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-CHAPTER START-

Realm R38Y

Solitas Tundra

As Jaune, Yang, Ren, & Pirika continued pursuing the flying mutant Grimm, it led them into a rocky chasm.

"It's going to lose us in these mountains!" Jaune shouted, still holding the hoverbike's throttle wide open. "We can't keep up!"

Ren's bike started shaking; he looked down at the frost-covered display, seeing warning symbols for the engine. "I don't know how much longer these bikes can stand the cold" he reported.

"I'm really wishing one of us could fly right now" Yang griped.

"Wait!" Jaune came up with something. "Hold on!" He deployed his shield and slowed down, driving parallel to Ren. "Ren, I'm gonna get you up there."

He charged his shield's inbuilt Gravity Dust, holding it high as Ren leapt onto it (with Pirika hopping onto Ren's bike before it could fall behind) and then 'firing' his teammate up & forward. Shooting through the air toward their target, Ren launched one of Stormflower's blade-cables, wrapping it around the Hound's hind leg. Unfortunately, but predictably, the mutant Grimm took umbrage at this, flying more erratically and starting to slam Ren against the cliffs.

"Not good…" Pirika looked worriedly at her ninja-esque teammate being beaten around.

"He's slowing him down" Jaune said. "Hang on, Ren!"

"I don't have much of a choice!" Ren replied, still being flung & smacked around.

He fired his other blade-cable, wrapping it around a boulder as an anchor, but the Hound pulled up and jerked, making the cable lose grip on the rock, almost clipping Jaune before it reeled back in. The Hound kept slamming Ren into the ground and rocky walls as it flew through the chasm, clearly annoyed at its hitchhiker. Yang spotted a natural ramp along the chasm wall, driving up it onto the crisscrossing upper 'level' of the passage, shooting a few rounds at the side of the mutant Grimm's head. In response, the Hound moved Oscar from its mouth to its hands, started flying faster, and let out a long, echoing roar. In response, the earth rumbled, and swarms of Centinels began emerging from the snow-covered chasm walls & floor, while a flock of Teryxes came in overhead.

"Did it just call for backup?" Yang asked in disbelief.

She then had to duck as a Teryx swooped down at her from the right, her hoverbike wobbling for a moment. Jaune and Pirika used sword & hammer-blade to cut through Centinels trying to block their path, but one of them nailed one of Jaune's bike engines with a glob of acid, the bike beginning to lose speed as smoke trailed from the damaged engine. A pair of Centinels came at him from behind, twisting around each other, and the slowing bike meant they might catch him. Leaping off his damaged bike, Jaune used his shield's Gravity Dust to launch himself off another Centinel's head, landing atop a stone arch; Yang zipped by, grabbing him and swinging him around to ride behind her.

Pirika formed up behind them, lashing out with a well-timed kick to break a swooping Teryx's neck. Unfortunately, three more Teryxes came at her, forcing her to bail as one of them dug its claws deep into her ride. Drawing her gravity hammer, she squared up with the pack of draconic Grimm, hoping she could get through them and catch up with her comrades. Meanwhile, another Teryx landed in Jaune & Yang's path as they kept up pursuit, but Jaune pulled out a handheld shield generator and tossed it forward. A hardlight shield sprang up against a boulder, and Yang drove into it, using it as a ramp to sail over the dragon Grimm's head. As she came back down, she fired a couple rounds to kill a pair of Centinels, but the force of the recoil put her bike into a spin. She came back down and quickly regained control, but the bike sideswiped a boulder hard, one engine trailing smoke.

Zigzagging around a few more Centinels, Yang & Jaune saw a sheer cliff edge right ahead! Panicking, she threw the bike to scrub off speed, but knew this wouldn't be enough. They both bailed, skidding across the snow & ice right for the cliff, Yang's bike slamming into a boulder. Jaune dug his sword into the ice with one hand while grabbing Yang's hand with the other, but their momentum was too strong, yanking them away from his planted sword and carrying them, screaming, over the edge…

…And then Ren came in, having leapt off the Hound to save his teammates. Firing one Stormflower cable to wrap securely around Jaune's sword, he used the other to grab Jaune who still had a hold of Yang, reeling them both in to grab hold of the blond youth's arm. The trio were left dangling from Ren's weapon's cable, and a Teryx began an attack run at them, only for Ren to trigger his Semblance, masking the three of them from the Grimm's senses. As they heard the approaching pulsing sounds of Pirika's gravity hammer splattering Grimm to accompany her hurried approach, they watched as the flying Hound carried the unconscious Oscar off into the sky, heading toward the titanic flying Grimm in the distance…

-Break-

Schnee Manor

Weiss knocked hard on the estate's huge double doors, and soon they were opened from within by Whitley, who looked upon the haggard group with surprise; Pyrrha was carrying the unconscious Nora. He sighed.

"You've picked a fine time to-"

He shut up when Weiss drew her blade. "Not. Another. Word." she demanded. "We're coming in."

The boy groaned and stepped aside, allowing Ruby's group inside. "Things are already bad enough – Father arrested for treason, the city being menaced by the Queen of the damned Grimm, citywide communications barely functioning… And now a wounded & unconscious Huntress? What are we supposed to do with all this? What even happened to her?"

"She had to absorb more electricity than her Semblance could safely handle" Blake replied. "A lot more. We need a place for her to rest & recover, and this place was closer than the Academy or the hospital, meaning less chance of the Grimm finding us mid-transit. You said communications are spotty?"

Whitley sighed. "Virtually unusable. And whenever Atlas' systems automatically adjust to a different frequency, that frequency goes out after only a minute at most, too. It has to be deliberate. …You know, we're not exactly in a position to take care of any wounded at the moment. We've lost all the house staff, and mother has locked herself in her room. What do you even expect me to do here."

"Stay out of the way" Weiss replied. "Your bedroom window has a view in the direction of Salem's flying carrier-Grimm; the thing's holding position for now, but let us know if it starts moving closer to Atlas."

After a moment, Whitley sighed in resignation and headed for his room. Weiss then led the group toward one of the vacant guestrooms. Walking at the rear of the party, Ruby glanced anxiously at the closed doors, knowing she had no reliable way to know if Yang & the others were okay…

-Break-

Yang, Ren, Jaune, & Pirika trudged through the windy tundra, guiding Yang & Pirika's damaged bikes. Their Auras were steadily being worn down by the freezing cold, making finding shelter of paramount importance. Yang's Combusken had come out, trying to give off heat to keep the gang a little warmer, but there was only so much he could do.

"That coulda gone better…" Jaune sighed.

"We messed up" Ren stated. "We weren't ready."

"I'm sorry," Yang replied, "but were you expecting a speech-capable, shapeshifting mutant Grimm to drop in out of f*cking nowhere and kidnap Oscar?"

Ren sighed. "…Well, when you put it that way, I suppose being caught by surprise is a little more excusable."

"Let's just focus on getting out of the cold before our Auras break" Pirika said.

"I just hope Salem needs Oscar alive…" Jaune muttered worriedly.

-X-

Slowly, Oscar came to, feeling like he was floating somehow.

'Oscar?' Ozpin's long-dormant voice finally spoke. 'Don't panic. We're going to be okay.'

Oscar opened his eyes, seeing his feet off the ground, strange almost fleshy black ground slowly moving beneath him. He looked up to see fleshy walls, bone spikes, a bone staircase, and a large membrane-door. Leaning against the wall by the door was Salem, looking down at swirling black smoke over her raised hand that took the shape of her long-lost daughters.

"My long-lost Ozma," she stood up, dispelling the smoke, "found at last…"

She slowly approached, and Oscar realized he was being held up off the ground by the collar of his shirt, held in the Hound's jaws.

"So small, this new host of yours… It's a wonder my Hound didn't break you. It's been how many years since we saw each other like this, face to face? And nothing to say?"

Oscar did his best to adopt his passenger's mannerisms. "I'm sorry the reunion isn't living up to your expectations."

In response, she grabbed his face, glaring down at him. "You can pretend, boy, but you're not fully him. Not yet, at least." She let go of him with a sigh. "Well, perhaps you and I can have a better working relationship. Oscar, was it?" She began pacing around the Hound. "The Beacon Relic. My forces have been unable to locate the Relic beneath the school. If I know my Ozma, he has used some means of deception to hide its location differently than the others. …I need to know where it is."

"I… That's not something I know about" Oscar admitted.

Salem paused for a moment, then walked away. "Of course. He would keep that one guarded as long as possible." She stopped at the other end of the room. "How about something easier, then? The password for the Lamp."

"…The lamp is all out of questions" he told her.

Salem turned to face him, smiled wryly… and then conjured a black orb that fired rainbow beams of energy, slamming into the boy's chest. He screamed, writhing in agony, as it felt like every pain-sensing nerve in his torso was tripped and turned up to maximum power. After several seconds she cut off the attack, leaving him gasping and shaking as she strolled back over to him.

"The lies come out of you so easily…" she said. "Like-minded souls, indeed." She turned and headed back toward the door. "One of you is going tell me what you know. I don't much care if it is you or Ozma. Either way, I'll finally have the Relic."

"I won't tell you anything…" Oscar rasped out.

"Hm…"

The membrane door pulled open, revealing Hazel. The giant man walked over and punched Oscar out of the Hound's mouth and across the floor.

"That was for Haven" he said, cracking his knuckles. "Everything else… is for my sister…"

-X-

As Salem and her Hound strolled down a hallway inside Monstra, they rounded a corner to find Cinder and Neopolitan. Cinder kneeled.

"Your Grace, I-" she finally noticed the Hound. "What… the hell is that…?"

Salem petted the beast. "An… experiment. So far, I am pleased with the results. Did you need something, Cinder?"

Cinder worked past how unnerved she felt at the Hound. "Yes, I… We must claim the Winter Maiden's power. Those stubborn children won't be content being on the defensive for much longer; we have to claim the Maiden and the Relic before they…" She sighed in frustration. "We're just sitting and waiting. Without the Maiden power, the vault means nothing. Let me claim it for you."

"We already have a plan in motion. I will tell you when and where you are needed."

"But, your grace-"

The Hound snarled, stopping her. Salem gave her an unamused look.

"I would like to think I have shown a great deal of patience over my many years walking Remnant. But I do hate repeating myself. You will remain here. Is. That. Clear?"

Glaring for a moment, Cinder sighed in defeat and bowed. "Yes, My Queen."

Salem nodded and walked away, the Hound following her. Cinder stood, smoldering with anger, and Neo stepped up beside her.

-x-

Shortly thereafter, Cinder was on the march, with Neo following, giving the crimson woman a "Seriously?" gesture.

"I know what she said" Cinder replied. "I just wanna check on something. We'll be back before anyone realizes."

She headed down into the docking bay, an unconvinced Neo right behind her.

"I wanna see if anything is still going on at Amity Colosseum. Salem doesn't know those children like I do. They won't play defense for long; we have to move before they do."

Stopping beside a parked dropship, she turned to look at Neo, who frowned and looked away. Cinder growled, but then a voice spoke up.

"If she doesn't want to," Emerald said as she emerged, "then I'll come with you. I've been working in my Semblance. I can help. I won't tell anybody."

Cinder let out a defeated, frustrated sigh. "How much did you overhear?"

"Enough to agree with you with Ruby and her friends are definitely going to try something, and soon. Shall we, ma'am?"

-Break-

Jaune, Yang, Ren, & Pirika had found an abandoned outpost out in the tundra. Now, as night fell, Jaune got the furnace going, providing some much-needed warmth for the group.

"I saw some parts I'm pretty sure we can fix the bikes with" Yang said.

"Have we managed to make contact with the General or Ruby's group yet?" Pirika asked.

Ren sighed and shook his head, glancing down at his Scroll. "Comms are out" he replied. "Being jammed, rather. We can't call for help or tell anyone that Salem has Oscar…"

"We'll just have to keep trying once in a while and hope we can get through" Jaune said. "And… we really should try to get some rest – to recharge our Auras, if nothing else."

Down the hill from the outpost, in a snowy field, the earth began to rumble and crack…

-Break-

"Dad?" Penny called her father over the short-range comms.

"Penny?" the old man responded, still at work in Amity overhead.

Standing inside the abandoned Dust mine, Penny looked down at the big bomb she had set up, one of several deployed through the mine. "This does not seem like a very good idea."

"There is a difference between a good idea and our best idea. Sadly, we don't have time for much else."

Inside Amity, Pietro rode the colosseum's central elevator down, toward where Maria was piloting a mech to carry some heavy machinery, with Rattrap as a 'spotter'.

"We have enough systems up & running to broadcast our message and keep Amity in atmospheric orbit" the doctor explained. "But our thrusters just aren't capable of reaching our target altitude on their own."

"Fortunately," Maria added, "we're sitting on a couple hundred tons of thrust."

"Once we've passed into broadcast range, we'll activate stabilizers, re-establish global communications, and boost the message we've recorded out into the rest of the world. After that, we just have to pilot Amity away from all this mess."

"But what if no one is able to come and help Atlas?" Penny asked, still setting and arming bombs. "If I stay behind, I could maybe-"

"Penny, we are not having this conversation again. I'm your father and I'm telling you that you belong on Amity."

There was a disappointed sigh. "Yes, sir…"

Rattrap spoke up. "Kiddo, there's no way Salem & her buddies will miss the fireworks show we're about ta set off. Someone or something will come to try and stop us; we need ya up here with us to defend Amity when that happens. Plus, if you ain't in Atlas, little miss Maiden, dat'll make it harder for Team Salem to get their hands on the Staff of Creation."

Soon, Pietro had the floating colosseum in position, hovering low over the mine. Penny came aboard, joining everyone on the raised central platform above the arena below, where Pietro was waiting at the terminal Maria & Rattrap had set up.

"Amity is requesting launch access… now."

The screen said "Connecting…" for a few moments. Then, Atlas Control – briefed by Ironwood – sent the all-clear, and the tower's antigrav stabilizers came online, glowing purple and thrumming with power.

"Yes, it's working!" Pietro clapped. "Oh, I didn't have time to install seatbelts, so I'd advise you all to hang on…"

He started the bombs' 30-second countdown, using a bit of Gravity Dust to anchor his robo-chair's legs to the floor while Penny helped Maria back into her mech. Suddenly, there was a deep thud, followed by a massive fireball shooting up through the air, crashing into the ceiling and leaving it glowing hot. Penny flew to the edge of the upper platform and looked down, seeing a massive hole that had been melted through the arena floor from the outside. A small airship flew up through the smoking hole, with Cinder standing on top of it, flames in her hands.

"And where do you think you're going?!" she shouted, a bloodthirsty grin on her face.

Penny flew down to face the intruder, her Floating Array fanned out behind her. Cinder hopped down off the airship, while Emerald disembarked and hurried up into the stands. Then, the bombs in the mine below all went off, setting off a cataclysmic chain reaction of multicolored Dust explosions. At the same time, the colosseum's four huge thrusters kicked on. The combined force gave Amity the kick it needed to begin its ascent, rocketing upwards into the night sky. The sudden acceleration slammed Penny into the floor, while Cinder bent down on one knee with both hands on the ground to steady herself.

"I was hoping your friends would be here" Cinder taunted. "But it looks like they left you to do all the work." She began conjuring dozens of glowing-hot glass swords on the floor around herself. "You're just a tool to be used!"

"You do not know what you are talking about" Penny frowned.

Soon, the colosseum's rapid ascent slowed to a halt, now hovering amongst the tops of the clouds. Cinder grinned and thrusted her hands forward, making the swarm of glass swords launch at Penny. Penny flew up off the ground and moved back, spinning her blades in front of her to shatter the continuous wave of glass blades that flew at her. The force of the blows pushed her back until her back was almost against the stadium wall, one near-miss impaling the wall right next to her head. Then, Maria's huge mech stomped into the way, crossing its armored arms to harmlessly 'catch' the remaining swords, starting to advance on Cinder.

"Get away from her, you bi-"

The villains' airship suddenly slammed into the mech, knocking it away. Cinder and Penny stared at each other for a moment, and then took to the air and charged at each other. Penny zipped right past Cinder, leading her on a chase out of the arena. Meanwhile, Maria's heavy mech wrestled with the airspeeder, which was trying to push her back & over. Maria managed to slam the speeder down to the floor, but Neo threw it in reverse and yanked her craft free of the mech's grip, floating back & away.

Suddenly, the airship seemed to vanish. Looking around, Maria spotted Emerald looking at her, hands outstretched. Realizing she was under a Semblance, Maria tried to be on-guard, but the speeder suddenly reappearing right in front of her still caught her, slamming into the mech's chest and knocking the machine into a wall, smoking and sparking. Neo parked the speeder and got out, climbing up onto the mech just as the cockpit opened up, the old woman's synthetic eyes narrowed up at her.

"And what do you want?" she asked.

Neo shifted into Ruby's form briefly as an answer, then grabbed and threw Maria out of the mech. Landing on her feet, the old Huntress grinned and got ready to throw down. Moving away from the edge of the upper platform, Pietro hurried over to the control terminal, checking status. Amity Tower was now firmly above a green line labeled 'Broadcast Range', and the screen showed "Broadcast Signal Range Achieved".

"Yes!" he pumped his fist.

But then, as the tower's stabilizers activated, a warning appeared onscreen: "Warning! Stabilizer Failing!" Amity Tower was beginning to lose altitude. Outside, the hole that Cinder had blasted her way into the colosseum was directly next to one of the stabilizers, leaving it flickering and struggling to remain active.

Moving around in the stands, Emerald suddenly heard a revving engine approaching fast. She turned just in time to see Rattrap speeding toward her. The Maximal swerved to dodge her hurried shot at him, transforming as he got close and firing a round from his own pistol that she barely dodged. In his other hand he drew his beast-mode tail in the form of a partially stiffened whip-sword, bringing it up to block when she came at him with her sickle-form "Thief's Respite" weapons.

"Y'know, kid…" he said as he held firm against her pressing blades. "Between watchin' ya in person and readin' reports, I think I've got somewhat of a read on ya by this point, and I really don't get why you're with the bad guys. You got a conscience, you got standards, you ain't got the heart of a killer. Workin' for someone who's trying to conquer the world just don't seem like it's your thing. So why?"

Emerald growled as she shifted her angle and pushed him back. "I don't care about Salem or her goals. And you're right, I don't like killing. But Cinder saved me from starving on the streets or being beaten by people I stole food from to survive! She's the only one who was there for me! So I'll do whatever it takes to make her happy! To repay the person who saved me!"

"Green, that chick don't care about you! About anybody but herself, for that matter! You're just a tool to her, and the moment she don't need ya, she'll toss you out like an old, rusty wrench!"

Emerald swung one of her weapon's chain-blades at Rattrap, pushing him back, and then briefly used her Semblance on him in order to slip away. Shaking his head with a sigh, Rattrap tried to track her down again.

Outside, above the clouds, Cinder and Penny continued their dogfight; after an aerial skirmish around Amity Tower led to missed shots starting to damage the superstructure, Penny started leading Cinder away, out into the open sky. However, Cinder soon figured out what she was doing, 'skidding' to a halt and turning to look at the floating colosseum. She looked back over at Penny, giving a wicked smirk, and then shot off toward Amity, with Penny gasping and beginning pursuit.

As Maria easily handled Neo, expertly dodging or deflecting the mute illusionist's attacks and putting the girl on her backfoot while having the most fun she'd had in years, and Rattrap continued trying to track Emerald down again, Pietro was hard at work trying to counteract the damaged stabilizer and keep Amity in the air. Suddenly, Cinder flew in and started firing jets of concentrated flame at the metal beams supporting the communication system's platform. She managed to melt through three of them before Penny came flying in with an energy blast and a flying tackle, the two ending up hovering over the platform.

"Why are you doing this?" Penny asked. "Why serve someone like Salem?"

Cinder gave a wicked smirk. "I don't serve anyone. And you wouldn't either, if you weren't built that way."

Penny frowned, glancing back at her father. "That is not… I choose to fight. For people who care about me!"

The metal beams started to give out, the platform beginning to sag. Penny stabbed her nine floating blades into the floor, using the now-enchanted strings to pull it up, while also using her new Maiden powers to fire ice magic at two of the damaged beams, cooling and reinforcing them. Cinder took the opportunity, dashing in and latching onto Penny, legs around the gynoid's midsection and Grimm-arm reaching for her face. Penny tried to fight her off, but Cinder burned her restraining hand, making her let go of the Grimm-hand and allowing it to latch onto her face.

Panicking, Penny thrashed around, trying to bash Cinder into walls, floors, and ceilings. Finally, she formed an array of ice swords and pushed Cinder off, but the Grimm-arm stretched to maintain its hold. Penny then brought both feet up for a jet-assisted kick, and that finally did the trick, launching Cinder back and into a wall, where one of the now-flung ice swords stabbed through her cape to pin her there.

Penny flew down and landed in the arena, near Maria, just as Emerald reappeared. As Cinder and Emerald shared a look while the former freed herself, Neo took advantage of Maria's brief distraction to kick her away, drawing her blade and readying for a follow-up, only to be blindsided by a green energy wave from Penny that crashed into her and slammed her into the parked airspeeder, breaking her Aura and knocking her senseless.

Penny and Cinder then flew up above the arena, squaring off again, as Cinder formed a glowing-hot glass spear. Suddenly, Penny found herself surrounded by spear-wielding Cinders, quickly realizing she was under Emerald's Semblance. She conjured a stormcloud overhead and charged her blades with electricity just as the Cinders charged. Then, she shifted her vision to infrared, allowing her to spot the real Cinder just in time to face her and unleash a mighty laser blast of electrified magical power. Cinder was hit head-on, her spear shattering as she was blasted clear out into the stands.

"Cinder!"

A distraught Emerald ran to her master's aid, finding her battered and unconscious. Penny began approaching, only for Emerald to turn and fire a shot that narrowly missed her and struck the machine on the raised platform, barely missing Pietro.

"I know I can't beat you" she said, surprising Penny. "But I can fill that thing full of holes before you take me down!"

Understanding the ultimatum, Penny backed down and flew up to check on her father, while Emerald picked up the unconscious Cinder and hurried her over to the airship, where Neo had regained consciousness and gotten aboard.

"Get us out of here!" Emerald demanded, trying not to sound frantic.

Neo gave the out-cold Cinder an annoyed glare as she sealed the speeder up and lifted off, exiting the colosseum via the entry hole and heading back toward Monstra. Penny grabbed Maria and carried her back up to the platform, while Rattrap used his whip-tail to grapple his way up.

"Dad! Are you okay?!"

Pietro was unharmed, but he glanced sadly at the display screen – "Broadcast Signal Lost".

"The stabilizer was damaged" he explained. "We've missed our window."

Penny hurried over to the console, looking over the data.

"At this rate," the doctor continued, "we're likely to drift until touching down just north of-"

"I can fix this" Penny interrupted. "Our message is only a few minutes long. I can fly down and hold Amity in place until-"

"Absolutely not!" Pietro shouted. "After that rumble with Cinder, you're in no condition to do something like this. Even just the temperature out there could-"

"It is our only option" Penny frowned.

"She's right, Pietro" Maria spoke up. "We have to remember the big picture-"

"I don't care about the big picture! I care about my daughter!" He took his hat off. "I lost you before. Are you asking me to go through that again? No. No. I want the chance to watch you live your life."

"But dad…" she gently lifted his head to face her. "I am trying to."

Taking her hands, he took a moment to realize and gather himself. "Right."

With that, Penny flew out of the arena and outside the colosseum, down to the damaged stabilizer. Bracing herself against it, she kicked her boot-jets into gear, and Amity slowly began to rise. The ascent began to falter, so Penny poured her Maiden power into the mix, her jets turning cyan and flaring brighter. Soon, the massive floating colosseum reached broadcast range, and Pietro hurriedly started transmitting the recorded message.

All across Atlas, across Solitas, across Remnant, every device with a connection to the CCT network lit up, displaying Ruby's recording.

"Um, hi. My name is Ruby Rose. I'm a Huntess. And if we've done everything right, then I'm talking to all of Remnant right now. Dr. Polendina can explain later, but right now you all need to know that the Kingdom of Atlas is under attack. Things are dire, and we need help. But please, try not to panic. This isn't some new enemy or invading Kingdom. This is a force we've faced before – we've been facing for centuries: Salem, Queen of the Grimm."

She proceeded to explain about Salem's nature and origins and immortality and followers, about how she planned to destroy the Hunter Academies and Kingdoms, about the Maidens and the Relics…

"I know this all sounds crazy, but I promise Professor Goodwitch of Beacon and Headmaster Theodore of Shade can verify all of this. They might even be able to help organize a way to fight back, especially with DDF help. General Ironwood knows all this, too, but… well, suffice to say, he's busy at the moment…"

In his hidden lab, Watts used a pair of tweezers to remove a chip with Penny's emblem on it from the stolen sword.

"We didn't have time to prepare for Salem. But now you do! Just because she can't be killed, doesn't mean she can't be beaten. If she really was unstoppable, she wouldn't have acted with such caution until now. She knows we're a threat. So even if we… even if Atlas falls, you can't give up."

Suddenly, as she was focused on holding the colosseum in place, Penny startled as her eyes flickered red for a moment. Then, she cried out as pain burst to life within her head, her jets shutting off as she fell for a few seconds. She got them back on and flew back up to keep pushing, but the effect kept hitting her, her thrusters losing power and the tower drifting down out of broadcast range, cutting off the recording.

"Penny!" Pietro radioed. "What's going on out there?!"

Groaning and struggling, Penny fought for control over her own body. "I d-don't…!" She gasped as, during a brief moment when her eyes were their natural color, alert messages shot across her field of vision. "I'm! BeEeinG! HAAACKED!-!"

Pietro went deathly pale. Somebody was hacking his baby girl. "…Her sword!" He realized with horror. "Watts!"

"I have to gO! The Vault!-! NO! DAD!-!"

Then, her systems started shutting down, eyes losing their light, and she began to plummet, atmospheric friction making flames lick at her.

"I love you…"

And the line went dead.

-Break-

At the tundra outpost, Jaune's group were following a series of rumbling, booming cracks, racing across the snow. The earth rumbled again.

"There's another one" Jaune said. "I think it's just up a…head…"

They skidded to a stop, staring in confused horror.

"What… is this?" Ren breathed out.

Before them, the snowy ground had cracked open, revealing a river of black liquid flowing inside the crack. Yang almost fell in when the ground beneath her fractured, and Jaune pulled her back as a small bush broke off and fell into the liquid, dissolving instantly. The head of a Sabyr floated to the surface.

"It's Grimm…" Yang said. "A river of Grimm…"

They looked at where the black river was flowing, snaking its way across the tundra…

"…heading straight for the Kingdom."

-CHAPTER END-

I can't believe Rooster Teeth is shutting down, with the future of RWBY uncertain; the (canon) story may just flat out end on a cliffhanger, forever unfinished…