Author's Notes;

To Guest named JojoReferences;

(chuckles) Quite a funny scene there, even though I never saw any of the Transformers movies myself. (Unless you count brief clips an online friend has sent me.) Thanks for the review(s).

-This chapter was a beast. I had to rewrite/rethink this chapter several times and change various elements, so while it may be shorter compared to other combative chapters, it should still be satisfying.

-I would have gotten this out sooner, but yesterday was a rough day. I appreciate your patience.

Now then, who will live, and who will die? And who will justify themselves?

We All Live (And), We All Die, (But) That Does Not Begin to Justify You

Following the instructions of Esmeralda, Yang and team SOLR found themselves in Scarlatti's office. To no one's surprise, team SSEA was there and they had expected this. Noah already had his weapon out. Santiago, Evan and Anastasia soon got out their weapons, following their leader's lead. Scarlatti tried to hide herself behind SSEA's leader.

"Stop right there!" Noah ordered. "Surrender and back down!"

Atum glared at team SSEA's leader. "If you think that we were going to back down now, after everything that happened and nearly happened, then you are mistaken."

"Your reign ends here Scarlatti!" Surya declared.

"You think you're innocent, but you have made a big mistake! Now we will put you in your place! Surrender and to the stony lonesome you will go. If you don't surrender, well, you know." Apollo warned.

"Not happening in a million years. Get them!" Scarlatti ordered.

Evan fired a wave of ice dust towards the heroes, but the men side-stepped as Yang ducked under.

Surya immediately went after Noah, using his fire dust wand in an attempt to singe him. Noah's fire dust sword canceled out his attack and sent Surya skidding across the carpet groaning in pain.

Apollo fired his bows and arrows at Evan, only for them to encounter his lance spun vertically. The arrows ricocheted off the lance and into the wall. Scarlatti ducked down and crawled her away to her desk.

Out of the corner of his eye, Atum, with his crook and flail, fired at the desk and forced Scarlatti to dash away, leaving her on her hands and knees. The desk went up in flames, scorching papers, technology and even her mug.

"No! You fool! Look at what you've done!" Noah yelled.

"Quickly, the extinguisher!" Santiago ordered.

Anastasia dropped her weapon, got out the extinguisher from behind and doused the desk. With the flames smothered out, she tossed it aside and went back to fighting. She went back for her weapon and successfully retrieved it.

Surya quickly advanced, attempting to stab Noah in the arm with his fire dust wand. But Noah was quicker and a lot smarter than most of the guards down below. He soon slapped the wand out of his hands, causing it to fall and glide onto the floor. The leader of team SSEA chuckled as SOLR's leader growled.

A small wave of purple energy in the form of rings went out from around him as he spoke, even though no one noticed them.

"Riddle me this, Surya- why do you even fight? You're nothing but a pathetic team leader who lost his teammate and started the Battle for Aletheia, when all you had to do was your job!"

He looked down in shame, and soon that purple energy slammed him into the wall.

"Surya!"

Apollo ran over to him, weakened and on the ground. The archer glared at team SSEA's leader. "You will never win, Noah of..." Apollo began.

"And there you go, trying to rhyme!" Noah interrupted. "Nobody's impressed!"

Apollo looked at him confused, "What?"

The purple rings of energy shocked him and sent him flying through the door.

"Apollo!"

What is happening? How is he doing this? Yang quickly thought.

As Noah continued his attack on Surya, who was just getting up, Anastasia attempted to shove Yang to the wall with the teeth of her rake, only for her to fire a few rounds back with Ember Celica. She tried to deflect it, but she was too slow and was knocked back first into a filing cabinet before sliding to the floor.

In retaliation, Evan tried to strike Yang down with his ice dust daggers, but to no avail. She was too quick for him, giving a swift punch to the stomach, causing him to heel over.

Atum fired at Santiago, using the ice dust from his daggers to counter the fire and explosion dust waves. Small explosions occurred as Scarlatti, now on her feet, went to the back corner, trying to stay out of the line of fire.

The purple rings of energy were shown again as Noah continued his attack.

"You may be strong, but you'll never be as strong as Orville was." Noah taunted. "You're only second rate."

Atum was on the defense. "That... that's not true!"

"Is it? Can you even wield that sword? You haven't. You're too scared to try!"

Orville glanced back, unable to see Orville's sword behind him, strapped to his backside. Atum was slowly pushed back by purple waves and slid into the wall. All of team SLR's huntsmen were down, leaving a huntress trainee standing.

"Well, well, looks like all of the men are down, and a scared little girl remains."

Said trainee breathed in and glared at him. "You're nothing but a bully and a tyrant!" Yang yelled at him.

"Tyrant? Ha! That's not true at all. I'm a leader. If anyone's a tyrant it's Ozpin, and he's dead now. And you, Miss Xiao-Long. You're a horrible person."

Yang ignored him and charged right on with her arm gauntlet shots as he tried insulting her, but the purple energy rings stayed in place.

"Fool! Moody! Impulsive twit! Leg breaker!"

"You will never take me," Yang said in defiance.

As the fight raged on and Anastasia pretended to be unconscious, back against the cabinet she was slammed into, the huntress thought to herself, Why am I here? I've been with these guys for years, trying to do what I thought would be for the greater good of this God-forsaken world. The only reason I've stayed with this team for so long is because Noah said Vale needs me more than my home kingdom. And I believed him. Or was that only because of his semblance and his words messing with me? The power to turn emotional pain into physical pain? He's no psychic, but he still knows enough to hurt others.

She internally sighed. Noah has made some questionable decisions over the last few years. We agreed to protect Vale for five years after graduation, and now it's been ten. And here we are, serving a dictator and nearly burning innocent people alive! Have we learned nothing from our days at Beacon Academy?

Evan ran to his teammate and gently nudged her.

"Anastasia. Ana, wake up."

At this, she begrudgingly got up, with more sorrow in her eyes she tried to steady herself.

Surya and Atum rose from the ground as Apollo ran back in. With a glare in her eyes, Yang and her allies looked around, finding themselves encircled by team SSEA, with Noah and Santiago piercing daggers, Evan with a blank sad face, and Anastasia immensely tormented.

"We are not going down. Not like this." Yang spoke.

Ilia sat on her bed within her room, looking at a big flow chart surrounded by other words and questions. She wrote a few things down and created bubbles around them.

Okay... Let's review what we know. the specialist began. There's blood on the carpets of the old library. The library is being moved to a separate room and the old library is being refurbished for that very reason. Ares said the blood was caused by Athena's menstrual period, but there's no way it would be that heavy. Even if it was actually a miscarriage (which is highly unlikely because Athena uses contraception), it seems unlikely that Ares would lie about it. I found out more recently that they do want to have children several years down the road, and that would imply that Athena would be devastated by a miscarriage. She didn't seem to mourn Sienna's death too much, but she still went about her daily life and possibly plotted her ambitions either way.

I know that Ares is a liar, but I still don't know why he's lying. However, due to their sexual and romantic relationship, Ares is closely associated with Athena, so any lie he tells, she must know the truth about.

She looked at the diagram of Athena's waistline with the chain whip. Nearby was a note; Painted to gold?

But what about that chain whip? Ilia thought. Is it a coincidence?

Her thoughts turned to who Athena was as a person.

Days before Sienna fell, Daphne joined Athena's forces. I spoke with her and learned that she was persuaded by Marrok to join the Revolutionists. Athena is highly clever, but she isn't the High Leader. Adam is. He became the High Leader after Sienna's downfall, which Blake claims was caused by Adam and Athena working together to take her down. But if that was the case, why aren't Adam and Athena still fighting each other for power? Athena said she agreed to let Adam be the leader because she caused a lot of division in the White Fang with the Mistralian Fang Civil War and realized the consequences of civil war, but is it really true? Or does she have her own agenda, one which could involve a hostile takeover of the White Fang?

She looked at the bottom left of the paper, looking at the words she said.

Blake claimed that Sun and her parents ended up running into her as she began her mission. However, from news reports I've heard, Sun was with her when she defeated Corvina Noire, meaning that Sun was either with her all along, or he found her before that happened. Not to mention some people think that they're dating and after Blake was knocked unconscious on the rooftop, the "Little Prince" was extremely furious with Adam for what he had done. But Blake seems like too much of a coward to have a real romantic relationship. On the other hand, Blake's relationship with Adam... ended badly. But why? Why did she truly run away? Does she even care about the friends she left behind, such as Yang and her other teammates?

Ilia wrote down; "relation of Sun and Blake- uncertain"

Blake also claimed that Adam and Athena conspired against Sienna so that Adam could take leadership. In order for Blake's statement to be true, they would have had to have met in person at least once before the day of Sienna's fall. We were here for four days before the day Adam became leader. Each night we took a night shift, save for Daphne who deserted Adam's entourage. Hector took the first night watch, then Douglas, then me, and finally Adam. If Adam did speak with Athena, it would have had to have been the night before she was killed! But why would Athena show herself to Adam? What would she have to gain?

She briefly thought back to her time as a prisoner of war.

When Hector, Douglas and myself were captured, we were held as prisoners in Athena's compound before Athena and Adam created their alliance. But considering we were captured, why didn't warden Ares kill us? Or even interrogate us? It seemed that Adam had saved us from an uncertain terrible fate when we were captured, but he didn't even try to find us after we were captured. He said that he had to press on and find Athena when we were invading the tower. But what if he was trying to distract us? But from what? Or why?

Ilia looked at the bottom right of the paper again, looking at bubbles describing Blake's actions.

The night Sienna was killed, Blake was seen in a White Fang uniform. Addie later appeared before us naked, save for her bra, underwear and fang necklace... A shiver crawled down the gecko girl's spine. Did she steal the clothes from her? But why would she do such things? She would have no reason to...

Her thoughts turned to more of Blake's actions.

Was she trying to assassinate Adam that night? Was she planning to take him by surprise? No wait, Adam would have recognized her in an instant. But she said that she came here to stop him. So why would she steal Addie's clothes? Or... why did she steal them? But yet... she was running away from him. Did her plan go awry? Why would she come here to assassinate him only to run away from what was clearly an opportunity to stop him? Unless... her clothes were torn, and she needed replacements. But why would she need to replace everything? Is it possible that...?

An image of Blake chained to the wall appeared in her mind.

She was a prisoner? Was she... de...

Ilia shook her head in denial.

No, that... that can't be. Ares would never! Wungeng and Adam came to her mind. But what about the other two male leaders?

Picking up her pencil, she frantically wrote something down.

Wungeng was said by Mata to have a little interest in her, before Adam told him that Blake was his. Not to mention Wungeng seems to be starting an affair with Aoi. How she could ever be charmed by that slob is beyond me...

Ilia shook her head.

Gah! Focus! So Adam still has some interest in Blake. But they broke up long ago. Then why would he still call her his love, even though he wants her to suffer, and... is he lusting over her?

The specialist agent picked up a glass of water on her bed and took a sip. Holding the glass in her hand, she looked out her window at the sky above, bringing her thoughts to the roof.

It doesn't make sense! None of it does! I looked at the library. There was a massive blood stain. I looked at the rooftop. There were no signs of conflict up there. One would think that Grimm and a human huntsmen would cause some damage, but they didn't. And if Blake told me to go to the library, then... Why would there be damage there and not the roof...?

She gasped.

No... it can't be...

A series of images played through her head. Adam speaking with Athena outside the warehouse, Sienna being killed by Adam, Athena taking Sienna's Cerberus Whip as Adam took the Badge of Leadership, taking Blake and throwing her over his shoulder, chaining her to the wall, stabbing both of her arms and ripping off her clothes.

Her skin suddenly turned purple, her spots and eyes turning lavender as her hair turned black. The chameleon faunus found herself paralyzed. She wanted to run, but her feet were nailed to the floor.

No... No! Her heart pulsed rapidly. NO!

Ilia threw glass to the carpet, breaking it into a million pieces.

Adam killed Sienna, and Athena let him take power because he "won" the title. Every leader here is corrupt one way or another because they all know the truth about Sienna's death... And Adam...

The chameleon faunus froze, seeing Blake's tormented reflection in the mirror; She stood within the White Fang uniform she stole from Addie, her ears exposed, and sobbing into her hands.

He wanted to silence Blake... by attempting to rape her.

She stared into the mirror as the illusion vanished. The specialist's skin turned green, and her skin spots, eyes and hair turned blue, covering her mouth as her eyes watered. Tears fell down her face.

Blake was never lying... How could I not believe her? And I helped Adam to destroy Sienna and to do terrible things to Blake...

Taking her hand from her mouth, she put it to the mirror.

What have I done?

Back in Aquarian, the fiery quartet was still attempting to dissolve the sea. But team SSEA was not one to give up easily.

Yang punched Anastasia down, who was barely dodging. Her reaction time was getting slower, as if she wanted to be beaten.

"Anastasia, get it together!"

Noah screamed at her as she was knocked down by Yang's Ember Celica.

Evan shot his team leader a brief glare after dodging Atum's weapons. "Don't you think you're being too harsh?"

"Too harsh?!" He dodged a swing of dust from Surya's dagger. "We are in the fight of our lives! Mayor Scarlatti is counting on us!"

Yang looked at the huntress in concern.

"Anastasia? Is something wrong?"

She said nothing, but sadly blinked.

The firecracker turned to the archer. "Maybe you should use your semblance on her?"

"But can I force someone to...?" he began, before being kicked down by Santiago.

Apollo slid across the floor and barely dodged a line of ice dust from Santiago. Anastasia was still standing around as explosion dust just barely missed her head.

"Anastasia! Either help us fight or don't fight at all!" Noah ordered.

Anastasia looked at her teammates in torment, tears coming to her eyes.

"Do you not realize what you're doing?! We're hurting the innocent!" At this, the fight stopped and Scarlatti appeared confused. "The former Scarlatti Alliance did nothing wrong! I know Pyrrha's innocent, and that Yang was framed! I knew all along, but I only stayed here because I thought I was doing the right thing! But this?! Reinforcing tyranny and burning opposition alive?! This is not what being a huntsman is about! If this is what being a huntress is, then I want no part of it!"

She took off her Trojan Alliance badge and threw it to the ground.

"No!" Noah and Santiago exclaimed in unison.

"Anastasia!" Evan cried out.

Immediately, she released a surge of green aura as she let down her arms in anger, sending everyone flying back as she ran out of the office.

Yang was the first to rise, albeit slowed. "Was that an... aura blast?"

"That's a highly advanced aura move." Surya said, standing up.

Atum wasn't scared. "No matter. We still have three huntsmen to take down."

"On second thought, I'm also out!" Evan declared, pointing to Noah. "You've been a bully for so many years, and I'm through!"

The horse tailed faunus threw his badge to the ground and punched his team leader right in the face.

Suddenly Scarlatti was terrified. "No, this can't be happening. The sea is boiling."

"You traitor!" Noah and Santiago screamed.

Evan moved fast, grabbing Santiago's daggers and throwing them to the ground nearby the mayor. Noah, who was trying to taunt Evan, was caught in the blast and now frozen to the wall, completely encased in ice.

"Noah!"

With Santiago distracted, he was soon ambushed as Atum pinned him down. Evan and Surya soon tied up his wrists.

The huntsmen and Yang looked around for Scarlatti, but did not see her.

"Where is she?!"

"I'll go after her. You make sure Santiago and Noah don't escape."

Yang left the office and soon found Scarlatti running for her life. The former chased after her, and Scarlatti gasped in terror.

"It's over, Scarlatti! Surrender now and nobody has to be hurt."

Garnet Scarlatti didn't look back, but instead attempted to quicken her pace.

She fired a few rounds at Scarlatti, hitting her in the back and causing her to fall over in agony. She screamed, but none of the guards heard her.

"Garnet Scarlatti, you are under arrest. You're charged with too many crimes to count! You're lucky that I'm a noble huntress, otherwise you would be dead."

The dis-empowered mayor gulped. "Oh..."

Dragging her along the floor by her collar, she screamed in pain and began bleeding out before being thrown back-first onto the ground.

"Can't move..." Scarlatti groaned. "Help me... Uriel..."

"Did you just break her spine?" Surya asked.

"Don't know, don't care." Yang answered. "Either way, she's out of the office forever."

Noah and Santiago were bound by the wrists in rope, held back by Surya and Apollo. The lone huntsmen glared at those who defeated him and his leader. Team SOLR's three remaining huntsmen and Yang looked over the damage. The desk was damaged and some of the walls were crumbling apart.

"In wake of all that has happened, a question I ask once more; War, what is it good for?" Apollo asked.

"Nothing. Still nothing at all." Atum lamented.

Surya asked his teammates, "What do we do now? With Scarlatti arrested and team SSEA effectively dissolved, there's no real government in this city."

"Nice job, heroes!" Santiago sarcastically commented. "Now there's going to be anarchy. I hope you're happy with yourselves!"

Team SLR, Yang and Evan all yelled, "Shut it!"

"You could rule the city yourselves," Yang suggested. "You'd probably do a better job than Scarlatti did."

Scarlatti groaned. "No..."

"We could, but..." Surya faltered. "would it really be the right thing to do?"

At that moment, Apollo's phone rang.

"Hello?" He gasped. "Oh no..."

Surya looked at his rhyming teammate in concern. "Apollo?"

"No time to rhyme, just follow me and you'll see!"

Everyone was confused and went out to the front entrance and saw Hestia and Cyrene locked in a duel.

"Hestia. The deaf enforcer." Evan identified. "Hired by Uriel Aaron to catch us. And to fight in his place thereafter."

"Huh. Looks like there's no reasoning with her. Well, time to pound her to the ground."

One beat-down later, Hestia was defeated and she, along with Noah and Santiago were in front of city hall. Scarlatti had fallen unconscious and looked lifeless. The remaining guards were in shock.

"Garnet Scarlatti has fallen. The Trojan Alliance will no longer reign over this city. Renounce your allegiance or face the consequences!" Surya commanded.

Everyone threw their badges to the ground, and most of the guards ran away. The few that stayed behind looked guilty, and one of them burst into tears.

"We did it." Surya faintly smiled. "Scarlatti's reign is no more."

With that, it was over. Victory had been won by the Spartan Alliance. The five heroes had emerged victorious, and all seemed well.

"Alright we better call the police to arrest all these sickos." Surya told Atum.

"Uh guys? I think we need to call the coroner as well." Evan was checking the vital signs for the former ruler. "Garnet Scarlatti is dead."

Yang gasped, her face pale.

"No. This can't be."

Suddenly the feeling of victory was replaced with regret.