Disclaimer: See last chapter.

Ozpin versus Cinder

The elevator was very easy to open up, a fact that Ruby wasn't entirely sure of the reason why but she was glad it was. It was something that Yang had told her ages and ages ago, that elevators were designed to be easy to open for even a child.

And this elevator was currently stuck in the middle, but Ruby had an idea about that. She burst into her Semblance as soon as she made it into the shaft, heading upwards. The wind guided her from below, and with the combination of her Semblance and her wind she ran up the sides of the elevator shaft.

The elevator was currently on the second to last floor, and Ruby saw that it had just enough room to squeeze by. Actually it wasn't, but it was like the hole in her shop that led down to the arena, where it seemed to be much smaller than it actually was, and with her Semblance she went straight through it anyways. She landed on top of the elevator, feeling it move just a bit with her added weight, but she was only around two feet away from the next floor. She could make it without barely missing a step.

There were lights and flashes in this room too, much like what was going on down underneath them. Ruby grabbed at the doors of the elevator, hurling them open.

The top floor of the CCT was a round room, and was open to the sky now that half of it was scorched off by the ash and dust from what she did. Or...maybe that was the black haired girl, Cinder, hurling fireballs like they were going out of style.

Computers lined up in two rows, broken into sets of three. There were no lights or screens, not that Ruby needed it, based on the light show either. There was only one exit, now that the elevator was out of order. The stairs and the elevator both were right next to each other, and the stairs had a broken chair holding the door in place.

Cinder was not quite flying, but she was definitely jumping around wildly. She had a heavy glass bow in one hand, and was firing both shards of glass and arrows made out of the stuff towards her opponent on the other side of the room. Small bursts of fire came from her feet, propelling herself around the room in bursts of speed that made Ruby wonder if she could learn from her.

The other side, characterized by the green light, was Ozpin himself. The headmaster was dodging inhumanly quick, sometimes so fast there were afterimages of his afterimages. His glasses were straight on, despite that he'd had to set them multiple times when talking with her directly, and his cane was being used as a thwacking weapon.

How she wanted to take it apart to look into it because that cane had to be something different. No Emerald, but at the same time here was the person that had basically killed Amber.

Ruby could tell because Cinder, too, had the 'eye on fire' syndrome. "Ruby, no!" Ozpin shouted as soon as he turned to see her at the elevator.

Cinder growled menacingly before her eyes widened with sadistic glee. "It's you...of course, of all people, it would be you. Making my life easier one step at a time," Cinder said loudly as she rushed, not at Ozpin, but Ruby.

The Cyan Reaper blades came out, and in an instant Ruby realized that it was probably a bad idea. She burst into her Semblance and rolled off just as one of Cinder's arrows had snagged on one of the blades, leaving a dull red mark that Ruby knew very, very well.

Those arrows were hot enough to melt steel. Which means that she was literally making the glass as she went. Her Semblance wasn't just fire, but probably some kind of glass control if she had to be honest. 'Cinder' was an appropriate name. Ruby struck her with lightning as she bolted towards her, using both of the Cyan Reaper blades the same way she did with the Grimm. The lightning didn't seem to faze her, and if anything made the sadistic laughter more eminent.

"Ruby, get out of here!" Ozpin shouted before he was next to her, the cane knocking Cinder across the arms at the same time as Ruby came in with the Cyan Reaper.

"What's she doing here!? I thought it was Emerald up here!" Ruby called back as Cinder grabbed one of the blades, her hands burning a bright red as Ruby felt it start to lose connection to the main shaft. She was melting it!?

What she wouldn't give to have Crescent Rose right now. Then this would be a piece of cake, honestly...although if Cinder was here...and Emerald wasn't...wait, did that mean that Ironwood was fighting Emerald!? He would not take care of her baby at all!

The other blade transformed into the submachine gun, and Ruby let loose a hail of her experimental ammunition. A glass shield was conjured just as quick, despite that Ruby was right next to her, and a burst of fire pushed Ozpin away.

The glass shield exploded shards into Cinder. And yet, despite the pain inflicted, Cinder's eyes widened with more glee. There was a small cut underneath one of her eyes, showing a subtle line of red. "So that's the ammunition the Valkyrie girl used...I'll have to ply it from your corpse!" Cinder called out.

Cinder's voice called out again via the speakers. "Despair, and know the Huntsman that cannot protect you. Where is your Ozpin now? Your Ironwood? They will fail, and the Grimm will survive all!"

Ruby jumped back, with only one of the Cyan Reaper blades in her hand. The other one was a melted piece of slagged steel on the floor. "Alright, that didn't work," Ruby admitted.

"It wouldn't. Get out of here, she wants the Maiden's power!" Ozpin said angrily. "You know she's the one who killed Amber, and you know how she did it! I can't protect you and stop her!"

"You have done the research, haven't you Ozpin?" Cinder asked, a smirk on her mouth as she walked forward, her hips swaying for some unintelligible reason. Why she was doing that, Ruby had no idea. Ozpin was obviously not falling for it. "And yet...you're still here. It's thanks to blowing up your tower that I'm here. I knew she had to be somewhere! The power that is mine by right!"

"That's not how that works," Ozpin offered, his voice hard and cold as steel. He bolted in, appearing next to her faster than Ruby could see. Glass shattered around Cinder as more flames popped up. Ruby was halfway expecting wind or lightning, but instead only fire showed up. The shards of glass shot forward towards Ozpin, who was already mostly out of the way. Ruby stayed back a bit, watching as she tried to find the obvious mistake that Cinder would make. When fighting someone like the headmaster, they would always make a mistake.

It was what she'd learned, when she'd been taught by him for only a few hours. He was good, great even. But what was so un-obvious about it was that he stayed on that level permanently. There was no wave like there was with Uncle Qrow where they'd start out weak and build up. There was no slow decline like there was with Pyrrha, where they started out strong and gradually slowed down as they got more tired.

Ozpin was at the same level, all the time. A constant line, he'd called it, and he directed her to keep that same line up on the Maiden abilities. Not to rely on them, but rather add them to her already high martial abilities.

In other words, add them to the bag of tricks.

Cinder was very much relying on the powers and her Semblance, fire constantly rearing its head around her, arrows made of glass appearing along with swords, each ready and eager to be offered to break, and hurt Ozpin more. Each weapon that broke, each piece of glass that was shattered, broke towards him. Even if it was just one or two pieces, some would eventually hit. Ruby's eyes narrowed. That was the mistake. Cinder almost focused exclusively on fire.

A wall of wind came up just as Cinder made a large glass disc, used as a shield to take the pummeling from the Long Memory. The glass shattered, as they all knew it would, towards Ozpin until the wind grabbed it, hurling it backwards towards Cinder. A wave of fire roared up, burning and melting the glass, just long enough for Ozpin to get into her sphere. Only for an instant, and yet he was there.

One bonk, two bonks, it didn't seem like much, but Ozpin was a master with the Long Memory. Each hit led to another, a flurry of movements so quick he was nearly impossible to see. Her arm, her leg, her stomach, her head, each hit was near constant. Cinder's flames were put out as soon as she made them, and the glass shards were nothing compared to the roaring rampage of the wind around them.

Ruby kept in the back, directing it as best she could. "No, I refuse!" Cinder shouted suddenly, before a burst of flame, far larger than any before, knocked Ozpin away. In an instant a hail of glass arrows and fire shards roared towards Ruby.

The wind could do nothing to stop them, and Ruby jumped up, using her Semblance for extra height. Her eyes widened as she realized she'd been trapped without thinking about it; there had been a console to the side and the wall next to her. And Cinder wasn't aiming just towards her, but upwards as well. A wall of shards and fire.

Ozpin appeared in between them. He moved and tried to block each and every strike with the Long Memory. Despite the quickness, fast enough that even Ruby could barely tell he was moving at all, he was still getting bombarded by the various shards of glass and fire. Each hit that was blocked by the Long Memory let two through to him, and none to Ruby.

He breathed hard for a moment as Cinder started to shout. One of her hands went onto her other arm. "No, no! He's right there, I can still win!" She shouted, her hands on her head before they burst into flames. She let out a deafening snarl, before she dove out into the courtyard down below through the blown up roof.

Ruby watched for only a moment to make sure that she wouldn't come back before she raced over to Ozpin. "Professor! Are you alright?"

"I'm fine," Ozpin groaned out. "She only got me two hundred times. Barely scratched," he said, his voice clouded and scratchy. Ruby could see small droplets of red on his arms and shirt. "Why are you here?" He asked.

"Emerald stole Crescent Rose, and someone said they saw her come this way with it."

"Ah," Ozpin said as he forced himself up. Ruby rushed to his side to hold him up as she felt his legs suddenly start to give out. "She knows you're the Maiden now, if she didn't before. Emerald must have told her, because she knew right away. You didn't have the Maiden's powers active right as you entered. And here I thought keeping the power a secret would force her to search my tower first."

"Where's Ironwood? We need to get you to a doctor!"

"Perhaps she already searched it," he said congenially, "It would make sense why Qrow lost sight of her. James is down below. Fighting Emerald, I believe. Take the stairs, it's quicker than running. Maybe not for you, though..." Ozpin said quietly. "I will be fine. Go. We've rebuffed her attack for now."

"Will there be more?"

"Oh yes," Ozpin said, his eyes glancing out the window. Ruby took a look to see lightning flash from the storm above, the storm that Ruby knew hadn't been there ten minutes ago. "There will be more. Much, much more," he said.

Shapes within the clouds moved towards Beacon. Some of them were small, but most of them were bigger than the nevermore. "We can stop the message, but she had hundreds of messages to go out on a loop. Still not sure what exactly it was she trying for," Ozpin said, heading to the least broken console. His hands flew by quickly, and Ruby could see small droplets of blood come out from the backs of his hands and beads from his head.

She took the chair out of the way, hurling it to the side. "I'll send Ironwood-" she started to say as the door slammed open. It was only because of the adrenaline flooding through her that Ruby dodged right to the side. James Ironwood stood in the doorway, his usually immaculate suit was now quite maculate, or whatever word Ruby could think of for 'dirtied beyond belief'. His eyes were widened, and there was almost a deep snarl on his face. In his hand was a very, very familiar scythe, obviously just done being misused.

"Ozpin, what...oh. Was she up here then?" Ironwood asked as soon as he started to calm down. "We have problems."

"We have many of them," Ozpin answered, holding himself up with the Long Memory. "This will just be one of many. This is most assuredly Salem's direct attack."

"And you thought it was wrong to bring an army," Ironwood said with a sly smirk. He glared down at Ruby, before he sighed, and tossed her the scythe. "Get to the food court. You'll be one of the last lines of defense," he said with hard eyes.

Survival Games

Ruby was comforted by the ever present weight of Crescent Rose on her back. She'd gone one floor down to see Emerald smashed against the floor. It was obvious she'd tried to fight Ironwood and eventually Winter with a weapon she didn't exactly know how to use, and Ruby could strongly imagine that there was some yelling about Ruby having turned on them.

It had been obvious what had been going on, especially once Winter showed up. Emerald was trying to buy time for Cinder up at the top of the CCT, unknowing that Ozpin was already up there. Or she did know, but either way, Ironwood had stayed back to make sure that Emerald didn't interfere more. Emerald wasn't much of a physical fighter, Ruby could tell by how the Cyan Reaper blades were made. They were light, made for quick shots, quick slashes. Not single heavy strikes that most other weapons were made for. If she'd been trying to use Crescent Rose, she was up for another thing entirely. Emerald's own weapons were based around strength of the user, Crescent Rose was based around the idea of momentum to compensate for lack of user strength.

Ruby knew she wasn't the strongest. She was strong, certainly, but she was no Yang or Dad. So she'd gotten this idea from seeing Uncle Qrow when he'd gotten ridiculously drunk one day and fought a bunch of beowulves with Harbinger in scythe mode and fell in love with the spinning awesome lifestyle of a scythe.

Simple, elegant, far extremely more over-designed than even Mio on a bad day, that was Crescent Rose.

And she'd gotten her back! And with only an additional ten scratches that she'd have to buff out first chance she got, or the slight nicks and cuts to the shaft from where Emerald had obviously tried breaking it only to realize that Crescent Rose's shaft was made of a different material than most other weapons.

She'd have to buff those out. They'd come right out, especially once she replaced the lost material. But either way, she had Crescent Rose back! She was so happy!

She was almost dancing out of the CCT now that she'd gotten her baby back. Most of the fighting was stopped, preparing for the next onslaught of the flying Grimm. The individuals on the fields were gone, and Ruby had heard from Ozpin right before she'd left that Qrow and her dad were trying to clear out the courtyard, so as to provide an evacuation route for the people stuck in the food hall right now. Ms. Goodwitch was with them, preventing people from harming another, and keeping the Grimm out with all the responsibility of a major huntress.

Yep, things were looking good.

Which is why Ruby knew that couldn't have been the case when a small girl came up to her, her eyes puffy and red, as if she'd been crying a lot. She had a small teddy bear in her hand, dangling lifelessly. "Do you need some help?" Ruby asked.

The girl nodded, saying nothing, and running into the marketplace. Ruby followed her instantly, keeping up easily. Although the girl was surprisingly fast.

The girl led her through the burned down shops, on a journey that Ruby was absolutely certain had more relation to a kudzu plant than any actual path a child would take.

By the end, Ruby had to admit that she'd probably have taken ten turns and gotten lost within the same square! If she didn't know the place as well as she did, she would have been no doubt hopelessly lost.

"Good to see you there, Red!" A calm, oily voice walked out of a nearby tree line. Ruby's eyes glared as she recognized the white suit, the red hair, and the golden topped rifle axe that he was using as a makeshift cane. In his other hand was a similar weapon to what she'd seen when they first met. Some kind of black cane with an obvious dust charge in the shaft. Her eyes narrowed as she glanced at the top. There was something about that top...

She felt a squeeze as the girl hid behind her. "Just stay there, I can do this," Ruby said, unfurling Crescent Rose. Torchwick laughed.

"That's a fun one. Thinking you can do this...you didn't do so well last time, did you?"

"That was the mech, and I did fine. I beat you then, if I remember!"

"The Atlas Paladin was cheating a bit, I admit," Torchwick shrugged. "But no, I was referring to the shop. When those stupid animals led me to believe they'd scouted out your shop and didn't need to worry about your security," he said, growling out the insult. "And this time, there's no Kitty Cat or kitty cat senior to help you out. It's just you," Torchwick grinned. "And you've caused me some serious, serious trouble. Gotten me out of a lot of it, too!"

"How!? You're the one going around stealing things!"

"Well, not you directly. Or rather, it was you directly but there was no way you'd know. Because-" he started, before the girl behind her suddenly shattered into glass shards, and Ruby had Neo behind her, her heels in Ruby's back and shoving her down. Crescent Rose bounced into the ground, and Ruby's hand stayed on it. She'd learned from last time, and if she needed to she'd find some tape and make sure it wouldn't leave her hand again!

Although that didn't matter as Neo crushed down on Ruby's hand. She flared her aura as she attempted to absorb the hit. Neo gave a wordless smirk, forcing more of her shoe onto Ruby's hand, The force made her drop the scythe, only for Neo to kick it away. Crescent Rose was having a really bad time lately, wasn't she?

Ruby would have to think of some way to get some treats for her baby. Of course, what could one get a high impact sniper scythe as a treat? Maybe a new polishing rag, that was always a fun one.

Torchwick gave a snickering sound. "Ha, and look at you now. Without your precious little scythe, stuck in the mud, in front of me," he taunted. "And Neo made sure to make it impossible for anyone to track you. There's no one coming, Red," he continued, before he looked at Neo. "You did make sure to take the weird path, right?" he asked. She looked offended. "Yeah, she made sure to take the weird path," he turned back to Ruby.

"But I did want to say thank you," he commented, holding up the copy of Sundered Rose. "This has been an excellent replacement for Melodic Cudgel. Seriously, it has everything except a working gun. And it opened so many safes!" Torchwick continued.

"Just a copy," Ruby muttered under her breath. Neo made a show of listening in, kneeling down next to her as if to try and hear her easier.

"Oh, I'm sure," Torchwick continued. "But really...it should be shown just how good it is. Let's let her up Neo, that's a good girl," he commanded as Neo roughly lifted Ruby up onto her feet. Crescent Rose was still a fair ways away, and she wasn't about to get to it without some help.

Her eyes shot a glance above her, as the storm labored more. The shadow of the flagship was right above her, and she distinctly heard the cry of an ominous crow, circling above her. "Alright Red. Where's the big talk?" Torchwick asked. "I did want to tell you thank you, in literal terms. You messed up Cinder's plan so badly that she even forgot to check up on me. Which is great for me, because I am going to get so much money out of all the dust I stole for her!"

"You...what?" Ruby asked, not quite comprehending what was going on. Crescent Rose was just over there, but Neo had a hold on her still, despite Torchwick's obvious...gloating? But...why wasn't he trying to kill her? And why wasn't...what was going on!? Wasn't this supposed to be the big showdown with Roman Torchwick? He had Melodic Cudgel 2.0 and Sundered Rose Copy, and yet he was using neither of them to actually hit her.

Well, she'd be in a battle with Torchwick without a weapon if he did attack. Which she was, so maybe that wasn't the most apt of comparisons. Neo stood to the side, looking distinctly unimpressed. "Please, you think I'm going to do anything that psychotic bitch asks of me without her sword threat hanging over me? A couple of words kiddo. In this world it's survive, anyway you can," he said. Neo gave him a half glare. "What, you think you can do better?" Torchwick asked her. Her hand waved a little bit, and he rolled his eyes, throwing her Sundered Rose. The girl got a face full of sadistic glee, and Ruby got a very bad feeling.

She ducked and jumped, flipping around as her hands caught the grass. She was trying to conserve energy and aura now, because there was a massive field of Grimm starting to attack in only a few minutes. She didn't need to be put into a battle with Torchwick and Neo of all people! "I don't want to fight!"

"Well that's too bad because she wants to fight you!" Torchwick called from the side. There was a howl that pierced the air a moment later, and Ruby got the sudden sense of something coming. "Course, I think that's probably because she got food poisoning from whatever it is that she ate at your place..."

Then Neo tripped on a branch, causing her to faceplant into the grass and let loose Sundered Rose, right into Ruby's hands. "Huh. That's lucky," Ruby grinned. Torchwick blinked. He took a timid step back as his eyes narrowed. "Time bought," Ruby said, Torchwick suddenly looking up to see a meteoric Qrow slam Harbinger into where Torchwick had been not even a second before.

"Good on ya Rubes. I was worried you didn't hear me for a second," Uncle Qrow said as Harbinger flashed faster than Ruby could see. Neo pushed herself up, and prepared herself to fight the Huntsman only for Ruby to slash out with the edge of Sundered Rose, pulling her feet over her head.

"It's hard to miss it when the enemy suddenly has a bout of really bad luck," Ruby acknowledged. "Such as tripping on a branch," she said, slamming Sundered Rose where Neo had been. The girl brought up a leg to deflect it, only for Ruby to stop at the last second, using Sundered Rose Copy as a makeshift golf club and trying to knock her towards Torchwick and Qrow. Instantly Ruby found herself on the back end as Neo somehow did some acrobatic flip over Sundered Rose Copy, leaving her offbalance as Neo shoved her to the ground, before she jumped back closer to Torchwick.

Torchwick's weapon had been in Neo's hands, although he was doing fairly well with his Melodic Cudgel 2.0. The more that Harbinger flashed out, the more flashes as Torchwick put his weapon just barely in his way. It was obvious that he was on the defensive, as Harbinger kept moving faster and faster. Ruby flashed herself over to Crescent Rose, making sure to wipe the dirt off as she resheathed it onto her back, keeping Sundered Rose Copy out. "What were your plans here, anyway?" Qrow asked. He attempted to kick Neo into a nearby tree, not at all surprised when she flipped over his leg, only to get his hand behind her head.

"Honestly, we were here to basically say 'thanks for the weapon' and Neo wanted a chance to knock her around a bit," Torchwick shrugged. His usual suit had more than its fair share of scratches and small breaks now, and his bowler hat was just slightly lopsided. Between her with Sundered Rose and Crescent Rose, and Qrow and Harbinger, Ruby didn't honestly think they had a chance. And didn't Neo usually have an umbrella as a weapon? Where was it, if it wasn't here with her, right now?

That might have been important, Ruby thought. "Why do you not have your weapons? This is the battlefield of Grimm!" Ruby shouted.

"Oh Red. I'll spell it out for you. This is the backup plan of the backup plan. The real attack would have been so much worse. I saw the plans," Torchwick groaned, "So much worse. The breach was early because of Belladonna, and then the White Fang decided they had a change of conscience. You think anybody would have survived?"

"What?" Qrow asked. "Why!? There's thousands of people that would have died!"

"I wouldn't know! When the psycho bitch tells you to do something or die, you just do it! She wanted me to steal dust, and I did. Neo saw your weapon, and stole it to try to frame you but then you did the smart thing and actually reported it to the cops. Mildly irritating, by the way," Torchwick said. "But then you got in Cinder's way every. Single. Moment."

"It's Salem. You're working for Salem, aren't you," Qrow said. He didn't bother asking the question, instead stating the fact. Torchwick's eyebrow rose.

"Maybe I am, maybe I'm not," Torchwick said softly. "Either way, you were right, Red. Time bought," he grinned, as he and Neo both disappeared out of view in a shattering of glass shards. Qrow slammed Harbinger into where he'd been just a moment before.

"Shoot, we lost them! What kind of teleporting Semblance was that?"

"It's not a teleporting Semblance," Ruby explained. "It's a kind of illusion Semblance. That's how they escaped the first time."

Qrow growled. "Remind me to never let him talk, even if it seems he's spilling the beans. But that does mean that there's an enemy behind all of this now. Salem," he snarled. "This just got worse. Get to the food hall. I'll head back to the others. We'll abandon the evacuation plan, it doesn't seem workable now," he muttered.

Ruby nodded, before a thought occurred to her. Zwei had been at the shop. She had last seen him head towards the food hall, but at the same time he had stopped to sniff around a lot. "I'm gonna go check the shop for a second, look for Zwei!" Ruby called out. Qrow stared at her for a moment, before he nodded, a puff of smoke disguising his sudden becoming feathered.

There was originally a bigger part of Torchwick and Neo versus Ruby, but I realized that in this...Torchwick actually got helped by Ruby, and he knows it. There's plans within plans with this guy. Also, this chapter had to go through multiple revisions, so if I missed anything, please let me know!

Until Next Time!