MARZ Rising

by FandomPariah

It's been thirty years since Ruby Rose saved Remnant from Salem and almost a decade since it was saved again. Salem is gone yet the Creatures of Grimm remain and now a new generation of Hunters are ready to begin their story... By enrolling at the Breaktide Academy of Menagerie where they'll be trained by legends including Team CFVY and Ruby Rose herself. Part 5 of the Spiral-Verse

170. The End (Epilogue)

RWBY & All associated trademarks are property of Rooster Teeth (RIP Monty Oum)

I claim no ownership of anything except my own original characters.

I am making no money from this.

Chapter 170: The End (Epilogue)

Remnant had changed greatly in the five years since the defeat of Gestalt-Prime, Ruby Rose's so called apotheosis into a Grimm with a soul and the taming of the Grimm Hive-Mind that had been put into motion.

In those five years an unprecedented level of peace had been achieved and the act of rebuilding to replace what had been lost and taken was now giving way to genuine progress and prosperity. These advancements had largely been the work of Ruby Rose herself, whose dominion over the Creatures of Grimm had expanded steadily and allowed her to tackle threats and challenges on a greater scale than ever before all from the comfort of her own personal domain outside of the Kingdoms.

Some things had stayed the same however; there was still a place for Hunters in this new Remnant and Team MARSZ were not only considered some of the first and foremost amongst them but had also continued to hone their abilities both individually and as a team to a level which allowed them to earn the legendary status they had been afforded.

A reality their latest targets were in the process of learning.

Even with the Creatures of Grimm outside of the reach of the larger Hive-Mind having lost the capacity to organize themselves into anything beyond squabbling packs and the occasional migratory horde, tamed and silenced to such an extent that the once uninhabitable stretches of badlands beyond the Kingdoms were delved into ever more deeply there were still threats to safeguarded against. There were rogue Hunters determined to rally against the new order, gathering small followings in many cases. There were also the ceaseless activities of criminals, ranging from petty roving bandits to larger and more complex organizations intent on profiting on every opportunity that the misery of others provided.

Worse still were the scattered, broken dregs of Damascus Nero's followers who had managed to escape not only the obliteration of their leaders' movement but also the justice that should have followed; these disaffected and disparate groups had by and large formed two distinct subcategories, those who had taken to their beliefs with religious fervor and formed dangerous but often isolated cult-like groups reminiscent of Aefen Cruor's 'Path of the Apex Being' and the far more dangerous mad scientists intent on using Nero, Aefen Cruor and Albion Herringbone's advancements and ingenuity to their own ends.

There had, in recent years been cases wherein drugs purporting to include enough Grimm-essence to give a user the monstrous abilities of a Grimm-Hybrid had been sold with disastrous effects and far more cases of rogue scientists turned armed dealers using technology derived from Cyber-Grimm to equip a would-be warlord and criminal mastermind.

It was this an example of this latter group Team MARSZ were currently chasing.

"We're not gaining on them" Zirconia's voice came from behind Athena as the Bear Faunus gave chase to their quarry from the air, the three of them riding above a winged Grimm-construct that Athena had summoned.

Their opponent was frankly laughable and were it not a personal goal of Zirconia's to ensure that her adopted fathers' works could not be used to hurt anyone else Team MARSZ would likely have felt somewhat disappointed by the resistance they encountered.

The five of them had received intelligence that an individual was operating on the border between the Mantle Freeholds and Atlesian territory, using a disused and abandoned manufacturing facility of some sort to produce Cyber-Grimm inspired tanks, personal carriers and armor. When Athena-Jade, Stygian and Zirconia had stormed the building what they had found instead was a cluttered and under-supplied workshop operated by a lone figure who had promptly bundled themselves into the only vehicle in sight; namely an admittedly large and sturdy six-wheeled thing with an intimidating appearance but one which also smoked intermittently, seemed to have currently functioning weapons and a decided lack of any actual Cyber-Grimm components.

"Do we really need to gain on them at this point?" Athena laughed, entirely unbothered by the idea that their foe might escape as they sped down an empty stretch of road bordered by nothing but open expanses of snow on either side "Do you think there's even enough Dust in that thing to get anywhere?"

"Maybe not but it's the principal….Can't have that peace of junk making us look like it took too much effort" Stygian countered, coming to Zirconia's aid with a soft, rich and jovial tone which the wind whipped around them in the iron gray sky did nothing to muffle "Besides, Astra and Regalia will be in position soon"

"Yeah…." Athena-Jade began to answer, half-turning in her position at the head of her summoned construct whilst fully confident in her ability to control the shimmering and ephemeral thing even whilst looking away; yet as she did so she found herself momentarily distracted by the sight of both of her partners, both as a Hunter and romantically.

Finding herself in awe for a fraction of a second at how beautiful they both were and how well things had turned out for her.

Stygian Blue currently wore an outfit which would suggest that despite being born and raised on the island of Menagerie the Mouse Faunus was completely immune to cold; wearing only black dress-pants and a garment resembling a waist-coat with two flowing and trailing tails spaced to accommodate his own Faunus attribute. The lack of a shirt left both the scars littering Stygian's chest and his tattoos which had been allowed to fade as a sign of his moving past the identity Pikesreach had tried to assign to him. His hair was still dyed a deep shade of royal blue and currently worn in long braids which reached down his back whilst his cybernetic right arm had been painted in an electric shade which matched his eyes and was repeated on the small pieces of light-weight armor affixed haphazardly to his attire. With Sharp Cheese destroyed in the fight against Gestalt-prime Stygian had forged a new pair of slightly shorter katana which were slung across his back and had, to much groaning been named 'The Rat-Catchers'.

Zirconia Shadowmoon was as effortlessly mysterious as ever, still clad in array of blacks and deep grays accentuated by polished and highly stylized silver armor; most of which was currently hidden from view, along with her raven black hair which was currently at shoulder length by the garment the Grasshopper Faunus had taken to wearing in place of her former shawls and scarves, namely a heavy and hooded black cloak clearly inspired by Ruby Rose which was fastened by a pin which featured her own personal emblem set atop Athena-Jade's. Sunriser Cain had been painstakingly repaired, rebuilt and enhanced and Zirconia's fingers currently drummed against the weapon as she peered at Athena, the love of her life with her mismatched eyes.

"We need to keep close enough to jump in as soon as Astra and Regalia take the shot" she said simply, her rasping tones having gained an assertiveness and certainty in recent years which only made her more attractive to Athena.

"On it" the pale-skinned Bear Faunus turning back to the matter at hand largely so that neither of her lovers could torment her for her lapse in concentration and the blushing that had accompanied it.

Athena herself wore her own shaggy hair in the messy, spiky undercut she had come to find best suited her along with an outfit which personified her; hi-topped sneakers with armor plating and improved grip, shorts which left her scarred and muscular legs on display to a degree which both of her partners' thoroughly enjoyed and a pristine white sleeveless jacket with a broad collar worn over lightweight and practical armor whilst her large and powerful arms and neck were decorated in small items of jewelry and trinkets which featured not only her own signature color but also those of her partners.

With a burst of willpower her construct surged forward, closing the gap between the three of them and their escaping opponent considerably whilst also swooping lower whilst Athena herself reached behind her to clutch at Heartbreaker in preparation.

And then the remaining members of Team MARSZ made their appearance.

"Here it comes" Athena laughed, knowing that neither Astra nor Regalia would be able to stop themselves from putting on a dramatic display.

Regalia Russet had, as any who knew her expected her to, built a new cybernetic leg for herself using stock parts and specifications as only the most elementary of starting points to produce something wholly unique which was left proudly on display by her attire. The Raccoon Faunus's outfit was an exercise in asymmetry; her charcoal gray pants being shorts on the left side to reveal her prosthesis and cargo pant on the right, covered in additional pouches and storage whilst she wore practical boots on both feet. Her bushy and striped gray-brown tail emerged from beneath a purple hoodie worn to fend off the Atlesian climate, over which Regalia had donned a patchwork jacket of mismatched grays, blacks and tan-browns with dull bronze armor integrated into the right arm from wrist to shoulder whilst on her right hand she wore a heavy black motorcycle glove.

Her hair was undercut, sheared at the back and sides but with enough length to form a single tight lions' tail of hair which was wrapped and decorated with red and purple beads, along with a small collection of trinkets from her travels with her team.

Behind her, clutching onto their partner for dear life was Astra who looked gleefully chaotic.

The Deer Faunus had, due to it being far too damaged to continue wearing finally updated their wardrobe and placed the red-leather jacket they had worn since starting out at Breaktide Academy in a display case. In its' place they wore a similar item, sleeveless, needlessly flamboyant and decorated with countless silver spikes which paired well with both the various piercings they had decorated themselves with and the frame which they had left in place long after their antler had regrown whilst the rest of their outfit was the usual and expected collection of black and red gaudiness, broken up by the gleaming surfaces of Buckshot Ares which had been given amethyst purple detailing during one of its' many servicing sessions; all of which was made more garish by the fact that their signature dark make-up was more pronounced and their spiked Mohawk was larger and a more vivid shade of red than ever.

As they came streaking across the snow at full, breakneck speed there was no doubt in Athena's mind that the driver of the speeding armored vehicle had seen her team-mates; though it was likely that the driver was far more concerned with what exactly it was the two newcomers were riding.

To replace Clunker Regalia Russet had been gifted something which Ruby Rose had found within the depths of information Gestalt-Prime had acquired upon integrating Damascus Nero's warship into their own Behemoth, a design that had been brought to life as a proof of concept that the Cyber-Grimm could be more than just simple weapons. Specifically it was sleek, living and insectoid fusion of mantis-like Cyber-Grimm and a jetbike with gravity warping thrusters built into both its' abdomen and the steering forks formed by its' forelimbs.

Regalia had named it 'Chopper'.

"They're gonna break off" Zirconia warned and was proven correct in a matter of moments when, seeing Chopper carrying two more Hunter toward them from their left the driver sent the armored vehicle veering sharply to the right where it tore a path through the snow with ease.

"Got 'em" Athena assured, unfurling Heartbreaker in its' laser cannon form and opening fire to send a beam of ethereal green light lancing downwards; flash-boiling snow as the Bear Faunus carved a trench into the space ahead of where her teams' quarry was trying to flee and forcing the armored vehicle to once again veer away and change course.

"That's my cue" Stygian noted happily, flashing Athena-Jade a winning smile as she turned to face him for a moment and then winking flirtatiously before using his Semblance. The Mouse Faunus vanished in a liquid rippling of air and reappeared on the ground below, directly in front of the oncoming vehicle which he rolled away from and narrowly avoided being crushed beneath whilst in the same motion managing to draw the Rat-Catchers and slice through one of its' front wheels.

As the now damaged vehicle skidded violently Astra and Regalia leapt into motion, the former leaping from the back of Chopper and engaging their own Semblance; a glowing Aura construct enveloping their body and allowing the Deer Faunus to charge and tackle their target shoulder-first and leave tilting up onto the side of its' body which was now missing part of a wheel. Regalia fired the harpoon of Apex Scavenger into the rear of the mass of rolling armor and used her Grimm Jetbike to provide the final attack on its' balance to send the vehicle skidding across the road upturned and on its' side.

A single punch from Astra's Semblance-self crumpled an armored door.

"My turn" Zirconia murmured with quiet confidence and Athena heard and felt her partners' movement behind her before she saw the Grasshopper Faunus plummet downwards, falling through the air and crashing directly into the cab of the crashed vehicle. Athena swooped down to the snow-dusted ground, allowing her Semblance to dissipate and reform in the shape of several spectral claws whilst her weapon was shifted into its' hammer form in preparation for whatever came next.

Only for the battle to be a non-starter.

Zirconia emerged from the cab mere seconds later, carrying the form of an unconscious opponent over her shoulder. Athena studied the scientist turned arms' dealer and noted that despite the lackluster quality of the wares and armament at his disposal the frail and aging figure was indeed wearing armor which seemed to have been grafted to his body at some point.

"Doctor Subarashi Nichibotsu" Zirconia noted "Wanted for distribution of weapons, controlled performance enhancing substances, treason against the Kingdoms, conspiracy to commit murder, aiding an abetting….And several traffic violations"

The last comment was clearly meant as a joke and the rest of Team MARSZ laughed for a moment before Astra broached the obvious point of contention.

"Did that feel too easy to anyone else?"
"You think it's a trap, or that we missed something?" Zirconia asked, mismatched eyes intense until Astra gave an uncertain shrug.

"Honestly….They've all kinda felt easy for a while" Stygian shrugged "Mob bosses trying to make a private army and a few fanatics don't really match up to some of the Grimm we fought y'know?"

"Heh, we're just that good" Regalia beamed, granting levity to the moment before a sense of nostalgia could turn into something more somber.

"We took someone dangerous off the street" Zirconia answered simply "With any luck he'll give up the names of any of his clients we don't already know about"

"And besides, it's not like it's a bad thing it was easy….We've got plans and we need to be heading back anyway" Athena chimed in.

Her comment being what was needed to give the affair a sense of finality as Astra began to call the authorities in order to have their unconscious prisoner transported, allowing Team MARSZ to return to Schnee Manor and make the final preparations for their plans for the next few days.

---

Whilst Remnant had continued to change around her, with a great many of those changes caused by her own influence Ruby Rose herself had remained almost entirely unchanged from the moment she had reappeared, reformed and reshaped by the Grimm collective.

It was likely that she would remain unchanged for eons now.

She had become in essence what Salem had been, what Pantheon had ascended to, what Gestalt-Prime had plotted to become and what Damascus Nero had intended for his own daughter; however in Ruby's hands the immense power and control she wielded was used for far more noble purposes.

Despite her intentions Ruby's sacrifice and its' consequences had required her to distance herself from humanity to some degree.

To mitigate the understandable fear that many within the Kingdoms now held for and those she sought to help and protect Ruby had transformed the ruined mass of the Behemoth into a Cyber-Grimm construct which served as both a base of operations and a home, not only for herself but for those who had been affected by the Grimm-Virus during the final battle until a treatment could be found. With her vast work of living architecture constructed Ruby had taken to the seas, her creation serving as an artificial island from which Ruby had begun her work to protect Remnant in a new and more effective way.

Firstly she had begun reaching out into the vast swathes of the Hive-Mind which Pantheon had held sway over, halting the flow of Grimm from dozens of Spawning Pits across Remnant and using the eyes of the Creatures of Grimm at her disposal to direct Hunters to other nests of monsters, either those laying outside of her influence or newly formed Spawning Pits conjured up by lingering grief and misery.

The Grimm would always exist but the threat they posed could be mitigated.

To that end Ruby had continued her work, taking all of the knowledge of the Cyber-Grimm she had obtained, knowledge of her own existence and nature as a Grimm with a soul and collaborating with Antonia Arc, the apprentice to Professor Polendina who had studied and aided with Penny's creation in order to create a solution for the infected Grimm-Hybrids.

Some degree of success had been reached, with some of the hybrids able to have their consciousness and soul transferred into a robotic shell much like Hellion the Dragonfly Faunus and then slowly reintegrated into society; a project which Cornflower Blue, as a survivor of Pikesreach had been an incredible help in.

The restoration of many of the infected built enough good will between Ruby and those she had come to consider 'Her people' and the Kingdoms for her to implement the next step of her plans to protect Remnant. She was still perfectly capable of creating Cyber-Grimm, those made by Ruby proving to be just as effective and far more docile and easy to manage than their predecessors which had made the offer to distribute them to various settlements across Remnant where they would reinforce defenses much more agreeable. Now, with her intent seemingly proven Ruby was working towards having several of the Grimm Spawning-Pits under her control transformed into new Cyber-Grimm production facilities so that her best efforts to protect Remnant could be delivered to wherever they were needed at any time.

Through it all Penny had been at her side.

Ruby had become truly grateful for her wife's presence, more so than ever as the realizations of what true immortality would entail had begun to dawn on her.

Ruby's children had taken some time to adjust and come to terms with the new order of things but had eventually come to accept that this new Ruby was in fact still their mother and the twins still made sure to visit as often as their own lives would permit however Ruby understood that she would now undoubtedly outlive her own children, along with everyone she had known and loved and all of their children's children. Penny was the exception, as an android Penny was fully capable of remaining by Ruby's side until the end of Remnant. Her Aura and soul would survive being transferred from one body to another if her internal mechanisms were ever to degrade and if the synthetic flesh which covered her exterior were ever to fail her then Penny could either replace it or, if she so chose be given a new form similar to Ruby's own.

It was a question for another time, with time being something the couple would have an abundance of.

However Penny was not present at the moment and it was not her that Ruby was looking for.

The sight of a Silver-Eyed Grimm-Hybrid strolling casually down hallways of living tissue was one which should have been frightening however to those she passed in the corridors it had become entirely commonplace and was made even less threatening by the fact that Ruby whistled happily and waved cheerily at those she passed as she made her way through a domain of bone, steel and obsidian flesh which had been thoroughly decorated not only with more conventional furniture but also art and as much color as Ruby could feasibly fit into her new domain in order to make it appear more homely to both herself and those she shared it with.

One of the remaining Grimm-Hybrids passed Ruby in her meandering through the halls of the vast, living seafaring complex; a figure who had likely been in her late teens or early twenties when she had been infected by the Grimm-Virus and who now sported a deathly pale and inhuman complexion, horns which grew through her wild mass of hair and several additional spindly and segmented limbs which sprouted from her back. Elsewhere on Remnant the young woman would still have been regarded as monstrous and terrifying yet here, amongst equals she was entirely at home and in Ruby's mind looked genuinely impressive. The figure used her additional limbs to pull herself upwards onto the wall in order to let Ruby pass and gave the legendary Huntress and Hero of Remnant a cheery wave.

"He's waiting for you, that way" an arm was waved lazily behind her and Ruby returned the wave and smile.

"Thank you" there was no doubt in Ruby's mind who was being alluded to and the information was useful, she could easily have used her abilities to simply peer through the interior of her domain and find the person she was looking for but had deliberately chosen not to; it had been decided early on in her new life that such things blurred the line between what she hoped to be and what she might become if she allowed her humanity to slip away entirely.

With her destination more clear Ruby continued on with a more definite sense of purpose and yet no less pleasantness for those she encountered on her way towards a vast, cavernous storage area where the temperature dropped noticeably to accommodate many of the wares being contained within; causing Ruby's breath to mist in front of her as she sought out and finally addressed her target.

Carmesi Hueso.

"Hey!" the Komodo Dragon turned around slowly to face her, allowing Ruby to once again see what the man who had helped her reach her apotheosis and save Remnant from the Grimm had become. Carmesi had been one of the first of the Grimm-Hybrids to receive a new body and yet unlike those who had come after him the rogue Hunter who had become so much more had elected not to take on a form resembling his original appearance; instead becoming something which resembled both the man he had once been and what he had been transformed into. Carmesi's face was much more reminiscent of what it had once been with hellish red eyes and the craggy scales adorning it resembling his old Faunus attributes however his once leathery skin was now a colorless alabaster which was matched by both his beard and hair which had been allowed grow out and then tamed by tying it back into a bun; he wore simple and practical clothes which were often reminiscent of the outfits he wore in his former life and which almost always included an open and sleeveless shirt in order to show off a physique which had gone beyond impressive and reached truly inhuman levels. The former Grimm-Hybrid no longer had the tail Gestalt-Prime had inflicted upon him though the scales which adorned his chest and shoulders were elongated and far more jagged than his old Faunus attributes, clearly marking him out as a Grimm whilst at the same time the truth of his body was revealed by exposed cybernetic components around his hands, forearms and spine.

Whilst many of the others had left, hoping to rebuild their lives or simply being unwilling to be surrounded by the Grimm and reminders of what had been done to them Carmesi; single-minded and driven as ever had been adamant from the outset that he would remain, that he would continue to see Remnant protected.

A task he was proven to be suited for as, whilst he had not truly reached the same form of apotheosis as Ruby herself Carmesi had still been subjected to a degree of change, meaning that whilst he was not a ruler of the Grimm in any real sense he could still be granted a measure of control and authority in times when Ruby was unavailable.

As she planned to be for the next few days.

"Everything is ready?" Carmesi rumbled out, his voice paradoxically smoother in this new form and as he moved closer with a stalking, predatory gait borne of years of violence and which no amount of alteration would take from him Ruby nodded and smiled.

"Penny's just double-checking everything before our flight" she beamed, expression faltering for a moment as she regarded the man who had once been her enemy but now had a solitary lifestyle and an all-consuming goal which reminded her strangely of her Uncle Qrow.

"You're sure you're gonna be okay on your own?"

"I'm not on my own" Carmesi answered pointedly "Not here"

"Oh" Ruby was taken aback and left feeling somewhat foolish by the realization that the Komodo Dragon Faunus had in fact managed to form a life for himself, here of all places amongst others with whom he shared a kinship he would find nowhere else.

"Go" he chuckled easily "Enjoy your holiday"

"Eh, it's not really a holiday" Ruby shrugged.

"Oh?" a scaly eyebrow arched and Ruby considered her words. She knew that despite the fact she had separated herself from Remnant so that the distance might allow her to form working relationships with those who would otherwise fear and detest her now she could not afford to truly isolate herself, nor would she ever want to. Instead she took periodic trips back into what she considered to be the real world; enjoying the sight of the new Remnant she was helping to build from afar and more importantly keeping herself grounded by reaffirming her connections to humanity and spending time with her friends and family.

"Nah" she smiled happily "I'm just going home for a while"

---

Gangrel and Weiss Slate were totally at peace in their lives.

Weiss was still the head of research and development at the Schnee Dust Company as well as, along with Whitley, being an a member of the board and major shareholder. Her position within her families' company was one she continued to enjoy as it allowed her to tackle the problems Remnant faced which could not be tackled with brute force, complicated transforming weapons or fantastical powers and in doing so ensure that her families' name would be remembered for good deeds, ingenuity and advancements rather than what it had once been. Weiss was also however giving series consideration to stepping back, taking a less direct role on the board so that Coral, the Crab Faunus she had adopted and the youngest of her three children could step into the role at some point in the future; creating a better future for Remnant would after all require handing it over and entrusting it to those it was made for.

The fact that Coral planned to marry her long-term boyfriend Henry the following year had gone some way towards Weiss's decision, the fact that even her youngest child had grown and was living her life to the fullest managing to make Weiss feel old until she had decided that she would simply embrace it.

Gangrel, the towering Bear Faunus Weiss had fallen in love with as a student, the former White Fang militant and street hooligan who had grown to become a Hunter, a Specialist, a teacher and a father was still by her side however Gangrel had already taken an early retirement. With the Creatures of Grimm being slowly neutralized as a threat by Ruby's influence and Cyber-Grimm providing a potential alternative to the practice of sending young heroes with bright futures ahead of them into battle against hordes of monsters it was, for the first time possible to envision a world where Hunters were no longer required to stand against the darkness and this possibility served to allow Gangrel to truly relax and devote his attentions to other endeavor.

One such use of his time had been the training of Tuscan Tan; the daughter of his two surviving from Team GRAP had, for as long as she had been able to articulate her desires, wanted to be a Hunter like her parents. A changing Remnant had reshaped her dreams however and now the scrappy, eager to learn teenager was earning a reputation for herself as a martial artist and gladiator whose skill and meteoric rise had already been compared to that of Pyrrha Nikos.

At present Gangrel was watching footage from his honorary nieces' latest bout in the cozy living room of Schnee Manor; clawed fingers of his cybernetic arm drumming against his thigh as he regarded the screen intently, brow furrowed and amber eyes fixed on the screen to such a degree that he almost missed his wife entering the room.

"She's the only person I know who can telegraph a hit just by breathing" Weiss sighed, shaking her head in faint bemusement as she watched Tuscan take a hit after leaving herself exposed only for the crowd to erupt into cheers as she retaliated immediately.

"Yeah" Gangrel nodded "That's gonna need work if she doesn't want to get her ass kicked by someone serious"

"She has an idea of what she wants to achieve, she just takes too many risks to get there….And I say that as someone who has watched Yang Xiao Long spar" Weiss chuckled whilst continuing to watch alongside her husband with the trained eye of an expert and a connoisseur. After a few more blows were exchanged the match reached a conclusion which left both the crowd and the commentators in a state of shock. Tuscan, as her family and friends knew was mute and used her Semblance to communicate; taking the sound-waves produced by any noise in her vicinity and altering or amplifying them to produce a 'voice' with which she could speak.

She could also transform any sound she affected into a deafening sonic boom.

Which was exactly what she did to the sound produced by a leaping kick impacting against her guard; the blast which sounded distinctly like the word 'Bang' being yelled by an inhuman voice being forceful enough to throw her opponent across the room.

"That was just showing off….She's definitely trying impress someone other than the crowd" Gangrel snorted, taking several notes that he would be sure to pass on to Tuscan when they next met. Weiss remained silent for a moment, watching the way Tuscan quickly helped her opponent to their feet and choosing to remain silent rather than comment on why the once brash and belligerent girl had suddenly developed a sense of fair play.

"Winter would have been furious if I let myself get hit just to play up to the cameras in the Vytal Tournament" she sighed eventually, her expression brightening as she visibly perked up "Which reminds me, Winter sent a message"

"You remember how the doubles match went for you right? That stunt you pulled so Yang could take the win gets mentioned in everyone's top-ten list of-"

"I believe that my point still stands" Weiss huffed in mock annoyance, with Gangrel answering by wrapping an arm around her and pulling her close enough to lean against his far larger frame.

"So how's Winter doing?" he asked, which Weiss answered without words and instead produced her scroll in order to show Gangrel a picture that Winter had sent to her sister.

"Retirement was a good idea….She looks good, like she's actually getting enough sleep and eating well for the first time in about forty years-" Gangrel trailed off as his wife swatted at him playfully.

"She does look peaceful, happy. The resort looks spectacular as well" the image in question showed two figures in bathing suits; though Winter herself had paired hers with a sunhat and a floral shirt which was by far the most colorful thing Gangrel could remember seeing his sister in law wear. The two figures were laid beside one another beneath the shade of a parasol on a beach which was part of a private resort located on island somewhere off the southern coast of Mistral.

After the immediate fallout of Gestalt-Prime's defeat had subsided General Winter Schnee had, in a decision which had shocked the entire Kingdom of Atlas began the process of extricating herself from active duty and preparing her inevitable replacements for her retirement, with Corvid Xiao Long being considered for the role despite her not being Atlesian by birth. Privately Winter had confided in Weiss that her broken arm, inflicted by Cyber-Grimm had never healed properly and that something about that had felt like a sign; as though it were her own Aura and bodies' way of telling her that the fight was over and that the lifelong soldier could finally stand down and enjoy the peace she had fought so long for.

That peace had come in the form of taking her former First Mate, Matte Skye on a tour of Remnant where Winter allowed herself to experience everything that she had been too engrossed in her work to appreciate before then; the two of them finally settling on spending a sizable portion of the rest of their lives in a warmer climate than their native icy Kingdom and living in largely undisturbed peace and comfort.

Where Weiss and Gangrel planned to join them in a few days time, their wedding anniversary aligning almost perfectly with Ruby's upcoming visit to Patch having provided all the justification that the pair needed to spend several weeks traveling Remnant, sightseeing and visiting loved ones.

"You know you're gonna burn right?" Gangrel mentioned casually whilst wearing a faint smirk "It's gonna be like when AJ first went to Menagerie"

"I think not, because I will be using the proper protection for my skin and drinking enough water" Weiss countered, rolling her eyes at the teasing comment before responding with one of her own "Or, I suppose if it truly did become a concern I could simply stay inside and avoid the worst of the heat….Although it would be a shame not to wear those new swimsuits I bought for the trip. I was wondering whether the tabloids were going to settle on 'daring' or 'scandalous' to describe them"

Gangrel needed several seconds before he could think clearly enough to offer an answer, which was eventually delivered in a quiet and comically hopeful tone.

"Or you could show me them now?" Weiss, satisfied that she had gotten the result she wanted turned to face her husband and cupped his cheeks, pulling him down and using the new position to wrap her arms around his neck and broad shoulders so that she could kiss him slowly and murmur gently against his lips.

"I could-" anything further was interrupted by Weiss's scroll vibrating as a message was received.

"Every damn time" Gangrel sighed as Weiss pulled away.

"It's AJ" she informed him "Team MARSZ's mission went well, they've reported back to the authorities and are on their way here. AJ says that they should be here in an hour or so"

There was another moment of silence which followed that, both Weiss and Gangrel wearing hopeful, calculating expressions as they regarded one another; each waiting for the other to say what both of them were thinking before Gangrel finally broke the silence.

"So we have the manor to ourselves for the next hour or so?"

"We do" Weiss nodded, refusing to waist another moment and springing to her feet so that she could take her husband by the hand and lead him upstairs.

Some victories were after all much simpler than the fate of all of Remnant.

---

The settlement of New-Garden would simply not have been possible at any period before Ruby Rose had taken up the mantle of Master of the Grimm.

At the northernmost edge of the Kingdom of New Vale lay the Jagged Mountains, a sprawling range of sinister and imposing peaks which had for generations served as a definitive line that would not be crossed; airships might have flown over them but the mountains themselves and the valleys between them were untamed and belonged solely to the Grimm with the only hints of civilization being a few small outposts established as watchtowers by the most brave or foolhardy of Hunters. Ruby Rose's influence over the Creatures of Grimm had allowed campaigns and expeditions to gain a foothold and begin claiming the untapped expanses beyond the mountains like never before; with New-Garden being one of the first permanent settlements to be established within an expanding safe zone, a tangible proof of the new age and the prosperity and hope it brought to be held up for all to see.

Despite its' name and lofty ideals however New-Garden was far from idyllic.

It was, if anything a strange hybrid of burgeoning factory town and a collection of frontier homesteads populated by only the brave and the hardy; something which truly set New-Garden apart however was a sprawling complex at its' outskirts which even those who called the settlement home largely avoided. New-Garden had been built almost directly atop a Grimm Spawning Pit which Ruby Rose had taken control of and now a facility was being constructed around and somehow even within that swirling darkness in order to transform it into a factory for the former Hunter and Hero of Remnant to produce Cyber-Grimm which would allegedly serve to protect New Vale's outer territories.

Diabla hated it with a burning passion.

Following the end of the final battle and the indignity of being forced to watch the Grimm Exodus, watch the things which had killed her partner and friend simply walk away Diabla Fuego had vanished.

Cutting off contact with Wolfram and Ursinia had hurt.

Cutting off Huckleberry had hurt even more and losing the wide net of Ursinia's extended family, all of whom had taken her in and made her feel like one of their own had simply made Diabla sick, adding to her tally of failures and leaving her loathing herself so deeply that the knuckles of her remaining hand were scarred from the countless mirrors she had broken just to avoid having to look at her reflection. Taking Perma-Death, the weapon Laser Greenback had entrusted to her Diabla had made the first stage of her self-imposed exile a journey to Vaccuo so that she could see the place that Team WULF's fallen member had been born and raised and begin the task of making it more than the cesspit he had fled from.

Her actions in Vaccuo had been violent, ruthlessness veering into cruelty and bloodlust on multiple occasions and Diabla doubted that she would ever be certain if she had achieved enough to justify herself.

The Vaccuan Overspill had been purged and made safer through a targeted campaign of espionage, intimidation and blunt violence to ensure that the people within the vast network of shanty towns encircling the desert Kingdoms' Capital were safe from both the Grimm and the gangs, slum-lords and more depraved individuals who haunted them whilst at the same time targeting those members of the Vaccuan Council and the corrupt Hunters and others in their employee who had turned a blind eye to the plight of their poorest for so long.

It was a task with a certain nobility about it despite her chosen methods, one Diabla had foreseen herself continuing until she was caught or killed in action.

News of Cyber-Grimm being allowed to infiltrate the Kingdoms' under the guise of protection had changed things.

"Disgusting" Diabla snarled to herself, the word uttered through gritted teeth and muzzled to the point of barely being audible as she stared down at the Cyber-Grimm factory which was still being constructed; the thing, which Diabla was unsure whether to call a building or organism consisting of a skeletal frame that was as much bone as it was metal with vast organs of inky blackness serving as focal points around which machinery would be assembled.

Diabla's end goal was to destroy those foul innards before that could happen, however that was not her goal tonight.

Instead she watched from a distance, perched in a dead and desiccated tree and studying the facility through a pair of high-end binoculars, her fiery orange eyes shifting from the main bulk of the unfinished complex to the chain-link face around it and in turn to the various checkpoints and watchtowers around it.

Eventually her target emerged, a pair of Cyber-Grimm taking to the air and beginning a routine patrol which would see them sweeping through the air and over the place where Diabla was laying in wait.

"Come on" she snarled. She had managed to acquire a cybernetic arm for herself to replace that which had been crushed to the point of needing to be amputated though the replacement limb was far from the pristine minimalism of the average Atlesian design, instead it was a patchwork of scarred and often-repaired copper and dull gunmetal with armor panels removed in some places to leave wiring exposed in some places whilst being reinforced in others. It was this hand which held her binoculars and as she saw the Cyber-Grimm approaching Diabla found her grip tightening unconsciously until casing began to audibly bend.

In addition to her new limb and Laser's old weapon Diabla wore simple black fatigues complemented by deep orange braces and heavy, armored boots with laces of the same color; an orange bandanna and a gas mask were both hanging around her neck so that either could be put in place if the situation demanded it whilst her hair had been cropped short and the streak of dyed orange in her hair which for years been one of very few concessions to her own individuality had been washed out and forgotten.

The Cyber-Grimm approached more quickly than expected and Diabla found herself with no time to cover her face at all and instead simply went on the attack.

"RIGHT HERE YOU BASTARDS!" she roared unloading Perma-Death in its' machine-gun mode with a spray which seemed at first to be wild and uncoordinated but was quickly proven to have less obvious uses.

Whilst she had not been able to save Laser or prevent her partner from sacrificing himself to save her Diabla had at least managed to learn something from him.

The salvo of bullets she had unleashed had consisted of a variety of Dust-based rounds, not enough on their own to be devastating but producing enough blinding light and electromagnetic distortion to leave the two Cyber-Grimm hovering blindly in mid-air, exactly as Diabla had planned and for just long enough for her to hurl a grenade upwards with all of her might. A second salvo of bullets struck the grenade, producing an explosion which ripped through the first Cyber-Grimm and damaged enough vital components to cause a chain reaction which not only reduced the thing to twisted, burning scrap and sending its' ally veering wildly off-course.

It quickly began correcting itself however, surging back towards Diabla and diving downwards; seemingly foregoing the use of its' main laser weapon in order to either capture the rogue Hunter or simply eviscerate her with its' claws and thorax horn.

Diabla never gave it the chance.

As the Cyber-Grimm closed in, damaged enough by the grenade that it was not moving at full speed she focused all of her power to herself and shifted Perma-Death into its' katana mode. The sword had been her partners' weapon and Diabla had made it a part of herself as much as Peace and Quiet had ever been, so much so that her Aura and Semblance flowed through the weapon as an extension of herself without hesitation. The volcanic glow of 'Overachiever' began at her hands and spread upwards along her arms until her eyes burned with fiery light and at the same time spread downwards until Perma-Death was ablaze with her Semblance.

The battle was over before it started, a single slash of the Semblance-imbued blade ripping through the Cyber-Grimm and inflicting impossible amounts of damage, an explosive force which tore her target asunder with ease.

With her enemies destroyed Diabla collapsed and stowed her weapon and slipped away into the darkness before reinforcements could be deployed.

Her aim had not been to deliver a great or crippling blow to Ruby Rose's new regime, instead it had been to send a message to others. There were talks of resistance, Diabla had heard enough rumors and boasting from her fellow former Hunters, soldiers and garrison members who remembered Nero's treachery and others who could not abide the idea of giving their safety and freedom over to the monsters; Diabla had not joined with any of these burgeoning factions however and had found many of them to be poorly disciplined, unprepared or simply distasteful or untrustworthy in their goals.

Instead she had decided that she would form a movement of her own.

Tonight she was lighting a beacon that would draw the people she needed to her side.

---

Chopper, the Cyber-Grimm jetbike which transformed and reconfigured itself like a Hunters' weapon had always been intended to serve as more than a tool, pet or status symbol for Regalia Russet; though Ruby certainly did not begrudge the Raccoon Faunus for treating the unique creation as any of those things.

In reality the jetbike had been a proof of concept, a trial run of her own take on Damascus Nero and Gestalt-Prime's idea for the Grimm species.

A non-violent Grimm.

Rather than seek out the misery and hatred which had sustained their kind for so long through direct violence against humanity the Grimm had, under Ruby's watchful eye been adapted to nourish themselves in other, more passive ways.

The Grimm-Hybrids were by and large capable of sustaining and controlling themselves whilst the majority of the Cyber-Grimm could be fueled through a combination the emotions which simply permeated whatever environment they were deployed to, a one-way connection to the CCT or the emotional outpouring of whatever target, Grimm or otherwise they were sent out to capture of destroy.

Chopper however was a standalone unit, intended to be sustained entirely by the emotions it absorbed from its' surroundings.

Regalia had naturally taken this to mean that her new companion should be exposed to a steady diet of all of her favorite classic movies.

As such, whilst Team MARSZ were staying at Schnee Manor part of the garage which housed Whitley Schnee's collection of priceless sports cars had been transformed into a hybrid of workshop, movie theater and comfortable hang-out spot with a spacious sofa upon which Astra and Regalia were currently laid, Regalia draped across Astra's chest and nuzzling into them beneath several blankets whilst the Deer Faunus absently stroked the fur of her tail.

"This is the best part!" Regalia exclaimed, gesturing at Chopper, as though the insectoid vehicle-Grimm should have been more engrossed in what was happening.

It was a futile task however, when not in jetbike form the Cyber-Grimm's seat and anti-gravity propulsion system compacted and reshaped itself into a sweeping and streamlined abdomen, from within which four segmented legs unfurled and relocated themselves, connecting to the creatures' expanding thorax whilst the steering forks and directional thruster which allowed Regalia to steer separated into mantis-like forelimbs and the angular skull into which a dashboard was set and compound eyes served as headlights became more animated.

At present Chopper was passively taking in its' surroundings whilst at the same time happily working its' way through a bowl of popcorn which Regalia had subjected to her unique brand of experimental seasoning and decided that she did not particularly care for.

"I think they're getting what they need from that" Astra murmured with a faint smirk, their sleepy tone suggesting that they too were not paying explicit attention to the movie; though as Regalia made to playfully swat at her partner and tickle them in retaliation for the faint teasing Astra proved that they were far more awake and alert than she had thought.

"Oh" she breathed out, breath hitching faintly as Astra easily caught her hands and held her steady before maintaining the most sultry of eye contact whilst slowly guiding Regalia into a position on top of them that the two of them greatly enjoyed. A moment later they were kissing, Regalia's hands clenching and digging into the surface of the sofa as Astra turned their attention to her neck and collarbone though as a hand trailed below the Raccoon Faunus's shirt and cupped a breast Regalia's eyes flew open in an instant.

"Wait, can we stop?" she panted out, the sudden shakiness of her voice halting Astra in an instant and as their hand retreated they pulled her down into a gentle, reassuring hug and took a moment to readjust the two of them into a more comfortable position before speaking.

"Are you okay?"

"I just….Heh, not feeling it right now" Astra would have accepted any answer Regalia gave them without question or hesitation and yet after so long together they knew her well enough to know from the way that purple eyes darted to the side and the subtle shift in body language as she remained pressed against them that there was more to be said and so, falling back on casual and nonchalant humor they tried to coax her into opening up.

"Not in front of Chopper right, I get that….Plenty of people don't want their cat in the room while they're having sex either" the comment did its' job and drew a small chuckle from Regalia, prompting Astra to continue with faux thoughtfulness "That being said I wouldn't really want Whitley Schnee to come down here and find me fucking my girlfriend right next to some of his cars"

Astra had managed to hit the nail on the head entirely by accident.

"Like I said, not feeling it" Regalia mumbled, leaning into Astra and looking away from them at the same time "Not really feeling….Like me, or just like being me? I don't know"

"Regalia?" Astra's voice filled with concern slowly, which Regalia answered by pulling herself into a position that was upright enough to look down at the Deer Faunus; taking a moment to smooth out the clothes that had been left in disarray and then fiddle idly with her still-bound hair before flicking it over her shoulder and out of view again.

"The 'girlfriend' part….Or the girl part" she frowned, evidently wanting to choose her words carefully but not having the exact tools at her disposal "I don't think it fits the way it did….But I don't know if being a guy, or anything else would fit better?"

"You wanna try they, them for a while?" Astra offered gently, fear giving way easily to elation and an eagerness to help.

"Maybe?" Regalia answered thoughtfully "I don't know about stuff as much as I should….We've been together for so long, but you already had things figured out when I met you-"

"I absolutely did not have things figured out" Astra snorted "I was a cocky little-"

"You know what I meant" Regalia laughed.

"Yeah, I do" Astra beamed, reaching up to cup her cheek "And hey, I'm proud of you and I'm happy for you….I love you, always will"

"I love you too" Regalia smiled, allowing themselves to fall back onto Astra's chest and wrap their arms around their partner "And there's nobody else I'd rather have with me. For everything, not just for this"

"Anything for you" Astra kissed the top of their head, allowing the tender moment to linger for a moment before following up with "Besides, I wasn't gonna let AJ give you a haircut; she still uses hunting knives for hers-"

The comment was cut off by playful retaliatory prodding, which quickly devolved into a heavy make-out session on the sofa that lasted until Chopper's mechanical chittering served as a reminder that the Cyber-Grimm needed to be cleaned and properly serviced.

Which in the minds of both of the Hunters proved that the new age was not all progress.

---

The sun was high in the sky over the isle of Patch and Yang Xiao Long had already been active for several hours.

Ruby was coming home.

In truth the arrival of the Silver-Eyed ruler of the Grimm and Penny had been scheduled and anticipated for the previous evening however it had been delayed, supposedly by some issues with the aircraft that the couple intended to travel in; though whether those issues were practical and logistical ones, problems with clearances and overzealous officials trying to keep the Hero of Remnant from returning to the Kingdoms was unknown. Yang had even entertained the idea that there was something else entirely afoot and that Ruby was simply offering her older sister a plausible excuse for the sake of Yang's peace of mind.

In the end Yang had allowed herself to put the matter aside by reminding herself of a simple truth.

Ruby's late arrival allowed everyone else to get to Patch first.

With her sisters' forays back into larger civilization being somewhat infrequent Yang had taken it upon herself to ensure that each and every one of them was an event worth remembering and a chance to remind Ruby that she was still part of and beloved by humanity and Remnant at large, usually by gathering as many of her family and friends together as she could.

Yang and Blake would be hosting this get together at their home and the land surrounding it, with Taiyang's presence being a foregone conclusion no matter how he was becoming and how his strength was steadily leaving him. Other friends on the island such as Sun Wukong, Miltia Malachite and their daughter had promised to make an appearance at some point, as had many of Ruby's former students and Hunters born and raised on Patch whose careers had been inspired by her legend.

Team RWBY would of course be reunited in full when Weiss joined them that evening, bringing her husband and the entirety of Team MARSZ with her whilst more familiar faces would be making their way to Patch from the mainland of Vale; with Gangrel Slate's former team-mates from Team GRAP, Rover and Artemis Tan intending to arrive by ferry that afternoon, likely bringing their daughter with them. Ren and Nora had stated that they would try to make the journey as soon as possible, though Ruby had already assured the remaining members of Team JNPR that if they were bust then she would simply travel to them and that she already intended to visit the Hunter Academies across Remnant regardless; no doubt intending to visit Coco Adel, Velvet Scarlatina and her other former colleagues from Breaktide Academy.

Most importantly to Yang was the fact that Tai-Jaune and Summer Pyrrha, Ruby and Penny's twin children had arrived the previous evening along with the Spring Maiden and Penny's sister, in a manner of speaking Nickel Polendina in the Pearl, Penny's personal aircraft which had been left to them.

Blake and Yang's own children were expected shortly

Corvid and Onyx had taken a break from their respective duties and had spent some time with Corvid's friends, the surviving members of Team CLIR in Vale's outer territories whilst she used the time to consider her own future; no longer certain if a career in the Atlas Specialist Branch was what she wanted for herself in this new, changed Remnant even after being reinstated and recommended for a leadership role by the now former General Schnee.

Felix by contrast was seemingly enjoying his life much as he had for some time, he and the rest of Team FADE and the extended family of sorts they traveled with had continued to roam the seas and handle any threat they were called upon to handle all across Remnant; though with Selenite Slate due to start full-time education soon Arctus and Diamond had expressed a desire to settle down more permanently which would likely necessitate changes to some degree.

All of these thoughts swirled through Yang's mind as she continued on her jog around the edge of Patch's woodlands and the road which would eventually lead into the heart of the bustling port city that the island had become.

Even in her fifties Yang Xiao Long was muscular and active, continuing to train a generation of fighters until either she was ready to retire or until Remnant no longer had need of Hunters at all; her insistence on keeping herself fighting fit no matter what having seen part of the Xiao Long family homes' garage transformed into a gym and Yang been seen training at all hours.

Though her current endeavor was interrupted by the sound of a cars' horn and the low, ground-shaking snarl of a familiar vehicles' engine. Skidding to a halt and removing the headphones she had been wearing Yang's face was split by a wide smile as she waved at the heavily modified and rugged looking black muscle car with yellow stripes which came rolling to a halt beside her.

The Killer Bee, her sons' car.

"Hey Mum, come on get in….We stopped off and picked up some groceries on the way" Felix beamed, his wide smile showing overlong teeth as he leaned out of the car window to hug his mother; the moment allowing Yang to see that he was joined by his long-term boyfriend Helios and fellow member of Team FADE Eagle Arc, along with her wife the android Dragonfly Faunus Hellion.

"Where's everyone else ?" Yang asked curiously as she slid into the somewhat cramped backseat of the car and offered hugs that were awkward only by the odd angles and positions whilst Helios Nikos bowed his head respectfully and sent his own mothers' regards, along with those of his younger sister; a Silver-Eyed Warrior trained by Ruby.

"Carcharodon is looking for work with Patch's defenses, escort duty for freight ships and the like" Hellion noted "He could take on diplomatic roles for the Anima Diaspora full-time, there are few who would argue against it but…."

"It's not in his nature to be diplomatic" Helios finished delicately. Yang offered a questioning look and an arched eyebrow in response, certain that there was more being left unsaid and being vindicated when Eagle spoke up; her words leaving her with the rapid-fire eagerness they often did.

"Arctus and Diamond are looking at schools….They don't want Selenite growing up with the media hounding her they way they did Arctus and AJ so they were thinking of schooling her outside of Atlas and, well they haven't settled on anything yet but they were looking at a few places on Patch"

"That's awesome!" Yang exclaimed happily, already forming arguments and planning how best to sell the idea to the girls' parents; secure in the knowledge that it would bring her son and so many other people she cared for much closer to home and also how wondering how Weiss would react to the idea of her first grandchild being schooled on the island she still quietly regarded as 'the boonies'.

Once again however Yang's thoughts were interrupted, this time by the car skidding to a halt again as the instincts of several Hunters took hold and the group collectively leapt out of the vehicle or leaned out of windows and looked up to find the source of the shadow which had fallen over them without warning.

"What the hell is that thing?" Felix demanded.

"I….think that's Ruby" Eagle answered, peering up at the source of the confusion whilst Yang stepped into place beside her and did the same; the older of the two blonde women being left vaguely unnerved in a deep and primal part of her mind by what she saw and yet at the same time impressed by her sisters' she audacity.

It was a Cyber-Grimm aircraft; a sleek and streamlined thing whose smooth lines and gleaming, porcelain bone armor spoke of a new generation of the Grimm creations' entirely, by far the most aesthetically pleasing of Ruby's ideas and something which differed unimaginably from the monstrous Creatures of Grimm of generations past; instead Ruby and Penny's new transport could best be described a mechanical moth with a contrail of light spewing from its' abdomen which was in turn refracted by the panes of its' vast iridescent, almost stained-glass wings.

"Well, now I guess I know why Ruby had trouble getting clearance for that thing" Yang breathed out "They couldn't believe it's not butter-fly"

The joke earned a round of groans from those who were well accustomed to Yang Xiao Long's sense of humor.

---

Athena-Jade Slate found herself waking up in a large and comfortable bed whose softness felt positively divine in contrast to muscles which ached in the best way imaginable.

She had also found herself, as was a regular occurrence in the midst of a tangle of limbs and bodies pressed against one another.

In front of her, already half-awake and with an arm resting on Athena's bare hip was Stygian; the Mouse Faunus's braided hair having been unbound and allowed to cascade over his shoulders and chest as he slept yet not obscuring enough to keep Athena from lazily enjoying the sight of his defined muscles and reaching up to gently trace the scars which littered his chest where his original weapon had been shattered.

Even now there were minute Dust slivers in the healed wounds which caused the scars glow faintly in the dark.

Behind Athena, with slender arms wrapped around the smaller woman's waist and with her breasts pressed into the Bear Faunus's broad and powerful back was Zirconia Shadowmoon; whom Athena knew was steadily managing to shrug of sleep as well solely by the light kisses that the taller woman was trailing along her shoulder.

The three of them had overcome the uncertainties and difficulties of their unconventional relationship and settled into something which worked for all of them.

Zirconia was not and had never been attracted to men in any capacity and as such her relationship with Stygian was purely a platonic one however that friendship had grown far deeper over the years and was no longer simply a matter of the two of them sharing their proximity to Athena.

Athena for her part felt that she had achieved everything she had ever wanted in her life.

She was now a world renowned figure not simply because of her family and connection to others but for the way her own efforts had changed Remnant for the better and she was fortunate enough to have two amazing partners to share her triumphs and every other facet of her life with. Her relationships with Stygian and Zirconia could best be described as separate but connected; the snowy haired woman regularly enjoying the company of both of them at once, both on dates and in more mundane, domestic settings such as simply falling asleep together whilst their more private, intimate moments were often solely between two of them.

There were however moments like last night.

After the victory of apprehending a foe who had alluded Team MARSZ for some time, largely without complications and with no danger posed to any civilians; further boosted by the knowledge that several enjoyable days lay ahead and enabled by the fact that the three of them had been left to their own devices, Astra and Regalia enjoying a movie whilst tending to Chopper and Athena's parents having retired early for the evening; Athena-Jade, Stygian and Zirconia had enjoyed a small, private party which had, almost predictably reached a crescendo that had seen the three of them tumbling into bed together.

Even after so many years together the specifics which came back to Athena in disjointed fragments left her blushing.

"Good morning" Stygian almost purred the words out in gravelly, weary satisfaction whilst regarding Athena with electric blue eyes; leaving Athena's mouth dry and her nerves tingling at the memory of those same eyes locked on hers at a different angle, one involving her looking up at the Mouse Faunus whilst Zirconia was behind her.

"Morning" she managed to croak the reply out in a hoarse, cracking whisper which revealed just how ragged the nights' events had left her vocal chords. A faint, raspy chuckle behind her preceded Zirconia's lips trailing down from Athena's shoulder to her back where the Bear Faunus suddenly became aware of a series of scratches that had been left untouched by her Aura as soft lips pressed against each of them in turn; reminding her of the way Zirconia's nails had scored her pale skin whilst Athena's hands sent her into a blissful oblivion, the two of them muffling one anothers' screams with their mouths whilst Stygian took Athena in slow, deep strokes whilst holding her hips steady from behind.

The sound which left Athena as she remembered the moment of climax was positively indecent.

"I think she's still dreaming" Zirconia noted playfully, nuzzling closer and moving her hands in a way that managed to be thoroughly distracting; leaving Athena in a position where her reply lost any sense of wit that it might had had simply by leaving her unable to speak for several seconds.

"No….Pretty sure that actually happened" the retort drew smirks from both of her lovers when she finally managed to utter it, with Stygian going so far as to reach a hand over Athena to offer Zirconia a high-five.

"Don't high-five after….last night" Athena sputtered, tucking her head into his chest to hide her laughter "It makes me think we shouldn't go again while we've got time-"

"We haven't got time" Zirconia answered pointedly "We all overslept"

"We all earned it" Athena countered.

"Seconded" Stygian nodded eagerly and without hesitation, a vaguely hopeful look forming on his face as his hands traced Athena's skin slowly until the Bear Faunus shifted herself, laying on her back and adjusting her position so that she lay with an arm wrapped around each of her partners in a way that left her feeling utterly decadent.

"We could have time" she noted slowly, hoping to draw both Zirconia and Stygian in "Especially if we save time after by sharing the shower and-"

Her thoughts were interrupted by a distinctive knocking at the bedroom door, the sound of heavy chitin pincers suggesting that Athena's adopted sister, the younger but annoyingly far larger Crab Faunus Coral Scylla had returned from wherever her fiance, Athena's own childhood friend had taken her for the evening.

"Hey AJ, let those two poor partners of yours up for air please! Weiss says we're running late and Henry says he was hoping to talk to you at some point before we leave!"

The silence which followed Coral's announcement seemed to echo, deafening and mortifying until it was broken, first with small cracks and then utterly shattered by the sound of Stygian and Zirconia's laughter; their efforts to try and keep themselves under control only making matters worse when the two made eye contact with one another.

Eventually, blushing furiously and with the loves of her life on either side of her laughing at her expense Athena uttered the only answer that she could, directing it at Zirconia and Stygian, at Coral and at life in general for its' sheer temerity.

"You suck! You suck so bad, you are the suckiest!"

---

When viewed from the outside Ruby Rose's floating Grimm-fortress, or whatever less threatening name she had bestowed upon it at any given time was a truly awesome sight and one which somehow, despite its' very nature working against it managed to be appear simply impressive rather than menacing; a show of both the skill and mastery of the new leader of the Grimm and the commitment of those who followed her to making the place a home.

It was a vast structure with an overall appearance reminiscent of both a ship, albeit one more comparable in size to a small island and which utterly dwarfed any naval vessel which was merely built rather than grown and also a collection of buildings.

From certain angles it was clear that Ruby had taken considerable inspiration from Beacon Academy in its' heyday.

The living underside of the creature Ruby had strictly prohibited anyone from called her 'Behemoth' was difficult to describe, though its' colossal form bore some resemblance to both a turtle and a whale; all of which was adorned with metallic armor that had been integrated into its' exoskeleton and which in turn provided docking and entry points for a plethora of aquatic Cyber-Grimm. The top of the thing by contrast was comprised of a shell formed of several interlocking plates which shifted as the enormous Cyber-Grimm moved in the water upon which the various buildings and structures were set, connected by a series of flexible suspension bridges. Ruby had tried and failed to cultivate gardens however there were still common areas set between apartment buildings, landing pads, a large and prominent CCT tower and Cyber-Grimm production facilities; all of which were clustered around Ruby's own personal domain in loose expanding circles. Where Beacon had boasted towers and spires many of these structures instead sported enormous spikes of bone which were in fact the very same implements Carmesi Hueso had used to rip through the Behemoth-Gestalt in its' final moments, though now each of them had been reduced to a flagpole and been adorned with colorful, vibrant streamers in one of Ruby's early efforts to provide some color to the place.

Carmesi once again spotted a jolly roger set amongst the dizzying display and chuckled softly as he often did at the sight of it, wondering if he would ever find out who had been brazen enough to place it in such a prominent place.

The man, who still considered himself to be a Faunus and deemed that heritage to be more important than his current physical form was still technically undertaking the duties Ruby had entrusted to him; if asked directly he would reason that monitoring events within the heart of the Grimm-Hybrid sanctuary was equally important to reaching out and sharing a small portion of Ruby's influence to keep watch over developments further afield and that if anything which truly demanded his attention were to occur that he would be made aware of it, the control rooms were not exactly left vacant after all.

In reality however Carmesi was simply enjoying his day, leaning comfortably on one of the bridges between buildings made of bone and steel and peering out at both the whole of his new home and the glistening sea beyond it; taking in both the view and his present company.

Company who stirred at the sound of his chuckling.

"You really love it here don't you?….It's strange considering who you were….Before y'know?" Carmesi turned to look at the silky, feminine voice that addressed him and found himself stroking his now white beard as he considered how best to answer.

The speaker was a Grimm-Hybrid whose body had been severely altered by the infection, a young woman whose essence had yet remained free enough of the corruption that being transferred to an android body had been possible but had instead placed herself in the minority of those who willingly embraced their new reality.

Whatever her name had been in her previous life the woman had shed it and reinvented herself entirely with the moniker 'Daybreak'.

She was tall and willowy, with skin that had been partially sloughed away by her transformation which left her with ghostly white flesh in some areas and lean, jet black muscle in others which were both complemented by feathered wings which rested at her back and a serpentine scale with ridges and spines forming a crude weapon at its' tip. The features she regarded Carmesi with were no longer entirely human, her nose having partially given way to something more avian which had never completed its' transition, teeth that were too sharp and too numerous and an additional pair of eyes set beside a pair which had given the glowing red color of all Grimm in order to expand her field of vision.

All of which was offset by the colorful sundress she wore and the various bows used to keep her braided hair in place.

"I do" Carmesi finally nodded, his low rumbling voice unusually soft as he found himself explaining things that were rarely entrusted or confided "The person I was came from….Well I told myself for years that it was necessity, perhaps to a degree it was; but most of it was anger that I was too young, too hurt to do anything useful with. I was misguided, perhaps deliberately"

"And now you can't go back" Daybreak nodded.

"I haven't had anything to go back to since I was a child" Carmesi added, seeing the shock and pity in his companions' face and finding himself surprised when the rush of anger he expected to spew out of him simply never came.

"I gave everything I had to a cause….That cause had me do….I won't give you the specifics, all of Remnant knows enough and there are things I would have done differently if I had the chance" he continued "But the cause led to this, eventually….A new Remnant, safer, more peaceful. I'm content here; I feel like I'm a part of something that matters and for the first time that doesn't mean that I'm a weapon to be pointed at someone"

"That's…." Daybreak trailed off, but managed to impress Carmesi by not looking away "Hell it's a lot, but I get wanting peace and to be part of something bigger"

"What about you?" Carmesi asked, genuinely curious but willing to let the matter lie if she told him that he was intruding "Why not go back?"

"Nothing to go back to" she shrugged simply.

"Your family?" Carmesi found himself suddenly concerned, realizing that he might once again be brought face to face with someone whose loved ones had been taken from them either directly or indirectly by his actions; by someone who had lost their family to Grimm because of him and saw him as no better than the bandits who had left his own family to the monsters.

Daybreak's answer relieved him, even if a part of him felt guilty at that.

"Never had one" she answered bluntly "Not in any way that matters. I won't give any specifics, I don't want to get into it….But I was just someone with nothing going for them; not a tragic backstory, just a normal, boring, miserable life and….Fuck now I say it out loud it seems kinda selfish or arrogant, but this made me feel powerful in a way that I never have before"

"I know that feeling well" Carmesi nodded.

"Y'know we really do pick the worst conversations for a friendly chat while we're trying to tan" Carmesi laughed at both her pointed delivery and the idea of either of them trying to get a suntan in their current forms "This is the kinda thing we need a few drinks in a dimly lit bar and some really heavy music for….And we do have a place like that down below if you're interested?"

"I definitely am" Carmesi answered with a suddenness which made him question things about himself and his preferences; such questions were however swiftly halted by the arrival of a unique Cyber-Grimm.

Though that arrival could not entirely be considered a positive.

The thing was small and vaguely canine, a compacted Beowulf used as a basis and then heavily modified into something which resembled a bipedal and armored Corgi with a rocket propulsion system built into its' back. It one of Ruby's personal minions and as it came hurtling closer at impossible speeds Carmesi saw that it was holding a tablet in its' fore-paws and also that its' tongue was lolling out of its' mouth in a giddy expression which left the former rogue Hunter wondering exactly how intelligent the thing was and why exactly Ruby had felt compelled to make such a thing.

She had explained that it was based on a dog she had owned during her youth, an answer which did nothing to endear the thing to Carmesi.

"Oh hey it's Drei!" Daybreak exclaimed happily.

"Oh course she named it" Carmesi grumbled, reaching out to seize the thing by the scruff of its' neck just in time to halt it and keep the Cyber-Corgi from crashing into him; ignoring its' playful wiggling and long, prehensile tongue slowly wrapping around his arm Carmesi took the tablet from Drei and began studying what was quickly revealed to be an urgent report.

"Something wrong?" Daybreak asked, polite and sensible enough to not try and read sensitive information over his shoulder "Ruby left you in charge right?"

"She did" Carmesi nodded distractedly, a low growl escaping him as he scanned several pages of text and several images before finally coming to a conclusion that was no longer as uncomfortable to admit as it once might have been.

"But this is something that should be left for Ruby to decide on"

---

Summer Rose's grave on the Isle of Patch was no longer a solitary marker.

Qrow Branwen had passed away two years ago, peacefully in his sleep surrounded by friends and family, including Ruby Rose who had almost caused an incident with consequences across Remnant in her efforts' to reach her uncles' side to see him one last time before his ending.

The grizzled old veterans' health had declined after the final battle, years of physical and mental hardship combining with age and the lack of care he had taken in his younger years finally managing to catch up with one of the greatest Hunters to ever live; though there some who said that Qrow had hung on for so long because there was still work to be done and that it had simply been possible, for the first time for him to find peace.

Summer Rose and Qrow Branwen's headstones were set upon the same clifftop, with enough space between them for Yang to make a small marker for Raven Branwen and also to leave space for her father, at Taiyang's own insistence so that when the now-old mans' time finally came he could rest between his oldest friends and the two women he had loved so dearly and so that Team STRQ could finally be reunited.

Both Yang and Ruby clung to the hope that it would not be for some time yet.

Eagle Arc of Team FADE, Qrow's only child had made her pwn visit to her fathers' grave shortly after her arrival to Patch and spent a decent amount of time there; joined by her wife Hellion and Carcharodon Gore whose choice was less of a surprise than it would once have been, the Shark Faunus had after all spent a great deal of time alongside Qrow in the latter part of his life and had been raised in a culture which venerated its' elders greatly, particularly those who had been formidable warriors.

Now it was Ruby and Yang's turn and the two women stood side by side in silence, taking a few moments to compose themselves after an emotional outpouring.

"You know he never judged you or thought any less of you right?" Yang asked, voice still faintly shaky and nonetheless determined as she broached a topic that was obviously important to her "For becoming….this. He loved you, always. He said that the sacrifice you made and the path you've taken is one of the bravest things that anyone, any Hunter has ever done"

"I'll do my best to make him proud" Ruby's voice was soft and uncertain, hearing it caused Yang to turn and regard her sister and once again be confronted with the stark reality that Ruby was no longer entirely human; the Silver-Eyed leader of the Grimm was unable to cry in the normal sense, instead something crackled dangerously within both her silver and her glowing red eyes, filling the air around her with a thrumming energy whilst something sizzled and steamed in the corners of her eyes.

"We're always proud of you Rubes, always have been" Yang assured her, placing a hand on Ruby's shoulder "We just worry about you"

"Huh?" Ruby gave a look of genuine confusion.

"I know that you're still you" Yang assured her, squeezing the sisters' shoulder gently "But you have the Grimm in your head all the time and-"

"And you're worried that I'm gonna turn into something like Salem?" Ruby asked, the question leaving Yang looking guiltily at the ground.

"I'm just worried that it's too much for you"

"I understand….But you don't need to worry. I'm not alone, I never have been and that's what makes me different to her, to all of the other Grimm that led the Grimm" Ruby answered, pausing and quickly finding the words to explain herself

"Salem was a Grimm through and through, she didn't have people that she actually cared about; she just had people that she used as tools when she needed to deal with people at all….I'm not a Grimm, not at my core and I do have people, I have anchors and things grounding me so that I'll never think of myself as something entirely separate from the rest of Remnant. So hey, I guess all the times you bugged me about making friends when we were kids actually paid off"

"And I see that you're streaming and gaming again now that your place has a better CCT connection" Yang snorted, answering Ruby's glib and flippant observation with one of her own before adding "But what about when those anchors go….I mean, none of us are going to live forever Ruby….Except you?"

"And Penny. And maybe some of the former infected….We're not sure" Ruby countered "But don't worry Yang. I'm not going to loose my mind and decide Remnant needs to be taken over"

"How can-"

"Because the Grimm still feed on negative emotions" Ruby cut across Yang, her voice holding the first hints of annoyance at the current line of questioning "And on the day I lose my sister Remnant will be safe for all time because they will never need to look anywhere else again for misery; I will be enough"

The silence hung heavy in the air for several seconds before Yang simply turned and pulled her younger sister into a crushing hug, lifting her off of the ground with ease and managing a weak smile.

"Well….That got a bit-"

"Don't say it-"

"Grimm" Ruby sighed as she was set down, rolling her mismatched and inhuman eyes and straightening out her cape whilst Yang chuckled. A few peaceful seconds passed before an interruption came in the form of Ruby's scroll.

"Huh….Well, that answers that" Ruby murmured thoughtfully, a fond smile tugging at the corners of her mouth as she quickly studied the contents of the message which Carmesi had thankfully chosen to send via the CCT rather than reaching out through their shared connection to the Grimm Hive-Mind, a connection that the other hybrids had been largely freed from; the message itself was important enough to warrant using the mental network but the fact remained that Ruby simply did not enjoy the sensation. It would also likely have further worried Yang who was already regarding her with some concern.

"Everything okay?"

"Someone has been watching the Cyber-Grimm forge that I'm building on the other side of the Jagged Mountains; tailing the staff, damaging trucks and stealing supplies and shipping documents….Last night she directly attacked some of the Cyber-Grimm patrolling the area" Ruby's smile widened "Turns out that my guesses were right….It's an old student of mine, Diabla Fuego of Team WULF"

"Why?" Yang asked.

"She's concerned about the same things you are" Ruby's answer left her sister stunned into silence for a moment "But she's also angry and hurting and her idea of taking a proactive approach to things is going to end badly for her if I let her carry on"

"What're you going to do?" Yang's voice was cautious, though relief flooded through her at the sight of a bright smile and an expression that was so quintessentially Ruby that the idea of her sister doing anything excessive simply vanished.

"I'll make a few calls and then come and hang out with everyone" Ruby answered simply "I already had an idea of who it was, I heard that Diabla disappeared a while ago and well you're a teacher too Yang, you know how it is with old students….I'm going to pass the message on to people that she'll actually listen to and hope that they get through to her"

With that Ruby turned her attention to her scroll and quickly began making a call.

---

Diabla's disappearance, so soon after Laser's death had been a crushing blow to the remaining half of Team WULF.

It was a loss that Wolfram and Ursinia had been unable to truly feel the full weight of for some time however as Remnant had began its' period of upheaval and transformation and every Hunter capable of helping and serving had been needed urgently. The two of them had been granted their licenses early in honor of their contributions in the final battle for Neo Vale, a decision that Coco Adel, Headmistress of Breaktide Academy had not made lightly and had maintained several reservations about even after the deed was done. The two former students had made her proud however, helping first in the efforts to save what could be salvaged of Neo Vale and protect the Kingdom of Neo Vale's outer territories before returning to Menagerie where Team WULF had been formed when it was decided that there was no more the pair could do in New Vale.

Wolfram and Ursinia were still working on the island Kingdom when Huckleberry, Ursinia's cousin and Diabla's cousin graduated from college and this had brought a change in the direction of their lives and careers. They had hired the Fish-Tailed Faunus to work as their accountant and agent, handling documentation and other affairs whilst the two of them were in the field or otherwise indisposed and eventually; as the threat of Grimm in the once-deadly and chaotic wastelands between Menagerie's settlements began to be tamed, leaving many Hunters focusing their efforts on bringing to justice the criminals who could not be captured by the authorities or protecting Remnant from other threats it had been practical and sensible for Wolfram, Ursinia and Huckleberry to begin traveling further afield to help those in need.

It was at this point that the matter of their missing friend became impossible to ignore.

Whilst working in Vaccuo they had learned of her actions, finding a monument to Laser Greenback and hearing dozens of stories from awed, grateful but terrified citizens of the desert Kingdom about a Huntress who could only have been the absent member of Team WULF.

There had been little need for discussion or debate about what they would do next and whilst Wolfram and Ursinia had carried on their work as Hunters, with Huckleberry continuing to help them and travel with them there had been a new underlying direction and purpose to every mission they undertook.

Finding Diabla.

They had been on the trail, certain that they were close when they had received confirmation in the form of a conversation with Ruby Rose herself who, despite all of the changes she had undergone was still the same cheery woman they remembered being taught by five years ago. Ruby had explained Diabla's recent actions to them to the best of her ability and had managed to provide enough information for Wolfram and Ursinia to make an educated guess at what their old friends' next move would be. The two of them had managed to convince Huckleberry to stay behind and ventured out into the wilderness beyond the Jagged Mountains where the only roads between the burgeoning settlements were crude and unfinished things, the scene isolated enough to ensure that the meeting would go uninterrupted.

Now they laid in wait.

"You really think sneaking up on here like this is a good idea darlin?" Ursinia's ever-present drawl and twang were lowered to a barely audible whisper as the towering Scorpion Faunus adjusted the brim of her hat, keeping the sun from her eyes so that she could better watch the road from her where she was perched in the upper branches of a tree.

"Better than just knocking on the door of wherever she was staying" Wolfram answered, equally muted and crouching in a branch below his team-mate; muscles coiled and tense whilst the shield component of Berserker was held at the ready in case Diabla proved to be more volatile and unpredictable than either of them expected.

He hoped it would not be needed.

An answer came shortly, bringing with it a total silence and a sense of tension which built with every passing moment as Diabla came striding slowly into view. Wolfram studied his old team-mates' appearance, the ragged and worn look of her outfit and the heavy pack slung over her shoulder which held all of her worldly possessions, the fact that she kept Laser's weapon clutched tightly to her chest as though it were precious to her and the overall sense of having being ground down that Diabla wore around her like a cloak, her various new scars and the cybernetic arm she had not had when he had last seen her, a shoddy and slapdash thing being physical manifestations of it.

Looking up at Ursinia for a moment Wolfram saw the grief and pity on her face, even in the silence he could imagine the countless concerned, well-meaning comments about how thin Diabla looked that she wanted to make.

That momentary glance caused Wolfram to miss a small flicker of something across Diabla's features as she came to a stop in the road nearby.

"I know you're there" her voice had the same abrasive edge that her friends' recognized but it was now tempered with a hoarseness that suggested that she had gone without anyone to talk to for far too long. Setting her pack down Diabla rolled her shoulders and readied Perma-Death in its' ranged mode.

"You get one chance, just because your ambush was so sloppy I'm half convinced that you're a kid" she growled the words out, orange eyes sweeping the trees before she finally came to a halt, staring directly at the spot where Wolfram and Ursinia had taken cover "You can come out now….Or I can bring that tree down"

Wolfram acted on instinct alone, coiled muscles sending him hurtling down to the ground an into the street only a few short paces away from Diabla. Ursinia followed suit and as the two of them rose to their feet Wolfram caught the momentary look of total shock and confusion on Diabla's face which kept her stunned stiff and silent, simply unable to believe what she was seeing.

"Do you know how annoying it would be to get rid of all those splinters if you did that?" Wolfram snorted, his confident smile wavering and giving way to something more gentle as his stormy gray eyes softened "Hey Diabla….It's been a while"

"Gosh darn it girl what in tarnation did you think you were gonna achieve by riding off into the sunset like you did?" Ursinia demanded, her voice cracking mid-way through the yelled question whilst her tails' stinger rattled uncertainly before she finally strode forward to pull Diabla into a crushing hug only to be brought to a halt when Diabla visibly stiffened.

She didn't raise her weapon but the jerky motion of her arms made it painfully clear that doing so had come naturally to her.

"How did you find me?" she demanded, suspicious and beginning to move slowly with the air of a caged animal "What're you doing here?"

"No point in lying about it" Wolfram sighed, collapsing his shield and dropping it to the ground rather than try and store it on his back in case Diabla interpreted doing so as an attempt to reach for his axe "Professor Rose told us you were in the area. She knows it was you that attacked her patrol last night and-"

"And you're working with her?" Diabla spat "You're working with a fucking Grimm!"

"She's not-"

"So what's the plan here then Wolfie?" Diabla continued, steamrolling through the objections "Are you bringing me in? Gonna have me re-educated so I forget what a Hunter is supposed to be? Or are you just gonna let that thing that used to be our teacher turn me into one of her monsters and-"

"QUIT YOUR DAMN YAPPING AND LISTEN!" Ursinia had stomped her foot in time with her thundered command, her Aura pouring into the motion and sending a web of cracks out across the road from the point of impact; stunned by her own outburst the Scorpion Faunus removed her hat and simply stared at Diabla for a moment, trying to reconcile the erratic, dangerous figure before her with her friend.

"You just left without a damn word! You broke Huck's heart, Wolfram's mama was worried about you, my whole damn family was; darn it we were were worried sick about you!….But we let it be, because we thought that you needed time, we thought that you'd come home….We thought that we were your home" Ursinia's voice broke there and she found herself pointing at the shorter woman silently, needing a moment to recover before she could press on "We should have brought you back sooner….we heard about the things you did in Vaccuo and….What in the hell are you doing Diabla? Is this who you are now?"

Diabla had no answers to give, instead her fiery orange eyes had honed in on a single point where something gleamed in the sunlight unmistakably on Ursinia's finger.

"You two got married?" she managed to croak out after a moment.

"Engaged" Wolfram corrected her, a bitter snort escaping him "We didn't want to get married until we found you….Laser's gone and it wouldn't feel right without you"

It was this which finally broke something in Diabla.

The tension that filled her vanished in an instant, Perma-Death clattering to the ground and being followed shortly by Diabla herself who sank to her knees; staring at her hands as though seeing herself and truly understanding the path she had taken for the first time.

"I've ruined everything haven't I?" she asked in a haunted whisper more terrible than crying would have been "I just-I needed to make it right. I needed us to win, to beat the Grimm instead of the Kingdoms giving into them….I needed it to feel like Laser's death meant something-"

"Oh honey I believe you're so dumb if we put your brains in a duck it'd fly backwards" Ursinia let out a long-suffering sigh as she strode closer, Diabla and Wolfram both silent as they tried to comprehend the severity of the insult the Scorpion Faunus had just delivered; the confusion lasting long to allow her to haul Diabla to her feet and finally puller her into a crushing.

"Laser didn't do what he did to save the day for all of Remnant….you and I both now that good and well" she stepped back and looked Diabla in the eye "He did it to save you. His partner, his best friend. One of us"

"So maybe don't try and get yourself killed fighting a one woman war" Wolfram noted as he drew close. Diabla regarded her team leader for a moment, mind buzzing and thoughts feeling as thought they were crashing into one another inside her head until finally she managed to speak coherently.

"What happens now?"

"Well the only damage you've done here was the Cyber-Grimm on security detail and Professor Rose contacted us, she wants you to know that she's not going to take any action over what happened last night….But if you carry on, if you go to the next settlement over and try to start gathering recruits like you were planning to then she will defend herself the next time you attack her, even if she doesn't want to" Wolfram's words hung in the air as he spoke with all the sternness and authority he could muster before adding "But other than that….What do you want to do?"

"We want you to come back with us" Ursinia noted "Not least of all because you owe that cousin of mine an apology and a good and proper explanation"

"Huck's here?" Diabla's widened with a mix of wonder and terror, only for a look of pure dread to cross her features as a thought occurred to her "Is she….Has she-"

"Five years and she hasn't courted a soul. Wanted to be out here looking for you with us" Ursinia snorted her answer out, knowing the question Diabla couldn't bring herself to ask "So you better go on and buy some flowers and start thinking of what you're gonna say when I march your sorry ass over there"

Diabla managed to let out a brittle, uncertain laugh.

Only for something to shatter a tree somewhere in the distance, letting out a low and groaning cry as it did so.

"Were you followed?" Diabla demanded

"Honey that aint no Cyber-Grimm" Ursinia answered, already drawing the Adventurer in its' golden-bladed sword mode "Just the regular kind we trained for"

"As regular as anything get on this side of the mountains" Wolfram noted tensely "A lot of old Grimm around here, really old ones….Probably been feeding off of grief and negativity from as far back as the Great War; haven't had a taste of anything first-hand in decades.

"And I attacked the defenses of the nearest settlement" Diabla breathed out, panic beginning to set in as she realized the effect her actions would have in the larger scheme of things.

---

Weiss's role as the head of research and development within the SDC had resulted in collaborative efforts with other truly stellar minds from across various industries and disciplines; with the latest fruits of such works being the aircraft in which she and her family currently sat.

The 'Wanderlust' type cruiser as it was currently being dubbed, subject to patents and official branding was intended to be a perfect medium between the smaller craft such as Bull-Heads and Manta transports and fighter craft and the far larger Capital airships which had, through successive iterations grown large enough to be considered airborne villages or towns in their own right. Weiss and her fellow experts had envisioned the Wanderlust as the perfect tool for reaching out into the new unknowns' of Remnant, a small but self-sufficient recon vehicle capable of serving as a home or a base of operations; with all of the nimble agility and fuel efficiency of a smaller craft paired with more space and the range and protections of a larger vessel.

Weiss's own prototype had naturally been altered from what would become the standard template; its' interior transformed into something closer to a luxury apartment.

She planned to leave the aircraft with Ruby, hoping that her old friend and partner would take the obvious hint and visit Atlas more often aboard it.

In the meantime however Weiss was dozing contentedly, draped across several seats in a way that she would never dream of doing on a less private aircraft with a half-finished glass of champagne close by. Several weeks of planning and organization had been required to orchestrate the gathering that she and her family were currently making their way towards and Weiss had done her part to help Yang, to say nothing of the logistics involved in having almost the entire Schnee family present in one place without the venue being swarmed by the press and now the woman whose snowy hair was littered faintly with silver gray strands which only served to make her more striking was allowing herself to relax.

Even as she allowed muscles that had been thoroughly exercised the previous evening to unwind and her mind to drift somewhat Weiss was awake and alert enough to pay attention to her surroundings and the goings on around her.

The aircraft had made incredible time and was already in New Vale's airspace, heading over the mainland and its' outer territories on the way towards Patch.

Weiss saw Zirconia Shadowmoon looking out of a window down at the landscape rushing by below, the Grasshopper Faunus obviously lost in thoughts which were almost certainly veering towards her former home and upbringing; Weiss herself had fond memories of Vale and would be happy to share them with Zirconia and bond with the woman her daughter loved. Athena's other partner was in the midst of being half-teased and half-interrogated by Coral whilst Athena-Jade looked on with mild concern every time her attention was drawn away from Regalia whom Weiss suddenly realized was missing the long lions' tail of hair that had clogged her shower so many times.

The most animated members of the group however were by far her husband Gangrel and the much younger team leader and Hunter Astra Mars; the two of them sharing anecdotes and debating the merits of several potential upcoming missions as they shared a table and several drinks.

"All I'm saying is you've got drive kid, always have….But this is selling yourself cheap. You're at a point where you don't need the Lien or the exposure that badly-"

"But it's about helping people" Astra countered easily"

"Of course" Gangrel nodded, conceding the point by raising his glass.

"And besides….This is gonna be easy work by the looks of it" Astra added with a confident smirk as he gestured to a map "Some nobodies managed to get some old tech and weapons and start extorting villages on the East while Vale's council are focusing their efforts on the northern expansion. Team MARSZ can clear 'em out in a day-"

"You might if they were Grimm" Gangrel noted pointedly "People, even the dumb ones have got better instincts. They're gonna be dug in and you know they've got equipment but not what….There's a reason the locals are asking for Hunters"

"Yeah" Astra finally sighed "Grimm would be easier in a way, worse in others….Grimm are what we all signed up to deal with but this is what we have to deal with now. Have you ever worked in the area?"

"Training mission in the general area in second year" Gangrel snorted at the memory "My old partner, Squish actually managed to-"

Whatever anecdote the Bear Faunus was about to share involving his time as a student and his partner whose memorial statue stood at Halo Academy was regrettably interrupted by the sound of Astra's scroll, along with that of every other Hunter aboard the Wanderlust letting out an identical, familiar tone.

"The emergency alert?" Regalia exclaimed, leaping to their feet instinctively despite their being nothing they could do in that moment.

"A Hunter needs backup" Stygian explained to Coral, seeing the momentary panic on the face of the woman he was coming to consider a sister-in-law in everything but legal formality.

"Then let's see if this thing is as fast as promised" Athena growled, determination and a sense of readiness radiating out from her whilst Zirconia silently moved away from the window and into position beside her.

"Guys, it's coming from Team-from Wolfram and Ursinia" Astra' verbal slip up caused them to wince, though more importantly it garnered a silence which lasted long enough for the Deer Faunus to answer the emergency transmission and call their ex-boyfriend, friend and fellow team-leader "Wolfie, you're on loudspeaker and we're in the air near your position. What's happening?"

"We're falling back to New-Garden!" Wolfram's voice crackled through the speakers, distorted by the poor signal available at the fledgling settlement "Professor Rose's Cyber-Grimm factory there isn't operational yet and the units already there are gonna need backup-"

"What're we looking at Wolfie?" Astra urged "Numbers, species?"

"Few hundred smaller Grimm at an estimate" Wolfram answered, the first roars and shrieks becoming audible in the distance "We can hold them back but there's something bigger coming behind them, something that big this side of the mountains-"

"Is old" Gangrel interjected, a voice of experience "And dangerous"

"Yeah" Wolfram's grimace was audible "We can fight it head on, or we can deal with the other Grimm and hold the line for an evac if we need to but not both-"

"We're on it" Astra assured him "Send co-ordinates and leave the big one to us"

"On it" Wolfram answered and a moment later the communication ended, leaving Astra to stare silently at the rest of Team MARSZ for a few moments, before turning to Weiss and Gangrel who were now on their feet and ready to take action.

"I'll have us change course immediately" Weiss assured them.

"You want help with this?" Gangrel asked, clawed metallic fingers of his cybernetic arm flexing.

"You'd be more use helping from the air, thin out the horde and cover fire" Athena piped up, offering the answer Astra intended to a moment before they could.

"Worried your old man is gonna cramp your style?" Gangrel snorted.

"Not at all" Athena laughed, turning to Astra who happily delivered the expected line; one which was now well known to all present and yet which never seemed to grow old or stale.

"It's just that" Astra paused and spread their arms, grinning as their team echoed them in unison "We're Team MARSZ. We're Hunters, this is what we do"

---

The Creature of Grimm which now stalked its' way towards the human settlement of New-Garden, trailing behind its' younger, ravenous kin was not so truly ancient as to have developed sentience and an identity in isolation however it was old enough to have reached a degree of intelligence and cunning beyond simple instinct. Moreover it was old enough that the Spawning Pit it had emerged from was a long destroyed and unremembered thing, leaving it to wander the northern edge of its' home continent and the unclaimed wilderness there entirely unaffected by the various battles for the control of a Grimm Hive-Mind which it was scarcely connected to.

An Alpha Grimm without a pack, simply a beacon for other, similarly lost Grimm to latch onto in their search for scraps.

Physically the thing might once have been said to resemble a deer or moose but decades and generations of growth and adaption had changed it into something far larger and more monstrous.

It's form was massive and hulking, tall and muscular enough to bend and crack the trunks of even the oldest and sturdiest trees with its' passage; its' entire mass wreathed in billowing layers of loose, desiccated flesh whose once obsidian tones had become an ashy, brittle gray flecked with crystalline violet at their edges to show its' age; these layers forming a cloak like shroud which moved with a life of its' own to cover much of the Grimm's features beyond an overall shape and the vaguest flicker of bone armor below. Its' mass was supported by four enormous legs which emerged from beneath the edges of the things' living shroud, cloven hooves which left the ground cracking and lifeless its' wake as it spread ruin with its' advance, a slow but inexorable death following the violent ravaging the lesser monsters which joined it sought to inflict; every step it took varying slightly in a way which suggested that over the course of the things' various evolutionary changes its' limbs had been reformed and were no longer identical.

Its' skull was a long and bulbous snout of layered and fused bone, wide nostrils billowing acrid smoke whilst numerous eyes glowed ominously however the most notable feature of the Grimm's skull and in fact its' entire being were its' antlers.

They had grown into something else entirely.

No longer confined to a single pair atop its' head gnarled, twisted and branching antlers now grew from each jutting rung of the Grimm's spine, the entire length of bone visible above its' shroud and holding the swaying flesh in place, the claw-tipped and jagged appendages reaching up and around in wide arcs whilst the antlers reaching from its' heads had taken another, more gruesome path. Flesh and sinew had grown unevenly across the things' primary antlers and the bone itself had warped and grown into several rudimentary limbs and joints to produce a pair of enormous pincers lined with grasping and in many places disturbingly human hands.

In some ancient time, long before the Great War and before Salem herself a Creature of Grimm such as this might have encountered by some wandering tribe or daring settlers and regarded as some Dreadful Spirit and named accordingly. Such times had long since passed however and the Grimm's isolated existence had left it entirely unprepared for Remnants' current generation of defenders.

The Wanderlust streaked overhead too fast for the monster to properly understand and in the next instant Team MARSZ fell upon it with wold-shattering force.

"Don't give it a chance! Keep it boxed in and stop it following the others!"" Astra warned as they descended at dangerous speed; the Deer Faunus using the often-overlooked glider mode of Buckshot Ares in order to swoop down on the Grimm rather than using their Semblance to break their fall, choosing agility and the ability to limit the damage caused to their surroundings over brute force.

The Dreadful Spirit, or whatever other name it would inevitably be recorded under saw the Hunter surging down towards it in ways which defied its' understanding and experience and so the Creature of Grimm retaliated in the only way it could; violently thrashing its' skull and trying to seize its' foe within the twisted mass of its' antlers.

Astra was quick to react however and transformed their weapon in mid-air, allowing themselves to plummet several feet and slice at the incoming variety of malformed limbs; their blades sliced through several fingers before the bulk of the fleshy antlers came close enough that the leader of Team MARSZ was forced to run vertically along their surface and eventually back-flip away to avoid being grabbed and crushed.

As they landed the Deer Faunus saw the Grimm continue its' frenzied response and their own team-mates counterattack unfold with a twisted form of synergy.

The Grimm reared back onto its' hind legs, towering over Astra and clearly intending to bring the forelegs whose multiple joints were in the process of realigning themselves down onto the Hunters' entire body. Before it could do so however the monster found itself forced to a halt and dragged off balance as it was struck from behind, staggering off balance and letting out huffing, wailing sounds as it tried to reorient itself.

"Up yours, baby!" Regalia cheered as they came streaking into view, the Raccoon Faunus was riding Chopper and had fired the harpoon of Apex Scavenger into the rear right leg of the Grimm and as they hurtled downwards and around it they were forcing the thing to turn away from Astra one step at a time, whilst bringing herself closer their partner.

"You used your Semblance?" Astra asked, seeing a faint lingering glow behind their partners' goggles.

"There's a weak point on the back of its' neck!" Regalia answered, somewhat frantically as though uncertain whether or not she would be heard whilst whipping passed Astra at breakneck speeds. The Grimm's rear legs began rearranging themselves, its' many knees twisting at reorienting to shift the monster into a form resembling some squat and hulking effigy and at the same time limiting the effects of Regalia's attack.

Just as the rest of Team MARSZ made their presence known.

'Hard-light! Gravity!' Sunriser Cain announced Zirconia's presence as she leapt from the trees which the Grimm's passage had partially uprooted, firing a beam of piercing cyan into one of the legs it now supported itself on in an attempt to hobble the monster for long enough for her partners to make their move. Athena-Jade was the first to do so, landing in a crouch directly in front of the now bipedal and lumbering horror and locking eyes with it for a single moment before springing to her feet with Heartbreaker already in its' laser cannon form and opening fire.

The beam of ethereal green light tore through the body of the Grimm, reducing layers of its' living robe to ash which hung in the air, dissipating and leaving the surroundings hazy but failing to obscure the body of the Dreadful Spirit as it revealed its' continued existence by rearing its' head back.

Something sparking within its' hooded skull serving as a warning.

"GET CLEAR!" Astra called out a moment before the Grimm lunged forward as much as its' skewered and pinned position would allow it to; spewing a jet of green-tinged fire from its' gaping maw and flooding the air with the stench of rotting. Athena's glyphs served as an initial layer of protection however Stygian's appearance quickly bolstered her defenses as the Mouse Faunus teleported into the path of the fiery blast with the Rat-Catchers at the ready, their blades imbued with Ice and Gravity Dust which interacted to produce a freezing wind which pushed the flames away.

As the Grimm began to tear itself free of the barbs and blades impaling its' legs in an effort to more effectively fight or escape Astra realized that they needed to use the information Regalia had given them effectively and do quickly.

"Zirconia, use your Semblance!" they called out and a silent nod from Zirconia was all the confirmation that they had been heard that Astra needed before the Grasshopper Faunus leapt back into the trees. In mere moments darkness had washed over the surrounding area, denying any sense of space or scale and silencing any outside sounds as Phantasmagoria took hold; Zirconia controlling the shadows of her Semblance to keep the Dreadful Spirit immobile, the darkness on which it stood shifting every time the Grimm tried to move closer to its' enemies.

"Regalia!" Astra called out "Time for the classic!"

The Raccoon Faunus understood their role immediately and came racing back into view at full speed in the next moment, throwing the harpoon of their weapon to their partner and then flinging Chopper into a spinning stop, the Cyber-Grimm Jetbike transforming into its' mantis form in the process to better stabilize itself and transferring all of its' unspent momentum to Astra who was launched from the ground into a high arc, aimed upwards and at the Grimm.

They had been behind it but the ancient Deer-like Grimm whirled around with a wail, the various antlers growing from its' spine crashing against one another as the thing inadvertently exposed the weak point at the back of its' neck.

Just as planned.

"AJ!" Astra called out, urging the Bear Faunus to use her Faunus just as they activated their own. Brilliant red flared within the confines of Zirconia's darkness as the Aura-construct took shape and Astra, now matching the Grimm in size, delivered a mid-air spinning heel kick to its' snout and sent it reeling backwards. Athena-Jade, in the same moment fell back on a technique that she had honed in the earliest days of wielding her weapon and Semblance and formed a staircase of glyphs which she used to throw herself into the path of the falling monster; performing an acrobatic, whirling cartwheel which was granted additional speed and force by her glyphs.

And slamming the head of her hammer through the base of the Grimm's spine.

Decapitating it with a single blow and leaving ebony smoke formless against the darkness of Zirconia's Semblance.

The darkness subsided moments later and as Astra landed on solid ground, returning to their natural size and state they heard the sound of their friends and team-mates gathering around them.

"That went….Exactly to plan" Zirconia murmured "And quicker than expected"

"Right?" Stygian laughed "I was expecting that to take longer"

Astra found themselves laughing along, an uncertain and wavering chuckle which quickly gave way to full-blown hysterics, ending only when they saw the faintly worried looks the rest of the team were giving them; with even Chopper staring at them intently.

"Are you okay?" Athena asked.

"I'm great" Astra assured them, spreading their arms wide and regarding their friends as they announced "Because you guys just told me that we've won….I mean really won. We're Grimm Hunters and we've won so much that we're talking about fighting the Grimm like it's a rare treat, some actual exercise to break up the boring jobs"

"Oh my…." Regalia trailed off into silence, Team MARSZ standing in surprised silence as it dawned on them how true Astra's words were before the Deer Faunus themselves finally pointed out, giddy with excitement that there were Grimm to fight.

Defending the settlement of New-Garden became child's play from that moment.

---

Coco Adel had taken up art in recent years.

She was, by her own admission average at best and produced watercolor works that were far from masterpieces even if the raw spark of inspiration was evident in each piece she produced. It was frankly a way for the Headmistress of Breaktide Academy to pass the free time which she now found herself with a relative abundance of now that Menagerie had been made peaceful in ways that had once been unimaginable now that several of the largest Spawning Pits on the island had been brought under Ruby's control and silenced, leaving Coco forced to consider scaling back the amount of applicants her academy accepted and teams it produced every year. She was already sending Breaktide students further afield for training missions and could easily foresee a future in which the most recent of Remnants' academies was the first to be made obsolete by this new peace.

Velvet and Yatsuhashi had similarly found themselves expanding or honing skills unrelated to those of being a Hunter.

The towering, gentle giant of Team CFVY had continued his role as student counselor and was also branching out, studying to become a professor of psychology and teach others whilst at the same time continuing to grow one of the most varied and expansive gardens on Menagerie on the grounds of Breaktide; one rivaled only by the Spring Maiden herself.

Velvet by contrast had continued her engineering and metalworking into new directions, involving both civil architecture and also jewelry and sculptures; her works far more sleek and delicate than her current appearance would suggest the Rabbit Faunus clad in chocolate brown overalls, tied off at the waist to reveal lean and tanned muscle and an oil stained tank top beneath it; a welders' mask which had been modified to accommodate her rabbit ears being pushed up onto her head whilst her hair was tied back in a bun behind her head.

Allowing her expression to be seen as she chatted animatedly with Nora Ren on a video call about ideas for an upcoming project.

It was a reality which would once have seemed ludicrous to even suggest but whilst the shadowy cabal of Remnants' secret protectors still existed to some extent, sharing intelligence on organized crime and corruption in order to halt its' spread; the calls between members of the group were now just as often social affairs and a way for the old friends and comrades to keep in touch with one another.

"I'm just saying, there's no reason for it to 'not' have built in speakers!" Nora exclaimed, gesturing at the blueprints Velvet was showing her; the lightning-scarred red-head waggling the metallic ridges of her cybernetic eyes more animatedly than she had ever been able to move her eyebrows and producing a lull in the conversation as all parties were reduced to snorting in laughter to various degrees. The pause allowed Coco and Ren to make eye contact, with Coco seeing that her opposite number in Neo Vale had something he wanted to say and politely intruding by placing her beret on Velvet's head in a way which clashed terribly with the welders' mask that was already there and kissing her gently on the cheek before sliding more prominently into view.

"What's up Ren, got something on your mind?"

"I have" he nodded, pausing to wipe and adjust his glasses "It's just that two of our former students moved to Menagerie recently and we haven't heard from them….The Santara Twins; they were orphans like Nora and I and our Academy was home for them the way Beacon was for us, I wanted to know that they're flourishing-"

"I've met them" Coco nodded, pausing in thought for a moment "Stygian Blue, transferred from Halo to Breaktide was one of their partners before joining Team MARSZ?"

"That's right" Ren nodded, visibly relaxing at the lack of concern in Coco's voice.

"They're working with Stygian's Mum" Coco answered with a widening smile "She's still working closely with the escapees from Pikesreach as well as the treated hybrids, especially the kids and the Santara Twins wanted to keep helping people….Vale is safe now, they felt like they'd done all they could do"

"You should be proud of them" Yatsuhashi murmured, breaking his silence from the rear of the office.

"Oh rest assured I am" Ren smiled softly "But on the subject of Team MARSZ and old students….They handled a Grimm incursion in the Northern Expansion today on their way over to Patch"

"And I'll bet they made it look easy too" Coco grinned wickedly, a fierce and proud smirk forming on her lips as even now, with Remnant safer than ever the sense competition between the heads of each academy, of who could produce the finest warriors could still plainly be felt.

"They did" Ren admitted, shaking his head and letting out a faint chuckle as he added "With their usual flair"

"Hunters after my own heart, all of 'em" Nora beamed, nodding sagely even whilst wearing a manic smile at the thought of the particular brand of showmanship Team MARSZ often employed.

"Give 'em my regards when you see 'em" Coco said simply "You're heading over to Patch tonight right?"

"Within the next hour or so, just making sure that the children are settled and that there are no emergencies" Ren nodded, the fact that the damage inflicted on Neo Vale in the last battle had created many orphans who had need of the space and refuge Halo Academy provided in addition to being a training facility.

"There's always gonna be an emergency with kids" Velvet sighed, though Coco pressed on with a final comment.

"Tell Ruby that we're ready when she is….Operation Hammer-Strike is prepped and waiting for her comeback tour of Remnant to make its' way to Menagerie"

"I'll deliver the message" any amusement Ren or Nora might have felt at the phrasing was taken away by the seriousness of message itself.

The Hammerfall Observation Outpost, named for the Hammerfall Canyon which had for years served as the initiation point for new students of Breaktide had been moved and officially decommissioned; the floating platform had since been moved to a place on Menagerie few would dare to tread, the collection of intermingled Spawning Pits known as 'The Crater' where Salem's fortress had once stood. Operation Hammer-Strike would involve Ruby herself using her power and abilities to not only take control of the last lingering vestiges of Salem's presence but also to merge them with Hammerfall Outpost and create a new Cyber-Grimm forge.

Thereby making her the protector of Menagerie's wastelands and removing one of the largest single threats which remained.

Though the gravitas of the moment was undercut by Yatsuhashi's comment a moment later.

"And perhaps you could ask if some of the games Ruby is streaming are appropriate for the younger members of her audience?" the comment, the fact that it was Yatsuhashi who had made it and the sheer absurdity of it all, that the most concerning thing about the Silver-Eyed Hero of Remnant who had become the leader of the Grimm was in fact the content she uploaded to the CCT being enough to reduce every member of the video call to hysterics.

"Okay we've gotta go" Velvet finally breathed out, wiping her eyes as she composed herself and added "Little Fox is back on the island for a couple days….So we're gonna see how long he can keep up the charade and pretend that he isn't dating Ruby's daughter again"

Snorts and muffled laughter filled the call again, followed by the various members on both sides making their goodbyes.

"Hey" Coco paused as her hand hovered over the button which would end the call, finding herself compelled to linger just a moment "It's been fun talking to you guys, it really has"

---

Reaching New Garden from the barely mapped and explored territory beyond the new settlement had taken some time, engaging the lesser Creatures of Grimm already attempting to scale the villages' walls had been a further delay albeit one which had been far briefer than one might have expected and from there Team MARSZ had first reunited with their old friends and fellow alumni of Breaktide Academy, with the reappearance of Diabla Fuego after her prolonged absence being a welcome surprise even if Diabla herself had appeared uncertain and wary, especially in the presence of Chopper.

After the reunion between Team MARSZ and Team WULF Astra had been reminded that there were other plans which required their presence and from there the five Hunters had managed to reconvene with the Wanderlust and Athena-Jade's parents so that the entire group could finally make their way to patch.

The sun had been slowly setting by the time they had reached the island but they had made it all the same and that was what mattered.

"Hey Astra" Athena-Jade's presence interrupted the Deer Faunus's private musings as she drew close. The broken moon was bright in the sky now and Astra had spent some time socializing with the sizable network of extended friends and family present, most of whom were or had been Hunters; taking a moment to relax they had found themselves cradling an empty beer bottle and staring up at the stars whilst sat on one of the many tables set up in the open space beyond Blake and Yang's home. Seeing Athena use a glyph to hop onto the bench beside them they gratefully took the fresh drink that the Bear Faunus offered though chose not to drink it immediately.

"Thanks, might give it a miss though….Not sure if I'm driving us anywhere tonight" Astra nodded at the patch of rough and scrubby grass where several vehicles belonging to those gathered had been parked and specifically to their own fiery red pickup truck; returned to them from the ruins of the Behemoth by Ruby Rose and repaired painstakingly over several years, customized and upgraded until it was an entirely unique class of vehicle.

Though Astra never had gotten around to naming it.

"Fair, I just needed to get away for a sec and this was an excuse" Athena countered as she made herself comfortable, to which Astra snorted in faint amusement.

"Selenite giving you a run for your money?" Astra's eyes darted over to where they had last seen Athena-Jade's niece; the youngest of the family determinedly trying to keep a game of catch going for as long as possible to avoid her inevitable bedtime, drawing Athena into it along with Stygian and Regalia; both of whom had a knack for dealing with small children.

"Nope" Athena popped the P on the word "Arctus and Diamond decided it was time for her to go to bed when she started asking Tuscan to teach her how to throw a roundhouse kick"

"She should have asked me" Astra laughed, earning themselves a playful punch on the shoulder.

"Not even remotely the point" Athena huffed "Besides I needed a break from Mum and Aunt Ruby"

"Still bickering?"

"Oh like they haven't been apart….How Aunt Blake and Yang dealt with them at Beacon is a mystery" Athena sighed, though the toothy smile she cracked showed how entertaining she truly found the entire situation. Weiss had brought the Wanderlust, her new masterpiece and the means she hoped her former partner and friend would use to venture out into Remnant more often only to be confronted by the fact that Ruby had grown her own Cyber-Grimm air-craft which seemed capable of rivaling the Atlesian invention in every conceivable way whilst at the same time being far more striking in appearance.

Weiss had argued that it simply was not the same, a position which had fallen flat when Ruby had pointed out that to expect her, the same person had built Crescent Rose as a teenager to not use the tools now at her disposal to make something truly unique was lunacy; which had led to joking barbs and the word 'Dolt' being thrown around liberally all evening.

Athena and Astra eased into a comfortable silence, enjoying the cool night air and the knowledge that so many cherished people were close by, their voices clear until the snowy-haired Bear Faunus broke that silence with a curious tone.

"So what's bothering you? It's not like you to be on the sidelines at a party"

"Just wondering about what we do next" Astra admitted, finding Athena staring at them in faint disbelief and obvious concern a moment later.

"You're worried about work? Now?" she asked pointedly, only to pause and offer a more sincere and open response "Okay Astra listen to me….We have been team-mates since we were seventeen and you've never steered this team wrong. You've been the best leader we could have asked for….Even when I didn't wanna ask. So what's wrong?"

"It's just….This sounds crazy but today was too easy" Astra smiled, painfully aware of the comment sounded in isolation "All of the jobs are lately. We wanted to make history and be something special and we did. So now what AJ?….What do we do when it feels like we've already done everything?"

"The only thing we can do" Athena shrugged, laying back onto the wooden surface of the table that she and her friend had been sharing; allowing herself to drift for a moment and take in the sounds of the rest of Team MARSZ mingling with Team RWBY and Penny Polendina along with every remaining member of Teams JNPR, GRAP, FADE and GORE and their families before uttering words that had become a mantra.

"We keep moving forward"

Author's Notes:

Okay, I've been holding off on getting emotional with my goodbye to this story and this extended AU but now's the time, so here it is.
I Started writing this story in March 2021, the fifth installment of a project which has been ongoing ever since I began posting The Downward Spiral in September of 2016….Almost eight years of coming to a close here and I can only hope that I've done myself justice.
By coincidence it also transpired that I wrote this epilogue in the same week that the end of Rooster Teeth after twenty-one years was announced, something which made me want to work harder because this is now no longer just my send-off to the Spiral-Verse but also to RWBY and Rooster Teeth as a whole. RWBY has been a big part of my life for these last eight years, it's the show that made me a writer and I can honestly say that my life would not look the same at all without it.
I also want to take a moment to thank every single reader who has enjoyed these stories, especially those who have left reviews and especially those few of you who have been here since the beginning.
There's also a very special thank you and goodbye I need to say here, it wouldn't feel right if I didn't: That is to the user 'SumoSnipe' who was the driving force to continue the Spiral-Verse beyond its' third installment, this story would literally not exist without him however he unfortunately passed away in 2022….Wish you could have been here for this.
This marks the end of an era, I'm at a point now where I want to move away from Fanfiction and begin posting my own original writing. Ideas are in place and will be taking shape in the near future.
I wish you all well now and in the future and as the late, great Monty Oum said "Keep moving forward"

So, for the last time….Let's summarize shall we?:
So we're like 35-40 years away from canon/The Downward Spiral at this point.
I was torn between starting with a Ruby scene or a Team MARSZ scene but I think this opening balanced it right….If this were ever to somehow get animated then I would actually have Ruby given a monologue voice over to mirror the narration in the first episode which we later found out was Salem.
I feel like I set this up in a way where the universe still has room for a few short stories, stuff involving those last few dregs of Nero's group but I'm probably never going to write them.
Zirconia wearing a black version of Ruby's cloak just felt right.
Adult Regalia has some similar style and tastes to Yang when it comes to clothes.
Astra had that same jacket for the entirety of the story, they were never going to put it away….Of course it's in a case.
So Zirconia was inspired by a few different seasons of Kamen Rider, but Chopper is inspired directly by Kamen Rider Black RX or more specifically its' adaption 'Masked Rider'.
Yeah that was absolute light work, that whole chase scene and take down just served to show how good Team MARSZ still are.
Subarashi Nichibotsu = Excellent Nightfall….A fitting name for a character who exists solely to be part of an ending.
So Ruby is the new Salem, but is taking steps to actively keep herself from becoming anything like Salem, or God Emperor Leto Atreides II or anything else like that.
She might live forever, but so will Penny and potentially so will Carmesi and the other hybrids….Including those who took android bodies (Which means Hellion of Team GORE may also be functionally immortal as well).
That's already a pretty good start on fixing the world.
The idea of Grimm Ruby just whistling happily as she walks through the hallways made me grin.
Even now Carmesi refuses to stop working, but this is clearly a much better outcome.
The Carmesi and Qrow comparison hit me as I was writing and I had to make it.
This is is my goodbye to the whole Spiral-Verse, there is no way I could write this and consider it complete in any real way if I didn't include Gangrel Slate, my first ever RWBY OC and his relationship with Weiss.
Tuscan is the daughter of Gangrel's two surviving team-mates and she was originally gonna be more prominent in the story; so having her growing into a fighter to rival Pyrrha here is a small nod to what might have been.
Vytal Tournament callbacks….God it feels so long ago.
Winter in a bright floral shirt is a fun mental image, Winter retired, at peace and living her best life is even better.
Weiss and Gangrel getting cock-blocked was the couple which started the running joke of the Slate family always getting blocked….Had to let the Polar Bear ship get lucky here.
The Jagged Mountains are a callback to Team FADE's first mission in FADE: Legacy.
After the end of the final battle Diabla having a Ronin/Punisher/Red Hood arc of sorts just felt natural.
She probably wouldn't have succeeded with fixing Vaccuo in the long run.
But trying to go to war against Ruby is hardly a better idea.
Using Laser's old weapon and Laser's tactics just to drive home that sense of loss.
A weapon is an extension of the Hunter and Diabla just casually used Laser's weapon as a conduit for her Semblance.
So y'know how I said there's rogue Hunters building followings to resist or fight the changes Ruby's making….That's what Diabla wants to be.
Humanity, with Ruby's help has won and Chopper is the proof: The Grimm under Ruby's control can be modified to not need to attack humans and eventually that will be almost all Grimm.
But the idea of Regalia having movie marathons with her pet Grimm jetbike is too good.
After all these years Regalia has finally found a crazy food combo that she doesn't like.
Regalia experimenting with their gender is something I've known I wanted to include for a while, but I've also known that there really wasn't gonna be space for it until the epilogue.
Astra does make a fair point….We all remember the dramatic Mulan style haircut with a knife AJ gave herself in chapter one.
I'll be honest the Yang scene just felt like a chance to set up and make offhand comments about what other people are doing but at the same time it still felt needed in a way.
Even the Hunters who've been nomadic for years are settling down….You've kinda gotta when your kids are starting school.
Arctus and Diamond's daughter being taught Puns by Great-Aunt Yang; the future is in good hands.
With the butterfly imagery that was used in the show around the Silver-Eyed Warriors, including the hounds' wings the idea of Ruby's Grimm-jet being a butterfly or moth was perfect.
A nice Blue-Moonbeam ship moment….Also Stygian's chest scars glow in the dark.
Shout out to AJ for living the Bisexual dream.
High-fiving after sex is terrible behavior and AJ is right to say it.
Everything I said about Gangrel and Weiss deserving a chance to get lucky and not get blocked still stands….But this epilogue would not be complete without one of the Slates getting cock-blocked.
Also one last"You suck! You suck so bad, you are the suckiest!" was needed.
Of course Ruby based parts of her island/floating fortress on Beacon.
Bright colorful streamers on the spikes that Carmesi used to finish off the Behemoth just felt like the perfect way of claiming the place, of making it more than just a Grimm-structure and turning it into a home.
I know creating an entirely new OC just for one scene in the epilogue is probably a dumb idea, but at the same time the only real way to show Carmesi's growth is to have him actually integrate into a society and be a part of a community; which means interacting with people.
Besides, Daybreak is one last treat for the monster-fuckers in the crowd.
The idea of someone willingly choosing to be a Grimm-Hybrid, but not for any nefarious reasons, just because it's better than working a dead-end job forever is an interesting one.
Just when you thought there was no possible deep-cut or reference left to make….Ruby made a Cyber-Grimm version of Zwei.
And now for a complete change of tone….I'm gonna be honest, I actually managed to make myself tear up with "Team STRQ could finally be reunited".
But yeah, Qrow's gone….Because look, he was old, he spent years not looking after himself and his body was in pieces; it was just his time.
Yang is the one who notices all of the little changes in Ruby, even the ones Ruby misses herself.
"I'm not alone, I never have been and that's what makes me different to her, to all of the other Grimm that led the Grimm" it really is that simple.|
If this is my send-off to RWBY and Rooster Teeth then I had to get a little homage to streamer Vtuber Ruby in there.
"And on the day I lose my sister Remnant will be safe for all time because they will never need to look anywhere else again for misery; I will be enough"….Ouch.
I like the idea that Ruby doesn't actually use her new powers to the fullest, because things like reaching across the Hive-Mind to communicate just feel weird.
Perfect transition from Ruby to Wolfram and Ursinia.
Nice little look into how their lives have been going, how the loss of Laser and Diabla factored into it and how they've taken Huckleberry under their wing and how all of it led to the here and now.
Yeah Diabla just looks like she's been through hell and has an utterly miserable air around her.
Diabla actually thought that Ruby would have her turned into a hybrid, she actually thought her old friends would hand her over.
"We thought that we were your home" just….Ouch.
Wolfram and Ursinia literally held off on getting married just because they wanted Diabla to be there when they did.
"Oh honey I believe you're so dumb if we put your brains in a duck it'd fly backwards" thank you 'Southern Grandpa sayings' on TikTok for that one.
Ursinia might have sounded harsh when she was talking about Laser but she was right.
So Team WULF's story ends with Diabla coming home, being welcomed back and getting a chance to rebuild.
….But of course there's gonna be a Grimm fight.
A new, faster transport and a new age of technology on Remnant just felt right.
They/Them Regalia is now official, they're rocking that undercut.
The Astra and Gangrel conversation isn't important in its' specifics, more a general sense of things changing and an overall gradual winding down of Hunters as there's less and less Grimm.
Of course it was gonna be Team MARSZ fighting the big one.
Astra's catchphrase has been used so many times it's become an in-joke.
The Deer Grimm, the 'Dreadful Spirit' is based on something from a relatively short original story called Orbus Tertius you can find on Ao3.
I gave it a deliberately false start there, hyped it up as this big ancient threat just to completely undercut it and show how much Hunters have progressed.
"Up yours, baby!" had to get a movie quote in for Regalia.
Okay that fight scene was brief but I felt like closing the story out without one final showdown against a regular, run-of-the-mill boss fight Grimm would be a waste and I still feel like I did it justice; especially with the way the team interacted and used their different weapons and Semblances.
Unbelievably this was originally just gonna be a Ren and Nora scene, but then I had to stop myself because how can the end of the Spiral-Verse possibly not have Velvet Scarlatina, whose character is what actually started it all.
I love the idea of Coco becoming an artist.
The old Cabal is now just a group chat to hang out in.
I didn't have room for a scene with Tiger, but the Santara Twins are doing fine and they're hanging out with Stitch's Mum now.
A little hint of something serious in the banter….Ruby's next move is gonna be to literally eradicate the last traces of Salem's influence and make a Cyber-Grimm factory on top of the crater so that she can protect Menagerie herself.
"It's been fun talking to you guys, it really has" I actually wrote that line as it was hitting me that the next scene would be the end….So that's not Coco talking to Ren, that's me talking to all of you.
The last scene is on Patch, where RWBY started with the Red Trailer because I can't imagine anywhere else to end this.
Astra never did name their truck.
I love the idea of the look on Weiss's face when she brings her new class of airship, her masterpiece to Patch so she can show it to Ruby….And Ruby has something even cooler just waiting for her.
It had to be Astra and Athena-Jade here at the end, had to be; they were always intended to be the main characters of MARZ.
As for the scene itself, consider Astra's comments about "What do we do when it feels like we've already done everything?" as me thinking about my own next moves and future plans.
That final shot though, of the sun setting and Astra and AJ looking out at basically every main character from the series gathered together would be beautiful
Keep moving forward.

Thank you to Neil12, MajorBrony95, Haldracc and one unnamed guest account for their reviews on the last chapter.
No no no...Now we're done.
MARZ was about 3 and a half years, the Spiral-Verse series as a whole is a little under eight years of writing.
My next adventure is going to be something original under a new alias...I have a prologue, the first arc and part of the second arc of my first original story already written however the plan is actually to finish the second arc, then write some one-shots and short stories which I will release first, along with some possible music production; then start posting my Superhero story.
Well Grimm that can think exist already in the form of the hybrids, though whether or not they can breed or Ruby could create one from scratch is open to interpretation; at the same time she's definitely creating a lot of stuff.

As always thank you to everyone that reads this, with a special thanks to those of you that follow, favorite and review.