sun hummed. "Guess the whole noseless thing was just one option."

"Earth is just one big genetic sample-platter…"

Goku laughed. "Oh, that's Pilaf. His gang wanted to get the Dragonballs and rule the world. The pig is our friend, Oolong. He spoiled their wish by making his own. The cat is Puar, Yamcha's friend."

Blake blinked. "Cat? What cat?"

Goku pointed at the floating dark-blue plush-looking creature half-panicking as she hid, her face, inner ears, underbelly and the tip of her tail the only parts colored beige.

"Oh my god…" Blake said flatly as she investigated.

Weiss frowned. "So his wish was just to rule the world?" She scoffed. "How childish… That's so vague, what would it even mean? The dragon can't bend the will of everyone on the planet, or you would have just changed Vegeta or Frieza to be better people… right?"

Oscar laughed. "Right… What if the dragon just declares him ruler because nobody claims ownership of the world… but nobody actually takes him seriously?"

Ren smiled. "Like if you paid to name a star in a registry, and expected the people who live around that star to respect it…"

Goku scratched his head. "Huh… I'd never thought about that… gosh… No, I don't think Shenron could just make an army… Oh! Unless they were robots…!"

As he digested that, Blake kept examining Puar as Ruby wandered over.

"Looks less like a cat than a… toy…"

"So… is she floating?" Ruby asked.

Krillin hummed. "Yeah, she does that. Not really sure why… She and Oolong can both shapeshift too."

"Earth is weird…"

"What was the wish that actually got made?" Jaune finally asked point-blank.

Goku snapped to attention. "Oh yeah! It was this!"

As if they were watching a series of crossfaded slides, something white fluttered down from the sky. Bit by bit, it got closer, until it landed flatly upon Oolong's face…

"What… in…" Weiss breathed.

There was silence as each of them stared. Plush, yet thin, purest white with only the thinnest band and a tiny pink bow…

"Frillies?" Ruby asked in dull surprise.

"Are you KIDDING ME?!" Weiss blasted at last, red-faced for multiple reasons as Yang and Ruby both burst out laughing from the deepest part of their bellies. Ruby was doubled-over as Yang simply slumped to the floor as the absurdity overtook them.

Nora looked closer to Weiss' sentiment. "You guys scrounged around the WORLD, broke your backs to track down seven little gems that coulda' been ANYWHERE for one wish, and then bacon-bits here makes it the world's most epic panty-raid…?!"

But then…

"HA!" Nora crowed. "Sweet…"

The others were just frozen by the situation, until Weiss seemed to run out of steam and then just rolled her fingers in an encouraging gesture as her eyes rolled as well.

"Could… could we just move on… please…?"

Krillin hummed, concentrating as their surroundings shifted again to purest daylight on a balmy sea… save for the tiniest island any of them had ever seen.

"Welcome to Master Roshi's Kame House!" Krillin told them, as most of them stood upon the very water before the lone pink house and its red roof. The grassy sand was only dotted by a handful of shady palms.

"Wow," Sun said, "I thought Menagerie was pressed for space."

"How's the tide not taking this place out?" Yang asked, noting the water level. "Feel like one bad storm would just roll over this…"

"Is this a tax haven or something?" Blake asked. "This seems… really inconvenient."

"Oh…!" Ruby breathed. "Is that him…?"

They looked over to where the young Goku was standing beside a short old bald man in yellow sunglasses, his white beard stark against his burgundy suit and the pink turtle shell on his back.

"Mhmm!" Goku said proudly. "The greatest Martial Arts teacher on Earth, 'cept Kami and Mister Popo… and Korin… He even taught my Grandpa. He created the Kamehameha Wave…"

Weiss frowned. "The same Master who traded a Dragonball to see Bulma bare from the waist down…?"

The girls all collectively winced at the reminder, subconsciously taking a step back from the elder's image.

Krillin looked lost for a moment before pointing out over the water. "Errrr HEY! Look! Here's where we first met!"

They peered out into the water, where a short figure was standing atop a rowboat, paddling like a deeply short Charon. The memory faded him closer, and they saw a tiny, unmistakable bald child with pale yellow clothes and six incense burns on his forehead…

"Check out the Krill-master, in his natural habitat!" Yang cried.

Ruby's enthusiasm was doused by confusion. "Natural…? The ocean…?"

"Yeah, you know, krill… like… the stuff whales… Nevermind…"

Nora loomed over the child Krillin as he faded ashore before Roshi and Goku. "You were cute… kinda grumpy-lookin'... and cocky…"

"Eh," Krillin waved her off. "I was trying to seem impressive to sell myself to Master Roshi… Orin Temple had dumb ideas of what strength looks like, and that rubbed off."

Goku snickered. "I remember how ya did sell him though…"

Suddenly the young Krillin was on the beach, with Roshi on his knees before a pile of scattered magazines.

They walked curiously over for a closer—

"Oh my GOD!" Weiss shrieked as Ruby recoiled.

"Why is the nudie-stuff on the front cover?!" Ruby demanded. "Gohan, close your eyes!"

But Blake had already used a bit of ribbon as a blindfold for the boy as all of the girls beheld Roshi's ecstatic expression with disgust.

"Dirty old man!" Nora spat, making to kick the image in the pants… only to hit air as the image phased again and he'd moved out of range. As she slipped, Ren made the save, however, hands under her shoulders to catch her.

"And in front of kids?" Yang added. "Whoa, wait… Krillin, where the heck did you get those? Who sold those to a twelve-year-old?"

Krillin was white as he saw attention drawn his way. "Eh… nobody. I actually nabbed the stash of some of my old Orin Temple students on the way out… Master Roshi has a reputation."

Weiss crossed her arms, still flushed. "No kidding…"

"Uhhhh, maybe something else like…" Krillin said, as the surroundings changed. This time, Goku Bulma and Krillin were suspended over a pit of glowing lava. The young boy was clinging to her orange shorts for dear life… even as they were pulled down to reveal her strawberry themed underwear to the red-faced monk boy.

"Oh COME ON!" Weiss cried angrily.

"No! Not that one!" Krillin barked.

The scene shifted to a beach, where a smug-looking Bulma in a red two-piece swimsuit stared at Krillin. The image shifted as she reached down the front of her bottoms for something as the others blanched.

Yang gaped. "What the f—"

When the image shifted, Bulma was happily holding a huge, luminous pearl in the same hand.

Ruby's eyes were huge. "Where was she keeping that?"

"That's the size of my fist," Weiss said airily, too shocked to be angry.

"Yeowch…!" Nora hissed uncomfortably.

Blake shook her head. "Does Capsule Corp. make dynocap-style pockets… for swimwear…?"

Krillin started to sweat. "Stupid stupid stupid, think something ELSE!"

They were upon a circular arena, connected by pathways to a small domed temple in the midst of a large lake. Roshi stood before Bulma, both looking confused as a man with short black hair in green and orange garb squared off against an unseen enemy.

And with the next phase of movement the young Krillin had leapt up and completely pulled down Bulma's pink shirt… exposing everything above her waist.

"AUGH, BULMA I'M SORRY!" Ruby shrieked, turning around even as she shielded her own eyes with her forearm.

"ME TOO!" Oscar cried, slamming his eyes shut.

"WHOA, WHAT THE…?!" Yang cried out.

Weiss had seemingly had enough, drawing Myrtenaster with an intimidating ring of sliding steel. "Okay, Krillin?! Come here, you little pervert!"

"Whoa, wait, HOLD ON!"

As Weiss began to chase the adult monk, Yang took notice of the next phase of movement, in which a red jet erupted from Roshi's nostrils to cover a person in the ring who had otherwise been completely invisible.

Blake covered the memory of Bulma with her bomber jacket as the others felt safe to investigate.

"Is that… blood?" Jaune asked. "Like some Mistral cartoon?"

"And that… revealed this person's opponent?" Ren asked.

"Yeah," Goku confirmed. "Baba's Tournament. She had all kinds of weird folks for us to fight. That's Yamcha over there…"

"Look, I was a KID!" Krillin pleaded, dashing overhead as Weiss leapt glyph to glyph in pursuit.

"It's a good thing in here I can't KILL YO—!"

But Krillin froze, as the scene changed again. They were now in a yellow training room, where a green monster with batlike wings, a Mohawk-like frill on its head, pointy ears and a froglike mouth stood with its back turned to the stunned blonde announcer with black shades… And of course, Krillin… in a dapper blue suit, flat on the floor. His head was snapped back. His eyes were blank. His mouth was agape, a trickle of blood at the corner of his lips.

Even Weiss went cold, dropping her blade at the sight.

"What… What is this?" Yang asked.

"What… happened?" Jaune asked.

Ruby stared, feeling a chill. "Is… is he…?"

Even Krillin seemed shocked at what he'd conjured.

"Yeah… One of King Piccolo's creatures. He was after Goku's Dragonball, and after the tournament I tried to stop him."

Gohan, however, turned… and slowly, they all noticed Son Goku's demeanor going absolutely black as he leered a hole into the back of the reptilian creature's head."

"Tam… bour… ine…!" Goku grunted through clenched teeth. "I'll never forget… that monster…!"

Ruby watched Goku's expression with all the more surprise. None of them had ever seen him so viscerally angry as the image changed, and Tambourine vanished. It might have been a trick of the light, but… Ruby almost swore for an instant that Goku's black eyes had flashed blue…

In Tambourine's place, a young Goku frowned inscrutably as he tried to lift Krillin's head off the floor.

They heard the rough young voice.

"H-he's gone… He's GONE… It should've been me…" They heard a defiant, desperate growl. "PLEASE don't go…!"

"Oh my god…" Yang whispered.

Ruby couldn't decide how to feel, though she could feel the others being pulled in several directions like she was. The youthful Goku's love for his friend was evident in the sincerity of his voice, and the tears budding in the corners of his eyes. Ruby felt a pang that brought a tickle to her own, because she knew that tone too well. Her own heart had made that sound before… spoken those words to her… 'It should have been ME…'

And yet, both the grieving and the lost were here in the present day, watching this same scene. Krillin stared at his own still little body in shock, and at his friend struggling to comprehend the loss. The echoes of fury were alight in the adult Saiyan, who seemed almost attuned to his former self's swirling storm.

Ruby couldn't help it. She reached for his thick arm. Goku seemed to jolt unexpectedly, but turned to meet her with his cold eyes… only to calm at the sight of her sympathetic face. The tension eased as he turned to catch Krillin's eye.

Suddenly the scene shifted, and a small crowd was standing around the scene.

"Krillin…" Bulma's voice croaked, "he's gone…!"

Another shift and the young Goku stood straight, arms pumped as anger filled his face and his voice shook. "He didn't deserve this…!"

"Goku, wait!" Roshi warned.

But with another shift, the boy was sprinting out into the Sun.

"Come back here! Stop! THAT'S AN ORDER…!"

The vision went black, and all that remained was them. Somewhere in the shift, Krillin had crossed the distance, his arms around Goku's middle.

"I'd… heard…" Krillin choked. "But I never really knew how much you…"

"You're my best friend, Krillin…" was all Goku offered in explanation, an arm around his friend's back.

Even Weiss could only sigh and abandon her chase. Gohan watched it all in silent reverence.

"So… you get the guy?" Sun asked at last.

Goku took a breath.

"Not the first try… The tournament just happened and I was already tired and hungry, but I didn't care. He left me for dead… But he regretted that later…"

"Meeeeee! HAAAAAAA!"

They saw a flash of the young Goku vaulting off his super-extended red pole, blasting a great blue Kamehameha wave into the stunned, twisted face of Tambourine.

"But it wasn't over. He was just a flunkie. King Piccolo was the source."

"Wait… Piccolo and Tambourine?" Blake noted. "That can't be coincidence… but why?"

"What d'ya mean?" Krillin asked.

"I'll just ask Bulma later, don't worry about it…"

"So Piccolo was… your teacher? Right?" Ruby asked Gohan.

"Nah," Goku said. "It's a little complicated. See, there was once a Namekian who came to Earth and forgot where he was from. He wanted to become the Earth's next Guardian, but the past Guardian couldn't allow it. There was too much evil in his heart. So, he split himself into two beings… Kami, and Piccolo. All of his goodness, and all of his wickedness."

Krillin nodded. "By purging his evil side, Kami could be Earth's Guardian. But Piccolo became The Demon King Piccolo, and ravaged Earth. He could only be sealed away by Master Roshi's teacher, Mutaito, and his Mafuba technique… at the cost of his own life."

Jaune nodded. "I remember hearing some of that…"

Weiss made a noise. "B-but… what… If Kami was the Guardian of Earth, why didn't HE clean up his own mess?!"

Goku's look was serious. "Kami felt guilt over Piccolo for centuries. But his life and Piccolo's are bound. He can't destroy himself…"

Ruby frowned. "So Earth has a Guardian? Like… you guys?"

"It sounds like a more formal title," Ren said.

"Yeah," Goku agreed. "Every world has a Guardian who answers to the Kais."

Yang gave a hollow laugh. "So, uh… where's Remnant's?"

Weiss hummed. "Well, Remnant doesn't exactly fit into the natural order, does it? We were made in secret, so we likely don't have one…"

Ruby still frowned. "So… w-wait, so Piccolo killed Krillin, and caused all this chaos… but now he's Gohan's friend?"

Goku smirked. "Weeelll, not quite… I took care of King Piccolo myself…"

They saw the young Goku, his body ravaged, a lone hand aimed at the ground as he rode an exploding beam of power billowing against the blasted earth to propel him like a rocket.

"I'm coming at you with everything I've got…!"

"He'd used the Dragon to regain his lost youth. Master Roshi and our friend Chiaotzu were lost trying to stop him, and then he made to release every criminal while moving to take his place as supreme ruler."

They looked up to see Goku's target, an imposing green figure in a blue tunic, staring down from above with his yellow eyes, pointed ears and antennae. His arms were banded like bare muscle, pink like they'd been seared on a pan. He stared down at the furious child with hatred… and fear.

"Our friend, Tenshinhan, tried to take him on before I showed up. When King Piccolo saw he couldn't beat me, he used Tien as a hostage, and took the chance to wound every limb but my arm."

"Wait…" Ruby asked. "So Tien is Ten…shin…?"

"Huh? Oh yeah. Tien, Tenshinhan… Tien Shinhan…"

"Confusing…"

"Anyway…" Goku continued, as King Piccolo's razor-nailed hands flew before him in warding.

"Good luck!" King Piccolo bellowed. "I'LL BLOCK IT!"

"But it wasn't enough…"

"IT'S TIME FOR YOUR TERROR TO END!"

With a great cry, fist forward, a brilliant light flared as the young Goku emerged out the other side of the Demon King's very back.

"Whoa-o-o!" Yang shouted. "BRUTAL!"

"You PUNCHED a hole through him?!" Nora demanded.

As they stared up in awe as the tyrant was felled, face locked in agony and shock, Ruby couldn't help looking down at Gohan.

The boy seemed confused, conflicted even.

"You don't have to look… I know it's gotta be hard seeing that."

But Gohan met her eye and shook his head. "He's… like Mister Piccolo… but he's not…"

"What do you mean…?"

"Hold on…" Weiss began. "Didn't we speak to him? I thought Nappa killed him…"

Krillin chuckled. "Oh boy, yeah, this'll take a bit to explain…"

Goku smiled. "Well, before he died, he focused his whole being into an egg, and sent it across the planet."

"He lays eggs…?" Blake asked.

"Out his mouth," Krillin clarified.

"Eurgh…"

"He planned to reincarnate through his son, a new being with all his power and memories to take revenge. It saved Kami from fading away, and the new Piccolo is the one Gohan knows. Before Vegeta showed up, he was the greatest opponent I'd ever faced."

"When was that?" Jaune asked.

"Three years later! He grew up fast… Then I got married, had Gohan a year after that…"

"Hold up!" Ruby cried suddenly as an idea struck her. "Gohan's five… One year before was when you fought him… three years…"

"It's nine, Ruby," Weiss said, smiling as she boarded her partner's train of thought. "The new Piccolo would be nine years old."

Ruby doubled over. "Pfffhahahahahahahahaha…!"

Goku and Krillin looked at each other, blinking rapidly.

"Huh…"

"So I'M older than your old nemesis?!" Ruby asked, utterly tickled. "Oscar's older than your old nemesis…!"

"Almost by half," Ren added.

"Hey, yeah!" Krillin chuckled. "I'd never thought of it that way…"

Goku smirked. "I wouldn't mention it to his face… He's not as old-looking as his Dad, but you wouldn't know it to look at the guy…"

"Piccolo also has hundreds of years of memories from before, so…"

Ruby smirked. "Well Oscar has THOUSANDS of years of memories, AND he's still older than Piccolo…"

"Huh!" Oscar said uncomfortably. "Right… Still probably wouldn't test him, so…"

But Nora bowled him over as an idea hit her. "Wait! Can we see when you met Gohan's mom?! With all the girl-confusion, she musta' been nuts about you…"

Goku scratched his head. "Hmm? Oh, sure… I remember…"

They found themselves in an idyllic landscape of rolling hills, with the two children locking eyes, one on the ground, and the other floating atop—

"The flying cloud, RIGHT!" Ruby cried.

"Yep! That's Nimbus…"

Weiss blinked at it. "The cloud that only a pure-heart can ride?"

Yang snorted. "Wait, what? I've never heard this part before."

Blake leered at it. "He really is just… standing on it…"

"Man that's stylish," Sun said. "I'd get around on one a' those!"

Weiss turned to him. "You think you're pure of heart…?"

"Yeah, sure. Why?"

Weiss found she had no response to that, and instead scanned for another sight that head already paralyzed Ren, Oscar and Nora. "GOOD GRIE—" she spluttered, straining to find the words. "What is that girl wearing?!"

Krillin too looked confused. "Uh, yeah… You sure this is what she looked like before, Goku? I only met her when she got older."

Goku hummed as he nodded. "Yeah, she always wore that thing."

The little girl was bright-eyed and cute with a modest length of black hair with long bangs. The resemblance to Gohan was immediately clear, but…

"She wore an armored blue bikini…?" Ruby asked.

"With teeny pauldrons… a cape…" Nora added.

Jaune helped rattle it off. "...Pink boots, bracers… and a helmet with a massive blade-Mohawk."

"...Showing an uncomfortable amount of skin at her age," Yang finished. "Anybody else seriously skeeved-ou—"

"Yep!"

"Uh huh!"

"Anything else, please…"

"Hmm… Oh! How about West City, where Bulma's from!"

They soon found themselves on the sidewalk before a huge yellow hemisphere of a building, capped with white, with only a few small cylindrical towers jutting out of its surface. It was clearly labeled…

"Capsule Corp," Blake read, a grin blooming in recognition.

"Bulma's home?" Weiss surmised. "Or just a corporate headquarters…?"

"Nah, she lives here with her Mom and Pop," Goku told her.

They stared around the vaguely suburban cityscape, clean and bubbling with other spherical buildings fenced within properties of perfect Bermuda grass. There was a tropical feel despite the utter domination of the landscape by white ceramic structures, only dotted by a few lush shrubs and palms. Even the few cylindrical buildings were topped with domes. Only a handful of scattered structures were a more typical rectangular shape. And the most bizarre were thin stalks topped with whole spheres like architectural Dandelions, or a tree-like structure branched off to end in smaller spheres at their ends like Christmas baubles.

"It seems like a rather inefficient use of space," Ren opined.

Nora nodded. "Yeah, speaking from experience, I kinda figured the whole ball-building thing had something to do with the caps they fit in… Earth folks really just CHOOSE to live in these? What do you guys have against corners?!"

Yang lifted into the air to get a better view of the larger skyline.

"The highways are in glass tubes?"

"Even with Gravity Dust, I'd feel really weird about being in one of those lollipop-looking buildings," Jaune noted.

"All of Earth's superior technology, but…" Weiss considered. "I've gotta say, Atlas still feels more impressive. You don't have any floating cities?"

"Well, there's Kami's Lookout…" Goku suggested.

And suddenly they were standing on air above the very clouds, in the upper atmosphere, with another half-dome of a building, but reversed, with the spherical end below. It was nearly two acres of white tiled platform on top, with the lower hemisphere adorned in ornamental stripes of red, cream and blue, with only one section near the top dotted with pill-shaped windows. Topside, planters of junipers were arranged at the edge of each quadrant, and before the gold and alabaster palace that sat at the furthest end, with two lines of palms standing as sentries along the path toward its entrance. Four white towers marked the palace's outer corners, their purpose a mystery.

"Well, it has Atlas beat for sheer altitude," Weiss said, staring down at the distant clouds and the blurred forest below. "And it certainly has more… majesty?"

"Breathing must be rough this high," Oscar said. "I've been in the mountains plenty of times, and it's hard enough to breathe up there. Does Atlas have the same problem?"

Weiss shook her head. "Atlas has an artificially sustained climate. Solitas is harsh. Even Mantle wouldn't survive the winter months without the heating grid."

"What keeps it up?" Jaune asked.

"Magic," Nora whispered, fanning and wiggling her fingers.

"That's not an explanation… Goku, what is it really?"

Goku shrugged. "I'unno… Prob'ly magic…"

"What's the ladder for?" Ruby asked. "Being able to fly really makes stuff like that feel less hairy, but… yeah…"

"Oh!" Goku said, peering down. "Well, without flying you can only get to the Lookout from Korin's tower, which is way down below. See that little red pole sticking out of the bottom?"

"Oh yeah," Yang drawled, "See I THOUGHT I was seeing somethin' there, but I wasn't sure so I didn't say anything… Pretty thin."

"Yeah, well… that's my power pole. I used it as a weapon, but apparently it was originally meant to bridge the tower and the Lookout. I had to ride it all the way up, and that ladder got me to the top."

"I guess if I expected some illustrious Guardian to live somewhere," Blake said, "this is the sort of thing I'd imagine."

"Seems kinda… y'know… boring?" Ruby dared. "What's he do for fun?"

"It…" Krillin said, scratching his temple, "totally is. Kami just seems to watch things from afar, and Mister Popo just tends to garden and clean. Me and the guys mostly got by just training. It did us a lotta good, but being honest, I prefer our current arrangement here on Remnant…"

"I was too busy to notice… 'cept when I was first learning the whole 'still as a stone' thing. But if this is a little stale, then… Uh…" Goku thought carefully. "Maybe when I proposed…? The first time I knew what a marriage was?"

The vision faded, smeared into a great square temple ring of raised white tiles. One side connected to a wall and entryway to a modest thatch-roof temple, made of red and tan bricks. Under a tropical blue sky, they were flanked by palms and hung with tall banners. On the other three sides, a grass moat of an out-of-bounds zone, with a crowd of onlookers seated, thirty feet thick.

And at the ring's edge, Goku, looking far closer to his modern self, if more weedy and young in the face. And facing him, a cross-looking girl in a blue, traditional-looking fighter's outfit with red trim. Her long black ponytail and face framed by twin rectangular tassels of hair scarcely hid the resemblance of her younger self.

"Whoa, sweet vibe," Yang noted, staring around the tourney grounds. "This a local event?"

"It's the World Martial Arts Tournament," Krillin said, somewhat confused. "All the best fighters anywhere convene here every three years! Or did… before it was all blown up in the championship match with Piccolo…"

Several of them instantly reeled.

"This is the biggest draw the world tournament in a world of billions could wring together?" Blake asked.

Jaune agreed. "There can't be a thousand people in those stands… It's like a high school sports game."

"Is this even televised?!" Yang asked.

"Now now," Weiss offered. "It could be a very exclusive event. Not everyone who wants to go can even afford to—"

"Nah, crowd was never exactly ritzy," Krillin said. These look like high-rollers to you?"

Ruby hummed. "Yeah, you saw Amity Coliseum earlier? That's just for Academy students, and it's aired all over the world…"

Yang huffed. "It's just weird you guys are so much stronger, but the place you come from doesn't—"

"...Have its existence constantly at threat from creatures of darkness…?" Weiss finished. "Think about it. Maybe Earth just doesn't feel a need to glorify martial strength, unburdened as they are from daily threats?"

"Okay, fine…" Nora growled. "So how'd you bag this babe, stretch?"

"Uh… well…" Goku considered.

Suddenly they heard the conversation play out.

"NNNNAGH! I REMEMBER! I did say it…! It was back… back when we were children that I said I wanted a bride…!"

"I remember, I was there!" Chichi grumped, patience barely holding back her tone.

The young Goku sighed. "But I… I don't think you understand. I thought 'bride' meant something to eat…"

Chichi sighed, the fire lost from her eyes. And she wasn't the only one. "Something to EAT…?"

"Goku, you're… an interesting case…" Weiss uttered.

"I mean… technically…" Yang started with a smirk.

Weiss leered at her, pink-faced. "Hush…"

Ruby caught sight of Gohan. He stared into his mother's face, his own face softer and his eyes shining in a way she'd never seen before…

"Then the promise you made was a mistake…?" Chichi concluded, crestfallen.

"Sometimes my brain doesn't know what my mouth is saying…" Goku said, pondering, arms crossed, before taking three steps closer. "...Good thing my heart does… Will you marry me…?"

Chichi's eyes lit up. "Yes…!"

Goku's words caught the lot of them completely off-guard.

"Ohhhh…!" Ruby and Jaune cooed, fingers wrung together girlishly.

"Whoa… smooth…!" Sun boggled.

"That's…" Yang croaked.

"...Actually really sweet…" Weiss finished, astonished, blinking as she rubbed the corner of her eye. She blinked further, as she saw Blake's lip quiver as she hid her streaming eyes altogether. "Wow, Blake, are you okay?" she asked with a slight laugh.

Blake only nodded, not daring to speak.

Nora sighed, smirking. "Women…"

"Hey, this has been great and all," Goku piped-up, "but I think maybe we've spent enough time up in the clouds. We really oughta' get back to traini—"

Weiss gasped suddenly. "Oh my gosh…! I... wait, one more! Last one, I promise!"

Sun crossed his arms. "What's got you all excited…?"

Goku considered, finger to his chin. "Mmm… okay, last one."

"The clouds… You know… the… eternal clouds… the… the Other World…!"

Nearly all of them made a noise of shock or understanding, eyes huge as Weiss' suggestion turned this tour into something far more lofty.

"Oh… emm… gee," Ruby breathed. "He died! You've been to the… the next place…!"

"So you can show us where we go after the bell tolls…?" Nora asked, voice oddly hushed "Is that… Is that allowed?"

Krillin frowned in acute interest. "I gotta admit, Goku… suddenly I'm getting eaten alive with curiosity too…"

"Hmm…!" Goku nodded, eyes down as he turned the idea over in his head. "Okay, yeah! Why not…! I didn't see everything but…"

"Wow…" Oscar said, shaking his head. "The things we've learned, you could make a fortune writing a book on all these secrets… Before Moonfall, the real gods… and now secrets from beyond the veil of death?"

"You're assuming anyone would believe us," Ren said, an iota of humor in his tone.

"Alright, let's start with the first thing you see… King Yemma's Check-In Station."

Everything faded into the strangest sight so far.

It was an infinite landscape of golden fluffy clouds without a single break to what lied below. The skies above were faded pink. But in the midst of it all was a white temple with green hip and gable curved roofs, its walls and four towers accented in red. The primary unique feature was a pair of horns jutting out of the roof of the main building… as well as a single-file line of tiny white clouds on a path of green and red, led into the temple by a suited blue man with a single horn poking from the bald spot on his head.

"Whoa…"

"Dude…!"

"This is… Those clouds in line, are those…?"

"Souls," Blake breathed, "departed, on their way to… somewhere."

"Led by a… blue guy with a megaphone?" Ruby said, as they walked beside the fluffy souls.

"Oh, those are ogres," Goku told her. "They seem to manage stuff around here."

"Ogres…" Weiss said, eyelids drooping. "Feels… random."

Krillin watched it all with bemusement. "Yep, no memory of this at all. So where's everybody going?"

"Mmm! To be judged by King Yemma. He's in the BIG building."

"Somehow I thought the pearly gates would be… pearl…ier?" Yang said, as confused as any one of them as to the reality of this new plane. "The clouds are on-point though."

"Of all the things this could look like, it's Mistral-style," Jaune noted. "Is that all coincidence, or did someone get a glimpse of this and bring it to the living world…?"

" 'WELL-COME?' " Weiss read, with bafflement. "Goku, this must be your memory failing you, right?"

They looked up to see the misspelled greeting above the entryway. There were few words.

"Uh… I guess it's possible," Goku admitted.

"So I can't see under the clouds," Nora began, peering over the edge into the fluffy golden abyss. "What's down there?"

"Oh! That I can answer!" Goku said brightly. "If you fall down there, you get to Hell."

Despite this being a memory, there wasn't a single one of them that didn't suddenly shudder and step away from the edge in panic, eyes huge as they found a whole new respect for the mysteries that lurked beneath.

"Hell?!" Blake asked, shaking. "Oh of course… They judge you, and just boot you off… Simple, I guess…"

"C-can we go indoors, please?" Nora asked, sweating.

"Yeah," Yang said with a hollow laugh. "Let's see where you go to get so Well-Come around here…"

"Sure!" Goku said, marching past the entrance. "King Yemma is this way…"

They practically tiptoed through to the enormous room where a more recent Goku and Kami stood, necks craned up.

"Do you have… a halo?" Ren asked.

"What the heck, that's real?!" Ruby said, gaping.

Jaune nodded. "Yeah, someone definitely snuck secrets back to the mortal realm…"

"Wait, the other souls don't look like people, let alone have halos," Weiss observed. "Goku, are you just seeing yourself with a body out of some kind of mental defense mechanism, or do you actually… actually…" She stopped as she craned her neck up to something high up in the room. "That is a very large red man…"

As they passed under the door, he came more and more into view, a massive red ogre with black hair in a plum suit. Seated at a proportionately colossal mahogany writing desk, he was fifty feet tall merely sitting, with a nameplate like a section of picket fence and an old rotary telephone the size of a car. A mug held pens the size of greatswords.

The cross-looking ogre himself had a matching plum hat with holes for his stubby horns. His brows and beard were thick, a goatee gone mad, mustache and two-pronged beard grown out to match and blend into his hair as one massive mane.

"Oh, that's King Yemma," Goku told her. "He's the guy who judges you when you get here. He also can let a fighter keep their body if they selflessly served the peace… so…"

Ruby nodded, eyes still on Yemma. "Yeah, Deha told me about that."

"So most people don't keep their body…?" Blake asked. "What kind of existence is it to just loiter around forever as a sentient cloud?!"

"Yeah, where's the good place?" Nora wondered, scanning the skies outside. "The nice ones must get shuttled off somewhere…"

Goku hummed. "Well I never got sent there, but King Kai told me Heaven is its own huge planet, and people can recognize each other and don't all look the same."

"So where did you go?" Oscar asked. "There are other places to be in all this?"

"Ah, over here!" Goku said, beckoning them out a side door towards the back of the temple.

Beyond, past a brief walkway was a platform of purple and red, upon which stood the steely head of a great fanged serpent. But its body stretched off over the clouds, suspended in midair in curves and coils evidently for miles into the horizon. Its flat back and razor-sharp twin ridges formed a path, by which one could travel.

"This is Snake Way! Follow this and at the end you'll find King Kai's planet!"

"Whoa!" Ruby cooed in awe. "How far is it…?"

"Well, I don't have the numbers exactly… but like… a half-a-million miles?"

"Honestly?" Weiss sighed. "I have no idea whether to take you at your word."

Goku gave a cheeky grin with his full teeth, chuckling. "Me either… buuuuut, it's not like we have to take the journey ourselves…"

Their eyes went huge as the scene TORE across the winding path and into the horizon, leaving the Check-in station behind as the golden clouds whizzed by at incomprehensible speeds. Their legs wobbled at the impression of movement as they shifted without momentum… coming to a sudden stop where the serpent ended in a fanned tail.

"Dude…!" Sun exclaimed. "Miles and miles, and it all looks the same…"

Blake nodded. "How did it not drive you mad? It looks so… futile!"

Ren hummed. "And there are no landmarks… Can you imagine waking up after a nap and not remembering which direction you're supposed to be following?"

There was a collective shudder at the idea.

Ruby paled. "You could get stuck for-ever…!"

"Oh, that's not a problem!" Gohan told them. "See, the ridges all angle front to back."

Krillin leaned down to see the razor-sharp ridges that marked either side of the path. "Wow, good catch, Gohan! I'd've been screwed…"

Goku just chuckled. "Man, you guys sure are a thoughtful bunch… Most of this stuff just flat-out never woulda' occurred to me… Still, this'll tickle your noggin'! There's King Kai's!"

He pointed straight up, where they nearly missed the hanging green sphere in the pink expanse.

"Whoa, what's on the… are those trees?" Yang asked of the fuzzy green protuberances occasionally marring the perfect spherical surface.

"It looks like a Tennis ball," Krillin noted, squinting up at it.

"Tennis?" Weiss asked. "I knew a girl named Tennis once…"

"Walk and talk, guys! Follow me!" Goku laughed, springing up.

The rest of them followed, seeing Goku flip as gravity inverted, and they all took to his example.

"Oh, it's a road!" Ruby noticed.

"It's tiny…!" Blake said, as the surface neared. Indeed, the entire planet was barely two-hundred feet across. One could easily see the steep curve of its horizon from the ground.

Nora noticed a lone yellow building and an accompanying garage, frowning suddenly. "Is that another freaking dome-house?! They got these in the Afterlife too?!"

They all touched down near the house, just as a vision of a squat blue man strode out hands behind his back in a relaxed posture.

"Is… is that… him?" Weiss asked excitedly as they watched him trot out.

"Yep! This is King Kai!" Goku declared loudly.

They studied him curiously. Shorter than Nora, wide, wearing a black tunic with gold trim and red sleeves, he had a pleasant demeanor with his small black cap and black teashade sunglasses. Plainly inhuman, two barbels dangled off his cheeks, a third from neath his double chin, and his ears were long and pointed. Through his cap, a pair of long insect-like antennae arched back over his head.

"Huh… Dunno what I expected him to look like, honestly," Yang muttered.

King Kai seemed to stop before them.

"Hey, you're getting better at this!" Ruby said. "This memory can actually move!"

"Huh…" Goku nodded, leaning over to look at his teacher closely. "Yeah, he's not all stiff…"

"You're the only stiffs I see, bub!" King Kai said suddenly, leaning in with a grin. "Impressive, given you're alive this time!"

"ARGH!"

The group collectively recoiled, and Oscar even fell over altogether.

"It can TALK?!"

"Like… to us?!"

King Kai snorted a stream of nasal laughter as his head snapped back.

"I'm no memory! I just thought I'd pop in to see how you'd all progressed, and decided to join in on your little psychic powwow. I see I missed some big breakthroughs!"

"You can join a mental link all the way from the other side?" Jaune asked, as baffled as he was impressed.

King Kai grinned, eyebrows rising as he pointed up to his antennae, which flicked in gesture. "Yep! Get everything but the home shopping network with these babies! Cosmic-class reception! Can't do this all the time though… Still hosting Kami and Dende's training… but the poor kid's asleep for the moment. And already on Earth, from what I've overheard!"

"No kidding!" Krillin said happily.

"Sir, sir!" Weiss hurried over, bowing in a polite curtsey as she smiled brightly. "It's so good to actually meet you, Mister Kai!"

Blake was right behind her, fist against her palm as she bowed and Ruby strained to emulate both of them. "Likewise, sir! I like to think we've taken a lot from your guidance and instruction…"

"Uh… yeah!" Ruby agreed. "I… we… had a bit of a moment a while back that set everything into place, and, well…"

King Kai hummed as he stared at Ruby, adjusting his glasses, which glinted back at her. "Yes! I saw that after the fact. A terrible burden you've put on yourself… A heartbreaking struggle… But, ultimately your gamble paid off. A gamble is still a gamble, of course… No one beats the odds forever."

"O-oh…" Ruby croaked. "I'll uh… keep that in mind, sir…"

King Kai waved his hand. "Ah, none of that 'sir' guff... I appreciate the tone of respect, but I'm a far more cut-loose Kai. For instance! Let's start things off with a joke! I don't train anyone without a sense of humor… Here, I'll start!"

They all blinked as he cleared his throat.

"Why couldn't Frieza take his psychic gig on the road?"

None of them answered.

"...He got found out for cold-reading!"

There was a brief pause as King Kai doubled-over in a fit of snorting laughter.

"Heh! Haha! Hahahmmhmmhmm!" Yang snickered. "That's pretty good."

There was another pause, before…

"Oh…!" Ruby exclaimed. "Because… Frieza kinda sounds like… right! Got it…"

Weiss groaned as King Kai, still clutching his paunch, looked up, frozen with disdain.

"Hmm… Everyone's a critic… Well… Your turn then. Make me laugh…"

Weiss blinked as they all seemed to blow a fuse. "All due respect, sir, but what does comedy have to…"

But she paused, before grinning.

"Oh wait, NO! I've been working on this! Umm…"

She gave it a moment's consideration, looking around.

"What a lovely planet you have! I'm sure Krillin feels right at home…!"

"Hmm?" King Kai uttered, brow raised.

Krillin scratched his head. "Huh? Not really…? Why?"

Weiss blinked. "I-I mean, I've heard the phrase, small world, but I'm not sure whether to find a picnic blanket, or a Billiard cue…"

King Kai frowned, lips pulling.

Krillin's eyes drooped. "Oh, so that was a roast, huh? Original…"

King Kai finally huffed. "I'll have you know, miss, that my world was quite large once, before an unfortunate visit by Beerus The Destroyer… You wanna try again?"

Weiss blanched, taking a step back as she stammered. "S-s-sorry, I didn't mean to offend… Um… What do you call a fly with no wings?"

"A 'walk?' " King Kai droned, face flat.

Weiss grinned, finger raised as though he'd sprung her trap. "Still a fly! It's ironic, but that doesn't change the name…"

In spite of the evident impossibility, an errant tumbleweed drifted idly behind her.

"That's a subversion of the joke…" Weiss said proudly.

King Kai was speechless… until he said something. "Well, she has a sense of humor… Not mine…" he whispered to himself.

"Man…" Goku whispered loudly, "I never told a joke in my life, but I STILL got a laugh out of him…"

Weiss made a scandalized noise and hunched over suddenly like she'd been doused in ice water. "Uh! Quiet, you…!" she snapped at Goku, looking hurt as her hands gripped her elbows as her posture closed off. "That was my best—!"

"What's Vegeta's morning hair care ritual?!" Yang blurted suddenly.

Weiss pouted, retreating to face Ruby. "Ever the prodigy, unappreciated in her time…!" she whined quietly… if dramatically.

King Kai's antennae flicked curiously. "Vegeta's? Well, Saiyans tend to…"

Yang suddenly mimed the use of an aerosol can. "Spray-and-pray!"

King Kai snorted and snickered as he covered his mouth.

"After training with Piccolo, why'd Gohan throw a baby-grand at his music teacher?"

King Kai looked up. "The piano? Why?"

"Muscle memory! He fired a KEY-blast!"

They all groaned as Gohan blinked, and King Kai…

"Oh! OH! KEY, like…! NYAHAHA! That's hysterical!" He actually fell onto his back, to the utter mystification of Yang's peers.

"Hey, don't fall on your arm! Won't be too… humerus!" Yang added, grinning.

"Th-th-this is MURDER!" the Kai guffawed.

"Oops! I'll back off then; I made my mom Raven swear off murder… That stuff's for the birds…"

King Kai practically squealed as he rolled onto his front, fist pounding the grass in his laughter.

Ruby just whispered. "I don't get it…"

"A group of ravens is called a murder, Ruby…" Blake explained.

"Ohhh…!"

King Kai picked himself up, wheezing to a close as he dabbed the corners of his eyes with a handkerchief. "Phew! Well, I think she has enough talent for the rest of you, so I'll give that a passing grade… boy howdy…! But let's see how you fare for fighting skill!"

Unexpectedly, the blue Kai entered a low fighting stance, his right arm reared back and ready to strike.

"Let's see if any three of you can knock me down… I'll pick…"

They all recoiled. The same thought was on all of their minds as their eyes darted between each other. King Kai's portly body didn't look equipped for this.

King Kai snickered. "Oh, I've seen that look…! Even in the real world you'd find me more than a handful… but here? Well…"

Krillin dug a fist into his side as he leaned. "So… which—?"

King Kai's eyes and antennae flicked between them, before his fingers jabbed at…

"You," Ren, "you," Blake, "and you…" Ruby.

The three of them stepped forward, an odd team to be sure.

"Well? Whenever you're up for it…" King Kai said with a knowing grin, a glint flashing across his glasses.

They were frozen in battle stances for several seconds, waiting for the right moment…

Ruby turned to her friends. "We're about to get folded, aren't we?"

King Kai faltered, blinking. "Now now, chin-up! I'm just a hefty old—"

"Uh… nope…" Ruby said, her voice low. "I've seen movies? That only makes you more dangerous probably."

"Hmm…" the Kai considered.

And then several things happened at once.

Rounds from four weapons POUNDED the spot King Kai was standing just as he sprang lightly into the air on his soft-soled shoes, defying gravity as Ruby whirled behind him in his path.

But as her fist pistoned down at his head, his pudgy palm caught it. She struck with the other hand, which was caught too as Ren and Blake dashed from below, curving from opposite directions as Blake left a line of Shadows into a joint strike aimed at King Kai's back.

"Kaio…KEN!"

The Kai erupted into crimson, just long enough to whirl Ruby around like a cudgel and swat both comers away before tossing Ruby high.

"YEAAAAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaaaargh…!"

The red flames went out almost the instant he released her to sail and sail…

King Kai landed lightly as Ren recovered and zipped from side to side, his palm heel striking at every apparent vulnerability… but the blue Kai matched him blow for blow. The lower-deity eventually found an opening and rapped his two curled knuckles against Ren's forehead between strikes.

"You'll need to be cleverer than that!"

"We were," Blake said, as her kusarigama looped around the Kai's arms and torso from behind. It wrapped taut as she held the ribbon in her fists and tugged. "He was just distracting you…"

Fading away, Blake reappeared in the highest airborne Shadow she'd left, pulling the ribbon tighter than tight. In fact, King Kai was flung off the ground towards her, where a kick aimed for the ground smashed him out of the ribbon to juke for the floor with a cry.

But a devilish grin crossed his face as he saw his angle of descent was shallow. Taking a huge breath, he gave a scream that rattled the air and parted the grass as the sheer volume of air lifted him away from the ground. In any other place, this would have been a very temporary save, but the extra boost lifted his trajectory enough to arc over the tiny planet's curvature and effectively orbit it…

However as he completed an orbit and aimed for Ren, an intercepting plume of petals poured over the ground from above and engulfed him like a tornado touching down.

Ruby coalesced back together, wrist around the Kai's, before whirling again as a purple blur.

When both reappeared feet above the ground… they appeared upside down, Ruby behind him in an oddly sedate suplex as they both landed on their heads in a heap.

King Kai stared up at the sky from his back.

"Well played."

Ruby got up with a smile, flashing a grin at her friends as she offered a thumbs-up.

"Nice work, sis!" Yang called.

"Tricky!" Goku praised the three.

"Good fight, honey!" Nora called.

King Kai cleared his throat. "The abilities of your people grant you a host of unexpected abilities, but I'd be wary of becoming over-reliant on them. Still! It's not everyday someone can tangle with me in the mindscape! I even used the Kaioken technique, you all had such a ferocious start! Marvelous use of pressure! You didn't underestimate me…"

"The what technique?"

"Yeah!" Goku said. "I thought you couldn't use it, King Kai…"

The Kai smiled smugly. "In the waking world, yes, it's too much for my body to withstand… In my mind, there's no risk or limitations."

"Man, it's weird fighting in here now!" Ruby whispered. "You can barely sense energy like this…"

"Yeah…" Yang agreed. "Between King Kai's entrance and this, everything is muddy. It's like everything's made of energy…"

He cleared his throat. "But, enough of the formalities… COME ON OUT, BOYS!"

And then, from inside the house, something stirred through the doorway.

"Hmm?" Krillin intoned, as the rest of them watched intently.

They made out glowing halos first, and out of the shadows stepped a familiar man with a luxurious mane of black hair, fit for Yang. Scars carved his face in places, and he wore the orange Turtle Hermit uniform.

"Yamcha!" Goku and Krillin cried.

But he wasn't alone. Two more figures emerged, one tall, the other tiny.

"Tien! Chiaotzu!" Krillin greeted excitedly.

The kids gazed upon the newcomers with more surprise than with Yamcha. Clad in green and red pants and shirtless, Tenshinhan was an affable, bald, tall, yet broad-shouldered bruiser of a man. His most unique feature, of course, was the third eye just above his brows.

The other barely competed with Gohan for height, powder-white apart from two bright-red blush marks on his cheeks. Similarly hairless, he wore a black cap centered with a red puff ball, a white tank top more gray than his skin, and black gi pants.

Both were smiling, but the smaller Chiaotzu couldn't help but laugh pleasantly in a childlike voice that sounded like he was holding his nose.

None of them stopped walking until they were face to face with Goku and Krillin, as Gohan smiled to see them in good spirits.

"Whoa!" Krillin chuckled. "I get King Kai, but how can you guys…?!"

Chiaotzu pointed at the blue Kai. "If you touch his back, you can see what he sees, AND enter image-training!"

"So that's Tien-shin-man?" Nora said, uncomfortably loudly. "The little clown-man…? He's creepy."

Chiaotzu blinked, pointing at himself as he frowned slightly. "Ah! I'm not a clown! This is just what I look like… He's Tien, my best f—"

"Hey, Goku, who is this kid?" Nora asked.

"N-Nora…" Ren whispered, cautiously.

Goku blinked. "Oh he's not a kid! Chiaotzu met with us like ten years ago! He fought in the tournament… He fought King Piccolo!"

"Wait, so how old are you?! Why don't you age?" Nora asked, as Ren grimaced and slowly stepped towards her.

Chiaotzu's mouth went slack, and suddenly he held up both hands and kept curling fingers. They could practically see smoke billow from under his hat, perhaps forming the shape of a question-mark as he counted under his breath, stalled like a vertical biplane.

"Uh… Nevermind," Nora said, flat-faced.

"I apologize for her; she can be… unfiltered," Ren told him, clasping Nora's shoulders. "I'll talk to her…"

"...So she talks behind our backs instead?" Chiaotzu asked, blank-faced.

Tien patted his back. "Settle down, Chiaotzu…"

Ren froze, discomfort lining his face as Nora glowered at him.

"Goku!"

They jumped as Yamcha shattered the icy atmosphere, jogging over.

"Good to see ya' in something like flesh after everything back home! Never got to catch up after you vanished to play homebody… Training here's been wild…"

Goku smiled as Tien urged Chiaotzu near as well.

"Guess nothing changes, Goku," Tien said. "Every time I push myself to outdo you, you go and change the game somewhere off on some unmarked trail. Even following your footsteps here, I know you found an even better way forward…"

He glanced down at Gohan, who seemed conflicted.

"Ah… and Gohan… I see you've shaken off those cold feet. You carry yourself without hesitation."

Ruby saw Gohan wince, almost… ashamed?

"Th-thank you, Mister Shinha—"

"Gohan…"

They all looked up as a bass-filled voice rang out from the house. What stepped out was at once familiar to many of them, but far more than the shadow of his predecessor. Gohan's eyes shot wide, the ghost of a smile dawning.

"M-Mister Piccolo!"

"Whoa…" Ruby breathed.

The present-day Piccolo was utterly imposing, a head under a full eight feet tall. His features were softer, more handsome than the King of the same name. Even his pointed ears were shorter. And his orange shoes matched those ears, below a deep purple gi and sky-blue belt.

But of course, the most eye-catching accessories were the purple-topped white turban, and matching white cape with its pointed wingspan shoulders.

Gohan scurried over in a flash, the celadon demon towering over him.

"I trust my being dead hasn't made you think you can slack off," Piccolo said, the barest smirk on his vaguely-sinister features. "I don't trust these two to keep him honest," he continued gesturing to the Saiyan and his monk friend, "so I expect his most current advocate to keep Gohan on his toes."

Ruby felt a jolt of lightning down her back, drawing her rigid as those black eyes flitted right to her.

But then those eyes closed as he grinned demonically. "Hmm… But I get the feeling he's done quite the opposite."

"Y-yeah," Ruby croaked. "Gohan is… quite the gifted and powerful kid… sir…"

Goku stepped forward. "Piccolo… I never had the chance to thank you. I know the history between us… but you prepared my son… and you gave everything to protect him."

Piccolo crossed his arms as Goku offered his hand.

"Put that away. I don't need thanks, Goku. I didn't do it for you, and if you'd done your job, none of this would be necessary."

Goku retracted his hand, face falling. "You're right… All the same, I'm grateful."

King Kai cleared his throat. "Strictly speaking, I was the one who forgot Goku needed to be at the Check-in Station to return to Earth… that's my bad…"

Piccolo huffed. "Regardless, we're here." His eyes fanned out over the Remnant fighters. "And you're there, on the ground, on this Remnant. You're gaining in power… but I want to see if you have the ability."

Ruby felt like she was shrinking as Piccolo stared her down. "I need to see for myself just what you're capable of. And pick someone to partner with you… You'll need it."

"Oh… O-okay…" Ruby nodded, her eyes growing huge.

Yamcha grinned. "Yeah! Who's up for a good old fashioned hazing on these newbies?"

Tien crossed his arms. "I'm in. How about you, Chiaotzu?"

The little pale fighter's eyes bored blankly into Nora's.

"You. Just you."

Nora blinked at the challenge… before a shark-like smile overtook her.

"You got it…"

Yang nudged Blake. "What d'ya think? Us and shoulders over here?"

Blake smiled. "Sure."

Yang paused a beat. "Alright, so… fighting a three-eyed dead guy… Just another day in the corps…"

"Oh, this place is about to get hot," Krillin muttered, glancing across the tiny planet. The fight with King Kai was explosive enough for how brief it was. If all four Earthlings engaged at once…

"Yes," King Kai agreed. "I'm glad this isn't real for the purposes of landscaping. You don't wanna know what it takes to get a professional down here. Well… have at it…"

Goku made an almost girlish noise as his teeth gleamed, blossoming into a full-faced smile. Both his arms pumped in sheer enthusiasm as his stance widened. "This is gonna be exciting! Our old friends versus our new friends?!"

Nora pulled out Magnhilde, stalking towards the former Crane disciple.

"Nora… are you sure you don't need help?" Ren asked, eyeing the match-up with concern, as he peered easily beneath the veneer of Chiaotzu's stony gaze to the wafting flames of resentment beneath.

"Nah, I got it," Nora told him. "You just stand there and look pretty…"

Yang's shotguns cocked as Blake separated her katana and cleaver.

"So… how does a person go about sprouting a third eye…? Is that thing real?" Yang asked.

"Born with it," Tenshinhan explained, his arms held in an unusually high clawed pose. "Sorry, didn't attain it through enlightenment or anything."

"Man, what IS planet Earth…?" Yang demanded of the ether.

Yamcha looked over the remainder. "Looks like it's you three then!"

Oscar and Sun pulled out their staves, and Jaune his greatsword.

"Yep!" Sun agreed, twirling Ruyi Jingu Bang over his head like a helicopter rotor. "I'm down. What do you bring to the table?"

"Well, I don't carry a blade myself anymore," Yamcha began, his stance widening as his fingers curled, "but don't think me at a disadvantage. I'm just fine with the claws… of my Wolf Fang FIST…!"

They watched him quietly.

"Cool?" Jaune muttered, shrugging as Yamcha's brows twisted in confusion.

"Why is everything animal appropriation with you guys?" Blake said distantly. "There are real animal-persons on Earth…"

Yamcha blinked. "Wow… the ears on that one…"

Weiss strode beside Ruby, Myrtenaster aloft.

"Well, seeing as the others are spoken for, I suppose I will need to partner with you."

Ruby snorted. "You want to see how tough he is, don't you?"

"I don't want you to represent our world at anything but your best. And I think you're AT your best when we fight together."

"Aww, shucks…" Ruby said, wincing as she went pink, Crescent Rose gently unfolding as she readied it.

"Hmm." Piccolo's crossed arms were utterly still. "If you're done braiding each other's hair, we can get started. But fair warning? That fancy weapon of yours isn't going to help you."

"Oh, we're done," Weiss said. "A shame you don't have any hair for it yourself. Those nails have possibilities though…"

The Namekian's bald brow twisted as he glanced down at his own claw-like fingernails. His nose crinkled with a grunt.

Ruby took a step forward, scythe reared back. She cleared her throat, his size and scowl still oppressive. "So… Heh… Y'know, I'm actually older than you?"

Weiss couldn't help herself, faltering as her head snapped over to her partner as if by bungee cord.

Piccolo's fangs shined as he gave a predatory smile. "Let's see how that serves you…" he said, leering as he crept into a savage-looking stance. He tensed. "HEUUUUUUUUUUUURGH…!"

The air tore with his white licking flames as dirt blasted from the spot he stood from. Ruby and Weiss' auras burst in response.

"So… you thinking what I'm thinking?" Ruby asked Weiss, who only nodded silently.

And in an instant, glyphs swarmed the area. They flanked Piccolo from every lateral side. They surrounded him on the floor, and one even appeared under Ruby, which glowed red as she was launched skyward. Meanwhile, great wolven claws sprang out of the floor glyphs to seize Piccolo's ankles. He looked down in alarm, but knew this wouldn't be the brunt of the assault, merely rooting him in place.

And indeed, Weiss aimed Myrtenaster and channeled a blast from it. It began to ping from glyph to glyph, doubling every time, forcing the Namekian to weave and parry, occasionally bursting against his body outright. His back smoked as he twisted high, sensing Ruby at the crest of her leap, and let loose with a golden blast from his very mouth, as Ruby took aim.

"Whoa-whoa-WHOA!" Ruby yelled, rearing the scythe back and swatting the blast with its broad end… Or she tried.

"Nnnnnnggg— YAGH!"

But after vying with it for a few seconds, the blast sailed off… just as Piccolo raised his arms and shattered the glyph blockade as power flared from his body. Rearing back, he reached for Weiss… from twenty-feet away, as his arm shot out like a harpoon, stretching like rubber.

"WHA—?!" Weiss was grabbed by the face and whirled around as Piccolo slung her in a circle, before hurling her up towards her partner. Ruby grabbed her hand, whirling to arrest their momentum.

"O-okay… new strategy…"

Piccolo's deflected blast whizzed by them, having circled the globe, surprising them and presenting the ideal opportunity as Piccolo launched himself towards them…

Oscar met each thrusting swipe of Yamcha's 'claws' with a thrust of his staff, split second strikes as the boy was pushed back.

"Not half bad, kid! Decent reflexes," Yamcha praised, as Sun charged from behind, vaulting off his staff and preparing and overhead smash… as that orbiting deflected blast struck him in the back in midair with a blazing crash as it carried him into his target… who bowled over into Oscar… then tripping up Jaune into a forward flip and faceplant as he arrived to back-up Oscar.

Chiaotzu wove left and right in a flurry, sweat on his brow as he ducked and weaved against Magnhilde's swings, the air buzzing past.

He leapt up as the hammer sank into the ground, upheaving grass. He landed on its buried head, leaping up, backflipping both feet into Nora's chin.

"GAH! Hey…!" Nora reached up and grabbed Chiaotzu's ankle.

"Uh! Let go, midget!"

Nora blinked as Chiaotzu struggled. "What? Who are you calling a midget, midget!"

"DODON-RAY!"

His finger gleamed yellow before he fired a bright beam right into her face.

"ARGHH!" Nora cried, recoiling as her face smoked. Why you LITTLE…!"

She swung him around by his ankle, hurling him into the lone tree as Magnhilde compressed down to its launcher form. The front plate of the revolver carousel flipped open, and with a press of the trigger, all six heart-adorned grenades launched out in an appropriately heart-shaped configuration.

Chiaotzu watched, perplexed, barely hopping out of the target zone… before a small pink mushroom-cloud the width of a grain silo obliterated the tree into smoke and splinters, sending the tiny warrior tumbling into the air with a cry…

Yang and Blake were a flurry, as they matched Tenshinhan blow for blow, working him from both sides.

Tien's arms were glowing as he shielded himself from Blake's blades. But with every blocked blow of Yang's, she still got off a blast of buckshot, leaving the man to wince in mounting frustration.

"Nng! Can't remember the last time I felt bullets…! S-surprising… Guess I'll have to…"

With a swipe, he kicked Blake away, and grappled both hands with Yang as they vied their strengths… But suddenly, Tien's shoulders seemed to shudder and bulge…

"YAAAAARGH!"

In a sudden shift of flesh that made Yang's eyes shoot open, a second pair of arms BURST forth from Tenshinhan's shoulders.

"FOUR-WITCHES TECHNIQUE!"

Blake was so surprised she couldn't stop herself before her rear-attack was thwarted as the second pair of arms grabbed her around the shoulders and catapulted over his head and directly into Yang, smashing both partners into each other as they rolled a dozen yards.

"D-did he just SPROUT another pair of…?" Blake demanded, as Tien took a fighting stance, looking like some kind of heathen god.

Goku, his son, Krillin and King Kai watched as Tien resorted to this strange technique.

"Whoa! I haven't seen him use that since he beat me at the Tournament!" Goku noted, his eyes bright.

"Makes sense," Krillin said. "A pair for each opponent… He must be feeling a bit pressed," he finished with a smile.

"W-wow, broseph," Yang said, grinning in astonishment. "You've really been… working on your four-arms!"

Tien's face suddenly wilted as he froze. "That's terrible."

Yang stood up and took a bow. "Thank you, here all week!"

He glowered. "No." Each of his hands raised up, a single pointer-finger jabbing out. "DODON-ARRAY!"

Every finger glowed before the whole set aimed as one.

Tenshinhan hesitated but for an instant… long enough to see the pair leap away from blasts that hadn't fired yet. As such, he knew where exactly to direct his wrath, and punished them accordingly…

"EAUGGH!" Yang cried as she was struck by two golden beams on the hip and shoulder, thrown from the resulting blast. Blake had dodged with her semblance, and merely stepped back into her original shadow, hurling her kusarigama into Yang's path as she slid low under Tien's next pair of beams as she charge Tien blasted the floor beneath him as Blake cloned into a vault, loosely laying ribbon as she cloned to four spots surrounding him.

She managed to shift between the four shadows only twice before the warrior saw the pattern, reaching an arm out to all four at once… and plucking her from a hind corner by her collar.

"Got you!"

Blake grunted one hand on his wrist as she dangled. "Y-you too…"

He blinked, before Yang grabbed the kusarigama, yanking it tight to arrest her own momentum… by tightening the ribbon surrounding Tien's limbs.

"NNNNGGG!" He tensed as his four arms were bound, and Blake's feet planted against his chest to produce still more tension…

Blake reared back with her cleaver while Yang readied a blast from her free hand, but suddenly a piercing thin ray seared from the pupil of the former champion's third eye, striking her wrist and causing the feline faunus to drop the blade in surprise.

With a snap of his head, Tien repeated the feat as Yang approached, dazing her with a blast to the forehead, before his aura flared.

"EYAAAAAAAAH!"

The confining ribbon shredded as he freed himself, and the battle carried on…

Gohan gaped at it all as Goku grinned from ear to ear with his teeth, barely able to keep track of everything that was happening.

"Ah MAN! This is the BEST!" he nearly squealed through his teeth. "They're actually holding their own! Even against Piccolo! They haven't even been fighting on this level that long!"

King Kai chuckled. "Ah, the joys of seeing students bloom… You're right that they've only reached this plane of battle recently, but you beat the fundamentals into them, forcing them to adapt and learn well before they could command their full power and apply that knowledge. And they each bring their own unique abilities to the stage."

A series of pink explosions barely missed them as Nora and Chiaotzu screeched over their heads.

King Kai adjusted his teashades. "Like well-trained astronauts in the simulator, they have the theory down. They just had to strap-in and take off!"

Piccolo was on the warpath, his arms becoming veritable harpoons as Ruby and Weiss dashed from place to place, stone splintering hot off their heels… literally, in Weiss' case.

But on the next volley, Ruby whirled as petals around the extended arm, appearing before the Namekian and planting a foot in his chest… or trying to, as he caught her boot by the sole. Meanwhile, Weiss caught the extended wrist and rode it as Piccolo retracted it, backing Ruby's attack with a blast to his face, causing him to reel in annoyance before his other arm raised to prepare a beastly swipe…

Weiss spawned a red glyph before both of them, tossing them back as Piccolo's furious strike came down and cratered the earth where they'd been moments earlier.

"Nobody said anything about extendo-arms!" Ruby huffed.

"It's fine, just imagine it's a semblance," Weiss said, preparing a thrust of her rapier…

"HNNNR!" But both Piccolo's eyes glinted, before tiny rays burst forth from them.

"Agh!" Weiss stopped dead, angling Myrtenaster to catch both rays along its edge, deflecting it into the poor limited edition car, which immediately caught fire, its classic paint carbonized in an instant.

"You've got a lot of handy moves… but so do we!" Weiss cried, before plunging her blade into the ground as a line of jagged icy spears churned the dirt between them.

Piccolo leapt high, preparing a sphere of energy in his hands… but out of the ground leapt an entire ARM of ice, whose hand shot out to grasp him like an action figure.

As the Namekian strained, eye wide despite the annoyance on his face, Ruby took aim with Crescent Rose as Weiss formed a glyph before the barrel.

"Another pun?" Ruby asked.

"I'm in a mood, leave me alone…"

Ice-Rose was blasted again and again as they sealed Piccolo's top half in successive layers of thick ice, the points of impact blossoming into huge crystalline spears.

"NOW! KAMEHAMEH—!"

But as they prepared the attack, hands at their sides, a shape under the ice traveled down the massive wrist and forearm as Piccolo's hand glowed, melting through to the floor before the forearm exploded out.

"AUGHHH!"

The belching of Ruby's lungs was guttural and white-knuckle as Piccolo's uppercut plunged into her solar plexus, crossing the distance in an instant. Ruby's eyes went huge as she was sent tumbling into the air. Weiss barely braced her hand against the flat of her blade as she tried to block the follow-up elbow Piccolo smashed down upon her, but only managed to harden the strike as she was flattened.

And yet, the Namekian wasn't finished as his outstretched hand lashed out as he drew himself to full height, and a cone of power engulfed her where she lay as she cried out…

Yamcha's Spirit Ball was swatted away by Jaune's blade… only to be caught on the shoulder as it changed course, its owner's fingers steering it like a white-hot dodgeball. Jaune landed on his back just in time to summon his shield as the ball slammed again and again like an angry hornet.

On a golden blast of gunfire, Sun's staff rocketed like a spear into the Spirit Ball, stopping dead as the flintlock at its end fired, reducing the ball to sparks. Its owner was there to grab it before it could drop to the ground, whirling it like a propeller blade as he tossed it towards Yamcha, who darted in with hands clutching brilliant blue…

"MeHAAA!" Yamcha cried, his blast vying against the spinning staff just long enough for Sun to leap back, hands steepled as avatar after golden avatar ran into the beamhead. Like a zoetrope animation, they ran to their fates as a cycling stream as Oscar leapt over, heads used as stepping stones until he flipped to Yamcha's other side.

The bandit abandoned his beam, catching Oscar's cane AND Sun's staff as both struck at once from opposing sides.

His hands full, Yamcha didn't notice as Jaune lifted into the sky, greatsword in both hands as he slashed it through the sky with all his might. The multicolored force split the air as it aimed true.

"M-man," Yamcha grunted, "maybe three was too many— wait, where's the third guy…?"

Yamcha received his answer when the splitting force smashed upon him, driving him into the dirt and further as a scar was split perfectly into King Kai's tiny planet.

Sun and Oscar collapsed in exhaustion as they beheld Yamcha, unmoving in a crater of upturned soil. Half-buried, he wasn't flat on his face, more angled limbs almost fetal.

"Uh… is he okay?" Oscar asked… an instant before the bandit faded like a ghost. "Oh…"

Nora and Chiaotzu were looking ragged as they lunged at each other, dirty, scuffed and singed. Nora's occasional heavy swings of her hammer were interspersed with Chiaotzu's far more frequent, lighter taps… until he achieved a right cross to her jaw as he went sailing past.

"AGH! You… YOU… I CAN'T THINK OF ANYTHING!"

She jabbed the handle-end of Magnhilde behind her, catching him in the gut, before a follow-up overhead swing smacked him into the ground with a crack of earth. He groaned, before Nora raised the hammer high…

Chiaotzu kicked himself under her legs, just as the hammer splintered the ground, rolling back before leaping onto her back, latching on like a tick.

"Hey!" Nora complained, spinning and twisting left and right as his body began to glow a faint blue. "Personal space, you little CREEP!"

"Stop calling me LITTLE, midget!"

Nora growled… before trust-falling right onto her back.

"Mk!"

"GET! OFF! ME!" She demanded, flopping again and again as his eyes unfocused, though the blue glow kept building...

"Nora!" Ren warned. "Get him off, NOW!"

She leapt up, floating feet above the ground, before raising her hammer high…

'*CRACK-OOM*'

Lightning snapped and forked to her hammer and wreathed Nora Valkyrie in electric pink, complementing Chiaotzu's gleaming blue… and his stunned white eyes.

Still glowing, the small earthling peeled off her back as he fell limply… as the energized ginger twisted in midair to hammer him like a nail, legs fanning out as she put her entire being into the savage hit.

The world split as Chiaotzu was driven through it like a stake… like a torpedo… through the crust, the mantle, the meager core, clear through to the other side.

Yang, Blake and Tenshinhan clashed in midair. He had retracted his second pair of arms, and with a burst of power forced them off him. Both sides paused, breath heavy… before the planet between them exploded.

"YOW!"

"AUGH! Chiaotzu…!"

Dirt and stone POURED into the sky as a huge cone of the planet was blasted out from Chiaotzu's detonating body between the Bumblebee partners and Tien in a volcanic cloud of black and blue.

All sides paused as the plume of debris was taken by the planet's gravity, and curved into a field of orbiting bodies that collided and scattered, casting hazy shadows over everything.

Yang peered into the resulting, cavernous hole. "Whoa… Alright, well… Can't let Nora show us up, huh?" she told Blake, grinning as she reloaded her gauntlets.

"Nope," Blake agreed, peering up at the debris field. "And I have an idea…"

Ruby's scythe parried Piccolo's clawed swipe as he pressed the attack. She lost Weiss at some point, too pressured by the once-demon's assault. He was deceptively heavy with his strikes. They were always faster than they seemed.

She whirled behind him… only to be grabbed, and choke-slammed into the splintering ground.

"You're slippery," Piccolo said, "agile, and surprisingly handy with that toy. But you keep going for the obvious reverse."

He began to lift her over his head with a swing of his arm, ready to toss her savagely into the dome-shaped house, but she whirled, taking him along and angling him to face the sky as he released. She was tossed vertically instead as he followed up with a blast. She countered, aiming Crescent Rose and meeting his in the middle with her own crimson shot.

He didn't wait, dashing through the smoke to match her height, angling to hide his body behind his own billowing cape.

"Come on… hit me…"

Ruby glanced around for Weiss, but as naked as the invitation was, she wasn't here to chat.

She fired a shot behind her, annihilating an orbiting chunk in the sky as she spun overhead into a vertical slice. But Piccolo seemed to lazily drift in little darts just out of reach, the white cape obscuring the exact state of his body as she slashed in multiple angles.

Only after the head of Crescent Rose snapped back into a war-scythe did she gain enough unexpected reach to carve through the material and land a solid hit as he winced, teeth bared. With a curtaining of light he dashed back as the shorn cape fell… just in time for the scythe to snap back to normal, whirling like a buzzsaw as she threw it his way.

Piccolo's claws screeched as he guarded against the blade, which slowed as its wielder whirled into existence, boots on his shoulders as she caught it. The curved blade tugged under his chin… or tried to, instead snagging the collar of his cape, which he readily lifted off his head as he escaped.

Ruby nearly shook off the encumbrance from her scythe but stopped as she blinked at the sheer weight it added. "Huh…? 'Kay, from one cape-wearer to another, game recognizes game… but why is this so heavy?! You were FIGHTING with this?!"

Piccolo smirked, lifting the turban off his head to reveal his short, fleshy antennae. He tossed the turban her way.

Ruby caught it, her hand sagging unexpectedly low as her eyes widened.

"You've been using gravity training," Piccolo explained, "but we've used weighted gear for a while now."

She dropped the heavy gear, feeling herself sweat at the knowledge that he'd gone two-on-one with them… and had still further handicapped himself.

She twisted the handle of Crescent Rose between her palms as she laughed nervously. "Soooo… You want those back, or—?"

But suddenly, a throng of meteoroids from Chiaotzu's destruction stalled in midair, locked down by red glyphs as they began to suddenly swarm Piccolo's position.

"HYAAA!"

Ruby looked up to see Weiss riding the largest of the chunks down like a falling star.

Piccolo charged golden power in both hands as he growled, before firing on Weiss' chunk and splitting it apart with a crunch as she darted towards him in a chaotic pinball pattern of glyphs.

Ruby saw Piccolo turned away from her, a plain opening… but knew better by now than to assume a direct attack was wise. She swapped mags and cycled the chamber, grabbing the standard round as it ejected and flicking it in front of his face. She fired at the round as Piccolo's razor reflexes bade him to snatch it, bursting both rounds and encasing his arm in stone.

Weiss came SCREAMING in, rapier out as she chose a final diagonal angle of attack. Piccolo reeled to meet her, using the stony appendage as a club as Myrtenaster sank into it. She pressed the trigger and flipped away as a gout of flame sprayed the stone into bits before his face.

Now on either side of him, Ruby took aim at the meteors that had nearly converged on them. A trio of shots sank into them… spurring the growth of silicate stone spears that erupted out…

Piccolo cried out as an unseen force shoved the girls away, before firing a gleaming bolt at the surging stone.

The resulting spray of flecks clattered everywhere… before a pure white arm brought down a massive blade the size of an airliner through the dust.

"HMMMF!"

Piccolo caught the titanic blade, teeth bared as his hands gripped its edge, as the dust cleared to reveal the massive summoning glyph Weiss had hidden behind the hurtling rocks.

"DO IT!" Ruby shouted, stowing her scythe as she clawed her hands. "Kame…!"

Weiss did likewise from the other side. "Hame…!"

"HAAAA!"

The surging, roiling azure energies struck Piccolo on both sides as he cried out, shaking as he was seared. With the blade pinning him, it looked to be finished…

…Until Piccolo let the blade shove him low, leaving the massive sword to pass between the waves and be shattered into shards of white fire. The twin Kamehameha waves smashed into each other and detonated, throwing Ruby and Weiss away to tumble end over end.

Ruby managed to stop, upside down, and turned the wrong way… towards Piccolo, who had gotten behind her, two shining fingers against his vein-tensed forehead… before he shoved those fingers directly in her blood-drained face.

"Oh no…"

"MakankoSAPPO!"

Ruby barely got out an airy grunt… as her head was vaporized by a golden beam, orbited by a smaller, spiraling magenta beam, to plainly devastating effect.

Weiss recovered just in time to feel an awful chill as she saw Ruby's headless body limply drift as it faded away… and the spiraling beam streaking towards her.

Weiss held Myrtenaster up as a line of glyphs appeared to shield her… and the Makankosappo bore their way through each of them like they were barely there, shattering her thin blade.

"UGHH-UH…!"

Weiss' eyes went huge as she felt the white hot energy gore her. It passed through in a second, leaving her with her broken blade, shaking as she stared down at the burning gaping hole in her chest the width of a grapefruit.

Her eyes twitched with the shock of it, as her body faded away.

Piccolo let out a breath as he let his body relax. "Good fight."

Gohan watched the spot where Ruby had vanished, frozen. It wasn't real, but the sight had been disturbing…

"Hey…"

Gohan felt a hand on his head, looking up to see his father.

"It's just sparring, you know that."

"Y-yeah…"

Tien cried as he smashed through hunk after hunk of orbiting stone. Blake's Shadows were scattered thoroughly throughout the asteroid field that had formed over the planet, and she was flitting between them, taking shots at his back as Yang forced him to split his attention.

"ARGHHHH…! NNN…!" Tien cried, as another purple blast struck him squarely on his shoulder blades, leaving an ashen mark. "Not a bad s-strategy… Figures you girls were trained by Goku. I can feel it in your fighting style. Making me nostalgic."

He'd lost sight of Yang… who rolled into view as she planted on a revolving chunk of stone nearby and struck.

But he heard it, twisting to catch her wrist, muscles creaking as she vied with his strength.

"Y-you're getting predictable… You really favor those cannon-arms. You remind me of another girl I know… maybe with a better attitude."

"Th-thanks, been working on that…"

With a yank, he lifted her over his head and into the path of another of Blake's blasts…

…But Blake herself swept in from a nearby Shadow and kicked it away, raking Tien with her cleaver as she dashed past, tossed her kusarigama around a nearby meteor and used it as leverage to swing around it and strike him from below with both feet.

Tenshinhan went hurtling high above the debris field, but let himself drift as he caught his breath. He stared down. The pair didn't pursue him, using the debris and Blake's abundance of clones to wear him down.

"Mistake," he muttered, clasping his hands together, his index fingers pointed high as he focused. His hands glowed as he grunted, separating them, and angling his hands to touch the tips of his fingers together, thumbs connecting below them, fully extended to create a vaguely triangular shaped tunnel with his hands…

"This high up, you won't have anywhere to hide…" he muttered, as his attack charged, and he saw Blake and Yang hand-in-hand, shifting from Shadow to Shadow in hopes to dodge any ranged attack he might send.

But this was no ordinary attack…

"SHIN… KIKO… HO!"

A box of pure light seemed to thunder down, brighter and brighter, formless and ethereal. Blake and Yang froze as they tried to track it, backing off towards the ground. But it was only a split second before it hit that the Kikoho's nature became clear, as EVERY piece of the debris field was hit, stone crumbling and vaporized like a WALL of destruction had passed them.

"YANG!" Blake cried, turning her back and shielding her partner an instant before the attack struck them.

"Aiiuughhhh!" Blake shrieked, as Yang watched her body sublimated in an instant. Dusted… Just gone…

Yang barely had an instant to glimpse the horror of her partner being vaporized before she was struck and burned by the same force. It was like being hit by a train on fire, but somehow she survived it, tumbling towards the dirt. Probably due to Blake taking the brunt of the hit…

As she fell, she appreciated the gravity of Tenshinhan's attack. He had targeted the entire planet's surface, at least on the side he faced. It looked like a paved gravel lot, the green absolutely vaporized. She struck a pile of pebbles as she landed on her back, facing up to the speck of Tien still floating there, as the rubble was tossed from the impact and before her eyes.

Yang tried to move, but felt a stabbing pain in… well… a lot of places. Broken bones. She'd lost this fight.

Unless…

Tien stared down. "She made it… Tough girl. But it's over now!"

Tenshinhan was overtaken by a crimson aura that seemed to singe the very air. It wasn't like Ruby's gentle, excitable energy. It was furious, a barely-controlled chaos, making all of Tien's shadowy features somehow darker…

At the edge of the horizon, the hairs on Goku's body stood on end as he felt it, eyes huge. "Wait! That's the K—"

"KAIOKEN… ATTACK!" Tien tensed, and dove at her, the air whistling with his crimson energy trail.

Yang watched him closing in. If he'd fired that attack again, he'd have finished her… but now he was coming to her.

She smiled, if weakly.

Her hands gleamed gold as Ember Celica cocked. She raised her arms just slightly, before her eyes scorched crimson and her hair lifted, glowing in an aurum sheen.

But it didn't stop there. Beginning at her roots, her hair, her glow seared white with the damage, power overflowing as her black pupils then glimmered gold from within. The white of her hair climbed like fire towards the tips as yellow was blotted out. In fact, the shine was so bright, one might readily mistake her locks for fire itself.

She'd never have dared to keep fighting with a break, but this was not a realm of lingering consequences, and there had been an idea floating around in her mind for a while now.

Without the encumbrance of her Aura shield, she could take more direct damage. Breaking the shield usually left a Huntress too drained to continue, even her. But lacking it let the charge of her semblance swell as she'd never felt before.

And on a gamble, she channeled that overflow in a way she couldn't before. She directed it to her Gen-Ki, her vitality… the source of Aura's healing factor.

For anyone else, focused attention might stimulate faster healing, but it wasn't practical in battle. But in Yang's case, the sudden surge bathed her body… and as a sky-blue glow replaced her gold, and tinted her white, the stabbing sensations faded as she knitted back together.

The pebbles around her blasted out as she slammed her fists down…

Tien couldn't see Yang at first as she seemed to explode like a depth charge, the rubble below rippling out. Propelled by the impact, her gauntlets' barrels alight, she rose out of the blast at him like a rocket, readying her fist.

He blinked. "She has that much left after that blast?! She's different! It's like she subbed in another fresh fighter…"

But Tenshinhan wasn't out yet, palms out as he held them beside his face. "TAIYO-KEN!"

In an instant, Yang winced as everything was bathed in a familiar, blinding light. Her eyes slammed shut reflexively as she flinched, but didn't stop. "Nnnn! Damn…!"

Tien seized his opportunity, curtaining in a roundabout route to his opponent as she carried on her course. He stopped just behind where she'd pass him, hand rearing back as his knife-hand chop began to glow…

And as she passed… she didn't.

With two shots of her gauntlets she changed course, coming up behind Tien as he twisted in surprise, his strike coming down… on one of those yellow bracers as she blocked… and her other fist sank all of her strength and momentum into his abdomen. He could only stare at her, eyes still closed as she grinned.

"Krillin showed me that one… Goku helped us with our other senses." Her gleaming fist burned as his body swelled. "Shift's over… time to punch-out…"

With another might heave, Tien carried gaily into the air as Yang hung there like a torch, triumphant, fist raised against the pink skies. The spot where she struck him glowed and bulged, as his muscles creaked and bloated, until a fiery blast filled the air, detonating multiple times, each wave engulfing the last…

The survivors watched from the curved horizon as she slowly drifted back down.

"Wow," Nora said. "Extra much?"

Sun crossed his arms. "Didn't you blow the little guy through the world like a bad video game?"

"Is she…" Oscar said, "blue?"

King Kai surveyed the utterly devastated half of the planet blankly. "Hmm… I think I might have to ban Tenshinhan's technique from my planet."

Goku nodded. "I remember that move taking out the whole ring the first time we fought at the Tournament… but this is another level! Probably helps that this isn't real… aaaaaand being dead, he doesn't have to worry so much about his Gen-Ki being emptied out…"

Yang touched down nearby, crunching the gravel as she strolled over, lavender lightning tracing over her injured spots in surges.

"Whoa!" Krillin remarked, eyeing her up and down as that yellow glint in her pupils peered out through the crimson of her iris. "This is new…"

Yang nodded, flexing her arm as she pulled her white hair in for a look. "I think my semblance… expanded, when I used it like this… Took a ton of damage and sunk the boost into my Aura… It healed me, and went blue for some reason… Man, the white's okay, but I dunno if blue is my color…"

King Kai snickered. "Well, raw Gen-Ki tends to take on a blue color. The Spirit Bomb is the same."

Goku gaped. "You can heal yourself now?! That'd give you so much staying power…"

"Yeah, it felt really natural. Maybe if you boost we can get you back up to speed?" Yang suggested.

The Kai grunted, shaking his head. "I don't think you appreciate just how unusual that is! Your energy doesn't generally behave like separate tanks you can siphon into each other. This rerouting you achieved is yours alone, lass."

"Well, was worth a shot," Yang sighed, and powered down as her hair faded back to its lustrous gold, the light leaving her pupils and violet irises. Taking a breath, she slammed her fists together again and her flaming gold aura returned.

"Phew!" Yang breathed. "Okay, cool, so that's not permanent. Guess it only happens when I'm overcharged. I can live with that…"

She calmed again, looking around their more modest group. "Jeez, am I the only one from RWBY that made it…?"

"Yes," Piccolo answered, cresting the edge of the blasted grass as he drew everyone's eye. "Those two were keen fighters. Individually, just a little bit green, too easily rattled. Too specialized, maybe. But as a unit, they're shockingly effective. Excellent at pressing and cornering a single opponent. They're hardly hopeless."

Piccolo walked up to Goku, impassive. "I trust you can hone their edges, Goku? I don't know how handy their tricks will be against an opponent like Frieza, but it's worth finding out."

"Heck-yeah!" Goku confirmed, arm pumped excitedly. "Those two pulled out a few tricks against you I've never seen before!"

The Namekian shut his eyes, arms crossed as he grinned. "That happens when you back a fighter into the wall…"

Krillin hopped closer to Yang, grinning proudly. "And you! Overcoming a rough customer like Tien, man… His bag a' tricks is deep."

Yang shut her eyes, smiling with a good-natured huff. "Thanks, but let's not overstate it. This was skill against skill, and we just scraped by two-to-one, after pushing my semblance harder than ever. Weiss and Ruby didn't manage at all. Nnn… sorry, that damn flare is still in my eyes…" she finished, massaging her temples. "My… mental… eyes…? Eh… Best not to think too hard about it."

"Being fair…" Goku drawled, "they were up against Piccolo…"

Nora balled her fists. "Hey, what about me?! I soloed my fight…"

King Kai nodded happily. "Indeed! Though I do think Chiaotzu's the meakest of the bunch… you didn't hear it from me…"

Nora huffed, while Jaune gave a guilty grin.

"And we might've been even less fair as a trio against… What was his name again?"

Krillin and Goku winced suddenly, like they'd each been pelted with the same rock. "Yamcha," they said simultaneously.

"Ouch…" Krillin said in a whisper. "I mean, something to be said for Oscar and Jaune being fresher fighters against us old pros…"

Oscar's eyelids drooped. "And he just called us…"

"Noobs?" Jaune finished.

King Kai motioned Goku and Piccolo aside, his voice low.

"All cards tabled… a lot to work with here. I think Porunga was onto something. Finding a fighter of your caliber, capable of handling my best techniques? I feared I'd never see the day! But then, more talent from Earth arrived on my doorstep…"

Goku hummed, brows knit as he blinked. "Yeah, I saw Tien pull off the Kaioken…" He caught Piccolo's eye. "Can you do it, Piccolo?"

Piccolo shut his eyes. "No, on a technicality, I can't. You know the technique, so you know it requires a mastery of the self, beyond even control of your energy." His eyes opened. "And as you might recall, I'm not a whole person."

"Oh… right, Kami…"

King Kai chuckled to himself excitedly. "But as a result, this Remnant stuff is the real deal! They already have such an attunement to their true selves, their Shou-Ki, and the lengths they went to attain control… they have a remarkable affinity to the principle the technique works by. A number of those kids are ready, Goku."

Goku's mouth opened in mild surprise… but then he smirked, nodding. "Yeah… I think I needed to hear it from you first though."

"Teach them," the blur Kai ordered. "All I had to offer… They'll need it. And from what I saw here… they can handle it."

Goku nodded. "I will…"

"Okay…!" Ruby said excitedly, as RWBY sat on the roof together under the burning sunset. "Let's do this!"

With a touch of concentration, the four of them found themselves in a mental projection of the Beacon sparring amphitheater, below the tiered seating in the arena.

"Wow, this takes me back," Yang said with a bright gleam of awe in her eyes.

Weiss huffed. "We've done more than enough reminiscing today! Let's see this expanded semblance of yours!"

"Yeah!" Ruby agreed, hopping in place with a huge grin. "Burn hasn't changed a bit since you were first training with Dad! Everyone's evolving, it's so COOL…!"

Yang nodded. "Seriously, now we've put the work in, this stuff just keeps coming… Like, you know how they say you haven't made it until you get rich even while you're sleeping? Because that's what this feels like."

Weiss chewed her cheek as she contemplated the expression. "That's more of a nouveau riche thing…"

"Huh?"

"N-nevermind," Weiss said, scratching her arm. "Old mon— er… old mindset. B-but yes, our abilities have appreciated at a fairly constant and remarkable rate. To think how long and hard we all once had to work to increase a fraction of our strength, speed or stamina, and now we're evenly gaining all of them. I think we might be doubling every day…"

"It'll slow once we tap out the chamber's maximum, but you're right. We're blowing through our limits, and it's showing in our semblances. Nora can conjure lightning," Blake said, fingers out as she counted, "Ren has this emotion-reading thing he does… Ruby's Petalburst is its own headache, and I have my Shadow-Step now. Yeah, what we're doing is definitely working…"

"Wait wait wait wait," Yang laughed, " 'Shadow Step?' "

Blake's brows knit. "What?"

Yang smirked. "Isn't that a Bastilles and Beholders move? Come on, lame…"

"It's my semblance; what do you suggest?"

"...Shade Shift?" Weiss said.

"Umbral Dance!" Ruby whispered dramatically.

"Kitten Shadow?" Yang said. " 'Cause it sounds like get-in-shadow?"

Blake's eyelids drooped as her ears flattened. "No."

"RePAWsitioning Shade!"

"No!"

"Feliform Fade…?" Weiss said at last.

Blake's ears pricked. "That's… not bad…"

"Thank you!" Weiss said, eyes rolling in relief. "Glad something I said today hit the mark… So back to business, fire it up, Yang."

Yang shook her head. "Not that simple... I have to take pretty major damage first. So… uh… you guys have gotta break something."

She concentrated, eyes shut.

"Okay, I've suppressed… It should be pretty easy to— ARGHH!"

Yang's eyes shot open as a gleaming white Beowulf sank its jaws into her bicep with an awful crunch. With a gesture, her other fist gave an overhand smash into the faux beast's skull, crumbling it to white ash as she favored her mangled limb. "Thanks… Weiss…"

"You're welcome."

"Ahhh…" Yang sighed. "God, it's not real, but damn does it feel real…" Her eyes widened as something crossed her mind. "Oh wait, you guys died in there… What was that like?"

Weiss winced. "A little terrifying. Thankfully brief, done as soon as we got kicked awake. Having a hole in my chest was not fun…"

Ruby gave a huff of uncomfortable laughter as her pupils shrank. "I think… I got my head exploded? I didn't really have a chance to feel it."

"Vaporized," Blake said, arms crossed. "Also pretty fast, but the burning part was… ugh…"

Yang braced. "Okay… Here goes… NNNGAARGH!"

The others stepped back as Yang's red eyes shined with her inner gold, her hair creeping up white from her roots as her flaming aura transitioned from yellow, to white, to blue, the blue glow largely overtaking her as purple lightning wreathed her broken arm. They watched as the bleeding stemmed, and the bite marks faded, before a sickening snap jolted the bone back into place.

"Oh my GOSH!" Ruby shrieked with awe. "It's awesome…!"

Yang looked over herself. "Huh… Before, I was all white and blue… Half of my hair is still the usual color now," she said, her mane of hair from the shoulders and down still gold.

"Maybe…" Blake said, frowning, "it goes more white and blue the more damage you take? You said you had multiple breaks after Tien hit you."

"How much punishment can you heal, exactly? That's significant," Weiss said.

"Well, I wouldn't try lopping this off," Yang said, looking down at her healed arm. "And it's not like I can just keep healing damage. Once I activate Burn, I don't stockpile damage until it's off and my Aura recovers. I could keep using the boost to heal until it's spent, but that's it. Way better than nothing, but not exactly an invincibility hack…"

She took a breath. "Kinda sucks for the brand though, right? I mean… blue?"

Weiss made a rasping noise as she crossed her arms. "I never quite pegged you for vain… Besides, your thing is fire, and hotter flames transition from yellow, to white, to blue."

"Yeah, I guess so," Yang laughed, shadow boxing with incredible, air-sundering force that rippled through the air, sending plumes of gold and blue flames wafting off her aura. "So what're we gonna call this? Super Burn? Blue Burn?"

Ruby pumped her fists. "Super Burning God Super Burn!"

"That was eight syllables," Weiss told her, aghast.

Blake hummed. "Well, honestly, how about Sapphire Phoenix?"

"Phoenix?" Yang asked.

"Yes…" Weiss said, a grin forming as she followed Blake's train of thought. "The healing aspect renews you when you're down… and between Qrow and your mother, having your own tie to a bird seems appropriate."

"And what better than the mythic symbol of death and rebirth itself?" Blake asked.

"Ooh…" Ruby offered in awe. "Hey wait, aren't those like, red and gold colored? And… not blue?"

"The traditional Phoenix has fiery colors," Blake said, "but the most powerful are blue… I mean, it depends on the lore, Phoenixes aren't real, but…"

Yang chuckled, tossing her hair back as it roiled like tongues of jewel fire. "Well… you talked me into it. Guess there's just one more thing to do…"

With a snap, they awoke on the rooftop, and Yang stood up as her teammates shook it all off. "Okay, so… eh… we've gotta find out if this actually happens in the real world."

Ruby was mid-stretch until she heard that and froze. "Um… You mean, we have to actually hurt you?"

"What if it doesn't work?!" Weiss demanded. "If you cripple yoursel— Oh, that came out… wrong… I'm…"

Yang's eyelids drooped as her irises flickered crimson. "Wow, Weiss… But… that's the point. There's something I've got to know." She held her left arm out. "Okay, can one of you pull it out without pulling it off? You know, dislocate it. Should be enough."

They each looked at each other, concern lining their eyes.

"Yang, we're not gonna hurt you," Ruby said quietly.

But Blake stepped forward. "I… think I get what this is about." She took hold of Yang's elbow and upper arm, wrapping one arm around it just below the joint.

"Blake…" Weiss said, eyes wide.

"One… two… THREE…!"

There was an awful crunch of cartilage as Yang gave a shrill shriek, and in moments her good arm was hanging limply. Her eyes squeezed hard as she sucked air between her teeth.

"Thanks… Alright…! HNNG…!"

The roof rattled as the Sapphire Phoenix emerged, at least partially, the white of her hair barely licking up from her scalp as the lavender lightning attacked her rapidly setting shoulder.

"Yeah!" Ruby cried in relief. "It works!"

"Come on… come on…!"

But her eyes weren't on that arm. It was firmly set on her right. She stared, focusing, willing her surging power to the elbow. Her healed left arm grabbed the forearm of her right, pulling off her prosthetic.

"Oh gosh," Weiss muttered, finally understanding.

But the lightning faded as her hair steadily retreated to gold, the meager boost not so much depleting as…

"Damn it," Yang choked, crestfallen as she just stared and let her aura fade. "Yeah… Shoulda' known it wouldn't be that easy."

Ruby approached her, cautious. "What happened?"

Yang sighed. "Topped off. My Aura isn't treating it like a wound or injury. I don't think it can replace whole limbs anyway. It's fine. It was dumb to hope I'd—"

She blinked as Ruby was on her in an instant, arms around her middle. A smile bloomed on her face, even as her free elbow strained to return the hug.

Blake came to her rescue, slipping the prosthesis back onto her elbow. She squeezed her sister at last.

Nora pranced up to the open Barracks window as Weiss brushed her lengthy hair. "Hey-y…! Stoked for tonight?"

Weiss sighed, smirking as she gently applied a light lip gloss. "You know we're not staying with the group. I promised Jaune we'd spend some time alone in Vale."

"Oooooh," Nora preened, sitting on the windowsill. "So, how's all that going… y'know… if you don't mind me asking?"

Weiss took a deep breath, pink as she lifted her capelet to reveal her upper arm… and the bandage stuck to it.

Nora gaped, nearly slipping off her rear and into the room. "The clinic?! You mean… tonight…?"

Weiss shut her eyes, nodding. "You were right about him. He's… good, and kind, and… yes, he's a dork, but… I feel so comfortable around him now. I can let my guard down, and I know he won't hurt me. It doesn't occur to him. He's not after anything."

Nora clasped her hands together, the biggest smile on her pressing lips. "Go on…!"

Weiss chuckled. "I think back to when we first met, and it feels so different now. I get it. He was pretending to be something he wasn't, he was totally lost. And later, he was more genuine, but I still had that first impression burned into my head. I thought he was after my name, my fame, my father's money. But now… I don't think he ever cared about that. He sought me… for me."

She leaned back in her chair, gazing into the mirror, looking past herself. "He's… earned the chance to impress me in other ways," she said with a blush. "But whether or not we take this all forward… I do think I love him."

Weiss glanced out the corner of her eye. Nora's lips were sucked-in yet quivering, pupils enormous, her chin resting on two upturned fists in the most girlish pose of enthusiasm she could imagine. Her eyes watered.

"Are you… okay?"

Nora didn't even blink, her head only bobbing. "Mhmm…!"

Weiss shook her head. "Thank you… for looking out for him."

They touched down on a secluded dock before the bright city lights.

"There's supposed to be a storm coming tonight," Weiss said, checking her scroll. "Plan accordingly."

Yang took Krillin's hand. "Ah, whatevs. Blake, you and Sun want to do some clubbin'? I know a place. Neo?"

The diminutive deviant shrugged, pink shards turning over as she disguised herself as a mousy girl with brown hair and green eyes.

"With a two-mile tether, what else does she do?" Ren asked, smiling.

"I can't believe you snuck her out, Yang," Blake laughed.

"I can't believe this worked without giving her an aneurysm or something," Weiss said. "But apparently hitching a ride on a flying person counts as transportation in her…" Weiss' finger twirled as she sought the right word, "...programming. Also, what if the club tries to ID her?"

Yang smiled. "No worries, this place won't. I've got an… in with the owner."

'That was before,

But not anymore…

I've left it behind…'

"You want me to renew a license… from an inaccessible server in a Kingdom in lockdown, or NIX half our music 'til we can?"

A bear of a man at nearly seven feet tall, Hei Xiong Junior stormed out of his office, scroll at his ear as he stomped along the upper floor, down the ramps towards the long bar.

'As much as I lost…

Once I'm across I'll find…'

"Atlas pulled their people right down to the embassy, but they're still in Vale nickel-n'-diming me over a jumped-up jukebox. What a grift…"

Clean cut, the black-haired man with his goatee and chin-strap beard flicked on his signature red sunglasses, confidently sidling past dancers. His black vest, white dress shirt and red tie denoted professionalism, and he was, among all things, a professional.

Junior's was a monochrome wonderland of glass and sheer steel. Dark and trendy, white LED tubes marked every corner, every platform. He passed the Disk Jockey, wearing a black and red bear's head. Below was the centerpiece, the dance floor, composed of glowing tiles and flanked by six pillars of glass latticed in steel. It all sat below a rapidly spinning rig of studio lights, lasers and projectors, some of which beamed the serene and ghostly holograms of trees onto the floor. Virtually every feature in the club strobed between black, white and red in sync with the music.

"Yeah, it's one of yours playing now!" Junior huffed dangerously, holding the scroll to the air. "Here, take a good listen!"

'I've found the strength to grow to so much more…

A whisper to a roar…

No more crying…

It's time for me to soar!'

Several hooting clubbers lifted their own scrolls out like he'd started a vigil. He returned the scroll to his ear. "Go ahead, haul your lawyers out of Atlas and SUE ME!"

With a beep, he slid his scroll closed.

"CAPA, pain in the ass…"

He slid behind the bar on his way to—

"Strawberry Sunrise! Two! No ice, please!"

Junior froze mid-step. "Aw hell…"

"Don't forget the umbrella thing…" Yang said, before there was a 'fwiff' as a pink lace parasol opened between her and the bartender.

"Ha ha," Yang droned at Neo. "Smartass."

"Hey, that's bad luck!" Nora said, swinging by as she and Ren orbited each other in a fast step dance.

"She wants you to know the cocktail umbrellas are called paper parasols…" Ren considered. "...and cocktail umbrellas, as mentioned previously. Probably didn't need to say that..."

Junior strode his way over, past his black-suited, fedora-topped men. "Okay, what do you want, Blondie?"

"Uh… Strawberry Sunrise? I said that already."

"I knew it was too much to hope you got iced at Beacon…"

Yang set her right arm on the bar, plainly ceramic. "Someone gave it their best shot… How's it hanging?"

Junior turned his hips away from her immediate reach as he stared at the arm. He twirled a finger at the barkeep who immediately broke out a shaker and a pair of martini glasses and went to work. "Look, the Kingdom cracked down hard after Beacon, we leaned hard into the clean angle on this place. Booze and forgetting the world outside have been pretty popular pursuits, especially lately."

He sighed, as Krillin watched the exchange, his head barely over the bar. "So no, I don't know what happened at Beacon… No, I don't know any Atlesian spies… and no, I don't know who or what The Warriors are…"

"Junior, relax," Yang laughed, "just here with some friends to wind down."

He leaned in the bar, slipping his shades down. "You sure? Last guy who relaxed in front of you got his kneecaps shot out."

Yang's face fell, eyes flickering red before she crossed her arms, guarded. "That was… Look, I saw something that wasn't there. And he was part of the crew that took Beacon down. I didn't just cripple a guy I already…"

"Huh?" Krillin asked. "Crippled?"

"His legs are metal anyway, don't worry about it."

"Uh huh," Junior muttered. "Look, just don't wreck the place this time…"

"This time…?!"

The barkeep slid over a pair of drinks, separated layers of bright, shimmering yellow over deep, ruddy orange. A glittering dust sparkled in the light, vortices swirling. Single cherries were speared by the coveted parasols. Yang snatched hers and slipped over a chit wordlessly before she strode past Blake and Sun off to support the opposite wall.

Krillin reached up for his drink, just able to reach it.

"Need a step ladder?" Junior asked, absolutely huge next to him.

He didn't answer, only frowning as he walked after the blonde brawler. Only slightly taller, the mousy girl tapped Hush's tip against the lip of the bar.

"Seriously, we're carding entrants, right?!" Junior demanded, before Neo shimmered briefly back to her typical appearance, brow raised.

His eyes lingered on her bowler. "Oh… I remember you. It's still vermouth rosato, right?"

Neopolitan tipped her hat as she hopped up to sit on the bar.

Junior's eyes drooped. "Come on, patrons mope on that counter…"

Weiss and Jaune landed upon one of the myriad rooftops. Neath the moonlit city, dotted with golden flecks of light on every raised structure, they raced and vaulted across roads and alleys. It had always been viable given their abilities, but since awakening, the gaps were practically cleared between strides.

"Come on, over the highway!" Weiss called, diving off the edge of the next building as her glyphs formed a slide, arcing low to high and launching herself above the raised road, sides guarded by hard light barriers as traffic buzzed along.

Jaune cracked the roof as he followed, leaping over as Weiss was caught ahead by a path of glyphs that parlayed her momentum into a corkscrew. Another path spawned to catch Jaune as Weiss slid along on her heels… backwards, laughing as she watched him wobble on contact with the spectral surface and mimic her.

Their glyph paths wove down alleys, around trees. One bright eyed child fell back onto her bed as they slid past her window, blinking as she wondered at what she'd seen.

They reached the river, and Weiss' glyphs angled down to the water surface. Jaune's stance dug in as they traced over the dark waters. Weiss closed the distance between their paths, standing straight, holding out her hand. He blinked, and took it.

Their glyphs turned red, boosting their speed as they approached the other bank and pitched up. Jaune's eyes widened as Weiss' grip tightened, and their ascending glyphs angled towards each other as they orbited. Their momentum kept them upright as the glyphs twisted, linked by their hands and staring up at the other as they spiraled over the next buildings like a DNA double helix.

At the end of their climb, the glyphs ended, and they fell freely towards a vast building over four stories tall. Baroque architecture dominated this opulent white monument, arches dominating its ground floor and columns taking regency on the middle two, capped with a copper dome skylight long turned green with age. Its corners jutted out, topped with golden Grimm gargoyles.

They clapped down, hand-in-hand. She didn't miss a beat, pulling him along to the edge of the dome.

"Welcome to the Grain House," Weiss said, peering down into the entrance hall, glowing warm with gold leaf and velvet, heavily ornamental. A vast marble staircase raised to the second floor entrance to the theater, and branched off both ways to the third. "Premiere opera house in the Kingdom. I used to come up here for a bit of privacy and culture."

"Up here? You didn't just… y'know… do it the legitimate way?"

They could already hear gorgeous music wafting up from the unseen theater as the aroma of sweet pies might from a bakery.

"Well, I had a monthly allowance, but these shows are expensive. And… I get recognized, particularly in these circles. There are seats that allow for privacy, but those are even more expensive."

He chuckled, leaning against the copper lattice. "I know we had time after classes, but you came up here that often? This is a ways from Beacon."

She smiled. "The first term, I was… not overly enthused by my partner and team arrangements. I tried to keep the peace with Ruby, and Yang only reinforced her most immature behaviors. At least, that's what I saw at the time…"

She motioned him to come along, where they found a roof access door, and stepped into the dark where the music blasted out from within the theater itself. They stepped upon the catwalk where every bit of rigging for lights had been suspended, dusty and dark as the outer door shut.

Weiss put a finger to her lips as she raced quietly down and away from the stage. Another door led up a short flight to a musty, neglected store room, like an attic, set above the length of the auditorium. A circular impression in the floor was actually the base for a massive, ornate chandelier hung into the theater over the gap between the audience and the stage. It clearly weighed thousands of pounds, the load distributed by four cables spooled from near the ceiling and anchored on the floor past the circle.

"You certainly know your way around," Jaune noted, sitting on the lip of the impression.

"I felt a pressing need for space," she said, joining him. "It helped me clear my head, and… there was a particular opera that resonated with me. 'Doyenne Jubilant.' I don't have the playbill right in front of me, but…"

She cleared her throat, peering down the gaps to the theater below, barely glimpsing bits of the stage and performers.

"A marchioness falls through the waters of an enchanted oasis to a beautiful frozen world. She becomes too enamored of this place, and while she explores, the oasis is dried up by the desert. She can't return, at least, not for a long time."

Jaune nodded. "The whole oasis dried up?"

"It's an older mythology, realism isn't the point," she giggled. "The marchioness meets two sisters of wind and cold fire. They seem hopeless, nonserious. She helps them come together, and bonds with them, joining them, becoming a sister of thunder and completing the imbalance between worlds."

"There was an imbalance?"

"It's a four-hour opera, I'm very much skimming the details... But… I think I misunderstood the story. Thinking back, I think the sisters were fine, for the most part. I think they changed her to be more kind, less… severe. More open to being… nonserious. I guess it means more now than it did then."

They were quiet for a while, just listening to the music. She leaned her head against his shoulder. Then, he froze, as she took his hand.

He was reminded of another time, when someone else leaned upon him like this…

Krillin strolled up to Yang, idly glimpsing Neo as she balanced upon the railing of an upper balcony. She was watched from below by an aloof pair of young, black-haired girls with green eyes, identical but for their dresses of white and red. They were wary of the slight assassin, awaiting any sudden breach of decorum.

"So, uh… You alright?" Krillin asked, as Yang refused to meet his eye, drink idly rolling in her fingers.

"Yeah, I…" She paused, eyes shut as she sighed. "At the Tournament, our team made it to the Finals. I was picked to fight. What none of us knew was Cinder and her little chronies set us up. They wanted to make Atlas and Vale look untrustworthy."

"Set you up?"

"No… We were pawns. Mercury fought me, and I guess he took a fall… Y'know… lost on purpose, which burns me even more." Her grip tightened, and in one motion, she tipped the drink back in three gulps. "And when I walked away, I heard him threaten me, turned, and he attacked. I stopped his charge, but then… everyone started acting like I'd hit him out of nowhere. Guards stormed up with guns on me, and the jerk was acting confused and innocent. I looked at the replay screen… It showed him walking up to me to offer a handshake… and me twisting to shoot him in the leg."

Krillin blinked, frowning as he nearly let his own drink tilt too far, steadying it. "That doesn't make any sense. What happened?!"

"I found out recently," she said, eyes turning red. "Ruby and Weiss told me, after fighting Emerald. What everyone else saw was real. Emerald was in the crowd, using her semblance on me. She can make you see things that aren't there, illusions only you can see. They wanted it to look like Beacon students were taught to be brutal. Worse, I was just the warm-up act. They pulled the same thing to make Pyrrha use too much force on Penny… Then everything went straight to hell."

"And even you weren't sure what actually happened?" Krillin asked, his jaw slacking. "That… Wow, that's so… unjust…"

Yang huffed. "Even Blake wasn't sure I hadn't done it on purpose. My own friends… I thought I was going insane! And even after all this time, even knowing the truth…"

She sighed, face in her hands as she slid to the floor. "Ironwood was right. Doesn't matter what the truth is, people already made up their minds. Jerk-asses like him are gonna judge me for this my whole life."

"Hey hey hey," Krillin soothed, sliding down next to her. "People will know that's not you after all this is done with, won't they?"

Yang snorted. "No offense, man, but you don't set a great example of that with the whole unsung protectors bit. Look, I'll be fine, it just sucks. Even a year later, Kingdoms rise and fall, and there's still someone ready to throw that in my face."

"Yeah, well… there's always some clueless busybody." He wasn't sure what else to say, though his mind wandered. "So why'd you wreck this place? You clearly have history here."

"Oh," she laughed. "I'd heard Junior knew everything that happened in Vale. I figured I had to come on strong if he knew anything about Mom. Plus, I think I was kind of hoping it'd turn into a fight… Hey, you gonna drink that? I order without ice, so it's not gonna be cold long. It's not alcoholic."

He'd nearly forgotten his Strawberry Sunrise, merely holding it almost automatically. He took a sip, eyes widening in surprise.

"Like a shot of cold sunshine… What's in this…?!"

She finally smiled. "A mixologist never reveals their secrets… 'Ceeeeept to the health inspector…"

Jaune and the once-heiress leaned into each other as the music lulled them into a state of peace. He didn't have the heart to tell her this wasn't exactly his thing, but with their hands held, he had plenty on his mind regardless.

Weiss sighed contentedly. "So glad they switched out Carlos for Chris for this role," she noted, as one number came towards its end, a tenor warbling melodically. "Amazing singer to be sure… but he always leaned into showing off his range, even at the expense of the emotion of his character… We know you can sing; use it to make us feel…"

Eventually, however, a beautiful, solemn piece began to play below. The orchestra had quieted.

Weiss drew herself upright, letting her chest expand.

"Periere… Speculum," she sang, matching the soprano echoing below, "Im 'omne quod manet… Frigidus est flamma… Vivit in cinere…"

Jaune watched in awe. He glanced up as the acoustics of the ceiling above, which led up a wide tube into a dusty skylight like they were at the bottom of a well, rang her voice throughout the entire space.

"Pueritia… finita est… Cor meum… est in domum suam." Eyes still shut, she clasped her hands over her heart. "Sorores… te amo… Solus… non…"

Jaune's eyes darted as Weiss' voice echoed off the walls a while after she finished.

"Oh," she chuckled. "I think they heard me."

Jaune nodded. "Yeah, I feel some people coming up here… Be too late."

"Even before we could move faster than they see, I was never caught," she said, bashful. "It started a rumor that the Grain House was haunted… by an 'Angel of Music.' "

She stood up, stifling her laughter… right below one of the cables anchoring the—

There was tinny twang of snaps as Myrtenaster, strapped to Weiss' waist, sheared through the steel fibers with ease. Like a gunshot, decades of dust bloomed off the spot where that cable had lingered for years past like a cartoon as it whipped into the air. There was a whir and brief mote of smoke as the cable zipped through the center spool.

Too late, Weiss and Jaune watched with morbid fascination as the enormous chandelier swung down towards the stage.

There were screams as the performers dove out of the path of destruction as the massive light keeper smashed into the stage to a terrific din of clinking and clattering. And thus, the chaos began.

Weiss slowly turned to meet Jaune's eye, her mouth and pupils as tiny as he'd ever seen.

"Nobody hurt?"

"No, but… I always wondered why you don't use a scabbard."

"Well… Blake doesn't either… I just…"

"...Forgot our training made every twitch of our muscles strong enough to flatten walls?"

"Uh huh…"

They heard shouting close-by as someone came to investigate, shoes pounding the catwalk outside.

"Score another for the phantom rumor…"

"Angel."

"We should run now…"

"Come on, you know martial arts, it's seriously no different, trust me," Yang said, shuffling opposite Krillin. "Just move to the rhythm, you can't do it wrong."

Krillin laughed awkwardly as he tried to alternate stances, staring at his feet as he struggled to position them.

"Oh my gosh, except like that!" Yang chuckled breathlessly. "Come on, watch…"

Blake watched as she danced beside Sun, slower, despite the prompt tick of the beat.

"Being amped like a power plant is cool," Sun said, "but I kinda miss gettin' a little winded and sweaty after some hard clubbin'."

Blake shrugged. "You could just… dance harder?"

"I think we'd melt the floor…" he said, before sighing. "Hey, c-can we get some air?"

Her ears twitched. "You have a bad drink? I… guess I wasn't sure about this place…"

"Nah, this… just doesn't feel right."

She followed as he stepped out of the automatic doors to the far more drab, industrial sights of Lang Center. He locked eyes with her, before he leapt to the roof, and again to across the next set buildings. They were already on the verge of the Agricultural Districts, specifically King's Lea. The buildings became significantly shorter as bedrock went deeper.

Sun stopped at the edge of a two-story barber shop, within sight of a wheat field shimmering with the lime glow of fireflies.

Blake lightly landed beside him, planting to hang her legs over. "Guess it's not always as easy as drinks, music and bright lights to forget all the problems out there."

"Hey, I get we're doing a lot out here, and I get we need to wind down, but I can't get Vacuo out of my head. You saw that creep… how he operates. There's no way people aren't dying every minute we spend out here."

Blake's ears fell back, nodding as her eyes softened. "I know it's…" But then her ears pricked, twisting left. "Wait… you hear that?"

He frowned, turning his head. "Yeah… Some kinda block party?"

She shook her head, noting the glow of fire on a nearby street corner. "No… more like… a rally?"

Without another word, she took off towards a street corner, standing at the roof's edge where a park sat at the opposite corner filled with people gathered around a tall bonfire. A pickup truck was parked dark against its glow to serve as a makeshift podium.

Sun groaned. "Somehow I'm betting this isn't a company cookout."

"Vigilantism is not a solution!" a woman, speaking through a bullhorn shouted, her caramel hair complimenting her gold hoop earrings and coke-bottle wire-rim spectacles. "Vale can take care of its OWN problems! We don't need Atlas robots or secret protectors! NO RESPONSIBILITY without ACCOUNTABILITY!"

"The Kingdom Huntsmen weren't making any progress!" a younger man in the crowd said. "Beacon was gonna sit behind the Cordon till doomsday if the Council had anything to say!"

"So we let anyone with the power walk all over us?!" the bullhorn woman demanded. "Does might make right?! Do we let these 'Warriors' handle ALL our problems? And when will the bill come due?!"

"Vale is always a doormat without a proper military!" another man in the crowd agreed. "Ironwood trampled all over us with his fleet! Those murdering drones had the run of the residential district!"

Sun shook his head. "That's gratitude for ya…"

Blake sighed. "Is it wrong to know they have a point… but also know that it's necessary?"

"Our way's the only way Frieza gets put out. We're not doing this for favors."

Another in the crowd cried out. "This is ridiculous! These people come from nowhere and solve Vale's biggest problem… We should be on our knees, thanking them! The city hasn't been this peaceful since the Fall!"

"So where were they in Mistral? Or Vacuo?!" a voice cried, straining with disdain.

The woman in spectacles was joined by a darker skinned woman in reddish earth tones and sea green hair, climbing onto the tailgate. She didn't surrender the bullhorn, but appeared to yield the floor.

"They come to save Vale from its problems well after the worst happens… but they let Mistral die?!"

Tears ran down her face as she went all the more hoarse with emotion. "Frieza's butchers pressed my sons into service. My wife is dead because of them…! I barely escaped with my own life… What are these Warriors doing while our Kingdom is ruled by that TYRANT?! Where are you?!"

Blake touched his shoulder. "Sun, let's go…"

But Sun's eyes watched, not angry, but as serious as she'd ever seen him. Implacable. He turned his head. "Those aren't all fireflies…"

He leapt over the street, vaulting off his staff and into the wheat field. Blake followed, dashing into the stalks, brushing past as she used Sun's white shirt as a guide.

She nearly ran into him as he stopped. "Sun?"

He didn't say anything, stepping forward several paces as they found a lit lot, leftover from a harvested crop and probably donated by the land owners.

Tents, dozens of them, flapping in the night breeze. Some were clearly hand-made, old, stained permanently by the copper sands of the desert. Others were identical dome-shaped green relief tents, gifted by the Kingdom. Voices murmured all around as they walked between the main 'street' between this row of tents. People were cooking outside, the happiest by far being those with children. Of course, happiness was relative.

Some were watching portable television screens. The few children about seemed to tug their robes and jackets closer in the crisp sea air. Interspersed with the Vacuans were meager handfuls of lost-looking Mistrali.

"It's… a refugee camp," Blake breathed. "I heard this on the news. Little Hana… Or… that's what it was called when it was just Mistral survivors showing up."

Sun noticed them getting questionable looks. It was clear the people living here weren't fond of being a spectacle.

"And these are the ones who made it out," Sun said quietly. "Who knows how many went down along the way…"

Blake watched him. His arm was taut, nails digging into his palms. Her hands found his.

"Sun… let's get out of here."

He didn't answer, his face dipping as he shook. As if on cue, droplets of rain began to patter irregularly, distant thunder rumbling like the storm welling in the faunus boy.

"You're not the reason these people are here. You've done everything you can and more, we all have. Please, we can't make a scene."

He took her hand, nodding. They left the camp. They avoided the rally. They returned to the city, into the night… into the rain…

"Okay, that last screw… there!"

Ruby popped out one of Savant's collapsible blades, disassembling its segments.

"Always keep a tray or something for the little parts… and never forget how it goes together. Take pictures and stuff if you have to."

She and Gohan were huddled around a bench in the cellar, neath a small hanging lamp. She grabbed a blue and yellow spray can.

"We have this stuff on Remnant, WatchDog-39… Don't know what they've got on Earth," she said, spraying the internals and gaps, which steadily bled dirty black trails as grime was forced up. She mopped up the grime and excess with a paper towel. "It's pretty awesome… Gets the dirt out, stops rust, lubricates… It's just good for your gear in general. You can do a basic clean now and then, but it's never really clean 'til you take it apart."

"I had a sword, but nothing with so many parts," Gohan told her. "It was pretty simple."

"Hey, simple can be good! More moving parts means more ways it can fail. But the fewer tools you need that can do more, the less you carry, the faster you can fight. That said…"

She looked over to the neatly disassembled scythe on the other bench, in dozens upon dozens of pieces.

"...I definitely went flashier when designing my boo… I have to deep clean more often so the sliding parts don't jam. Worth it…" She set the soaked whetstone into its base, and began sharpening one of Savant's blade segments. "Alright, like this… the angle is important… Take care of your weapon, and it'll take care of you! Now you try… This'll take a while. You have a buncha' blades…"

He followed her directions, gently sharpening one of the pieces.

"Good, that's right…" She sighed, smiling. "So… I got to meet the famous Mister Piccolo! He was… intense…"

The boy chuckled, switching to the other side of the blade. "Yeah… I wasn't really sure who to root for."

"Oh well, y'know…" she leaned over to whisper. "I'm a sucker for an underdog story… buuut, I'd be lying if I didn't feel that loss coming from the start."

"Aw, you weren't that bad. He's real quiet when he's in control of a fight… I think you ticked him off, so you were doing okay at least."

She couldn't help smiling. "Thanks… He's a rough customer, but… I like him. I can tell you mean a lot to him. That's good enough for me…"

He examined the segment, shiny and sharp. He set it aside and reached for the next. "I'm surprised you didn't try using your eyes."

Her face fell. "Well… I… It doesn't seem to work when I try to make it happen, and when it does…"

He paused, brows knit. "Ruby?"

"Can I be honest about something?" she asked, wincing.

He nodded, setting the blade down.

She sighed. "It… kinda… scares me. Every time it's happened, people have died… or… almost died."

"You didn't make that happen… You reacted to it."

She lifted her feet onto the stool, arms crossed on her knees. "I know… I'm scared of what I've felt every time it's happened. Like… I don't want to feel that. I feel so many things all at once… Hate… sorrow… guilt… Does it react to death? I've tried to call it back, but…"

He watched her carefully. "Maybe it's none of those things…? Maybe it happens when you really, really want to protect someone?"

She blinked, and smiled. "That's pretty smart, Gohan. Maybe you're right… It would sure make it easier. It's not that I haven't tried. I know we need that power. But it didn't even come when I was in the gravity chamber, half dead…"

He winced at the memory, paused.

"I… know what you're talking about, more than you think. I don't have a power like your eyes, but sometimes when I'm in real danger, or get really mad… I just… explode."

Her eyes widened. She had a distinct memory of Gohan booting Cinder off of her back at Haven. "I remember… You even overpowered Frieza for a short time. I've seen and felt things like adrenaline kicking in, but I don't think…"

He shook his head. "When the first Saiyan came, I'd never fought before. I didn't know how. He stole me, and even my Dad and Piccolo together weren't beating him. He started… hurting my Dad, and… all I could see was rage. I hit him harder than either of them had. That's what Piccolo told me, at least. He knew I had this… this strength within me."

Just to occupy himself, he grabbed another blade segment and started sharpening it. "But that power… It didn't show up when we needed it. Those guys you met… Tien, Chiaotzu, Yamcha… they all died before I found it in me to stop being afraid! It wasn't until Piccolo that… that…"

She wrapped an arm around his back, and squeezed. "You're just a kid, Gohan… All of this, it's so much to put on you, and it's not fair that you were in that position."

"Well, you're a kid too," he said, smirking. "But you're right… I never wanted to do this. I don't like fighting, not really. But I can help…! And it's getting better…"

Ruby smiled kindly. "Rather be home, with your mom? You miss her?"

He stopped sharpening, eyes downcast. "Y-yeah… I spent a year without her. I had the chance to go back, but I knew this was important. I'll be okay, but sometimes I do wish I could just talk to her… That things could go back to how they were." He looked up at her. "But these past weeks with you guys, training… it's almost felt like home."

She smiled wider, squeezing him tighter. He leaned his head into her.

"Ruby, can I ask you something…?"

"Mm? Of course."

"Why… haven't you said anything about bringing your mom back? You miss her too, right?"

Her face blanked, jaw slack. "I-I…"

He caught her distant gaze as she shrank. "I'm sorry, nevermind…"

"N-no," she croaked, swallowing. "I need… I need to open up more about this. I'm… Well… I guess the easy answer is it happened a long time ago. Back when I was very young. The same wish that brings everyone back from the past year… it wouldn't affect her."

He studied her face carefully. Yeah… You'd need a whole wish. What's… the not easy answer?"

She winced. "I c-can't get my hopes up, Gohan… If I make myself think she could come back, and she can't… I… I'd fall apart. I wouldn't survive it… It would be losing her all over again."

He turned the stool to face her.

"I-I didn't have time to realize what happened to Dad. Mister Piccolo told me, but said he'd be back. I never really let it in." He looked past her, a choke in his voice. "I-I can't imagine if he… or if my Mom…" His eyes brimmed. And then, they overflowed. "And they were gone forever…"

"No, no, don't do that…" she cooed, as he buried his face in her chest. She hugged him. "No one should feel that. You don't deserve that. I hope you never know what that's like."

But she couldn't help the wetness in her own eyes. It meant so much to her that he would even try to understand…

"Y-you shouldn't hurt alone," he said. "It's not fair. I want to help you…"

She rubbed a drop from her eye as she smiled. "You are… I wanna help you too."

Ruby backed off, taking his hands. "We'll keep each other safe. And if one of us loses control of this power we have, the other will guide them back."

She took one of Savant's segments in hand. "A blade has two sides." She flipped it, using the whetstone. "It's at its best when you keep both sharp…"

"Ahhhh, I missed this town," Nora said, lying flat in a nook neath the ledge of the library roof. "Even if the view's not as nice as before Beacon."

"You're sure this isn't too far for getting some air?" Ren asked, legs hanging over the ledge as the rain pattered below.

"Benefits of bein' able to fly… And sense people, that whole thing… B'sides, who doesn't love that wet-concrete smell? I love the rain…"

"And… leaving Neo with Krillin and Yang?"

Nora's mood darkened to a rain cloud unto itself. He noticed.

"Nora?"

"She can't leave two miles from where we leave her, what are you worried about Tiny for? She's got her own umbrella…"

Ren watched her carefully. "Neopolitan is frequently drawn to chaos. I worry she'll be… tempted."

Nora turned onto her side, staring out into the rolling skyline. "Yeah, no kidding…"

"Nora…"

"Ren…"

"Jealousy is beneath you. It's not necessary. I don't see her that way."

"Why not?" Nora asked, snapping around suddenly… so suddenly she slipped off the ledge and onto the roof, before blinking and rushing to sit on the lip next to him. "I mean… Don't guys like bad girls? I'm not bad, I'm not even drawn that way, I'm just… goofy, ditzy, club-a-sucker Nora…"

She sulked, as he examined her carefully.

"I just… don't deserve you," she said, before side-eying a distant post office. "And neither does she. Look at me, I'm jealous and moody, just 'cause some hot tamale with an umbrella… sword… thing… A-and now it's gonna look like I'm fishing for compliments and reassurances, and you'll totally indulge me, 'cause you're too damn sweet, so don't you dare… dare… And…"

But he just smiled. "No compliments then… just the facts. I'm not attracted to Neo."

"Oh, sure…"

"Well… maybe I would have been, but then my semblance changed. Neo's feelings are… complicated. She's affectionate… lonely. She's dealing with a loss she doesn't share readily. But… it's not Love."

He took her hand. She couldn't help but shiver, glancing over into his sparkling fuschia…

"I know what Love looks like. I wish you could see as I see…"

Nora blinked, again and again, and couldn't help but smile. With a relaxed breath, she leaned against him.

"Oughta crush some ice, chop you up, and shove you in a blender… you old smoothie…"

Jaune and Weiss laughed as they landed in the street a block away from the Grain House. She slipped on the rain-soaked sidewalk, only to be caught under her arms as she leaned against his breastplate.

"Ugh… these heels!" she giggled, regaining her footing. "Even with wedges, sometimes…"

"You're having an eventful night," he said, turning back to the opera house.

"I can't believe I did that…" she sighed. "I think that's my last free performance. They're definitely going to install security cameras up there after that."

"Well, at least it was a smashing performance…"

She went pink. "Oh please don't. I heard quite enough of that today." She conjured a glyph above them to shield from the rain… just as he formed a transparent dome to the same effect.

"Oh!" Jaune said. "Sorry, I'll…"

"No, go ahead."

"No, it won't work, mine can't move," and they tire me out the more I make.

She snorted. "My glyphs can't move either… Rotate, maybe. And I can nudge them along, I suppose. But I can make a lot of them, especially now…"

"Well, except for when you're on something that's moving, like a train, or…"

She blinked, brows rising. "That's… a good point… Why is that? Am I imagining that as a limitation? I never saw Winter or Mother do it…"

"It must be relative somehow. It can't be fixed, absolute points in the Universe, because Remnant spins, rotates around the Sun, and Luum orbits the Pinwheel Galaxy… Your glyphs would spin away at thousands of miles per hour every time you made them."

"Another good point…" Weiss conceded, concentrating on the glyph above them. "I can't believe I used to think you were an idiot…"

Jaune blinked. "You… thought I was an…?!" He stalled in his show of offense, before his brain spun and churned with memories. "Okay, I can't even pretend… I was throwing everything to the wall, flailing to belong somewhere I was sure I didn't."

"I had the same fear… My father's words constantly gnawed at me… and his faults poisoned me for a long time… But I think we both…"

Her eyes brightened, and she let out a gasp as her glyph began to gently drift from its place. She smiled, like a child with a balloon. She turned her eyes on him.

"...We both realized we could grow."

She offered her arm, and he linked with it, as they strolled down the waterfront as the rain pattered on windows and parked cars, and the gentle Ambroise rippled.

She stared up at the glyph. "...Okay, it takes specific concentration, but the 'nudging' has a bit more distance…"

Only a handful of people were out and about at this time in the rain. But one of them across the street froze.

"Jaune? Jauney-boy? Schnee?" a familiar voice called out.

"Is… that?" Jaune whispered, not even looking yet.

"Cardin Winchester…?" Weiss said in surprise, as the bruiser of a man approached, a hand on his hip.

"I don't believe it!" Cardin said, a wry smile overtaking him. "Last I heard, the rumor was you and your crew went to Mistral… After what happened, I kinda figured…" he winced, not quite looking at them. "Y'know…"

Shaking off his surprise, Jaune gave an almost imperceptible huff. "Or rather, you hoped…"

"What?! Whoa, Jaune with the dark jokes! Seriously… it's good to know you made it out. Liking the new look… You too, Schnee. I heard you'd been spirited back to Atlas."

Jaune and Weiss frowned at each other, lost for words.

"Thank… you… Cardin," Weiss muttered. "Are you… feeling okay?"

Cardin blinked. "Sure. I'm supposed to back the cops up at the old opera house about some… chandelier? But frankly Goodwitch is just giving us stuff to do now the Grimm are gone from the school. I can spare a few minutes."

Weiss blushed as Jaune finally sighed.

"Okay, what's the deal? Why are you acting so… not you?"

"Not me?"

Jaune's teeth ground, and he took a menacing step forward, cracking the ground and causing the river nearby to ripple out with white chop. A few parked cars nearby shrieked as their alarms went off, suspension creaking. Even the nearby streetlamps flickered.

"We ALL know you're wracking your caveman brain… for some awful crack you can make about Pyrrha…" He grabbed Cardin by the shoulders and spun him around to back him over the river railing. "So quit while you're ahead, before we see how well you swim in full plate armor…"

"Jaune, wait…!" Weiss said, looking every direction for witnesses.

Cardin's jaw went slack as he felt the railing bend against his back and noticed every other feat of his fury. "It's you… isn't it? And the others… I knew I heard those weapons over the Cordon. I don't get how, but…you're the Warriors in the Woods…"

Jaune let him go in surprise, backing off as he recognized his error. Weiss sought his eye, lost as to what she could say.

Cardin frowned a moment, before his face fell. "We really haven't talked much since Forever Fall… have we?"

"Of course not," Jaune said. "You're…"

Cardin sighed. "A thug? A lout? A lazy, faunus-hating… You get the idea."

"I…" Jaune just blinked. "That's oddly… introspective of you."

"I'm such an idiot," Cardin groaned. "Of course that's what you'd think." He took a breath. "Pyrrha Nikos was a damn hero… She went down fighting for Beacon. For you. Even chumps like the rest of us. Nobody's got a right to say a word against her."

When Jaune couldn't do more than frown, he laughed.

"Wow, you really don't know how that day changed things, do you?" he asked, crossing his arms. "So there I was, flat on my ass, while this fraud who faked his way into Beacon beheads an Ursa Major. This weedy little dork with no training nuts-up and squares off with certain death… to save my bacon. He's got no reason to do it. I'd just as soon have thrown him at it and ran, if our places were switched."

Weiss winced as she tried to follow. "And you felt…"

"...Like I needed to rethink my life? Yeah," he said. "You could say that. I was a legacy entry, basically guaranteed a spot. I didn't earn my place either. But it was you doing all my work, and you being the big damn hero. So what the hell was I here for?!"

Jaune and Weiss just stared at each other in bursts as they listened.

"And then Oobleck gave me remedial classes and point-blank asked me the same thing! Why did I want to be a Huntsman…?"

Memory bristled in Weiss… A night awake in her sleeping bag under the stars, around a crackling campfire… just wondering if she was there for the right reasons…

"When I didn't have an answer, I thought he was gonna drum me out," Cardin laughed. "But… Instead he started giving me extra readings. He seemed almost happier that I didn't have an answer than give him a bad one."

"Readings?" Jaune asked.

"About all sorts of stuff. Mostly… smaller stories. About people, who stepped up, and died to keep everything spinning. Or fought like hell to keep us away from the tipping point, because it feels like we're always closer to going extinct than it looks. Even… 'those dumb animals' treated like cattle or hunted for sport."

It struck Jaune how much… contempt he felt behind the last half of that sentence. Like Cardin had legitimately never known this part of faunus history. Prejudice, borne of ignorance… Ignorance, since rectified.

He gave a huff of laughter, staring idly at the floor. "I think that one really sank in after Velvet floored me without that hard light weapon of hers. Put me in my place expeditiously. Smart girl…"

"Wow, Cardin… I…"

He braced his mace against his own shoulder. "Don't worry about it, just glad to clear the air. I gotta take care a' this thing now, but can I ask… what's the secret?" He smirked, like he already knew he wouldn't get an answer.

Jaune blinked. Then he gave his own smirk. "Oh, training from descendents of humanity from other worlds… Learning to consciously lower your Aura shield and make full use of your life energy… followed by regular sessions sparring under enhanced gravity."

His brows lifted into his sleek hair. "I… can't tell if you're messing with me…"

"Exactly."

"Fair enough," Cardin laughed, shaking his head, and turning. "I'd say stay outta trouble, but… I think that's the last thing the world needs. So… good hunting."

"You too," Jaune said, unable to keep the grin off his own face. "Keep an ear to the ground. We're gonna need everyone doing their part before this is over."

Cardin walked away, offering a solemn nod. "You're damn right…"

"No I wasn't gonna 'let you at 'em,' Neo," Yang droned as they found themselves within sight of the house. "I'm trying not to have a trash rep? You were baiting the twins and you know it."

The tiny terror made a shrugging motion, as if to express, "Pff… duh."

"Yeah, figured you were on that nefarious timing…"

"You sure Blake and Sun are alright?" Nora asked, turning to peer towards the city and their distinct energy signatures. "They kinda left without saying anything…"

"Mmm… they didn't have to," Ren said, ponderously, "Sun is… dealing with some things."

Nora froze as she saw the Barracks… and the shape of Weiss and Jaune entering. Ren froze in response as Neo walked off, with Yang and Krillin heading closer to the house to bid farewell for the night.

"Nora," Ren sighed, "must you?"

"Uh… yeeees!"

Weiss and Jaune paused near her room on the left side of the barracks.

"Tonight was really fun," Jaune told her. "Hopefully it's not always derailed by a run-in with an old schoolmate…"

Weiss smiled, trying to keep her breathing steady. "Well if they're that pleasant… So… I'd like to show you something… Could you step in for a few minutes?"

Jaune blinked. "Oh, uh… sure?"

Weiss' lips squeezed as she reached for her doorknob, opening it and letting him inside. She closed and locked the door behind them.

"So, uh… what did you…?"

"Oh, it'll be a few minutes," Weiss told him. "Is it okay if I shower really quickly? I feel a bit sticky…"

He frowned slightly, but chuckled. "I… sure? Should I wait outsi—"

"No no, you're fine, just sit down and relax," she said, already halfway through the bathroom door, "I'll be quick, just rinsing off…"

She shut the door, leaving Jaune to his own thoughts as he heard the muffled hiss of the shower. He stared around her room, spartan as it was. A calendar of glamor shots of Atlas was neatly arranged beside stationary at the writing desk, with the current date circled in light blue by her impeccable penmanship. Apart from that, Myrtenaster's case sat open at the other corner, the rapier's shape perfectly carved into the foam interior.

He supposed she'd had few effects to carry with her, and fewer opportunities to accrue others. It was nearly as bare as his own room.

Though, stapled to the calendar —likely on the relevant date— was the stub to 'Demon of the Deep.' He felt an immediate surge of affection that she hadn't just thrown it away…

Sooner than he expected, the squeal of the shower valve shutting preceded the end of the hiss. He could hear the shower door clatter. A minute later, the bathroom door opened in the quiet with the clarity of a klaxon.

He blinked, and shook his head, eyes widening as Weiss emerged. Her hair was down, not dripping but damp. She was wrapped tightly in a white towel, glistening, but like her hair, not sodden.

"Um… Good shower…?" he asked, looking away. "Having serious Neo flashbacks here."

"Hm?" Weiss asked, brows quirked. "Neo did what?"

"She was… uh… cavalier about clothes when we were in her room."

"Oh, I'm not," Weiss said, planting down next to him at the foot of her bed. "I'd only do that with someone I was very comfortable with…"

It was almost imperceptible, but she very slowly leaned into him. His eyes raced from spot to spot, anywhere but…

"So, you… had something to show me…?"

She laughed breathlessly. "I do…"

He felt her soft, small hand under his chin, turning his head towards her—

Warmth… Warmth, and the scent of apples against his lips… The puff of air over his philtrum. He stared into her shut eyes, as her lips parted further for a deeper draw of his own.

And then she pulled back, staring back at him, her cheeks pleasantly pink. She leaned in, chin on his shoulder as her arms wrapped around him. Her lips were at his ear. He heard her tongue forming every vowel…

"I wanted to show what you mean to me…"

He was floored as her arm found his neck, and she gently guided him over and on top of her as she leaned back. His heart was thumping in his ears as he acted automatically, acting on desires he had buried a year prior. His hands were all over her… His weight pressed down onto her, as his lips tousled with hers.

Those lips, warm and inviting and—

Memory flashed in his eyes again… of another set of lips against his…

Jaune wrenched himself away, pushed himself up, shaking. Tears streamed down his face as he loomed over Weiss, frozen in shock.

"Jaune…?"

"I'm sorry," he croaked, pushing off and standing back up as she sat up in alarm. "I-I'm sorry, I can't. We can't… I…"

"Jaune, what… What's wrong?" Since loosened, she tightened up the tie on her towel and stood up as he backed towards the door.

Without a word, hand over his mouth, he fumbled with the locked door before finding the latch and stumbling out into the hall.

"Wait…!"

Weiss weighed the possibility of being caught out in only her towel for only a heartbeat before chasing after him as lightly as possible.

"Jaune, talk to me!" she whisper-yelled, eyes on his back as he hurried down the hall to his door, uncaring of the doors they passed.

"I-it's not your fault, I just… I'm sorry!" Jaune choked, before swiftly entering his room and shutting it on her. She put a hand on the door, her breath quickening. How had it all gone so wrong?

"Please…! I don't understand," she said through the crack. "Jaune…!"

But he wouldn't answer. He wouldn't move, however she pleaded. Eventually, she returned sulking to her room. She shut the door. She collapsed onto the lonely bed. She snatched her pillow, clutched it tightly to her chest. She shook, and shuddered, as tears soaked the cotton.

At the end of the hall, peering through the door, Nora heard it all, right down to the doused darling's heartbroken sobs. She closed the door, back against the wall as she slumped down.

"God damn it, Jaune…"

"...And while no one was injured in the mysterious case of the chandelier," Lisa Lavender said, looking downright pleased to cover something more fluffy, "it would seem that the music of the night is over… for now."

Weiss cringed into her coffee at the appropriate living room table, but otherwise sat, immobile.

"Okay okay, it's like this!" Ruby said, coco in hand as she smiled, letting her eyes go blank.

"No no no," Yang laughed. "The smile's bigger than that, she looks right through you. Like this!"

Yang did as she said, peering into Ruby with a pleasant intensity.

"Eh, that's not it either," Ruby said, finally glancing over at a sofa-sunk, red-eyed Neo, not yet changed out of Ruby's old pajamas as she glared murder at all she surveyed.

"Neo, can you do your creepy face?"

Her eyes burned brown as they leered into her simple mug of water. Ruby's voice was too much right now…

Nonetheless, with a sigh and a shut of her eyes, she opened them to her trademark serene grin, as cocky as it was cold, still as the grave.

"Oh…!"

"Eurgh…!" Yang intoned with a shudder as they recoiled. "That's the one… Wow, even with the hangover… Slammed too much vermouth?"

The smile melted off Neo as she sipped, burning Yang to cinders with her side-eye.

"Aw, y'don't slam vermouth, that's sippin' stuff," Qrow said from the kitchen as the smell of bacon wafted through. "She's just so… petite, she can't handle too much."

Neo's cheeks inflated with a pout as her knees scooted closer to the rest of her body.

"Our next segment features Beacon Academy Professor Peter Port, an expert in all things Grimm and joint-announcer to the tragic Vytal Festival Tournament last year."

Lisa sat across from a wide old walrus of a man in a double-breasted, buttoned burgundy suite with gold trim. His gray, parted short hair was nothing to his thick mustache, and his eyes were largely unseen between his squeezed lids.

"Professor, there's been much ado about the Warriors, Vacuo and its alleged tyrant, but least discussed is the claim that a mass intelligence exists behind the Grimm with a will all its own. A will the Warriors' famous address refers to by the name 'Salem.' Grimm behavioral experts have confirmed incidents where local Grimm almost appear to possess a means of communication as yet undetectable, even under albeit brief MRI examinations of Grimm brains…"

"Ahhh, the Grimm have ALWAYS been enigmatic and inexplicable," Port Boomed. "I only have my own wealth of experiences to draw from," he said, fist to his chest, "and Grimm have exhibited behaviors ranging from pack mentality to rogue lone wolves, often literal. But while it is possible to surprise them, distract them, or otherwise confuse their senses… there are no records of Grimm infighting… and I have never seen a Grimm look lost…"

"Hey, Weiss, you okay?" Ruby asked.

"H-huh?" Weiss blinked, twisting.

"You barely touched your coffee," Ruby said, noting the virtually full, no longer steaming mug. "I've never seen you let a cup go to waste."

"R-right, I'm fine!" Weiss said, taking a suspiciously enthusiastic draw of her mug. "I just… had trouble sleeping last night."

Ruby frowned, blinking. Then, to Weiss' horror, she turned to Ren, who was watching from the kitchen table with a knowing gleam of sympathy.

"Yes," Ren said, stiffly. "Sleep is important."

Weiss could have kissed him… but then Nora would send her jaw to Cape Juon…

"Am I doing this right?" Bulma asked as she stirred a sizzling pan of omelet ingredients. "Uh… I always burn this stuff because I don't want worms!"

"Well the veggies won't give 'em to ya, so just get that beef nice and browned," Tai said, standing behind her and gently taking hold of her spatula. "Little faster…"

Bulma leaned her hips back into him, giggling. "Alright alright… I want to help, but I hope you're not training me up as your replacement."

"Nah, I like my own cooking too much… but the sheriff can use a deputy, right?"

"That's so cheesy!" Bulma laughed. "I see where Yang gets it."

"She learned from the best."

The back door opened as Raven strolled in, followed closely by the Saiyan Prince.

"Taiyang, I see your flirting method hasn't changed a bit," Raven said, smiling at the cooking pair.

"You can't improve what's already perfect, Ra'..."

Bulma's chest rose and fell in jolts as she stifled a laugh.

"Weiss," Vegeta called, firm, but absent his usual sharpness. "I'm collecting you for training before Kakarot rouses. It's time you truly honored my teaching."

Weiss blinked, avoiding Jaune's eye as she sought Vegeta's. "Y-yes sir. Right away then."

"Hmm." Vegeta's eyes lingered at the lack of backtalk, but ultimately turned and left as swiftly as he came. "Good."

Even the others digested it as Weiss stood up, curious enough to wonder, but not enough to ask.

Honestly… Weiss welcomed the chance to avoid the subject of last night. The three of them left the house, and followed as Vegeta took off into the distant skies.

Yang and Ruby looked at each other briefly, but ultimately there was little else to say.

Taiyang finished folding a few omelets, which were plated by Bulma, who ventured outside herself to find Blake and Sun, watching the sunrise, sky still patchy from the night's drizzle.

"Hey, broke a few eggs and made some omelets!" Bulma said brightly, sitting down as she distributed the plates. "Hey, look at us, the original Ménagerie à trois!"

Sun and Blake blinked, the latter's ears folding as their eyes went wide.

"I don't know about that name," Blake admitted, unable to keep the smile out of her voice.

"Oh whatever, you know what I mean… It's been a while since the three of us just talked, right? Couldn't have imagined all this after getting dropped in that sandtrap and running into you two. Not even after that White Fang base! Remember when Adam was the worst of our problems…?"

"It's some perspective, isn't it?" Blake muttered, politely forking a clump of the egg dish. "Back then, dealing with him and the White Fang… Ilia… it felt like it would never end. But… it all ended. So fast. Finding Yang, making up with the others…" she sighed, shutting her eyes with a smile. "So bleak as things seem, even walls that look like they'll stand forever can topple overnight."

Sun stared at his own omelet, nodding solemnly. Stoic and downcast, there was a sudden, slight glow of determination in his eyes.

"You alright, Sun?" Bulma asked. "I'm not used to seeing you so… still."

"Sun's…"

But he held his hand up, a grin forming as Blake paused.

"I'm just… motivated. Wanna get out there and knock those walls down, y'know?"

Bulma smiled. "Right on! Been working my own angle in that, I'm sure you've noticed. Wanna ride?"

Blake waggled her brows at Sun, finishing her omelet. Sun folded his own neatly and stuffed it in his mouth in one go.

A few washed plates later and Bulma was climbing into the pilot seat of the largely restored Manta Five-One. It had been repainted in a soft pastel yellow, a black, white and aquamarine stencil marking it with a layered "C," the Capsule Corp logo.

"Wish I could do more to really bring her up to Brief standards," Bulma noted, powering on the engines, "but without heavy equipment and a stocked garage, I can't exactly swap out the air frame. I've almost hybridized the power system. Neo and I are trying to make the Lance detachable so we're not constantly lugging it around when we don't need it."

As they strapped in, nothing less than the diminutive deviant stepped aboard, grabbing one of the ceiling handles.

"Speak of the diva," Bulma snarked, as Five-One steadily lifted. "Now you can fly faster than a speeding photon, let alone a speeding Bulma, doubt you kids'll be too impressed by this bird's moves, even with yours truly at the stick… but I'll still try to keep ya awake…"

With a few switches flicked and the throttle thus 'punched,' the Manta blasted out of the cabin's clearing with a shrouding plume of dust.

Indeed, as Neo lurched back, angled almost sideways as she clinged to the handle, Blake sank into the copilot seat as Sun gripped both sides of Bulma's seat.

"Respectable acceleration for a small hovering barge," Bulma surmised, cresting the trees and skimming them into the lake valley.

Blake looked at the low clouds and patches of fog with concern. "Feels like we should be higher with all this, but don't forget air travel is still restricted in Vale!"

"No worries, this baby has some tricks! Variable-range LIDAR imaging! Short and minimal spec, but it's meant not to be picked up easily."

She hit one of the console buttons, and a bright depth-map of the valley below appeared on the HUD. Indeed, the shrouded mountains, while returning a fuzzy image, appeared as serviceable approximations. Good enough to avoid flying into at least.

"Plus, as long as Neo's onboard, we have a perfect radar countermeasure!" Bulma said, winking back at Neo, whose feet were back on the floor. "She showed me; her semblance can deflect any electromagnetic signal better than the best absorbent material or stealth surface! I'd started brainstorming something of my own, but she was eager to show off…"

Unseen by Sun and Blake, Neo tipped her bowler with a slight bow.

Manta Five-One skimmed the lake, disturbing the surface and leaving a trail of spray behind them.

"It's been a bear fitting this thing, but thankfully Atlas had some forward thinkers," Bulma told them.

"How so?" Blake chuckled, following the conversational breadcrumb.

"Well, these things only have one landing leg in the front. If the power disconnects, there's a dedicated battery to power the Dust nacelles just enough to keep floating for long periods. There's clearly some kind of mounting clamps that hold them in place from above wherever they dock, but failing that, it means you can conduct field repairs without the ship damaging its dorsal side."

The afterburners belched with a snap as she lifted them on a wide path around the next hill. The barrier flashed green as they passed it.

"It made my power changes a lot easier anyway."

"You add any new bells and thistles?" Sun asked.

"Whistles…" Blake droned.

"Or those," Sun agreed, as they were forced to lean with the lateral G-forces.

Bulma groaned as she traced a river on its tight, winding path through the trees. "Not like I'd hoped. First issue is the weapon system. It's just missiles, apart from the bay turrets. This variant seems like it's just a dropship with defense capability, no primary weapon. Adding one is going to take some work. Obviously I need to give it some seats… sorry, Sun... More than anything I had to tweak i-i-its… guardrails!" she said with a grunt, just edging around a tight rocky bend.

"Guardrails?" Sun asked, peering around the cargo bay as Blake tightened her grip on the seat as her eyes widened.

"User guardrails," Bulma clarified. "Metaphorical. They keep these things so stiff! Sure, it can hover and strafe a bit, but inversions? Ailerons? The maneuverability is so limited, it's like flying a literal boat… I guess they didn't want to risk confusing the autopilot or yanking the nacelles back into even alignment during correction and recalibration, because they did everything they could to minimize the wing and tail having deviations."

"So you…?"

Bulma grinned. "Turned them all off… Well, I bolted on an override switch at least…"

Blake gasped at a seemingly suicidal burst of the jets before Bulma flipped the override. Five-One suddenly tilted to the side and away from the looming cliff face as its jets angled to one side. She flipped the switch on and off, enabling and disabling the guardrails enough to let the ship bank and drift as Bulma zipped it through tight clearances at speeds far beyond its spec.

One sharp curve found them cornered towards a thundering waterfall, before Bulma pitched the ship vertically, casually flicking on the forward deflectors in their blue honeycomb pattern.

"I don't fully trust their autopilot system, plus it's very feature-limited without CCT connectivity anyway. Until I can edit it or make my own, I'll still need to be careful. But it's compiled by some proprietary software I don't have."

The water was mesmerizing and chaotic as it hammered itself over the climbing ship until it burst over the top, mists scattered in a rainbow as they arched over the high cliffs.

"Oh!"

"Dang!"

They were greeted by a fluttering of vast wings, followed by staring red eyes and a cacophony of rasping screeches.

Nevermore, three of them. Not among the most massive of their kind, but easily on par with the Manta. Their beaks snapped as they stood upon their cliffside roost, heads twitching to eye the ship. Their huge feathers ruffled and curled before they beat their wings, hopping lightly to face them.

The ship passed over them as Bulma pitched low, flipping another switch.

"Dogfight radar… Yep, definitely chasing us."

Neo clapped her hands as she peered in at the screen. She mimed grabbing the bay turrets and the recoil of firing.

"Nah, I can handle it… Hold tight, lowering the loading ramp!"

Indeed, there was a hydraulic hiss as the rear hatch opened the sealed environment to the air outside. The enormous corvids were barely a hundred feet behind them, screeching as they glimpsed the prize within their mechanical quarry.

"You know they have a ranged attack, right?" Blake asked, reaching for Gambol Shroud in anticipation.

"Pretty sure they have to stall to do that?" Sun said. "They don't want to lose us."

"Oh, they won't," Bulma said, grinning. "Brace yourselves! Airbrake-check!"

Bulma triggered the flaps, slats and control surfaces. The engine cut out, and the reverse thrusters fired at full power, jolting Five-One to such a slow speed that the middle Grimm's head plowed through the open hatch.

"SKRRRRRRRRRHHH…! SKRUUUUUURH!"

The Nevermore's head twitched frantically as it screeched and struggled, stuffed halfway through the steel choke point. It panicked as its feet scrabbled against the dorsal side of the ship, huge feathers ruffled as it tried to pull itself out.

Bulma and Sun's eyes were huge as they watched. So fixated were they, that they jumped at the rumble and sizzling of a missile screaming towards one of the other two Grimm that raced past the ship. At the end of the smoke trail, the leftmost bird vanished in a blazing orange burst that echoed across the hills.

"First stamp for the fuselage!" Bulma cheered, ignoring the shrieking beast in the back. "How about a hat trick?!"

She pulled the stick and drifted right, nearly on course for the last free Nevermore to pursue them as she put on a burst of speed.

Blake watched, bemused as Neo taunted the trapped Nevermore with Hush, its beak snapping as it missed repeatedly.

"Alright, hold tight again! Seriously!" Bulma cried as the final Grimm closed on them on the radar screen.

Neo grabbed the overhead handle just before Bulma flipped the override one last time… as the ship groaned against the wind when it twisted, side thrusters and control surfaces rotating it even as it sailed in the same straight direction. At last, the aerodynamics fighting their angle, they were floating at full speed… in reverse, as the last Nevermore came into view directly facing them.

The missile lock sang from the console as Bulma smirked. "Good tone! FOX-TWO!"

The Nevermore barely had a chance to flap against its momentum before it burst into a flaming debris field of feathers.

As they carried backwards, Bulma crossed her arms with pride. "I always wanted to say that…"

Blake and Sun looked at each other… then back at the trapped beast.

"Uh, what about the—?"

The bird gave one last screech as the green forcefield passed over them. The corvid had treated it as a solid wall, stripping the legs and wings in an instant while the main body was simply crushed. The effect was to pop the Grimm like a balloon full of smoke, which filled the cabin even as Bulma hit the forward engines to slow to a stop. None of them could see each other.

"Just like old times, huh?"

With Blake, Sun and Weiss all preoccupied, Goku had opted for a more freeform morning. And of course, time when Vegeta and Raven hadn't monopolized the gravity chamber was always time well spent, so Jaune, Ren and Nora acted accordingly.

But Oscar, Ruby and Yang were pairing off with Goku and Krillin by the lake. Oscar had paired with… himself.

Oscar finished a chain of attacks, prepping a heavy overhead swing of Long Memory. "RRRRRGH— Oogh!"

The air loudly left his lungs as Ozpin's twin stave thrust into his stomach.

"It can be easy to slip into theatrics," Ozpin told him, standing up straight, "but never forget that your enemy is likely as clever as you, and probing for openings and opportunities."

"R-right," Oscar coughed

"Such things are more appropriate when your opponent is already stunned from a prior hit… but a decisive move is generally preferable."

"I-Isn't that a little cowardly? Hitting them while they're down?"

"Perhaps amongst friends… Use your own discretion, of course, but our caliber of enemy are looking to take your life," Ozpin said, leaning on the staff with both hands, "and they're unlikely to consider things like honor, or fair play."

Yang shielded her head with her arms in a boxing stance as she skidded back along the shoreline. Krillin's assault pressed her as his fists sought an opening.

At last she kicked away, out of his reach, and her foot planted against a boulder as Krillin lunged her way. The pebbles of the shore rippled and sprayed as the boulder slid back, and Yang filtered seemingly out of reality before appearing behind him with a savage elbow to the back of his head.

He bounced face-first into the ground, stunned, as she stepped back with her palm to the sky.

"KIENZAN…!"

Yang strained as a golden sphere warped and stretched in her palm, wobbling and spinning as she compressed it.

Krillin blinked, on his back. "Whoa, HOLD ON!" he cried, as he flipped back onto his feet. "I didn't teach you that!"

Yang grunted as she tried to form the appropriate disc shape, but after it lost stability she changed tact and increased its speed, hoping centripetal force would stretch it out.

"No, TOO MUCH!"

Finally, the blast broke apart, splitting to spit a small mortar of miniature blasts in every direction like a sprinkler head.

Krillin ducked as Yang blasted the treeline, tore apart a knoll and fountained water in the lake like a casino water show. The sound was tremendous, and Yang's eyes went huge as she realized the gravity of what she'd caused.

"Uhhhh…"

"What the heck?!" Krillin asked, still stunned. "Don't aim the Kienzan at someone! Not someone you're not cool with losing!"

Yang blinked. "It's that bad?"

"It's for cutting people in half! It's not like any other energy blast, you can't scale it down! What possessed ya to try that?!"

She shrugged. "Imitation is the greatest form of flattery?"

He crossed his arms, grumbling. "Okay, well, yeah… flattered… Still pretty dangerous to try a technique without being taught." He paused for a moment, before sulking. "...Even if I did that with Roshi's Kamehameha… and even if I've seen Goku mimic other people's moves after seeing them once…"

Yang crossed her own arms, smirking. "Okay, mister do as I say, not as I do… So the Kienzan is more dangerous than someone coming at you with a sword? Because we do that all the time."

"Hey, when I came up with it, I was planning for the Saiyans, and they were like five to twenty times our strength when we were back on Earth. I wanted something that punched well above our weight."

She snorted, a hand on her hips. "Wouldn't you design every move for maximum damage?"

"Usually, but killing with bug-bites is an option too… You know how these fights go; stamina is a big element in winning, and you need attacks you can afford to miss with." He hopped onto the boulder she kicked earlier. "Anyway, I noticed when energy was thin and powerful that it had a piercing effect. But hey, you tried it; dense energy is hard to compress. I found a sweet spot though…"

Krillin held out his palm up and over their heads, a small ball whirring into being. "If you spin it, fast as you can while keeping its shape, the energy thins out on its own! And at a certain point, the effect cascades… I haven't found a thing it can't cut through…"

As she watched, the spinning sphere thinned out. It was a very small example, but she followed it closely.

"It's not a small deal to invoke a weapon like this… You still up for learning?"

She gave a hungry leer as the small disc vanished. "Is that a real question?"

Meanwhile, Ruby chased after Goku, whirling as he flashed back over the lake.

With a slight groan of frustration, she arched her arms behind her head as a crimson beach ball-sized sphere bloomed into being between her hands.

"Urrgh…!" Goku caught the sphere with both hands as she fired it, forced to drift backwards as he fought it.

"Gotcha!" Ruby pointed both arms to her sides as an appropriate pair of smaller blasts flared out… before turning in midair to aim for Goku's exposed sides.

His eyes went wide as the blasts merged with the larger ball like drops of water, instability coming in the form of white rays like searchlights over its surface as it wobbled more and more violently.

Ruby shielded her eyes against the scarlet nova that burst as it rattled the lake, droplets jumping in a vast ripple.

But then an airy, sucking noise accompanied a vibration of air above her, and the rough palm that was just before her fac—

"D'YAAAAAARG—"

The invisible force shunted her backwards into the lake, skirt and cape lifted and ruffling against the wind as her cry was cut off by the cold immersion of green water.

Goku watched the settling splash, twenty feet high, his eyes eager, his stance ready…

Ready for anything but what came next, as Ruby indeed burst from the deep, tearing the swells apart as she sped to shore, before stopping short, doubled over, clutching her gut. Her eyes bulged, and she groaned, looking downright blue in the face.

"Oogh…! That felt awful…!"

Goku's slackened as the middle of his brows rose in polite confusion. "Huh? I didn't hit ya that hard…"

Even Yang and Krillin couldn't help the spectacle as Ruby staggered forward, eyes huge as she strained to understand what had happened. She was soaked from head to toe.

Oscar and Ozpin had paused their duel. The boy cracked a smile at first. "I've heard of the splash zone, but… uh… Ruby?"

"Whoa, Rub', you swallow too much water?" Yang asked.

Ruby's pupils shrank. "Not with my mouth…"

Oscar balked. "What?"

Ruby's stomach audibly grumbled, only making the poor crimsonette paler. "Ughhh…"

Yang couldn't help silently shaking as she tried not to laugh at her sister's distress. "Y-y'know, Ruby… that's why they tell you to clench on the way down!"

Krillin and Oscar's matching frowns vanished suddenly as they understood. "Ohhh…"

"Dear…" Ozpin finished, shaking his head.

Ruby's gut sloshed again, and her eyes went huge as her cheeks flushed. She clapped a hand over her rear and vanished in a cloud of rose petals, practically leaving a trail of dust behind her as she sped towards the house.

"Sorry Weiss," Yang snickered. "I think we might have lost Ruby forever on bidets…"

Meanwhile, at the unsuspecting house…

Bulma sauntered down the bay ramp, Blake, Sun and Neo following as she checked the bottom of the ship.

"That buzzard caused some superficial damage, but she already had scrapes from the crash…"

But then the trees bowed aside as something crimson sped by. Bulma and Neo barely grabbed the sides of the ramp as the entire ship squealed, rotating slightly with the force as they heard a high pitched voice.

"I'm-not-gonna-make-it-I'm-not-gonna-make-it-I'm-not-gonna-make-it…!"

There was a crash of glass as petals swirled around the living room window.

"WHAT THE?!" Taiyang's voice echoed from inside.

"SORRY DAD!"

"RUBY! ANOTHER WINDOW?! Come BACK here…!"

"Wha…?" Sun asked.

"My advice?" Yang said, appearing seemingly from nowhere alongside Krillin and Goku. "Avoid the downstairs bathroom for a while."

Blake and Bulma grimaced at each other.

"Message received…"

Krillin sighed. "Guess I'll say hi to Jo'..."

Goku scratched his head. "Maybe tomorrow will be better for the big lesson…"

Weiss could scarcely believe they were sitting atop Mount Hindarsfjall —which she was certain was redundant given 'fjall' means 'mountain'— the tallest peak on Sanus, and a place few explorers had ever set foot given how dense the Grimm concentrations were this far inland.

Yet here she was, seated upon the icy granite, looking down on an endless expanse. If not for the pale blue mist at the horizon, and the scattered clouds far below, she almost swore she'd be able to glimpse both shores of the spit of land that made up the East part of Sanus.

And she wasn't alone. Raven was as much a student as she, sitting nearby as the Saiyan Prince stood at the cliff's edge, staring into the sky at the tip of an overhang. Always the flare for the dramatic.

"Behold!" Vegeta commanded, chin high as he was shrouded in a billowing purple flame, splitting stone as the force rippled from his boots. "This technique was forged by King Vegeta the First, since refined by a succession of Saiyan sovereignty, used by legends and elites… From Le' Ttuce of Plaht, to Zucchin, The Unbrined… The Galick Gun!"

He angled into a back stance, hand braced against the palm of the other as his aura flared in barely-controlled chaos, casting undulating shadows across the peak.

"FIRE!"

Vegeta split the wispy cirrus as the roiling, snaking beam thundered into the sky, similarly hued lightning coursing along its length. Bits of stone were carried off along its breadth, casting scattered shadows like black specks upon the white-hot beam.

As it carried off, aimless, casting violet across the land like a grand aurora, Vegeta turned to the pair. Stones clattered down like morning drizzle.

"You both will learn the technique, and honor my instruction thereby. I trust you can feel the makeup of its energy signature?"

Raven hummed. "Yes. It's remarkably alike to the Kamehameha…"

"Hmph… Perhaps to one not having experienced the other," Vegeta said, pacing around them. "But there are reasons for individual fighters possessing their own fashion of energy attacks. Each warrior's ki is different, and therefore optimized by a separate weight of subtleties. Emotion. Drive. All draw their strength from raw power, but to make the most of it, you amplify that power with passion!"

Weiss nodded. "So… your Galick Gun feeds off a certain attitude?"

Vegeta didn't answer immediately. "You don't associate Kakarot's general-purpose tortoise blast with anything? A particular feeling?"

Raven and Weiss considered, glancing at each other, before frowning to offer an answer in nearly the same beat.

"Resolve."

"Determination."

Their eyes met again, as Vegeta smirked. "Yes, I guessed as much. It makes sense, of course, given it looks to be a common first attempt at energy attacks. Naturally, a successful learner would be focused on the task, and funnel that focus into its identity. Then Kakarot refined it further still, imbuing his iron will as he shaped the Super variant."

A past conversation echoed in Weiss' heart. "Emotions can grant you strength… but you must never let them overpower you…"

"I understand, I think," Weiss said with a nod. "Otherwise, why bother having techniques beyond the same, ever more powerful balls and beams? I mean, apart from more complicated effects, and…"

"What fuels the Galick Gun?" Raven asked, drawing herself to full height.

Vegeta stopped, eyes narrowing into the sky. "Pride. To a true Saiyan, our warrior race is the pinnacle of Creation! Irrespective of origin, our potential is unlimited, our supremacy a birthright! It is our blood alone that can hope to bring down a freak like Frieza… And if you believe the tale of those divine toddlers, even your kind must possess some inkling of what forged our greatness…"

There was silence as Weiss watched the clouds, disrupted by the attack, sway and bend and carry along on distant air currents.

"Pride," Raven breathed. "You once told me it was more important as we diminish…"

Vegeta smirked. "Yes."

Raven took a breath, and stood before the precipice, mimicking Vegeta's posture and hand motions. Her bloody-red aura burst, seething as she shut her eyes.

The strongest Spring Maiden to ever live. She was the pride of Tribe Branwen. She was a mother to two perfect girls, by blood and by fate, both worthy to carry the name. And Frieza's head would be claimed by her blade…

"Galick Guuuuuun…!"

Her aura shimmered, flickered, and finally flared that same violet hue…

"FIRE!"

The resulting beam wasn't quite as vast or violent as that of the wayward Prince. The rippling lightning arcing across the core had retained the blood-red of its owner.

The sky groaned with the echo of the blast, like the distant rumble of jets as it faded away.

"Mmm." Vegeta nodded. "You've adapted it. A more subjective kind of pride, perhaps. Regardless, what you've done seems not to have diminished it. Molded it to fit your power." He huffed. "I suppose I've come to expect no less from this world, given the implicit emphasis on the individual…"

Raven let out a sigh of exertion. "That almost sounded like a compliment, Prince."

Vegeta didn't answer, turning just enough to glimpse his pupil. "Weiss. You're silent, yet the air is thick with your thoughts."

Weiss winced. He knew her a little too well. "I don't know if I can do it. I don't see pride the way you do… My family is proud… my father, blinded by it. The Schnee name was once something I carried, a sign I was destined for better things… But now, it's more like… a mark of shame."

She summoned a glyph before herself, tiny, but shaped in the classic Schnee snowflake.

"I'm tied to my father's sins, and all I want to do is distance myself from it all. I don't think I'm better than other people, I don't think I'm owed success! And I refuse to let his hubris infect me any longer."

Vegeta's eyes narrowed as he growled. "Is that your concept of pride? Hubris?" He stomped over, jabbing a finger into the glyph. "If one man can steal your honor, then you're nothing but a pawn! It is your birthright to take it back! You can no more escape your ancestry than the form of that sign…"

Weiss stared at the glyph, unable to deny his words, blinking repeatedly as she pondered.

Raven crossed her arms. "The Schnee name didn't start with Jacques Gelé. Nor did my father, the leader I slew to preserve the Branwen Tribe."

Weiss sighed. "No, it was started by… my grandfather. But I don't know as much about him as I should… Jacques Schnee took to removing signs of his legacy. Didn't like to invite the comparisons. I barely know anything about him."

"You are his legacy," Raven said, firm as granite. "That man has usurped your name, and has no right to shape it. People have no memory anymore. If it can't be found by a scroll, it doesn't exist to them. But we remember the rise of the Schnee Dust Company. And we remember when it changed. I almost admire their ruthlessness, no less bandits than my people, for all their pomp." She sighed. "But if that is not your way… the way of Nicholas Schnee… then you must change it."

Weiss shook her head. "Whitley will inherit the compa—"

"I'm not talking about the company," Raven snapped. "I'm talking about your name. You don't play by their rules. You will eclipse them."

"Maybe," Weiss said, staring at the glyph as Vegeta paced. "But I just… see pride as a vice, a flaw."

Vegeta turned on his heel. "Then you have no idea what pride is…" He stepped closer, looming. "Pride is not mere arrogance, it's respect for who you are! What you stand for! Pride shields you from surrender to your lowest instincts… bids you hold to your standards. It reminds you."

She blinked. "That's… actually a good point."

"Tch… Always the tone of surprise," Vegeta muttered. "If you reject the value of your own strength, your own doubt will diminish you! It's absurd! You number among the strongest warriors ever to grace your kind! Mastered that which eluded uncountable generations! Prior, you even survived the wrath of Frieza… a feat I promise you is fleeting…"

He grabbed her by the scruff of her arm, pulling her to her feet as her eyes flared in surprise.

"I didn't gift you these things!" he said, his face in hers as she almost tried to twist away, but stood frozen. "You attained them by your own power! They're yours! Take account for your own achievements. You don't even value your place on that team?"

Weiss almost couldn't believe what she was hearing, despite how forceful his words were. Her face softened everywhere but in her eyes. And the moment he mentioned Team RWBY, even in passing… she felt a warmth in her chest.

It was from such an unexpected place, his eyes as furrowed as ever, glaring with frustration, and yet…

She was Weiss Schnee, one of the most powerful Huntresses of all time, a protector of Remnant, of humanity. She would stand before Frieza, the cosmic tyrant, and avenge the sister she loved. She was the disciple of the Saiyan Prince, and a pillar of Team RWBY.

And there it was… beaming from within. It had always been there, and she was no worse for it. No worse a person for it. Not arrogance… not hubris…

She took a breath, shutting her eyes, a hand to her chest.

Pride.

"I understand…" she breathed.

Vegeta's grip slackened. "Show me."

Weiss didn't hesitate. She slipped his grasp as she strode to the cliff, a lift in her gait. Her heel scattered rocks as she clapped it down. She drew Myrtenaster, as well as Vegeta's curious gaze, her eyes on the blade as she held it straight before her. Two fingers traced the blade, ensconced in a purple glow, before rearing the blade back. Her other hand supported the hilt from the back.

Raven and Vegeta watched the unexpected scene, as Weiss entered the stance of the technique, her body flaring violet, her blade the focus…

"Galick…! Gun!" Myrtenaster glowed as power was channeled through it. Runes bloomed over the blade's surface as it steeped in her strength.

She braced the pommel with her off hand as she gave a mighty thrust to the open sky.

"FIRE!"

In spite of the unconventional method, a concentrated beam pierced the air. It lacked the power of Vegeta, or the ferocity of Raven. If anything, it was calm, serene. Rather than jagged forks of lightning, the beam was orbited by smooth, aimless spirals of frost-blue power.

It was like she had vented something she'd been holding in… holding back. And it felt… good.

As the beam began to fade, she found his eye. Something about that stern stare had suddenly become that much less hostile.

"Yeesh, Yang, hungry?" Nora jabbed, poking her belly as they sat at the coffee table after a rather uncoordinated day's training, let alone the return of the classic fish dinner.

"Sure, why?"

Nora tittered. " 'Cause you're doing nothing to keep the pudge off…"

If anything, Yang chuckled back all the more darkly. "The way we're training? You're right. Because there's some fat on me I don't wanna lose. You know what boobs are made of… right?"

Nora blanched, her eyes widening as she looked straight down and measured herself.

Almost on cue, Bulma swept in with a steaming tray. "Hey! I've got cookies cooling!"

"Oh my god, I love you…" Ruby muttered, eyes locked on the tray.

"GIMME!" Nora cried desperately, snagging and scarfing one of the bubbling bits of dough as Bulma recoiled.

"Nora…!" Ren chided.

"I'm keeping my muffins, hon'!"

Bulma reeled. "But those are scalding hot…"

Nora swallowed, brow quirked. She shrugged. "Body's toughened up, I guess."

After a fashion, Yang had broken out a multicolored game board, serving as a stylized map of Remnant. Goku and Gohan watched the ensuing game with vague interest, while those not taking one of the four teams simply watched the trash talk.

"Okay, so… according to the rules, the island of Vytal counts as a free space," Ren surmised, nose in the rule book.

"What?!" Nora demanded. "What a waste of a turn! It's right over Sanus! Menagerie starts as part of the Mistral faction…"

Blake frowned at the island nation, colored red like the rest of Mistral's territory. "So this edition gives Menagerie to Mistral… despite not being part of Anima? Well, that's telling…"

Goku scratched his chin and peered at the board with such intensity it might have lit on fire. "Hey Tai, which one is Enema?"

Yang snorted. "Ask Ruby…"

Ruby went scarlet. "YANG!"

"Ruby, don't yell," Tai droned. "Yang, that's not… that funny."

Jaune shuffled the deck as Bulma's eyes scanned the board.

"Vytal… Like the tournament, right?" Bulma asked. "What's the story there?"

Qrow made a huff of laughter as he sipped his coffee. "It's where The Great War came to an end, and the four Kingdoms drew up treaties to move the world forward into a new era."

Bulma nodded. "And The Great War was…?"

Qrow laughed a bit more. "Seriously, Bul'? I'd a' thought you'd have asked our resident Creator god about stuff like this by now."

She waved a hand as she gingerly plucked the first barely-cooled cookie. "Aw, I don't bother him for stuff like that. For real, what was so great about this Great War?"

Qrow finished a sip with a dramatic, satisfied sigh. "Here I thought my teacher days were behind me… Alright. So one day, Mantle's on the upswing up north, and one day there's a massive Grimm raid. Devastating, at least where loss of life is concerned. Everyone wants a scapegoat, and they get a pretty radical idea in their heads…"

"Wait, what's Mantle?" she asked. "I thought the four Kingdoms were Vale… Mistral… Vacuo…"

"And Atlas, yeah," Qrow finished. "Atlas and Mantle are one and the same. The Kingdom was rebranded after its most defining feature took flight, literally. Anyway, this idea took hold in the minds of the scared and bereaved. Of course, it was the ones in power who really stoked the coals. See, everyone knows the Grimm are drawn to negativity, and humans tend to be pretty subjective about how they see pretty much anything. What they ultimately decided was… if people weren't inspired to feel strong emotions… Grimm wouldn't be drawn to them when they went bad. So they decreed that self expression and the arts were outlawed."

Bulma's head snapped back. "What?! For REAL?!"

Gohan in particular let his jaw fall open.

"So… books and stories? Pictures?"

"That'd be dancing and singing too," Bulma noted, perturbed.

Krillin balked. "Then what's the point in life?! Why bother surviving if every day is the same, gray slog towards your next meal?!"

"I dunno," Goku said, staring up at the ceiling, "as long as I get to keep training…"

Bulma wasn't the only one to frown his way, but she was the only one to speak. "Goku, you know the word ART is in 'the martial arts,' right…?!"

Goku blinked. "Oh… Yeah, that does sound pretty bad. Awful, actually…"

"And nonsensical!" Bulma added. "How do you stamp out negativity by outlawing everything that brings positivity? What's there to hope for? That's just a blueprint for mass misery!"

Qrow nodded. "Yep, but from what people recorded, Atlas took to this notion as dogma. And when negativity persisted, they blamed it on rule-breakers, flouting the law. Books, instruments, great works of art… all equally alight on the pyre. And with Mistral as their partners in crime, they set out to enforce this new philosophy onto the world, whether they liked it or not."

"That's why a new tradition started on Remnant," Blake said. "People, especially resistors to what Mantle wanted to force on us, started naming their children after something inseparable from art… color."

Bulma blinked. Her eyes met Gohan and Krillin who shared similar expressions.

"Well that explains a lot," Bulma said at last, clearly peering at them individually and considering their names and aesthetics. "No offense, Ruby, but I kinda wondered why you had the name of a little old lady."

Ruby's mind seemed to reset as she drew her posture to a rigid position. "An old lady's name…? Is it?"

"Okay, so," Blake said, reading a rules card, "Sun and I have first go with thirty battalions… We claim Southern Typhon, from Eclipse."

"Ooh, right on track to clash with Jaune and Oscar!" Yang said, a wicked gleam in her eyes as she leered at the boys. "Whoever controls Typhon gets to roll for a chance at Grimm hazard cards every time someone encroaches on the continent's territory!"

Jaune made a choking noise. "W-wait, doesn't that mean Atlas and Vacuo have this same conflict every game?"

"Yep!" Yang said happily.

"Huh?" Ruby said. "But Vale's just as close to—"

"Shush-sh-shhhh!" Yang hissed, surreptitious. "I'm doin' a thing…"

Jaune scratched his head. "It just seems so predictable."

"Hey, I didn't make the map," Yang said, shrugging.

Gohan leered at the significantly sized continent sitting between Vacuo and Solitas. "So, what is Typhon? Why isn't there a Kingdom there?"

"Because it's standing-room-only for Grimm," Nora said almost casually, shuffling her pieces and setting a pair of Nevermore statuettes across to Eastern Vale. "Buckle-up, buttercups! We attack the Hollows Everdark!"

"Whaaaaaaaat?!" Ruby screeched. "She-devil! Temptress! Vixen!"

Yang cocked a brow. "From where…?"

"From Shion Vil—" Nora stopped in her tracks, ghost-white as she instinctively sought Jaune and Ruby's eyes. "...lage… Can I take this back?"

"Nope!" Yang said, immediately flashing a card in her face. "Read 'em' n' sleep!"

Nora swiped the card. " 'Somnium Poppies? Half your attackers run afoul of sleeping pollen and are disabled for one turn?!"

"I don't know where she gets these trap cards," Ruby said, noshing on a crumbly cookie, "I shuffled the deck like… six times!"

Bulma kept studying the map. "So, Typhon has tons of Grimm? How's that different from any other place?"

"Speaking from experience?" Taiyang said, planting down next to Bulma, his eyes distant. "The place has Dust, ready to be plucked right off the surface… but that's basically it. Nothing lives there, it's an arid, rocky waste where Grimm seep into the dirt. The whole place is shrouded in a red haze. Nobody ever thought it was worth trying to settle there."

"You've been there?" Bulma asked.

"Qrow and I… Oz too… once."

Ozpin himself, the cloned body of Oscar, stepped into the room. "Typhon is what I've long theorized to be the place where Salem's consciousness is strongest. While her human host resides in Evernight, beyond our reach, you can think of it as the place she most feels… present among the Grimm."

"Why go there?" Bulma asked. "Doesn't exactly sound hospitable."

Tai winced. "Because… someone else went there. Thought she could… finish things."

The number of ears listening while pretending not to was most of them. Ruby's face went slack as the dice fell from her hand.

"Uhh, we attack Kenyte from The Hintervalle Highlands!"

Sun's blank stare as he leered at the illustration of the Vacuo Capitol was oddly pensive… until Blake blinked, and pulled a card from her deck with a fwip of plastic-coated paper.

"Razor Rocks," Blake read. "Rolling a six or lower holds attacking units in place for the next turn."

Yang's eyes lingered on the one and three Ruby had just rolled ruefully. "And Vacuo gets a bonus against natural hazards…"

Sun seemed almost torn over the outcome. "Man, hope taking back Vacuo goes a little bit better than that…"

"Yeah…" Jaune trailed off, wincing. "This game… feels a bit less fanciful when real wars and conflicts are happening, doesn't it?"

There was a general murmur of uncomfortable agreement. Ren watched Sun with a piercing gaze, unnoticed.

"Anyone wanna play 'Dust to Dust?' "

Weiss heaved against her own shoulder, held by her copy as she wound down, gulping breaths of steamed air. She groaned into her pillow.

"That… was better than expected. Pretty okay, actually."

"Yeah… I needed that…"

"...Are we giving up on…?"

The dominant Weiss rolled onto her back, staring daggers at the ceiling. "No."

"He keeps avoiding me now…"

"I'll give him space for now… but I'm going to find out why he's acting like this…"

The other nodded. Then she nuzzled into her neck. "But this was good, right?"

Weiss' arm squeezed herself. "Very good."

Goku's black hair bobbed in the breeze as he sat with Gohan and Ruby in the glen, under a shady tree. The rest of the Remnant crew was nearby, but…

"She's gonna need room to feel anything beyond this place," Goku explained. "Before you can harness the Gen-Ki of other things, you need to recognize it within and without…"

"This blows," Nora groaned, kicking a stone. "Why shouldn't we learn the super special combo move?!"

"Because the Spirit Bomb is no ordinary technique," King Kai said from afar. "It draws from the vital energies of the world around you and all living things! Such power should NEVER be used flippantly. Without careful use, it could destroy the very world you aim to save!"

"So we're planning to give Ruby… world-destroying power," Weiss jabbed, smirking. "I don't see how that could possibly go wrong…"

Even Ruby couldn't help snickering. "Aw, come on, I only break stuff and fall on my face every now and then…"

"You broke a window only yesterday," Yang said, arms crossed.

"In my defense… that was on purpose."

Goku smiled, but closed his eyes, lost in thought. "Yeah, well a Spirit Bomb is definitely on purpose. It's deliberate, and requires perfect focus. You almost need to tune-out the whole world…"

Krillin's knuckles dug into his hips. "And since you'll definitely be in the middle of a fight, that's a big ask."

Goku nodded. "So it can't be anything but a last resort. I was barely able to manage a small one against Vegeta, and it wasn't enough."

"Does it strike anyone else how absurd it is that we're talking about a person," Weiss began holding her temple, "being able to cop world-ending-power and just keep going? Sometimes I step back and have to marvel at the comic-book, cold-medicine-induced creatine-dream our lives have become."

"Well you guys are already in that territory," Gohan said. "Piccolo wasn't as strong as you guys are when the Saiyans showed up, and he blew up our moon…"

"The point is," King Kai said, "there's no point in teaching ALL of you the Spirit Bomb. I must impress how serious it is to draw upon this power! Misuse can cause irreversible effects upon your world."

"Then why not just kick us out?" Yang asked. "We're still learning the same lesson."

Goku preened. "Well, you can learn how it works, and maybe you could even pull it off if you really had to… but she's the only one who's gonna try it."

Oscar's hazel eyes squinted as he tried to think. "And Ruby's the one you picked because…"

"Probably something to do with the whole living god thing," Jaune finished, "if I were to guess…"

Goku chuckled. "Me n' King Kai talked it over. Ruby's easily the most likely one to pick up on the energy she can draw from."

King Kai hummed. "Her natural affinity to the divine makes her ideal to take Gen-Ki energies for her own. The Divine Spark, you remember…?"

"Yeah," Ruby said quietly, "I'm ready!"

"Calm down," Goku said, firm, but kind. "You need to reach out for the current. Start with the air. Close your eyes, and feel it… Feel how the breeze flows, the power beneath it…"

Ruby blinked, and bowed her head as she did as he said. Her brows furrowed.

"Don't strain," Goku said, "just let it come. Don't grab for it."

"The air… the current…"

"It'll be faint," he told her, "like dew on the grass. You have to let it come into focus. Measure your breathing, and let everything else fade away."

The others listened, a few of them even trying to sense the same energy, despite King Kai's wishes. The steady ocean breeze was comfortable in the shade. Too comfortable.

After a few minutes, Goku opened his eyes.

"Wow, your energy is seriously zen right now! Are you feeling it?"

Ruby didn't move, didn't answer, slumped where she sat.

"Hmm?" Goku blinked.

Weiss and Yang both walked over and leaned near enough to see her face.

"She's asleep," they both droned… as the group as a whole gave matching, unbelieving grimaces.

Goku reeled like he'd been swatted with a stop sign. Taking a second look, he snickered to himself mischievously, leaned forward…

"HEEEEEEEY!"

He projected like a loudspeaker, jarring her awake in a sudden panic as she shrieked.

Then she punched him in the face.

"AAAAARGH!" Goku cried, bowled backwards out of his sit and onto his back, clutching his nose.

"Dad!"

"Goku!"

Ruby blinked as she whipped around in alarm, eyeing her surroundings. "I— wha— where…?!"

"Whoa-o!" Yang chuckled. "That's the best left cross she's ever done! Way to swing it, sis!"

Weiss couldn't help smirking, even as Goku still winced. "Not so nice to be woken up with a loud noise right in your face, is it, Ruby?"

Blake frowned. "Are you still sore about her whistle from the first semester?"

"That thing was a menace."

Blake's leer only deepened. "You know how much worse it was for me with these?" She pointed a finger up at her ears, which swiveled on command.

King Kai sighed. "Yep. Goku did that a few times…"

"...Which part?"

It was becoming clear very quickly that the Spirit Bomb wasn't like other techniques. It might have been Ruby's scattershot concentration, but even with her natural affinity for the energies involved, the others quickly found themselves in —very— light sparring or idle conversation.

"It's okay not to get this right away," Goku said, as Ruby stole a peek with one eye. "I didn't."

She sighed with a chuckle. "After the first two weeks? I can handle a little slow progress."

"That's good… It's definitely a strange way of using energy. Most of what you've learned is about drawing out from within… Power that's already yours. Power that's you. Think of it like drawing in breath… That breeze, the current… that's the beginning. And it touches everything, living or dead. It's through that current that you can forge a Spirit Bomb."

Ruby nodded, focusing as she steadied her breathing…

It was taking long enough that by lunch, Bulma and Taiyang had crested the hill, hiking their way over from the house with a made-to-order dynocap with a fully drawn picnic of assorted sandwiches.

"How… do you put an arranged picnic into a throwable stuff grenade?" Jaune asked. There's an open pitcher of lemonade!"

Bulma's hands were swiftly upon her hips. "Equal parts feng shui, quantum tunneling, and once-in-a-generation genius…" She winked.

Taiyang shrugged, kneeling upon the classic red and white checkerboard blanket. "Is it still bragging if it's true?"

"Feng shui…" Ruby breathed to herself.

Ren overheard her, smiling. "It means wind and water."

Ruby nodded, as Goku watched her with eager appreciation. "The current…"

Goku couldn't help his head craning to the side to get a glimpse of the sandwiches.

"Uh… You not coming to lunch?"

"M-m-maybe in a bit…!" Ruby replied, grimacing as she concentrated. "I've almost… maybe…?"

Goku's brows rose as the tiniest smile bloomed. He nodded. "Well, don't let me stop you…"

The scene was downright wistful, a perfect summer day as the group tucked in to the sandwiches. The murmur of the breeze was the only noise, apart from the sway and hiss of leaves and grass.

Until the murmur was accompanied by a hush of air as Raven and Vegeta landed.

"Hmm… I knew I smelled wheat on the air."

"What are you, a shark?!" Weiss demanded.

Bulma swallowed. "Go ahead… just don't take from this stack."

Vegeta leered at the indicated sandwiches, crust-free, with lime-green innards. "Because?"

Blake paused, not even looking up. "You wouldn't like them. They're cucumber sandwiches."

"No meat? Again?" He scoffed. "Is it any wonder that most humans remain so weak…?"

Raven hummed with laughter, sitting in a lotus fashion as she reached for a sandwich. "Don't be fussy… Roast beef on rye, fit for a Prince."

"Mmm…" He took it, still standing, taking a chunk out of it before his eyes sought the tree, and the pair sitting under it. "So… Kakarot is teaching the godlet that attack." His free hand ran over his back as he recalled the iron mass of power striking him from behind.

"Would you stop that?" Blake said, her ears furrowed. "Even for you, it's so needlessly disrespectful…"

Vegeta recoiled, twisting to check that she was truly talking to him. "What now?"

Blake's eyes narrowed as she fixed him with those amber orbs. "Stop deadnaming him! He calls himself Goku… His friends call him Goku! Why are you so determined to dredge up the name Kakarot?"

The others, especially Gohan and Krillin, blinked at each other at this accusation.

"Is deadnaming really applicable to…?" Weiss whispered.

It was hard to tell if Vegeta looked more confused or incensed. "What's it to you, feline?"

"And that's another thing," Blake said, standing up. "Would you use our names already? Is that beneath you? Or do you really not know our names after all this time?"

"I'm not sure I'd die on this hill, Blake," Bulma offered carefully.

Vegeta looked as though he were sucking on a lemon. "I use names as they're made relevant. If I don't use yours, extrapolate accordingly. As to Kakarot, for all his insistence upon flouting his heritage, he remains one of a mere two full-blooded Saiyans left in the Universe. You would have me accept the moniker bestowed on him by ignorants from a savage world? Ignore his heritage, when I alone possess the will to keep it alive?"

"We have very different takes on what makes a 'savage…' " Blake muttered.

Vegeta stepped nearer, onto the blanket as Taiyang stared at his foot ruefully.

"He has no memory of our world, our culture. I alone carry all we were! Any surrender on my part is the death of yet another piece of the Saiyan race… and I will not be shamed by some snippy girl who considers my language insensitive… Frankly, churl, I don't give a damn…"

Blake crossed her arms. "And the fact that we're your heritage too?"

Vegeta looked instants from hauling off and choke-slamming her…

"Yes! That's IT!" Goku cried, drawing their attention as a blue glow amassed neath the tree. Tiny particles, like dust caught in a sunbeam, sifted through the air to be drawn in as Ruby glowed with a smoky blue. The very air seemed to darken as she became bright, her eyes growing huge as she gasped.

"Good, GOOD…!" King Kai encouraged. "Now draw it into a ball… Nice and easy…"

Ruby looked absolutely floored. She barely seemed to hear him, but held her palms out with a gentle tremor in her hands, before the glow surged into them, and the unshaped mass collapsed into a soothing, streaked ball floating just before her eyes.

Goku saw it reflected in her mirrored orbs as her breath turned ragged. The ball was tiny, barely the size of an apple, its surface lined with needle-like streaks. Then, he saw that reflection wobble, and then her brimming lower lid… She sniffed, and Goku finally recognized it.

"Hmm? Uh… hey, you okay?"

Ruby nodded. "Y-yeah, it's… It flutters, like… like it's alive…" She swallowed, smiling, even as her lip quivered. "I can… feel everyone… My friends, my home, the island… Vale… I…"

He barely saw something escape her brimming eyes before her sleeve hastily rubbed both.

"It's a bit of everything… It's everything I want to protect… It's Remnant…"

The Saiyan found himself just blinking. "Yeah, that's… how it works alright," he said with a hollow laugh, uncertain how else to respond.

Ruby just peered into the bomb's infinite depths, one hand hovering over the surface as she basked in its cool radiance. "It feels… wrong… using something like this as a weapon… It's like… part of Remnant's soul…"

They could practically hear the smile in King Kai's voice. "That's an excellent attitude to have. As I said, it's a last resort… A final light in an endless darkness. I'm glad you understand the grave consequence and responsibility inherent to the Spirit Bomb. You will use it well, if you must ever wield it at all…"

Ruby nodded, as she found Goku's hand on her shoulder.

"Hey, don't forget what happened when I kept it around too long."

She stood up, bit taking her eyes off the Spirit Bomb. "Right… Back where you came from, little guy…"

She let her arm lay flat, sending the little ball whizzing away over the glen, a twinkling spark climbing high until it expanded into a bright, house-sized nova, the resulting breeze whipping the grass, the trees, and ruffling her cape…

Goku marched up and down the line. His countenance was stony.

"The next thing I have to teach is the Kaioken Attack. Like the Spirit Bomb, it's something you shouldn't invoke needlessly… but this is only a threat to yourself."

Yang's eyes were alight with recognition. "Tien did that when we fought… What is it?"

"The Kaioken serves to multiply your power, potentially several times, provided your body can withstand the strain. But there's always the chance that it can destroy you."

A pall surged through the group. The reason for Goku's tone had become clear.

"So it's like my semblance?" Yang asked, disappointment lining her face. "Wow, at least the evolved form is still special…"

Goku shook his head. "Your ability requires you to take damage. The boost your semblance makes isn't a threat to you. Try using the Kaioken when you're injured or weak, and it could cost you everything."

"So… only use it when absolutely necessary," Jaune said, weighing the options, "but also before you're so drained that it kills you…"

Krillin laughed. "Yeah, pretty much…"

"So each time you use it, you're gambling with your life," Weiss said, arms crossed as she contemplated it.

Ren hummed. "But if you're already desperate, it can be a gamble worth taking."

"Exactly," Goku said, standing straight. "The tougher your body becomes, the less risk there is. The trick is basically to expend the resulting energy as quickly as it passes through your body. You need to be fast, decisive, and in complete control. There is a margin for further perfection that allows greater multiples… Times three, four… I've even experimented with an eight-times Kaioken. Twenty might be possible. But at your strength, the base Kaioken is the furthest you should consider."

Weiss reeled. "Twenty? Wouldn't sixteen be the more appropriate—"

"What about times-two?" Ruby asked.

"Oh…!" Goku uttered. "Uh… well… Kaioken is the times two. It's by how much your power is multiplied…"

"You shouldn't even CONSIDER going beyond the base level!" King Kai chided. "The only reason I encouraged Goku to teach this is because of the VAST control it required for you to reach your level in the first place. You MUST understand this…"

Ruby nodded, looking at each of the others in turn, faces determined. "We understand, Mister Kai, sir."

"Good. Matter and energy are always in flux, and if you're not careful… prolonged contact with that energy could reduce your bodies to energy as well."

"And I'm sorry to say," Goku told them, still serious, "but I can't teach this to more than a few of you. Temperament can matter greatly. We can't even risk it with Raven or Oscar. The way magic amps their power could already be more strain than they can take."

"Mmf…" Raven huffed. "I'll mind you to let me look after myself."

Goku's teeth grit. "I'm serious. This isn't something to mess around with!"

"Sure sure…"

He frowned, but ultimately took his eyes off her. "King Kai and I have decided a few of you will likely be a fit for the technique…" He turned. "Ruby…"

"Pff… shocker," Nora muttered.

"Blake… Ren…"

"Woooo!" Nora cheered. "Thatta-boy, babe!"

Goku smirked. "...and Krillin."

Krillin's face blanked, but then he stared with frantic energy. "Whoa, for real?!"

Goku nodded. "You did ask me back on Earth… I think you might be a great fit."

Weiss' brow creased. "Is… that it?"

Goku sighed. "Yes. I've given reasons for Oscar and Raven, but the rest of you have tensions under the surface that, for now, might be too much."

Every single one of the fighters not chosen fidgeted. Goku gave a serene, knowing smile.

"Gohan, you're strong… but your frame might not handle the strain at your age. Yang and Nora, you're both a bit touchy. Kaioken demands calm. Nora might handle it eventually, tough as she is…"

Yang shrugged. "Eh, my semblance is fine."

"Eventually…" Nora repeated.

Goku looked between Jaune, Weiss and Sun. "And you three… You're distracted."

Weiss' jaw slackened, as Jaune's tightened. Sun just crossed his arms.

"Something's drawing your focus, constantly. I'm not gonna pry, but… I'll bet it's to do with loss," he finished gently, looking sorry to even say it.

Blake's ears gave a guilty fold. "I've had losses too," she said, hands in her lap. "What makes me suited?"

King Kai answered. "Yes, but you've adapted to a life fraught with turmoil. The burden you carry now is less than you once did. There's peace to your grief. You worry more for honoring the spirit of her sacrifice."

Blake knew it was true, but wondered who had heard the Kai's words with nervous glances. But it was strange to think that something like Frieza felt less rooted in her own fear than Adam once had…

Nora's eyes lidded. "And Ruby…? She's the only one here who had a full-blown breakdown…"

Goku nodded, solemn. "Yes, but… her frustrations come from the need to master her power and save this world. Despite her stress… she's more focused than any of us. Ruby is equipped to handle it." He looked around the shaded tree, searching their eyes. "Now, if no one else has a problem…?"

In a matter of minutes, the four were lined up as the rest were hurried off to the gravity chamber. Only Vegeta, Taiyang and Bulma had stayed behind to watch.

"The secret to the Kaioken lies in self mastery, and control. It operates by the same principle as the Spirit Bomb, but reversed. Instead of drawing energy in from your surroundings, you're drawing it out from the margins of your Gen-Ki and Shou-Ki… From your center."

"Your center…" Ruby's repeated, awed.

"...Which is?" Blake asked.

"Just like it sounds," Goku told her. "What matters most to you… What makes you who you are. That will always be the exact point where your Mind and Spirit intersect. Drawing that energy with precision and care can briefly amplify you, right down to sight and even smell, let alone power."

"Can we be sure of what we're doing before we risk… exploding?"

"Absolutely," King Kai told him. "Finding your center is the first step. Drawing that power out is the second part, and you can't even attune to it before the first part is figured out. The telltale sign is the beginnings of your power BOILING just under the surface… and a smell of something deeply tied to your memory…"

Ruby was fixated on it all. "Your… center… Can it be a person?"

"It can, if that person is THAT responsible for how you see yourself."

"Then I know," Ruby said.

Blake nodded. "Mine's not a person… but I know what it is…"

Krillin chuckled. "I don't doubt it. You kids know who you are, and what drives you… Mine might be a person too."

Ren closed his eyes, thinking hard. "Nora and I came to Beacon because we've seen what happens when there's no one to protect the ones who need it. She lost her mother in a Grimm attack, and fled to our village. The same Grimm destroyed mine, and I lost my parents."

"I'm sorry," Goku offered, quietly. "That's not that different from what happened to my Grandpa… except…" Pain filled his eyes.

"We floated as vagrants from town to town, until someone took notice and put us in an orphanage," Ren explained. "We knew we wanted to be Huntsmen… 'Take action,' that's what my father said. I lived by that, and even before Combat School, we refused to sit idly by when people were in danger."

"Is that your center?" Goku asked, voice low, eyes barely open as he smiled.

Ren's eyes narrowed. "That… her… That whole day brought us together, and set us on our paths."

Goku nodded, eyes shut. "Sounds like a good bet."

They meditated, for a good long time as the Sun traced across the sky as minutes became hours. The Saiyan of Earth insisted they hone in on the margin with as much precision as possible, and focus until it was second-nature. Gohan had joined them after a fashion, sitting in the tree as he idly checked Savant.

"What's yours?"

Goku's eyes fluttered open at Ruby's question. "Hm?"

"Your center…"

Goku's eyes brightened. "Oh…! That's easy… I want to be the best anyone can be, and take on the next guy to come along and show me how much higher I can climb…"

Blake opened an eye… and raised an ear. "So… you want to lay out the best there is… but you also want to be the best… So, you're just hoping the totem pole extends forever and ever? What happens when you reach the top?"

Goku fell onto his back, arms behind his head as the grass flew around him. "Well, it's already happened… and the Universe didn't let me stay on top for too long."

He stared up into the clouds, smiling wistfully. "I remember when it was only Jackie Chun or Tien standing between me and being the best ever on Earth, but amazing people kept showing up to make me fight for it."

Goku glanced to the Southwest, in the direction they all knew too well. "And Frieza's next… No offense to you kids, but if I get my chance… you probably won't get yours…"

There was silence for a few more ticks.

"And the smell?" Ruby asked.

Goku smiled. "Grandpa…"

"Your grandpa's… what?"

Goku shrugged. "Just… grandpa." He chuckled after a moment. "Right… I can smell better than most people. I guess other people can't tell each other apart by scent…"

"Some faunus can," Blake offered. "I smell a bit more than others, but not… people."

Goku nodded, humming. "It was the second way I figured out how to tell apart girls…"

"I don't wanna know," Ruby deadpanned.

"What was the first?" Ren asked.

Blake grimaced, amber eyes pointed his way. "You don't want to know that either…"

Taiyang and Bulma chose to stay for this far calmer training session, parked on the blanket as the day wore on.

"Guess I can't fault 'im for results," Tai said, watching the meditation with a wry smile. "So far beyond me, got no idea how this led to wiping a Grimm infestation that beat back a Kingdom…"

"Tell me about it," Bulma sighed. "When I met Goku, he was tough as all get-out, but you could still give him a headache with a pistol… Then, every time he slipped outta my sight for a few days, he came back ten times what he was before… Runner-up world champion… Calamity of the Red Ribbon Army… and it just got crazier from there."

Tai took a deep breath, the faintest hint of salt from the distant sea amidst the melange of grasses and wildflowers. "Hard to believe things are as desperate as they are. Apart from the new additions, pockmarks and craters…" He stopped himself as he broke it down, seeing the occasional bit of charred, upturned earth, split trees and fresh grass sprouting from black patches. "Okay, so here specifically is a bad example… The island's barely changed at all since she was a kid."

Bulma smiled, rolling onto her side. "I could do with some stability. Even after five years and his first kid, Earth ran into another crisis starring Goku."

He chuckled. "I dunno, pretty boring. You'd hate it. Personally, I'm looking to be a bit more adventurous. I was already hoping to do some bounty missions before Beacon tore everything up…"

She leaned on her arm with a sigh. "Well, if that's what you're looking for, stick with me. It'll get exciting when you least expect it."

He leaned closer. "You sure sound like a mistake worth making."

"I bet you say that to every girl that teleports into your kitchen…"

"Well… so far, yeah, actually."

Meanwhile, a pale glow began to overtake the four students.

"Yes, draw that to the surface!" Goku encouraged. "Dig deep!"

With a lift of stones and hair, their teeth gnashed as they dialed it in one by one. Krillin had channeled it first, downright pleased. A minute later and Ren had reached the same state, vaguely taken by the aroma of sake, pond water and peony. Then Blake… and finally, Ruby was roiling with soothing white energy, smile blooming as the wind tasted of cookie dough...

"That's it…! That's the source," Goku said. "Now, to use the Kaioken, focus it outward and pull it through your root! Think of sand being sucked through an hourglass… You first, Krillin."

"Got it! Wait… out… and then in…?" Krillin asked.

"Er… out, and through, at the same time, like a balloon or cloud is building around you…!"

"...After sucking through the hourglass?" Blake asked.

Goku blanked. "Uh… I mean… Wow, I guess I forgot how strange the process is."

"Figures, kid's a natural," King Kai said in a drone. "Goku picked up on the Kaioken rather quickly… even considering no one had EVER mastered it before him…"

"That's our Goku," Krillin said, grinning. "Fighting is just a sixth sense…"

They all tried it in turns, one after another. Neither Goku nor King Kai believed it was wise for them each to try the technique at once, knowing its volatility.

"Nnnnng! KaioKEN!" Blake cried, the energy flaring and fluctuating wildly, spiraling vertically as her aura wobbled from side to side. It flickered red, but returned to its violet. She scarcely took comfort in the scent of musty pages.

"Cut it!" Goku ordered instantly, as Blake let out her breath, panting as the glow faded again.

The hour was growing late, the sky golden. They'd been at it for actual hours. Taiyang stared into the sky as Bulma slept rather loudly nearby.

"I don't get it…" Goku muttered. "You guys felt King Kai and Tenshinhan do it before…"

"Uh… no we didn't," Ruby said, half drowsy from the effort, and sitting in the same spot all day.

"Hmm?"

Krillin nodded. "Yeah, you can't really sense powers while image training. I'm the only one here that's felt it, and that was way back on Earth…"

Goku put a finger to his mouth as he considered, nodding, before giving a wicked grin. "Hmm! So that's our missing piece… Alright then…"

He stood straight, feet apart, fists pumped at his side as his fists clenched and his muscles creaked.

"Hn?" Krillin intoned, blinking. "Hey hey, aren't you still a little…?!"

"Goku NO!" King Kai cried. "You haven't fully recovered! There's too much at stake to risk—"

"It'll be fine," Goku said, with a cocky grin. "Nothin's keeping me outta this fight…"

With a flex of his muscles, and a firm grunt, he scowled, eyes wild, as a red torrent surged around him, the shadows of his body darkening.

"Kaio…ken! HYYAAAAAAAAARGH!"

He howled like a god, the resulting expansion of power bowling them all onto their backs. Bulma awoke with a cry of surprise as his crimson aura engulfed them and the immediate area. The shady tree bent, branches and all away from the storm as if bowed in reverence.

"His power… it's…!" Blake said.

"Amazing," Ren breathed.

Ruby could only watch and analyze what she was feeling in awe. The power she felt was blowing out her senses, yet she was sure that even what they'd felt from Frieza to date was nothing compared to this brilliant, stunning mass that almost felt like it was pinning her in place.

But Ren's pupils dilated as he gasped, an instant before a bead of sweat trailed down the Saiyan's temple, and the corner of his mouth and inner brows twitched.

And all at once, it was like the crimson fire had begun to burn him. The shadows on his body threw him into harsh relief as veins and muscles tensed everywhere. And then, horribly, his limbs turned on him.

"ARRRGGH! AAAAAYYYYYAARRGH…!"

Every soul froze in morbid terror as Son Goku screamed, his neck pitched to the side, and his arms and legs contorted as his muscles tried to fold them in unnatural sidelong directions.

"DAD!" Gohan cried, about to leap for him.

Even Bulma chased after him. "GOKU!"

"NO!" King Kai ordered. "The power coursing through him is beyond you! Out of control! He could DESTROY you with a TWITCH in this state!"

"Come on! Snap out of it, Goku!" Krillin cried desperately.

Goku's shriek increased in pitch as they heard fibrous cracks and lurches of living flesh, his arms twisting around him as if he were tied to a torture rack or Catherine wheel.

"Tell us how to help you!" Ruby pleaded, cautious of the wild red power surging off of him like lit, spitting thermite.

But as Goku's teeth clamped down, the scream gained some tone of defiance… rage… and with the most violent sigh a man had ever uttered, the Kaioken flared brighter than the Sun… and then went out as he collapsed.

Gohan and Krillin had caught him before he could hit the ground. The others hurried over, as the Saiyan barely turned his head to acknowledge them. He looked like he was suddenly half asleep.

"What the heck happened?!" Bulma asked, craning her neck around the others to see. "Is he alright?!"

King Kai's voice came across as despondent as they'd ever heard, heavy with woe.

"This is what comes of incautious use of the Kaioken… Oh, heavens me, this is a DISASTER!"

Goku gave a weak laugh. "G-guess some gambles don't pay off… W-wow, I really did it this time, huh?"

Ruby gave Blake and Ren the same terror-stricken glance, before finding Gohan, who only had eyes for his father…

Taiyang pulled his scroll out. "One a' you guys get Weiss; her glyphs are good as any stretcher. I gotta make the call…"

The news of Son Goku's incident spread through the Warrior compound like a wildfire, to similar pandemonium. He didn't appear to be in immediate peril, but he could scarcely move, confined to the couch.

"Kakarot, you imbecile! Such a novice mistake… What, are you afraid to face Frieza yourself?!"

"No, I really really want to test my strength against him," Goku groaned. "Frankly, this is the pits…"

"What are we going to do now?" Weiss asked, in utter disbelief. "We've been counting on this whole group being up to fighting strength…"

Vegeta scowled. "Calm yourself, it was never going to be won by numbers."

Ruby shuffled near, palm to Goku's forehead. "I don't wanna hear it… I know you wanted to unlock Aura yourself, but you need to—"

She froze, tilting her head. "Wait… your Aura's…"

Goku blinked. "Oh! I unlocked it weeks ago… I just haven't got the semblance thing figured out yet…"

"Out of my way, out of my way!"

The front door burst open as a white and deep green blur raced in, bowling Ruby over, as Bartholomew Oobleck stormed in, first-aid kit in hand.

"By the Brothers, man!" Oobleck cried, looking Goku up and down. "How have you seen fit to find yourself in this state twice?! Patience is a virtue, and impatience, therefore, a vice!" He scrutinized the Saiyan's limbs and the discoloration of his skin. "I-I mean… once is one thing, but twice?! Well, that's thing TWO! TWO things! And that is far too many!"

Ruby closed the kitchen door as the kids congregated outside. The distant crickets in the evening twilight were a ticking clock, a metronome filling the gentle night's quiet.

"This is unbelievable," Weiss sighed, hand massaging her temple and forehead. "All that time recovering, and one of our two best chances at living through this is right back on the bench."

Yang scoffed. "A sports metaphor? You feeling okay Weiss?"

"Of course not! What a mess…"

But none of them were as visibly tense as the Son of Goku himself.

"What's gonna happen?" Gohan asked, eyes boring a hole into the deck. "If Dad can't fight…"

"Don't panic," Ren said. "Between Vegeta, Yang's Mom and Oscar, we have multiple fighters of significant strength.

"Y-yeah," Jaune said, "and we never planned on beating Frieza in the first place, right? We're still shooting for the Relics to do the heavy lifting."

"But what if it doesn't work?" Gohan asked. "What if we still have to fight him head-on?! With my Dad, I felt like we had a chance, but if he can't recover in time…"

Ruby knelt down beside him, taking his hand, offering a firm smile. "Then we'll find a way."

Gohan stared into her bright eyes. "B-but… my Dad…"

Her hand found his shoulder. "Gohan, your Dad is amazing… I've barely seen him at his best, but I know he's special. But you know what else?"

He frowned. "What?"

Her smile brightened. "You're amazing too… You guys told us yourselves, we're stronger than you guys were back on Earth… and you're stronger than your Dad was when he showed up on Namek!"

Gohan blinked, his frown fluctuating as he thought. "I-I'm just a kid…"

"So am I… all of us," Ruby said, gently, "but we're also the only ones who have a chance."

Ruby's teammates couldn't help smiling as she continued.

"Back at Beacon, when we saw things in Vale were getting dangerous, we realized the world wasn't going to wait for us to feel ready. You never feel ready… but that doesn't mean you aren't. It doesn't mean you have to wait for a hero to show up. You can be that person you're waiting for."

Gohan's mood wasn't transformed, but her encouragement was always soothing to hear.

Oscar sighed. "Still… I guess with Frieza there, Vacuo isn't changing any time soon regardless."

Ren's hackles raised as his eyes tracked over to a sudden surge of hidden petals. Anger… fear. It swirled and swirled around…

Sun quietly opened his window and stepped out into the black night. Everyone was in bed, and it was finally time. Better not to risk the creak of floorboards. He shut the window behind him, and rounded the corner of the barracks to see—

"WHOA! W-mmmph!" Blake's hand found his mouth, her ears flat as she scowled.

"So Ren was right," she said, as Sun noticed nearly the entire group just standing there in their combat gear. "You're just leaving?"

"How'd you… Ren?" Sun asked,

Nora yawned. "Y'know honey, this stuff is getting a little creepy."

Ren nodded. "I could tell. You've had one foot out the door for a while now, but… tonight finally convinced you to do it. So… I messaged the others."

"Hey, I don't need an intermission, alright?" Sun said, looking to see who all was actually here. The whole of Team RWBY and the dregs of JNPR were here. Even Gohan had snuck out. "Wow, no Oscar?" He then noticed Neo waving down at him, sitting on the edge of the roof. "You? Since when do you care?"

Jaune glanced up at the spritely woman. "She noticed us up and threatened to rat us out if we didn't… uh... Oscar… well, we could trust him, but… y'know… Ozpin."

Sun blinked. "For what?"

Ruby chewed her cheek. "What are you gonna do in Vacuo, Sun? You can't be planning on fighting Frieza."

"Pff! Nah, I'm not nuts," Sun said, barely able to meet Blake's eyes.

"Then what Sun?" Blake asked, arms closed off. "What's so pressing that you were going to leave us… leave me, without saying a word?" Her eyes softened. "It's… your family, isn't it?"

Sun deflated. "No… well, yeah, but… I wasn't telling the truth about my family before. They died when I was a kid. Sinkhole opened up… I've only got my cousin. Starr."

Weiss hummed. "And… she's all you have?"

Sun leaned into the wall. "And I just… ditched her. Before I trained at Haven. And if I let anything happen to her…"

They all watched him with sympathy, a shuffle running through the group.

"Then… Plan B it is," Ruby said, giving him a kind smile.

"Plan B?"

"Plan A was just… talking you down," Yang said. "Unless you had a good reason."

"A viable good reason," Weiss elaborated.

Sun looked legitimately disarmed. "So… plan B is…?"

Blake sighed. "We go with you. Make sure it goes right."

Sun recoiled in shock for a whole second, before shaking himself like a dog. "No, that's crazy! This is something I have to do, and I can do it alone. I'm in, I'm out, nobody else is at risk. And I know the place."

Blake crossed her arms. "You knew Vacuo… before Frieza. I won't wait here wondering if you got in over your head."

Yang's hips bumped into hers. "And if Blake's going… Team RWBY is going."

"And if Team RWBY is going…" Jaune said. "You can figure the rest out."

"I want to help too," Gohan said.

Nora pointed at Neo with a leer. "She's blackmailing us to come along."

Sun couldn't help smiling, scratching his head. "Guys, this is…"

Blake took his hand. "Sometimes, people are there for you, even when you don't want them to be… You can make your own choices, but you don't get to make ours… right?"

Sun sighed. "You guys are the best…"

"Alright," Ruby said. "Then there's no time to waste."

Nora smiled, rolling her eyes. "Here we go again…"

Ruby knelt above the stone, the familiar words etched onto her heart. The cool air whipped by in a whisper.

"Don't worry, Mom… I'll be right back. I promise…"

Her eyes lingered, before turning to the others. There was a shared nod, a solemn resolve, an unspoken vow. And with a burst of air, they launched into the clear sky…

A/N: Next chapter… hoo boy…

I'm so… so… SO sorry this took so long. I know it's a ton of content, and man I tried to make it worth the weight, but this is the longest I've made you guys wait since Chapter 13. Mostly, it's because despite there being multiple chapters of story here, I DID promise you guys this would be the last chapter before we got on from the strict training arc. Obviously there will be more training since… well… Frieza is WAY above their level, but the Remnant crew have the basic kit.

Of course, with Beacon's liberation, you could argue we DID carry the story forward, but… not like in Vacuo. Vacuo is gonna be kinda nuts. Probably just one or two chapters, but… you'll see.

I've also chosen to coincide this release with the simultaneous release of the story on AO3 and Wattpad. Wattpad will essentially be a mirror to the FFN version, while AO3 will serve as the "uncut" version.

Yes, I have taken time to reflect and decided I'd like to show this story to people who I'd like to look in the eye again… and therefore, while I want the lewd stuff to still exist, I want it edited out or cut down for the FFN version. This effectively gives you guys a choice depending on your preferences.

And along with content, this rerelease comes with a second wave of fixes to all prior chapters. Cleanup for errors, sticking to certain standards like capitalizing "Dust" among a myriad of others… Paragraph structure in early chapters… and a few minor tweaks to bits of accuracy and changes to the first few chapters that I feel are a bit stronger and tie better into the arcs of certain characters.

These aren't changes that DEMAND you to reread them to understand the story, they amount to the same things and lead the same ways, but make the scenes, in my opinion, stronger and more reverent perhaps.

Some errors will remain though, for the sake of being scuffed. Like Gohan claiming Goku trained in 50-times gravity, only for Goku himself to make a joke about my own error in Chapter 15.

The first six chapters of fixes will be here immediately, with the first three on the other platforms with regular updates as I finish the fixed/alt versions. I don't want to bulk-drop them, as I feel there will be better exposure with repeated posts over time. Therefore, the SFW alts won't be finished for a while, but it will get easier as I go due to my own rising standards and cohesion of my style.

The other reason this took so long is… Volume 9.

And now it's time to take care of current events… which are now months old.

Volume 9

Oh sweet lord… Volume 9…

If you guys read these exhaustive A/N's, then you might suspect that this season was draining for me. It was so difficult to write while waiting week to week, absorbing each episode and dealing with the fallout. Since Volume 7, new episodes of RWBY have given me anxiety, and the aftermath of Volume 8 only made that worse. The finale of Volume 9 made me not want to write for like, a month, and for the most part, I didn't.

Don't get me wrong, Volume 9 was really solid… mostly… Forgive me if I forget anything, I'm going off my first watches for the most part, and I'm too cowardly to rewatch to freshen up for this brief review.

The first two chapters, apart from stressing me the hell out, had me concerned for the visuals. I wasn't overly impressed by what we were seeing in the Ever After, and V9's Afterans tend to be crowds of simple objects strategically designed to be easy to render and animate en masse. Little the Mouse —who I never got a straight answer if they were male or female— isn't the best character model I've ever seen —nor the best character, but we'll get to that. But the worst thing in Volume 9 visually was a scene in the… jungle(?) where the girls are talking, and we see that the digital set has a matte painting, a friggin' jpeg barely thirty feet from the MC's barely hidden by the trees. It felt like the Alice in Wonderland level in Kingdom Hearts, which felt more like an indoor mini-golf course.

But otherwise, it was really decent visually. Not spellbinding, but some things looked really good, like the Herbalist and his insectoid animation. I was really impressed that RT could pull off something like that.

But the story is the thing and… oh man…

I think focusing on Ruby's doubts after the fall of Atlas is entirely appropriate. She was my spirit animal this season, and her questioning if she was the person she wanted to be, or even the hero we know she is, makes sense after how much was lost despite the survival of the people.

And… let's just talk about the Goliath in the room. Penny.

You guys all know that what Volume 8 did to Penny destroyed me, and it hasn't let up at all after all this time. I was terrified to watch Volume 9 because it would mean carrying on with the storyline, where Ruby wasn't even aware what had happened.

And indeed, while I don't buy Ruby fainting over Weiss relaying what happened, it was nearly as awful as I feared. And Ruby finding the magic green sword, giving that stirring speech that actually brought me to tears… and the Prince yeeting it. God…

Should I tell you that every chapter, I DESPERATELY held onto the hope that Penny's fate would be undone? From the beginning, to the very end, I tortured myself. I don't feel I had a choice, because the alternative would mean permanent misery for me.

First let me tell you theories I crafted while watching chapter to chapter…

Upon seeing the opening, Alyx's clothing and skin color made me think that Penny had been reincarnated somehow. Little did I know death and rebirth would be major themes of Volume 9.

Next theory was that the Ever After was timeless, and so when they were given the option to go back, they could choose to re enter their bodies just before things went to hell in Volume 8. Neopolitan would come back too, and this time she'd aim her attack at Cinder instead of Yang. This would mean Winter didn't get help, and so they'd have James to contend with too, but they'd redeem what had gone wrong before.

That was the crux of my hopes, largely. That RT were going to have their cake and eat it, have Penny be the sort to give her life with a smile, but be rewarded for that goodness and ultimately survive.

I held out for that last one literally until the final lines of Volume 9… which I'll never forgive the writers for saying: "Not where… When you're needed most."

…Which is an utter lie. Just, a horrible, unthinking line that disrespects the immediate past, in the effort to finish the season on a lofty-sounding line.

And while we're on the time travel subject, that's not the only thing related to it that was an ill-conceived mistake made in aid of pushing something they thought was cool.

Namely… Jaune's whole deal this season. I can't say how much I despise the idea that Jaune was positioned where he was last season so RT could give him another girl to mourn that he failed to save. Because ever since he found closure for Pyrrha in Volume 6, he's been a complete non-entity, like RT have no idea how to give him drama if he's not playing Cloud to some poor girl's Aerith. Oscar had so much more going for him through the entire Atlas Arc.

But the reason Jaune's arc pisses me off is because of HOW he gets where he is in V9. He lands on the shores of the Ever After and just… runs into a tree with clock fruit, which takes him decades back in time.

I HATE this fruit. I hate that this plot contrivance was chosen to turn Jaune into Marco Diaz. Don't get me wrong, I like the idea that he was ALWAYS the Rusted Knight of the story… I just hate that it basically cancels out free will, because RWBY were doomed to follow their set paths here, as their futures were clearly already chosen for them… And mostly, I hate that this fruit literally makes time travel possible, but Jaune or RWBY never think to FIND this fruit so they can go back several months, find the door, go through and leap into continuity right after their doubles fall off and close the loop.

The fruit is never mentioned, never discussed. Fuck you, we're going to make time travel happen once for this one cool thing and then we're going to shelve it forever and hope you don't ask questions about it. Because there's no version of reality where Ruby wouldn't put herself through hell and the unknown to save Penny. After the Saiyans raised hell on Earth, there was no world-saving reason to blast off into deep space, where no Earthlings had ever ventured. MAYBE you could argue they wanted to restore the Dragonballs, but mainly Bulma, Krillin and Gohan set out as pioneers solely to get their friends back. That's loyalty, and love, and nothing less than what Ruby would do for her friends.

Maybe if Jaune had passed through some weird space thing while falling that sent him back instead of the fruit it wouldn't be so egregious, but it's infuriating how they try to sweep that plot macguffin under the rug.

But regardless, the notion of predeterminism in RWBY of all things is just offensive and thoughtless. Sorry Pyrrha, I guess Destiny isn't a final goal, but truly IS a fate you can't escape. You were always doomed to choose as you did, as was Jaune… and Penny. Reality is a book with an ending already decided, so play your part, puppets…

I'm sorry, but the damage that does so casually is truly something to behold.

God, this is already getting long…

I hated shit that doesn't mean anything, like seeing Penny's sword in the Blacksmith shop and hearing "no one's ever REALLY gone," which pairs too well with "I won't be gone, I'll be part of you."

Meaningless. Worthless words. Just shut up. Stop trying to sugarcoat the awful shit you put on us when you don't mean it. Just choking up platitudes.

And the worst part of it all? Penny SHOULD be okay… Because what happened to her happened in the Tree's domain, not Remnant. We should see a carving of her sprouted from the tree, waiting to set her free.

But we won't. Because I'm forced to understand that Rooster Teeth NEVER cared about Penny. They had every opportunity to set things right this season, and they CHOSE not to, because they WANT her gone.

Oh, is that a little dramatic? Okay, here's a question then: where is Penny's body? We found a sword, but where is she?

The show doesn't care. For all they care, she's probably rotting facedown in a field, being gnawed at by Little's friends. That's the level of disrespect we're talking about here.

And somehow more awfulness, the last words we ever hear of Taylor as Penny are probably going to be a doppelganger Neo made tormenting Ruby with her own grief.

I was so desperate to see the after-credit scene, potentially showing a Penny carving on the tree's roots… but instead, we got a trailer for the Justice League movie.

…We'll get to that…

From all that, you must think I hated Volume 9. I didn't. I mostly just hated the final episode, because to my understanding, they had to cut like three episodes from the end of this season. This meant the carefully laid road set out for Ruby to regain her self worth and forgive herself was extremely rushed and didn't justify her total turnaround at all… which kills me.

I just don't believe after Chapter 8, where she's beaten and broken down to the point of what is effectively suicide, fully believing that the world is better off with her gone… that she's bringing down everyone she meets and loves… that just hearing something about Summer saying she's "enough" could convince her she's absolved of the things she thinks she caused.

It's not enough for me. Not remotely enough. I want to cheer for her finding herself, her worth, and I don't feel like I can… I just feel cheated.

Even the extended ending in Vacuo from RTX would be better. I do love contrasting how she's been beating herself up with how she's apparently become a martyr and a symbol of unity and hope back on Remnant with her message. Shame we didn't get that.

Of course, I won't miss Winter saying the unnecessary words "Penny's gone forever." Thanks again, you unfeeling assholes.

…Ugh… Other things that bother me. Little. Yeah, I feel like that was wasted, because I liked the overall sentiment. But Little was barely a character, asleep in most of the scenes. Like, Little returning at the end as "Somewhat" is cute, seeing them being so inspired by Ruby that they choose to come back as a protector like she is… I'm just not sure I buy Little's reverence for Ruby. Ruby mostly froze or moped the entire season, until exploding at the others and running away.

Not that I blame Ruby. My take on her outburst is that she wasn't actually angry, but trying to make her teammates hate her so they'd leave her, and from her point of view, couldn't endanger them. She couldn't even protect herself when it counted.

So honestly, it felt like Little mostly had moments of Ruby breaking to define her in their mind.

I THINK the idea is that Ruby underestimates how much she inspires people, and that even simple kindness can have a profound effect… which is something Deha literally told her in Chapter 21.

I actually REALLY love that I basically tackled these things with Ruby in this story BEFORE the canon did the same thing. From her mounting guilt in the Gravity Chamber to the intervention and her heart-to-heart with Deha, I feel like I basically taught her the same lesson in a more controlled environment, with more people around who loved her and were equipped to break through her walls.

I really just wish we'd gotten our full season, because the gaps make it harder for me to accept. Leave alone my OWN hangups, since the idea that ANYONE could just "get over" Penny is so foreign to me that I don't think I could ever accept it. And I recognize that's because *I* can't do that… I WON'T do that…

But basically I loved most of the stuff Volume 9 did from Chapter 8 and prior. Oh, and the Bumblebee scene was precious, lovely, and one of the most earned romantic turns in recent memory. I adored how they did that scene, and the dialog was iconic. Screw the haters, save the bees!

Heroes and Huntsmen

Damn you! DAMN you all to HELL!

You guys don't know how it pissed me off that our after credits scene, my last hope for Penny, was supplanted by a trailer for this movie. A movie that was set to trample upon Volume 9's solemn ending within the week with what was SURE to be a poorly-written, poorly-animated cringe-fest that struggled to escape the tropes of common crossover fanfiction.

I mean, part of it starts with Blake in her old outfit on break, spending time with her parents in Menagerie, which she hadn't seen since leaving Adam at least. Clearly there are no rules here…

I was looking forward to watching this with my Discord buddies and taking out my feelings on V9's finale on a piece of throwaway media… One of our members even skipped out, because they had no interest in watching something so obviously trash.

Damn you, RWBY… You can't even be BAD when I need you to be. I needed you to SUCK ROCKS, and you had the gall… the sheer NERVE to actually be REALLY solid, subversive, and actually cleverly written.

…WHAT?!

So… there's a REASON the continuity makes no sense? Something is out of place and our Remnant crew are taking notice as the world fails to conform to their memories? Meanwhile, the Justice League have appeared across Remnant alongside our wayward Huntresses?

But yeah… Hardly perfect, I wish the ending conflict had taken place somewhere more interesting than just… a field… but the characters were strong and played off each other well. Shoutout goes to Green Lantern Jessica Cruz and Jaune Arc for the most wholesome and interesting subplot, with her being the best DC redesign by far and just being an adorably self-conscious cinnamon roll, and Jaune paying forward his experiences as the guy who started at the bottom rung.

For shit sake, Volume 9 could only put an old-man spin on Jaune's same old story, but here he SHINES taking a different direction and being a shoulder to someone else the way Pyrrha had been to him, and see how well it works!

The only truly questionable thing was probably Bruce Wayne being surprisingly juvenile and his odd quasi-romantic thing with Weiss. Otherwise, some cringe bits and bobs aside, it was just a good time all around.

I guess this is the point where I need to address the state of RWBY in terms of its paymasters. "Greenlight Volume 10" is the sentiment echoed across twitter, and… I'm not holding my breath. I feel conflicted about canon RWBY to begin with, but I feel like there's little that could convince Warner/Discovery whoever-they-are to pony up the cash to continue the IP. The trans issues at Rooster Teeth were really bad publicity last year, and I wouldn't be surprised if the onus was being put on fans demonstrating their excitement in order to "soft-cancel" the series under the caveat of "well, if we see enough people want it back…" so we can't get mad at them for axing another animated show.

Anyway, you might recall I said before that this chapter was originally meant to be part of the prior chapter. And that is because much of this chapter was not planned to be here. Not at THIS juncture anyway.

The Council scene? Planned. Beacon's liberation? Not planned. It was originally something I planned for much later, but the more I thought about it, the reveal of Remnant's anonymous heroes seemed perfect to coincide with the Council learning the truth, and makes the training arc something of a VALE arc, and cap it off accordingly.

And the image training was an entirely new idea that I couldn't resist. It's amazing how one scene from the start of the Namek saga influenced "Kakarot" to use image training for learning new abilities and repeating fights, while I've expanded it to facilitate everything from shared flashbacks to telepathic battles with distant persons.

And oh me oh my did I bite off more than I could chew, but… it was pretty awesome.

Firstly though… yeah, Goku is back to the gulag…

Guys, basically take that as part of the premise, okay? If you're one of the commenters I've gotten in the past who actually goes "ugh, this is so slow! When is Goku gonna go Super Saiyan and fight Frieza…?!" then this story just isn't for you. I'm not interested in doing the same tired old thing. I'm not interested in Goku pimping up and saving the day for the people who are running the trenches every time he's indisposed, injured or running thousands of miles to get to the fight. It's time for the characters to shine who are actually on-hand every time trouble starts brewing.

I love Goku… I love writing the guy at this point, striking that balance between his silly and serious moments, something I once agonized over, which now feels so much more natural. But he's at once one of the best things in Dragonball… and one of the things holding it back.

Anyway, we start with Glynda arriving to seek their help, unable to hold the Council off from making suicidal errors. They choose to let the veil of secrecy slip, to remain anonymous while showing the Council and people of Vale the real threat… and that they're not alone in this fight. To bring peace to Vale after so long under the looming shadow of Beacon.

Ozpin and the Council was gratifying to write. I tried my best to make them feel like politicians with their own drives and interests, an antagonistic force aside from Persimmon, I guess.

I didn't want them to feel blatantly villainous, of course. Even if Oberon is the worst of them politically, I liked the idea of his actions being bad, but his personality being friendly… if obnoxious. Likewise, Dandelion is a bit full of herself, skeptical, but not unreasonable. Lier is perhaps least pleasant, but he's literally the voice we hear at the end of Volume 2, threatening Ozpin's career. That was basically a given. The notion that he's related to Cardin, just a touch of irony, given Jaune cheated his way in while HE was basically grandfathered into the school.

I love the Relic of Knowledge as a mechanic… Being able to catch characters up to speed without belaboring the same details over and over again is so useful.

It really strikes me how much things have progressed, like the names of Salem or Frieza and the reality of them being a matter of public knowledge, even if the public aren't certain they believe it yet.

But our newly dubbed Warriors in the Woods give them something they CAN believe. The time comes to take back Beacon, an event I try to make as glorious as that notion should be… Well, until Ruby recognizes the emptiness of battling a being she no longer feels the same animosity or disdain for.

Everyone gets their little moments as they clean house, charging in, and landing over the Cordon walls as a group… Imagery that SHOULD feel familiar to you…

Yep, that landing is literally taken straight from the Volume 2 opening, the mass superhero landing. I always planned to use that imagery when they took Beacon back, especially given the characters have abilities that make that little nod viable.

The Wyvern was definitely always the final boss of Beacon, and despite the Grimm being largely fodder, I wanted there to at least be SOME strain in finishing it off. Breathing Grimm gunk that actually BECOME swarms of Grimm midair is an idea I liked, something that could produce so much mass that even energy blasts might struggle to penetrate it all. But of course, Ruby has her new technique… the Silver Bullet.

Ruby says what's on the tin. I had the Silver Bullet in mind long before Transposition F was a twinkle in my eye. I actually came up with it while dreaming up a version of Volume 3, as told from XMan's Ruby/Z crossover "Power Within."

Basically, Ruby having a beam that was fired from Crescent Rose' barrel just feels perfect for her.

Hmm? What emotion fuels the Silver Bullet if certain attacks draw off certain emotions or mindsets? Well I'm not sure I could describe it to you…

The solemn walk through Beacon, pouring over the damage and investigating their old haunts was interesting to write. Considering all the ways that disrepair, damage and a heavy Grimm infestation could hollow Beacon out into a dead husk was brutally edifying, and committing it to words all the more so.

I try to keep two sides to the aftermath, with quite a few people getting right onboard with the Warriors and their message, with others dismissing the threats, taking it as an elaborate hoax, or even questioning their right to act in their stead and make such sweeping decisions for humanity, let alone Vale.

It's a real concern, since by design they haven't revealed details like the Relics or where they're hidden. Despite the insistence that being truthful is more productive, there are certain truths that won't help things.

Naturally this news will eventually spread to the other Kingdoms, but everything is much slower, and Atlas has even pulled its embassy staff in preparation for the current lock down.

I make a bunch of new references as the media and Kingdom buzz over it all. John Henry, Rapunzel and even the Princess and the Pea make appearances as their RWBYfied characters. I'm sure you can figure out who is who.

If the Rapunzel one feels like a missed opportunity for a combat-focused character… what were the possibilities? I can name exactly ONE: ripping off Tangled.

"Piper" as Remnant's twitter equivalent is just a joke I really like. I trust I don't need to explain the Pied Piper?

Ah, then the Multi Form technique! It was actually a latter-days decision to use this as a means to have a distinct Oscar and Ozpin at the same time. I haven't settled on whether one will maybe put on a set of spectacles or something to differentiate each other, but it's a fun idea, and gives them more possibilities to interact.

And how about a last hurrah for Renora smut?

Yes, we get one little series of vignettes showcasing the crew playing single-player co-op, with Ren and Nora finally so burnt-out on getting physical that they quit cold turkey. Apart from some classic Dragonball references, this chapter tones down HARD on the lewd stuff. That's not to say it's going away altogether, but it will become less egregious.

Then the image training.

This was just a blast. Getting to show the kids Earth and its curiosities, as well as iconic moments from Dragonball past… it was just too natural. Oh, and if you're concerned that certain bits were omitted, don't worry. I only cut that short because the sequence was getting epic in length. If it's desired, I will absolutely include other flashback scenes later. All in all, the Image training stuff could be its own chapter.

Krillin getting caught in a loop of lewdness before pulling the e-brake and bringing up that one time he frigging died was one of my favorite moments to conceive, plus the little hints and the brotherly moment between the OG Roshi pupils.

And Ruby's observations about Piccolo's age are just the sort of thing I love pointing out… as well as the sort of weird flex Ruby would hold over someone she felt vaguely intimidated by.

But of course, nothing is going to top what happens on King Kai's world, when the deity himself intrudes on their shared dream to deliver a series of match-ups representing the best action sequences of the chapter, per my opinion anyway.

Nobody would have forgiven me if I put Yang and King Kai in the same room and there weren't a PILE of bad jokes. Weiss and her WORSE jokes were just Weissing on the cake…

Yeah, writing jokes is hard… Even lame ones. And yet, writing UNFUNNY jokes for Weiss was somehow more grueling… You'd be surprised.

Then a brief skirmish with King Kai. It's possible this was filler, but there was one time that he squared up with Goku, entirely in a combat stance… so yes, he can fight. I did try to keep it brief though, while presenting him as a considerable threat. Ruby basically ends it by reading the letter of his terms for victory.

And then, our lost members of Team Z. I don't care what anybody says, I love Tien. His library of moves is cool and underutilized, and people forget he was once a titan capable of humbling Goku before King Piccolo had his say. If you're confused about how I alternate with his name, it's only because Team Four Star did that, and I like it.

I don't really have some lore-based reason or anything as to why Nora peeves Chiaotzu, but the idea of Nora being just offensive enough to make him grumpy and demand a fight was funny to me.

Yamcha definitely gets the short end of the stick here. I don't dislike Yamcha, but there's honestly not that much to do with the guy. He has two moves total. Pitting him against three fighters, even rookies, was all I could do to spare his dignity at the inevitable "L." I like to subvert expectations plenty, but some memes are too powerful and essential not to play straight. Yamcha in the crater is one of those.

And of course, Piccolo. I wanted Piccolo to have some awareness about Gohan having another person he looked up to, and the idea of vetting that person for himself… well… it just writes itself. Naturally, he's quite the opponent, and the prospect of fighting him… yeah.

I didn't want to disrespect our Z Warriors by having one-on-ones with these fresh-faced ki users and having them lose, so with the exception of Chiaotzu, they get the handicap of a partner/s to take on these hardened old hands.

Basically, I've been trying to emphasize that deficiencies of skill tend to come less from fighting experience as ki experience. Our Z fighters have a few years under their belt with this stuff, even if they didn't hit Goku's level at the end of OG Dragonball until training at Kami's. Basically, keeping that in context, RWBY and co. have been trained by exceptional fighters using the best training methods available. They're still green, but they're not as far behind the curve as you'd think, and most of them have YEARS of fighting experience which is applicable at every level of combat.

So the fact that Yamcha and Chiaotzu are defeated isn't THAT surprising… especially given the track record of both. Tien though? More complicated story. Piccolo? I'm not gonna say White Rose never stood a chance, but the odds were against them.

Hey, even Krillin has surprised him in the past.

Choreography virtually takes longer than anything else as a per word basis, unless I'm researching something I need total accuracy on… which probably includes the entire flashback sequence so nobody could tell me I misremembered something… as well as things like how hard I had to research how the lighting sequence in Junior's club worked. I had not been aware that the trees on the dance floor were holograms…

So Piccolo vs White Rose was interesting, if plenty fun, make no mistake. I really tried to go for some creative stuff, especially towards the end with Ruby using Dust. The brutal defeat of Chiaotzu really WAS the secret sauce to shift the fights into a "phase two" and change-up the terrain to something a bit more epic and offer new possibilities with the environment. Use of the circling debris as hiding places, projectiles, footholds to launch attacks from, it just upped the ante perfectly for both remaining fights. The two-sided Kamehameha, while the Gigas' blade pinned Piccolo in place was a finisher I'm proud to have thought up. But of course, Piccolo is no ordinary fighter.

Earliest chance to use the Makankosappo, and I don't regret it a bit. As someone who grew up with the Toonami airings, and didn't watch the Japanese… yeah, it's a LOT cooler than "Special Beam Cannon." I feel a little bad at taking great pleasure doing simulated harm to Ruby and Weiss, both skewered by the beam… in the face, in Ruby's case. But if you have a chance to ignore a character's plot armor and give them a sticky end, you're pretty much obligated to go hard.

And in equal regard, I LOVED writing Tenshinhan vs Bumblebee. They scraped by, but I'm not gonna take that triumph away from Yang. Getting creative with Blake's semblance evolution, her ribbon and pairing off with Yang was great in combination with old moves like the Four Witches technique and Dodon Ray. Also, Dodon Array is my own idea, the part where he uses all four arms to fire the attack. Something about Tien and Yang grappling feels incredibly right to me, two powerhouses locked in a struggle, you can't beat that… except with four arms.

But the finale was the clincher here, and I'm so glad it feels cinematic, at least according to my pre readers. Tien making cool use of the Kikoho to finish the fight, eclipsing the entire planet and taking aim out of the picture… So satisfying to me. And Yang barely surviving only to… well…

Firstly though, you can probably see I'm trying to distribute the Kaioken to more people. I find it's a logical decision if you want to try making the non-Saiyan fighters more viable. Later I single out Ruby, Ren and Blake, plus Krillin. Largely, apart from the legit issues of emotional turmoil or a character just being a hothead, I picked them because of those characters being relatively underpowered in combat compared to other characters with a lot more raw power to fall back on. Yes, Ruby has Silver Eyes, but that's more a special thing that happens under specific circumstances. I actually wanted Piccolo to have it as well as Tien, but I was reminded about self-mastery being so important with the Kaioken, and the fact that he's literally half of one person.

Anyway, Tien goes in for the kill, and Bumblebee would have lost altogether, if Yang hadn't been pushed into her own semblance evolution, the Sapphire Phoenix.

And yes, it's blue… or rather, white with a blue glow… largely to differentiate it from a very similar thing done in the now-defunct "This War of Mine." I'm not even going to pretend it wasn't a factor. I tried for SO long to think up something distinct that fit Yang's powers, her personality, her ancestry. TWOM nailed it on the head, and I just had to concede that this IS how Yang's semblance would evolve if it ever did. Yang is literally the child of a woman named Raven, with a brother named Qrow, and her Dad's name means Sun. A flaming bird that dies only to renew itself is absolutely on-brand for the child of those two people.

I DID differentiate how she achieves it though. TWOM basically changed it via emotional trauma, and the change was permanent. My version stems from the fact that she can take more damage with her shield down and still use her semblance, which wasn't possible before. Breaks, bruises, cuts, all give her more than her Aura shield absorbing hits, and she can funnel the resulting boost into healing herself.

I actually wasn't even going to reveal this yet, but I wasn't sure exactly when I was going to anyway. And the opportunity was ultimately too good to pass up. I held an emergency meeting on my Discord where I loaded a model of Yang and tested different renderings of her semblance with various colors and textures and effects. Basically, I wanted to be sure it actually looked good and not just "good in my head."

Anyway, Yang uses the boost and amplified power to finish Tien off in exceptional fashion, and our foray into the mindscape comes to a close for now. I briefly hold a sequence to better explain Sapphire Phoenix, mostly to close the potential infinity-hole of Yang being able to stockpile power and heal even while her semblance is active.

Then, we go out into Vale and have a few smaller stories. I loved bringing Junior back, dealing with a dispute over his club's music. He mentions "CAPA", which stands for the Composers, Authors and Publishers Association, and how they're a "pain in the ass." That's because CAPA sounds like "kappa," which is a mythological Japanese creature that steals your soul from your rear.

I've heard people say they wanted to see some of Yang's being framed in the tournament come back, since it really doesn't in canon. Junior seemed the perfect person to bring that up as a slight against her, better than some rando, anyway.

Then we get a few bits like Ruby and Gohan bonding, including answering another question posed by readers regarding why Ruby doesn't talk about the possibility of reviving Summer. But by and large we have Sun glimpsing some people less enthused about their existence, and the unfortunate reality of Mistral and Vacuo refugees given emergency lodgings… and Weiss' romantic outing with Jaune.

Ah yes, their brief dance, skating through the sky… It's amazing how one little second of footage can inspire something. In this case, it's that bit from the V7 intro where Weiss uses an arrangement of glyphs to half-pipe a Centinel.

Then… one big reference to Phantom of the Opera.

I cut a few possible things that might have happened in this chapter. One was Weiss getting photographed by a paparazzo, who is subsequently chased. Ultimately, Weiss would call it even, because her new clothes have anti-paparazzi tech which blows out digital camera sensors, to the paparazzo's chagrin. Not something I made up, by the way, that's a real thing. But I couldn't think of a prying character from a fairytale that fit this person, and their failure only seemed like it might be setting up something in the future… which it wasn't.

The other was a sort of Japanese-style Summer festival held in honor of the fallen Kingdom of Mistral, but apart from the vibe, I just didn't see any real possibilities from it apart from carnival games you've seen in a million slice of life anime.

So Jaune and Weiss at the opera, sneaking in and watching from above felt like a better fit. And why not tie it in to the most famous opera-based story?

I considered having an actual phantom character, but that seemed forced, not to mention pointless. Instead, Weiss serves the role, since as a songbird herself, she sings alongside the performance and starts a rumor. Heck, she's even got a scar.

No, the Latin lyrics aren't from an actual song, I made them up. Translate them if you want.

There are lyric references in this bit, characters like Christine and Carlotta being r36'd into Chris and Carlos. I'm not a theater geek, my mother just had a cassette of the Phantom soundtrack she used to play in the car when I was a kid. Still, it was fun to make these connections.

And… Cardin.

This one's been planned for a good long while. I actually don't think this is a stretch at all, and it's largely inspired by Cardin's appearance in Chibi… in the sense that I went the opposite way of that.

In Chibi, Cardin is the same half-villainous skidmark he is in Volume 1, which reminds me of something that happened in the Ultima series with a character called Lord Blackthorn. In Ultima 5, he was corrupted and enforced a brutal rule over the lands, only to be banished at the end of the game.

In fluff found in Ultima 7, you find a book he wrote after being banished, which recounts how he turned his perspective around and became a far better person.

…But in the EA-driven finale, Ultima 9 (well after the corporation had gutted and destroyed Origin Systems) Blackthorn returns as little more than a scummy wormtongue for the ultimate evil, The Guardian. His prior redemption was forgotten about, and it was just business as usual.

So Cardin still being a potential enemy just wouldn't have felt satisfying to me. It seemed much more interesting to see that in the time since we last spoke to him, that Cardin's gained some insight and perspective. I LOVE the callback to Volume 2, with Oobleck asking the same probing questions to force students to consider who they'll be as Huntsmen. And Cardin is inspired to become a better man…

Just a bit of wholesomeness before the inevitable bottom dropping out when Weiss finally makes her move on Jaune.

That story isn't over, but you knew this would happen. Jaune feels this would be a betrayal to Pyrrha, that it's wrong to want Weiss after Pyrrha was so cluelessly ignored by him. Maybe it's not unexpected, but… it's necessary.

Weiss being so uncomfortable the next morning that she jets off with Vegeta the moment he suggests it is such a mood to me. Neo nursing a hangover while Yang and Ruby try to match her inexplicably sinister expression is a bit I wanted to use for a while. It's fun to play Neo's darker side when she's not aiming it at the good guys.

Then we have Bulma and the original Black Sun crew take a brief sojourn in Manta Five-One. I really wanted them to reconnect since things have gone slightly distant between them after arriving on Patch. I paired these characters for a reason, and I don't want those relationships to fade. Every character will gain new and unexpected bonds with others they meet along the way, but the original groups will always have a special bond as respective ambassadors.

The Galick Gun scene was an enjoyable time to write Vegeta dialog… which is always fun. But more than learning Vegeta's signature technique, the idea that Weiss gains a token understanding of Vegeta's pride, and finds reason to take it to heart is far more valuable to me. A connection with the man himself, and a reason not to take shame in her name.

I also introduce the idea of emotions bringing the most out of certain techniques. I like this idea because it flavors certain attacks, gives the choice to use them unspoken meaning and grants them more personality. It means there's more to these attacks than just being really big blasts in specific colors.

Hmm? What are other attacks based on? I'll probably reveal these later off the cuff, but the Masenko, for example… is rage.

Let's see… then Yang takes interest in the Kienzan, and… oh… hehehe, right.

Yeah, if you were confused by Ruby's aquatic crisis… have you ever accidentally backed up too close to a spa jet? Or sat on one of those hose-mounted sprinkler heads for kids to have fun with in the Summer?

Well, hitting the water at those speeds, backwards, tends to force water into places you don't want it to go. For a lesser body, it can be fatal. Poor Ruby… just receives a bit of severe intestinal distress.

Why have this scene at all? I won't lie to you… the prospect of Goku mispronouncing "Anima" as "enema" with Yang's subsequent jab was too tempting not to include. Crass? Sure. But don't pretend you didn't laugh…

Then, the return of Remnant, The Game! Explanations of The Great War for the less RWBY literate among us, a bit more explanation of Typhon, the mystery continent I mentioned back in Chapter 19, and what most likely happened there…

I tried to model my understanding of the board game according to the actual rules of "Risk" which it's certainly based off of. I'm not overly proud of this sequence, but I like the idea of the Somnium Poppies card, which is a reference to the poppy fields that put Dorothy and the others to sleep on their way to the Emerald City in The Wizard of Oz.

Naturally though, it gradually dawns that a jaunty war game about real places, some that no longer freaking EXIST… is in bad taste, and deeply uncomfortable.

And of course, bolstered by a bit more confidence and already surging with need… Weiss gets her shakes out by succumbing to temptation and having some "me-time," which can only be better served with a second "me" to share in it.

Ah, and finally to the Spirit Bomb and Kiaoken scenes.

I'm always placed in an interesting position when it comes to training sequences where characters learn new abilities. I have to keep perspective, because my instinct is that readers want me to explain how and why techniques work, the inner workings of the energy, where it comes from, what's happening internally. And hey, to be fair, it's part of my claim to fame, right? I mean, whatever counts as sub-Z-grade fame?

But yeah, linking Aura and ki with the three-part Ki system is one of the things that define the "magic system" in this story and has acted to explain a lot of things that might otherwise have been contradictory or baffling between both series. So given it's been successful for me in the past, I'm compelled to try to carry that momentum forward.

Yet, I need to step back sometimes and remember what happened in Z. Training arcs in Z are rarely that informative. We remember Goku chasing monkeys on high gravity worlds or doing push-ups in spaceships, but is there EVER a discussion like the ones I've had?

Well… no. Dragonball has characters train largely off screen, and then the next time they're in a big fight, they just PULL new moves and abilities out and explain them later, if at all. Goku's Spirit Bomb is among the only abilities we see before it gets used against his enemies.

And that's great for hype, to a point. People like being surprised. Seeing Goku arrive on the battlefield after training with someone like Kami or King Kai and seeing just how far that took him since we last saw him… it adds to his mystique, puts him on this pedestal as we take on the perspective of his friends and see him pick apart previously dire threats like a god. And it's not like people go, "wait, the Kaioken can multiply power? How? I need to see the numbers on that!"

Because sometimes as a writer, even when you're trying to go more into what characters learn and teach the viewer as THEY are taught… you have to accept that some things are just beyond description. You need to realize that it doesn't need to fit on a calculator to be believable in this fictional Universe of fictional power.

Not to say I didn't try. Hopefully the talks about currents, feng shui and finding one's "center" do it for you, because that's the best I could do.

It was never a question to me that Ruby would get choked-up feeling the Spirit Bomb and giving it the meaning and reverence it deserves, to the point of even leaving Goku a little lost for words. I certainly draw a lot of parallels between Ruby and Goku, but they are definitely distinct as characters with very different perspectives on life and fighting, with things to teach each other.

Ah… and then Vegeta shows up, and Blake gets a bit fed up with the name "Kakarot."

No, I wasn't being serious about that, as you could tell by the others trying to talk Blake down from her soapbox. I just think it's REALLY funny to refer to Vegeta's refusal to use Goku's Earthling name as "deadnaming."

Blake is kind of the socially conscious one of the group, so naturally these jokes fall to her. I do think rule of threes (or whatever we're at by now) dictates that I hold off on these jokes for a while, at least for Blake, because I don't want her to be the one who polices everyone's language to the point of annoyance. My writing assistant called this behavior "Lisa Simpsoning," which is probably accurate. But yeah, don't worry, that's gonna be turned way down from this point onwards.

To be clear, I don't support ACTUAL deadnaming. I'm not making fun of the concept. Let people be who they are, call them by their preferred names and with their associated he/she/theys. Love and respect, people.

I loved being able to write Goku being serious, relatable, even trying to connect with Ren's past. Him being calm, encouraging, conversational… it's not something we see that often, but it feels satisfying. But I wanted him to be enjoying himself too. Earlier when Ruby falls asleep, he doesn't get angry, he sees an opportunity to be a bit of a troll. There's a balance to strike, and it all just felt really good to jot down.

And… well… then he overextends himself, and you know the rest. Don't think he can't train anymore. That's part of the reason I introduced Image Training. He can still spar with the others in the mindscape.

And… yeah, definitely been building towards Sun taking drastic action and spurring the trip to Vacuo. His cousin, Starr Sanzang, is not made up. She's featured in "Before The Dawn," and per Journey To The West, she's based on the same character as Bulma is.

And so, the next leg of the journey begins. The basics have been learned, the mission is set, and dangers abound in the mysterious occupation of Vacuo…

But now… Comments!

bruh12354: Wow, I didn't expect to act on most of your concerns in this chapter, haha. Hopefully you have some answers, as well as a remedy to the aforementioned "dirtiness". I've considered an after-story, but it wouldn't go on a saga by saga basis, I know that much. I'd try to jumble the timeline as much as I could to mix things up and keep it from becoming predictable.

MasterAyaka: Took me a second to remember what you meant.

Ozpin's influence has been felt in several works of in-Universe literature given how long he's lived. Blake's book was almost certainly talking about him or otherwise inspired by him, but he's been around for a long time as several different people.

Son Kenshin: Sorry on multiple counts, first being your father… Seriously, my condolences… Second over Goku. You and I both know he doesn't need help where Frieza is concerned, which makes him an obstacle to anything cool happening with other characters.

Also, I must rebuke you a bit. Goku's transformation was iconic… His "I Am" speech was great in both forms it took. But the battle that followed? Honestly, kind of a mess that went on for far too long. And go figure, Toriyama himself took the fight after Goku turns Super Saiyan as an afterthought. He famously wanted to reach the point where Goku transformed and fixed Frieza with that glare… and then he remembered, "oh right, they have to FIGHT now…"

As to Tai, he's a father dealing with someone who tried, on separate occasions, to murder each of his children. A loving father is a terrifying thing when you threaten his kids.

Xros: Glad you like the Yang/Krillin pairing, and I hope that unexpectedly prompt chapter makes up a little for this one being so late.

And yeah, Neo was a fun addition I've wanted to make for a while, so I'm glad she's gone over well.

X3runner: Yeah, that scene with Oscar third-wheeling and being the only one to feel the sexual tension was fun to write. Not to say Ruby is entirely naive or would never think of that sort of thing. But she's shy about that, and plenty can slip past her.

Not sure what "pull a Piccolo with Neo" means. Clothes beam?

And Gohan and Krillin have been having chamber time, it's just mostly off screen because it's basic sparring and stuff.

KGDNIP: Thank you! I hope Goku got to shine a bit in this chapter given what happened. As to Krillin… I think his luck with blondes has been pretty solid.

Temsen: Well, as a Huntsman, I doubt he'd care much for killing in revenge. Neo's actions haven't been about protection, after all, they've been about getting even.

kerrowe: Describing Dahlia like that was very much intentional given her inspiration as the China people from Oz. Glad you caught it.

That's an interesting wager about Vegeta's semblance.

Yeah, Gohan can get lost in the mix. Been trying to avoid that.

Guest1: I always find it interesting when people try to "explain" to me how DBZ works, like, trying to "warn" me about how the ultimate conflict will go down like I haven't planned it down to the last detail?

Oh wait, no… no, "interesting" isn't the word… what was it… Oh.

"Condescending." Yeah, that's the one.

reeleffendeel: Dude, I LIVE for comments like yours. Well, actually long and descriptive ones… but whatever, your praise is heavy and makes me feel ten feet tall. I hesitate to say I can outdo anything canon can do, because canon RWBY does manage to surprise me rather frequently. It's been a lot more ambitious since Volume 6, and whenever they manage to hit some high notes I never would have expected, it makes me question everything I'm doing.

The Last Z Fighter: Well, hopefully you can see I'm working on that with proliferating the Kaioken, among other things. You know I'm a Krillin fan, and I want my man to be able to at least get some hits in.

Ultimatrix bearer: Well, you got Yang's this chapter! But yeah, thanks. I knew there were decent chances that Krillin and Yang would be slightly contentious, but that's the nature of ships.

Yeah, absolutely use the magic explanation, I work hard to figure this stuff out, and as I mentioned… I literally think that's how it works in RWBY.

TimsonShay: Hehe, thanks… and now I feel all the more pressure to make Cinder's development from here onwards feel different from before.

The challenge is making her a more competent, respectful villain, losing her petulance, her smugness… while somehow making her a worse person.

I think Volume 8 TRIED to do this, but Cinder's epiphany turned out to just be an act, which cheapened it and just made us hate her more. So suffice to say, there's a lot of pressure…

Zero: Not necessarily. I never said that.

King0fGrimm: Oh dear god, you know how much your comments make me smile? This is validation for like, all of my work… And it's hilarious.

Yeah, I always hated getting cheated out of that part of Beacon's fall, so any excuse to expand on that, I was gonna take. And yes, as you say, setting the record straight on how Cinder got as messed up as she was… as specifically as she was.

Ruby tried to kill herself… Man, it really IS a bit haunting how I hit some of the same notes as Volume 9, but beat them to the punch for once. And for largely the same reason, the loss of a Kingdom. Sometimes when I feel like I'm not making as much progress, I have to remind myself what landmarks I've already hit.

I think the overall journey Ruby goes through in V9, where she starts and where she finishes, is by and large good… It's just the connective tissue towards the end that needs a few more dots to connect. While she certainly "broke," she didn't lose who she was and become Captain Grimdark or anything.

As to Aang and Steven Universe, I'm reminded of Team Four Star's distinction between jerky and filet mignon. "Ooh! I like BOTH those things!" So sadly(?) I don't share your disdain for Steven. Do you mean Future, where he's reckoning with a childhood laced with trauma and a connection with humanity he feels he's never had? Because I liked how refreshingly realistic that take was, personally.

I'm glad you're liking my take on our RWBY fighters experiencing what it's like to be on Z level. I really do feel like it's one of my selling points, and the reason I've gone for an in depth training arc instead of announcing training and skipping to a month later where they're suddenly ninja. Z never talks about this stuff, so that experience felt worth exploring. I'm glad I was right, in your case.

I wouldn't say she one-shot Krillin, but that shot she got on him was a good indicator on how that would have gone down. She was looking forward to a serious struggle with him, and she felt robbed of it when she realized those roles had reversed.

Your words regarding Tyrian were a surprise though. I really don't feel I did a lot different, and I've never actively compared him to any other villains I know, so I'm not about to make sweeping criticisms about his past appearances in RWBY. I knew he could take on a Maiden because he was tasked with that by Salem in the first place, and using bystanders to his advantage because said Maiden is honor-bound to serve the innocent? I never expected less. Maybe that's why it worked, haha.

Oh, and if you think him being responsible for Marna's situation is bad NOW… wait until later, once you realize the full scope of what he did that night. He destroyed more than you saw that night…

Glad you like Marna. An OC was basically inevitable since we have no canon Summer Maiden (and probably never will now) and if we got one… honestly, with the track record of CRWBY for Maidens who aren't main cast members, I kinda wanted to have my say and snatch up one of the characters they left on the table before they trotted out another generic Amber or Fria.

I'm so glad the montage went over well. I was worried people would feel cheated. Yeah, I wanted to recover some of the magic of Ren's first, most badass moment. As to Blake, I'm really happy with her evolution, especially on a symbolic level that despite leaving a copy in retreat… she can always just come back. She's not running anymore.

As to ki blasts, I don't think I'd call it a retcon, I think it must work like that. With how strong Z characters become, they MUST be able to stop their attacks from just atomizing the planet every time they miss a shot, and otherwise contain the damage.

Neo was a fair while in the making, and I'm glad you think I did her justice. She's fun to work with. Honestly, I just hope I can justify her as part of the crew beyond just "hey guys, look, it's Neo on the team! You guys love Neo, right?!"

Also, thanks about the Penny stuff. I said my piece in this A/N, but… No, Volume 9 solidified that they have no intentions of giving her any justice or respect. And it's only gotten worse with the JL movie taking place during the Atlas arc and snubbing her, let alone learning that JL Part 2 will take place AFTER V9, so yeah… Now all I can do is cling onto the idea of undoing what they did and trying for the rest of my life to eclipse RWBY itself with my work. Apparently, this is now my reason for living.

Oh, don't you worry about Z semblances… That's coming.

The "just right" thing wasn't a Puss reference, much as I liked that movie. That's standard Goldilocks stuff. Not the first time someone's said something like that either, because people who haven't seen Monty Python have asked if my "I got better" was a Puss reference too. If only they saw the chapter date on 15, haha.

I'dMakeANameButIDon'tWantTo: Cherry tops! It's the man!

Again, glad Neo is getting the love. Yeah, no backstory in V9, just bits of her childhood home to enshrine the whole Trivia Vanille thing into canon, so the book "Roman Holiday" is her backstory.

Glad you liked the power stuff. It comes from just being an incorrigible geek and overthinking the CRAP out of this stuff. But, if it leads to content people actually enjoy, then awesome! It's good that I offer something akin to a fresh perspective though, apparently.

Thanks about the pacing. It's good to hear, given certain… other commenters I haven't gotten to yet.

I've said my piece in V9. A mixed bag of generally really good with handfuls of WHY.

RedMist86025949: Someone who quit RWBY after Volume 3? I have to say… that's a new one.

Yeah, I hated James snapping at her, that dick. Qrow though? No way did he actually think she was crazy, he was just tooling. He came there specifically to cheer her up, give her something else to focus on.

Not about to defend Raven or the death of Sienna though, that's why I changed those things.

Shihaku4: Well, he achieved it…

Matthew: Glad you like it! Again, it's good to see people enjoying the subtler stuff. Yeah, only a hack is going to outright steal TFS gags. I'll make references, but VERY sparing ones, subtle nods. Yeah, I've seen stories try to just BE DBZA episodes, and it's really winceworthy to watch.

Hopefully this wrap-up has you excited, because next chapter is going to be something else…

WitnessofFate and J the Rider:

These I feel I need to handle at once due to having similar sentiments.

I think you should know that these comments were debilitating for me. I don't shrug off negative criticism, and in fact I fixate upon it. One negative comment can cancel out five " 'Atta-boys" for me, because I constantly come down hard on my own work and strive to improve it. I'm TERRIFIED of the idea that I'm being gaslit by people with low standards and don't realize I'm doing poor work. An Ed Wood, a Tommy Wiseau, laboring under delusions of the Dunning-Kruger variety.

So when I tell you I LEGITIMATELY don't know how to win with you guys, that's not me throwing my hands up, that's me just having no idea how to satisfy everything everybody wants if they're calling these content-packed chapters "boring" or "a slog."

"Bare bones training" became something of a meme on my Discord after Witness' comment, because literally I've been more involved and in-depth than RWBY or DBZ combined. Find me a training sequence where the viewer and characters are all learning how these powers work and see them pushing themselves to greater heights, instead of leaving characters off screen for several episodes only for them to pimp up with their gains made while we couldn't see it.

Because, at the risk of being a little defensive, I have some fucking news for you: I CAN'T do the same thing for our RWBY characters that Z would for Goku. Do you have ANY idea what readers would do if I turned around and suddenly they could all fly and were on par with Saiyan Saga Goku with barely any struggle seen? I already get accused of "nerfing" Dragonball characters or "wanking" RWBY characters just for not having them insta-loss memed in every encounter. I HAVE to make them fucking EARN their power! Every BIT of it! I need you to SEE them grow, gradually, believably, so nobody can tell me I just waved a wand and gave them Z powers.

There's just no winning, is there? Either I make it a journey in itself and it's called "boring," or I rush it and now nobody buys it.

Forgive me for thinking that watching characters grow, getting stronger, getting closer to that level is fun and exciting. Apparently that's not "the main story," so I'm just sitting on my hands building characters and arcs and worldbuilding when we COULD be jumping headfirst into scenarios where they'd all frigging DIE…

What do you consider "the main story" exactly? What's not happening that you're so impatient for? Relic hunting?

No, training can't happen "on the go," that's pointless. When they're done, as you can see, they can circumnavigate the globe in a matter of hours.

Where would they be going, Atlas? They need to find the Summer Maiden first —which you might note, I've been setting up as of Chapter 21— because it would be madness to try and escort the Winter Maiden to Vacuo, where Frieza is sitting like a dragon on its hoard.

I guess Krillin and Gohan could go on their own… Gee, how fun and exciting to exclude half of our crossover… And I'm sure those two would know exactly where to go and who to talk to. Oh silly me, they could just haul Oscar with them like a human backpack.

I've answered the concerns about lewd material to my own satisfaction with the FFN and uncut AO3 versions. If that's not enough, like you're skeeved out by incest jokes, then bite me.

"Unnecessary pairings," is just crap I don't want to hear. Renora is straight canon, Raven and Vegeta makes sense and will be plot critical, Weiss and Jaune is basically what the canon is angling towards, Tai and Bulma are straight wholesome and Yang with Krillin has been pretty tame so far. What's left, Black Sun? Oh yeah, they've just been SUFFOCATING, right?

What would you lose if the ship stuff was cut, three percent of the story? Yeah? So hardly a DENT. I'm sorry humans being humans is such a problem for you guys.

Oh, and lastly? I find it a little insulting that someone can whine to me about chapters they fully admit they only "skimmed."

I don't know what you want… and frankly, I'm not sure you do either.

Guest2: How can you have read to Chapter 17 without basic reading comprehension skills? Your barbs are meaningless drivel, founded in stupid power level bullshit. It was explained to you that Salem has Occult Energy, the opposite of the power of a God. She is the spawn of a God of Destruction, a thing that shouldn't exist.

And Frieza didn't lose, because she didn't fight back. She CAN'T fight back. She can take a hit, she can't dish it back. Your stupid hangup is pure ego tied to DBZ. You wanted to see Salem get humbled, and I wouldn't give you that, so now you're pitching a fit.

You won't exactly be missed.

DUDESTOPLETMECHOOSENICKNAME: Well wow, I keep fulfilling people's wishes in this chapter, don't I? Hope you liked it!

BangusSisig: You're damn right…

Guest3: Thank you! Here's a biggun'...

Guest4: What bizarre nonsense is this? What kind of "might makes right" world do you live in?

How strong they are is irrelevant, Goku and Krillin are guests in their home… and they knowingly endangered Taiyang's daughter and Yang's sister. Why WOULDN'T they be pissed? They have every right to throw them out on their ass if they choose.

Why do I even need to explain this? Are you ten years old? Because you have the moral immaturity of one.

Guest5: Thanks, hope this works!

JensenDaniels32: Yep, you got it. Far better than someone I could name… Guest2