RWBY - The Pen and the Sword

by TwoChimpsWithoutOne

-For the Record- Surviving a plane crash? Not enough. Being hunted by super predators? Not even close. Hopping worlds? Why not? I'll see that, and raise getting recruited by a woman who fashions herself a goddess. OC/I

85. And this is war!

Chapter 84

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Atlas, it seemed, had closed its borders, and even if it hadn't, Argus had suspended all outgoing flights to the military kingdom. Despite the clearly greater threat, the Terrans, it seemed, had decided to continue on with their war, and had maneuvered in a sizable fleet of their ocean warships, including ten of the flagships that launched fightercraft. Argus had its entire fleet guarding its airspace and ready for an attack, but it was minuscule compared to the number of ships, bombs, and fighters the Terrans appeared to be amassing.

Pyrrha Nikos had felt despondent when Ozpin and Qrow had returned with this news. The last week had been one of stress and silence - and adding despair on top of it did no one any good. They were well and truly stuck now, and could only wait for whatever signal Ozpin insisted was forthcoming, but Pyrrha couldn't wait. She couldn't just sit around. Her mind was too busy, too occupied with just one desire:

She wanted to see him. She wanted to talk to him. Her first friend, she wanted to hear from the man himself why. She wanted to judge for herself if he was as bad as Yang thought, or if he was worthy of Ozpin's boundless faith. Ozpin answered any question she had, but after the train ride she'd stopped asking - because they all boiled down to 'he's smart, he's not evil, have faith.' And that did nothing for the woman who wanted - needed - information and answers. She knew who Ash was, but she had no idea who Aldric was. She didn't know if Ash was an act or was the person Aldric wanted to be. She didn't know if Ash was a heartless lie or a desperate shield, and this lack of knowledge tore at her inside. It led her to speak to the others, and their varied opinions just didn't help.

Yang argued with Ozpin every time he brought it up - Ash's image had been thoroughly ruined by Ozpin's words, and any and all of the trust she had in him was completely gone. No matter what Ozpin said, no matter what even her uncle affirmed, she refused to believe that Ash - or, Aldric, Pyrrha had to keep reminding herself - was on their side. This, combined with their inactivity and Argus' security forces refusing to let her leave the micro-kingdom to go work out her frustrations on the local Grimm population, was driving her up a wall. She wanted to kill something - and she made no qualms by saying she didn't care if it were Grimm or Aldric himself, as long as she could punch it until it died.

Her team had long since grown unable to assuage her anymore, and now all anyone could do was offer her a wide berth, and just be thankful she at least wasn't drinking.

Unfortunately, the news of Ash's true nature and origins weren't being taken any better by anyone else. Blake had gotten some life back in her from their fight in Haven, and a little more now that she understood why Aldric had done what he'd done, but she refused to speak about him - to the point where she would leave the room when he was brought up. His particular brand of extremism, Weiss explained, reminded her of someone from her past. Weiss herself was the most level headed of the remnants of team RWBY, able to see the logic in what Aldric had done and accept his true origins as fact, but she was partway between Yang and Blake with regards to her opinion on the matter. She firmly believed that, with how smart Ash was, and how smart Aldric had to be to keep up the kinds of acts he'd been putting on for this long, that the Master knew there were better solutions to the myriad of problems he'd been presented with, and yet he - in her opinion - went for the ones he did not out of desperation, but out of simple desire.

"Unfortunately..." She said, when Pyrrha had cornered her alone one day. "It's simple psychology. Before he came to this world, he was just a regular person. A civilian. He lived like that for seventeen years, and then he came here and was given aura, a semblance, and later, literal magic..." She sighed. "I fear he's made the decisions he's made because he wanted to. He developed a god-complex."

Things were no better over on JNPR's side of things. Ren had gone past his normal stoicism and simply wasn't talking anymore in the presence of Ozpin, and that extended to the boy whose body he was inhabiting - even if Ozpin was 'asleep' and the boy had his hand on the metaphorical steering wheel, Ren stayed silent and refused eye contact. Where Yang had lost all trust in Ash, Ren, it seemed, had lost all trust in Ozpin in his fervent and absolute denial that Ash could be what Ozpin claimed he was. He was so zealously protective of the image and legacy of Goud Etiolate that - provided Ozpin wasn't in the room - he would argue in his favor whenever he was brought up, and whenever he was spoken of as though Ozpin's words were fact. Nora appeared middling, accepting the idea in the face of evidence, just not able to process it and not wanting to believe it. Jaune, ever the optimist, focused less on the evil in Aldric's wake and instead kept trying to change the subject to the brighter side of things. Their very real chance to kill Salem, the blade Aldric had given him, the armies he had assembled. He'd brought up the chance and hope that Ruby was alive, but had never done so a second time after Yang nearly broke his spine she'd punched him so hard. It had taken Pyrrha to pry Ren and Nora off of her, and that led to where they were now: They were a powder keg ready to explode. Cooped up, anxious, and angry.

And alone.

With the ever-rising tensions, hardly anyone shared a room anymore. RWBY and JNPR had sequestered themselves both out of anger and for fear of actually starting a fight, and Pyrrha was left with nothing in the form of any kind of opinion or conclusion on the why of Nebo Aldric. All she could do was drop some cash at a local Huntsman Gym and cut and carve at some training dummies, work herself to exhaustion, return to their hotel, and sleep.

Until today.

As she sat silently at a breakfast table, idly pushing at a bowl of porridge, her team at her side, and the remains of RWBY on the other side of the room, she heard a commotion outside the hotel. Looking outside the window, she saw some people looking up to the sky, pointing, some appearing concerned, some confused, all terrified. Pyrrha's expression broke, her shoulders slumping, as she realized that this must be it - the Terrans were coming. They'd decided it was time to attack.

But then, Ozpin and Qrow rushed into the dining room, the latter with a rucksack full of everyone's weapons bouncing off of his back. The crashing sound of him dropping this rucksack was what got everyone else's attention, and soon all eyes turned to Ozpin, who was gasping for breath, as he held up what looked like a thick Terran phone.

Upon which was two words:

AVENGERS ASSEMBLE

Pyrrha was on her feet in an instant, her mind filled with two thoughts: The first, of intense worry - of the challenge Aldric must be facing alone. The second: Of her sudden all-consuming need to get to his side, to help him, and to either win and end this war, or die trying.

But the others weren't so fast. As a matter of fact, Pyrrha was of but a few on her feet, and she only noticed this when she crouched down to gather her equipment.

Looking around, she saw that almost half of them hadn't even moved. Weiss, Ren, and Nora had gotten to their feet, but had hesitated when they saw the others were either looking at each other and reading the room, or had gone back to eating their food.

Pyrrha couldn't believe it.

"Guys?" She trembled, looking at everyone as Qrow shook his head and Ozpin, though silent, let his disappointment show clear in his slumped shoulders, deep sigh, and hanging head.

Yang was the one to speak for all of them, saying bluntly: "I'm not going to die for him."

Weiss placed her hand on Yang's shoulder, "Yang, this is it!" She said, "the entire world -"

Yang angrily shrugged Weiss' hand off her shoulder, "if I don't go, he dies. So I'm not going." She growled.

Ozpin stepped forward, but Qrow stopped him, knowing his niece well enough to know that the reincarnating man would only make it worse. In his place, Pyrrha stepped up, "Yang -"

"Oh don't you even start! You're still holding onto that shield!" Yang pounded her fist on the table, making her faunus teammate jump. "You're holding onto the lie!"

"Isn't he proving his well intentions by summoning us?" Pyrrha tried. "He's out there, right now - right now - fighting! Fighting for all of us!"

"Yeah?" Yang bit back, "and if he's as strong as Ozpin says he is, then let him. Let him learn he's just as killable as the rest of us - as my sister!"

Ren's lips were pursed, and Nora spoke up, saying, "but we don't know that! If we go - we may find her! We may see her!"

Here was where Ozpin couldn't help but join in, "the Terrans are coming. They know where we are - they've always known. They'll take us to their fleet, which is already on its way to her castle. We will see Miss Rose there, Miss -" He stepped out of the way of a flying plate of breakfast, sighing as it clattered to the floor.

"Yang." Weiss tried again, her expression pained as she forced out her next words, "wouldn't... You..." She sighed, "rather kill him yourself?" She asked, her question appearing to cause her physical pain as she pushed it out of her chest.

And unfortunately, this did catch Yang's attention, as evidenced by her silence, while next to her, Blake looked up at their de-facto leader in shock.

Weiss pushed on, "if we go there... If we win, we'll be laid up in hospital. You'll know where he is." She said, her voice almost caught in her throat. "And if we fail, you'll see him die." A beat, "but not if you stay here." She said, in a defeated tone. "If you stay here, you'll never see it."

Yang got to her feet, eyes stained red.

Pyrrha turned her gaze to Blake, who reluctantly pushed herself up next. "I'm not doing this for him. I want them to show me her." She said, more to Ozpin than to Pyrrha. "If she's alive, they have to know. I want to see her. To know she's okay. To tell her the truth, if she doesn't already know."

Pyrrha turned to the only one still sitting - to the man Aldric had entrusted the Grimm-slaying blade. He was staring at his breakfast, a heavily conflicted expression on his face.

"I..." He said, "I don't want to fight for someone who was so ready to lie and hurt people." He admitted, eyes clenched shut, and hands curled into fists. "I don't want to fight for someone I think would throw us all away if it made his job easier." His breathing came faster, "I don't want to go out and fight because that's what someone that evil wants me to. Because I'm a part of some plan of his - like I'm just a piece of chess to be put in its place."

"Jaune -" But he cut Pyrrha off.

"And I don't want all of you to, either!" He cried, "I don't want to see people I care about get hurt fighting his battle." He opened his eyes, thin lines of tears welling up in them. "You're all crazy! Jumping up - we could all die, and for what? We don't even know if this even is the end of his plan! What if - what if this is just the next step? What if he's throwing all of these bodies at Salem just so he can move on to part two? I don't want to see you all, to see all of the people who answer his call, get hurt for nothing!" He yelled, fist clenched so tight that he snapped the spoon in his hand. "For a liar!" Ren looked at him coldly when he said that, but he kept going. "For a murderer! I - " He petered off, "I..." He hung his head, "I don't think it's worth it."

Pyrrha approached Jaune, sitting opposite him, the table separating the two. "Jaune - even if you don't believe in him... You have to realize what he's set up." She said, "the end. Of all of it - Salem, the Grimm, all of it!" She said, not noticing Ozpin turn away, hiding a grimace. "Even if he is everything you think he is - even if Ren, Ozpin, and I are wrong... We have to acknowledge the good he's done just as we do the bad. He's put everything in place. He needs all of us if we're going to win this - the world... The worlds! Everyone needs us! We have a chance to do something no one in history has ever had - we can end it! We can kill Salem, push back against the Grimm, start taking our world back!

"But only if we go." She held her gloved hand out to him, "only if we acknowledge him. If we help him."

Jaune looked up at the red-headed knight, face set in a conflicted frown. He looked at her, then down at her hand, then back down to the table, shoulders slumped.

"I can't stop you." He said, defeated. "And if I don't go... I'll be no better than him." He pushed himself to his feet, ignoring Pyrrha's outstretched hand. "Like Blake... I'm not doing this for him." He said, looking back up to her, the iron of conviction in his eyes. "I'm only going to keep you all safe... And after that, if we win, I don't ever want to see him again. Not after all he's done."

Pyrrha slowly lowered her hand, forcing the frown that tugged at her lips to stay straight, as she stood up too. With everyone on their feet, they all readied themselves, Ozpin sparing Pyrrha a thankful nod before they emerged outside from the hotel, where Pyrrha saw the commotion that had thrown everyone into disarray:

There was a Terran helicopter coming in for a landing, right in front of their hotel, and the airships defending the city were either unaware of it, or worse, were ignoring it. The streets had been cleared of terrified, evacuating civilians, leaving only the remainder of team RWBY, JNPR, Qrow, and Ozpin - the lattermost of whom had a relieved smile on his face, as he closed his eyes and basked in the moment.

When it landed, its wings spinning and beating at the air with its drumbeat, the doors inside slid open - and the teams loaded up.

There were only two Terrans inside the helicopter, the pilot and the one who ushered them all in, and gave them headsets so they could hear eachother speak. Apparently they had predicted they all may want to come, so they sent one of the bigger rotor-wings and had only sent a few people with it to ensure things went smoothly. The Terran told them all she was cleared to - that everyone on Remnant had gotten the 'Signal Flare,' and that when they'd opened up the file with the orders for when such a thing happened, among those orders were to come here to pick them up. From here, they would make haste to what she called an 'aircraft carrier' which was already moving full-speed to their rendezvous point.

Yang and Blake wasted no time in demanding to know if the Terran knew who Ruby was, if she was alive, and where she was, but the Terran soldier simply raised her hands - she wasn't even close to the same paygrade as the people who would know the answers to their questions. All she knew was what she was told - and all she'd been told was to find them, take who was going, and take them to the carrier. A man named 'Bubbles' would tell them the rest.

Blake and Yang didn't like that answer, but they knew well enough that they wouldn't get anything more, and they settled in for the long haul. Pyrrha was despondent to note that everyone had separated themselves off for this trip - with the ones who believed in Aldric and those who didn't settling together. Not helping matters was that Pyrrha suspected that of the 'believers,' it was only really her and Ren that were willing to give Aldric a chance - Nora was with them because Ren was, and Weiss was with them because she was looking more at the big picture, regardless of Aldric.

This made Pyrrha feel lonelier than she had before she'd enrolled in Beacon. Surrounded by friends and without a single one to talk to, all Pyrrha could do was polish her shield - Aldric's shield - sharpen her sword, and load her gun as they flew off to battle.

The flight lasted for more than an hour before the helicopter finally started dipping down, and then another fifteen minutes before they slowed down and Pyrrha felt them touch down on solid ground. Pyrrha looked out the window and saw they'd touched down on the largest boat she'd ever seen - with a great, wide, flat deck and a plethora of aircraft sitting on its surface. To a woman who had been raised on airships and firepower being tantamount, it felt bizarre to her, and she had to remind herself that, as similar as they looked, she was dealing with literal aliens, here. She had no idea what kind of history Earth had beyond the little they'd released and the even less she'd read, so any number of factors could have led to them desiring air-power over firepower.

Regardless of their evolutionary differences, they landed on the Carrier and quickly emptied out onto its deck, where three people were waiting for them. One was a tall, square-jawed man who looked out of place with his green uniform in a sea of blues. The second was a diminutive woman whose hair was a rainbow of browns, pinks, and whites, and the third -

The third made Pyrrha feel the most genuine hope she'd felt in a long time.

She'd grown a few inches, and her clothes had changed, her skirt was shorter and there was more white to balance out her black and red, but the smile, the hood, and the silver eyes under dark, crimson hair were unmistakable.

"Hey guys!" She said, half excited, half sheepishly.

Her sister didn't even say a word - she just barreled through anyone between her and Ruby so she could envelope the young Rose in a bone-crushing hug. Where normally Ruby may have protested, here she did the opposite and reciprocated - their time apart clearly having hit her almost as hard as it had her friends, who similarly came to join her as team RWBY was reunited. Not a word was exchanged, just silent glee and pure relief as they found and held each other.

Pyrrha couldn't help a smile or a small tear as she watched the reunion, but as with all things, this moment too came to an end, and its end was heralded by a surreptitious cough from the man Pyrrha assumed was 'bubbles.'

"I hate to break up the reunion, but we do have some work to do, and at the speed we're going we won't have much time to get everyone on the same page." He said in a smooth but reserved voice. "If you'll follow me?" He asked, taking a step back and motioning to the ship's bridge.

Yang glared daggers at the Terran from over her sister's shoulder, but let go when Ruby split up their group-hug, nodding. "He's right." She said, "we've got a lot of ground to cover, and not a lot of time to do it. We can ask questions when we're done?" She suggested, tilting her head to the side apologetically.

Yang shook her head, "what's there to know? Go there, kill things, go home."

Bubbles shook his head, "were it so easy, ma'am. C'mon." He marched towards the bridge.

He guided them all down into the ship, and into a conference room, where everyone found their seats. With Ruby back in their lives, Pyrrha took what comfort she could in the sight of the old teams settling in together, but it did little to help her earlier feelings of no one really being together. When Ozpin, Qrow, and the tri-haired mute who introduced herself as 'Neo' sat down, Bubbles passed out several folders, and turned on a television - upon which was a satellite image of an alien, dead land, full of gray and black grounds and red skies.

The next three hours were spent by Bubbles going over their battle plan. Aldric had assembled a far more impressive army than Pyrrha could have even guessed - with Earth, Adam Taurus and the White Fang, Roman Torchwick and his gang connections, and even Atlas providing resources and manpower, though the lattermost, it seemed, was doing so out of 'an abundance of reluctance.' They were all hurtling towards Salem's domain at top speeds, and were projected to get there in twenty four hours, whereupon they would immediately launch their assault. They were throwing everything and the kitchen sink at Salem - the Huntsmen would lead the charge, and the aura-less soldiers would hang back, creating a perimeter and a defensive line from which they could effectively utilize their ranged weapons.

The goal was to fight as hard and as long as possible until they could reach and eliminate Salem. Bubbles left nothing to interpretation when he said that the method of killing Salem was less conventional than he liked - and rather, quite literally, sat in this room. His eyes fell to Jaune and Ruby in particular as he said this, and Ruby picked up, explaining that Aldric had kept a journal during his time on Remnant, something he called 'The Record,' and in reading it she'd determined that Aldric had several plans he'd ranked in order of his confidence in their working. At the top of his list was the sword he'd given Jaune, which she explained was something from a story he'd read, that had the power to banish evil things - seeing Jaune smite Grimm with it left Aldric open to the possibility that it would do the same to Salem. After that, there was Ruby herself, as Aldric believed the powers afforded to her by her eyes could achieve a similar effect to Jaune's sword, and if not, could at least incapacitate Salem long enough for Aldric to attempt something more permanent. Failing those two, Aldric was more vague, not referring to any specific details, instead just calling it 'The Big One' but Ruby believed that his last contingency plan had something to do with the Relics, considering how often they were mentioned together.

That caused Ozpin no small amount of discomfort, but when he asked to see The Record for himself, he was denied by Bubbles. They'd deleted and burned their local copies once the signal flare had been sent, in case they lost the battle, but Aldric survived and was able to continue fighting elsewhere. If Salem got ahold of his journal, she may be able to divine from it more than they could, and potential means of fighting her could be rendered far more difficult than they were otherwise. Ozpin didn't like this answer, and Pyrrha wondered if he suspected the Terran was lying to him, but they weren't able to confront each other about it, as after this they began to talk about worst case scenarios.

Bubbles held no punches when he said that, if more than half of their number were injured, killed, or otherwise rendered incapable of combat, and Salem wasn't dead, or the Grimm hordes weren't noticeably thinned, they'd sound an evacuation order. Everyone would have fifteen minutes to retreat before they pounded Salem's castle with fifteen submarines worth of nuclear missiles, the 'Sun Bombs' everyone present had seen used over Vale, only this time they'd actually detonate over land, and not high in the atmosphere. The hope was that it would do enough damage, both in the short and long term, that Salem would be unable to effectively fight back for enough time for Earth and Remnant to rally a defense.

Some more questions were thrown back and forth, but nothing altogether significant, and by the time the sun had begun to set, the two and a half teams of Huntsmen and Huntresses had acquired food and some beds, which they crowded around, all attention focused on Ruby as she was finally forced to answer the questions that time and circumstance had disallowed her from speaking about until now.

She was bombarded by a wave of questions from all directions, the proverbial floodgates having opened right on top of her. Yang wanted to know if Aldric had hurt her, and who 'Neo' was. Qrow wanted to know if the Terrans had hurt her.

Ruby did her best to answer everything she was given. She told her sister and her uncle that she was fine, that she hadn't been mistreated apart from being told to keep up her usual training while she was here, in addition to covering skills she was weak in and learning to utilize her eyes. She introduced Neo about as well as she could, but Neo rolled her eyes and with a twitch of her head, she went from the diminutive assassin to the red-headed woman that Aldric had once introduced to them as Yuno. Yang rolled her eyes at the prospect that even Aldric's girlfriend was a lie, but beyond that she was at least willing to give the woman credit when Ruby explained that she and Myrtle had been her rescuers. Myrtle, it seemed, hadn't stuck around - instead making for Vale to try and reassemble GEMS for the final fight, but that was the limit of her knowledge.

Ruby had almost started crying when Blake had begged the young Rose's forgiveness for being unable to save her from Aldric, and whenever it came up after that she went out of her way to insist that it wasn't anyone's fault. They were used to fighting, like at school, but the way Aldric fought was - perhaps appropriately - alien, to them. He took the quickest path from point A to point B, he fought dirty, he used his powers in ways that supported these - and no one here had any experience with that kind of stuff.

Ozpin spoke after Blake, simply asking Ruby if she'd been able to construct a replacement weapon for her scythe while she was here, but Ruby responded that she didn't. As alien and as advanced as Terran technology was in many respects, they had nothing capable of constructing even the most basic of huntsmen instruments one would find on Remnant. Ruby was moments from talking at length about everything she'd learned about Terran weapons, but Ozpin interrupted her by producing Crescent Rose - explaining that he'd picked it up from Haven so he could keep it safe for her, the thought that Ruby could be dead never having entered his mind. She was overjoyed at the return of her precious scythe, and practically snuggled up against it for the rest of the night.

Ren was next, and his attention was focused on the journal that she and Bubbles had mentioned. In his usual manner, he asked her if, after reading it, she believed Aldric was as so many here believed him to be. She was quiet for a long time after this, before she said that she still thought Aldric was a good person, he was just in a bad place, and had to make worse decisions. This answer caused no small amount of discontent, and did little to change the general opinion on him. Her sister maintained her hatred for Aldric, though now it was less geared towards him having killed Ruby and more towards him having put her in mortal danger, aligning her feelings closer to Jaune's side of the argument, which he still maintained. Blake still didn't trust the Master, and only barely forgave him now that she knew Ruby was okay, and Weiss still remained as true-neutral as ever, trying to see both sides of the argument. Ren still refused to believe that the man he knew was capable of what he was being told, even though it was clear he was just in denial, now, and Nora still followed him as ever, while Pyrrha still just wanted answers from the man himself.

By this point the sun had set, and Ozpin opined that, as this may be their last chance, it would behoove them to get as much rest as possible before the following day's proceedings. He got some arguments, but in the end his logic was conceded, and the teams took their rest.

The next morning, Pyrrha found that she was the second to wake up - with Ruby having been the first. Pyrrha found that while the rest of the Beacon Rookies slept, the entire ship was already awake and moving, with Ruby explaining to her that the Terrans believed in torturing their soldiers and sailors: They woke up and got to work like this every day, making Pyrrha smile a bit as they got some food and sat down.

Ruby was the first to break the silence between the two, as she candidly asked, "how bad was it?"

Pyrrha sighed, putting down her fork. "Bad." She said. "Really bad." She didn't have the heart to go into detail for her, as she rubbed at the bags under her eyes, "Ozpin told them all about Aldric after Haven, and they... Took it as well as could be expected."

Ruby looked away, idly toying with her food as she thought. "I didn't stop crying for hours, after I read his journal." She admitted, "it was..." She shuddered. "It's easy to blame everything on him... But none of them really know what he's done. Why he's done it." She explained.

Pyrrha looked up, "and you do?"

"As well as I can without speaking to him." Ruby shrugged, sheepishly. "All the things he's done, he knows how bad they are."

"Ozpin said the same." Pyrrha supplied. "He said he -"

"Can read minds." Ruby nodded, "Ash - Aldric, he knew. I think he always suspected, from the moment they met, but he's known for a while, at least."

"Why did he, then?" Pyrrha asked, "all these things he's done... There must be some sort of reason behind them? Beyond simply doing what no one else is willing to?"

To which, Ruby shrugged. "I... I don't know. Not for sure." She sighed. "Because that's all he's said, Pyrrha. Once Cinder picked him up, he decided that the best course of action would be for him to do evil things so no one else would have to, and it just spiraled from there. Because he had a chance that no one else had, he had to take it." Pyrrha sighed, and after a momentary pause, Ruby gave her, "but... I think that's as much the result of circumstance as anything."

Pyrrha tilted her head, "oh?"

"The way it happened, he was injured fighting a Beowolf. It nearly killed him, and Cinder, she and some of her allies healed him and recruited him to their cause... But I really think that if he'd been any healthier, if he'd had a second choice, he wouldn't have taken this path." She said, with a somber smile. "I really think that Ash wasn't as much of an act as he and everyone else thinks it is. I think that Ash is who Aldric used to be, before he came here. The choices he made were never his default option, just the best of the bad ones that were available to him, and once he made it, he had to see it through." She explained.

"What makes you say that?" Asked a Pyrrha that was daring to allow herself to hope.

"You remember how he used to talk all about symbols, and good, and stuff?" Ruby asked, to Pyrrha nodding. "He really does believe in that stuff. It's why he picked you, me, and Jaune to carry on if he fell. He gave you his shield so it wouldn't be corrupted by the things he's done, he gave me to the Terrans..." A beat, "well, because he had no other choice, but also because they'd keep me safe until it was time for the final battle."

"And Jaune?"

Ruby let out a small giggle, "I think Jaune was an accident... Aldric was just as surprised as Jaune was that he was able to draw the sword, and that it worked in the first place." She admitted.

Despite herself, Pyrrha sighed, and let a small smile grow across her face. Before they could continue though, the mood was broken by Yang charging into the mess hall, practically foaming at the mouth until she saw Pyrrha and Ruby, peacefully eating their breakfast. She calmed down when she confirmed Ruby was safe, and joined them - soon being joined by the rest of the teams as they all began to wake up.

Their day was spent in relative silence, the teams and the Terrans stayed away from each other for the most part, and this continued up until the ship's speakers suddenly sounded out with a General Quarters alarm. The Beacon Rookies turned honorary Huntsmen and Huntresses gathered their equipment, and had just finished readying themselves when Bubbles arrived, and ushered them out to the flight deck.

What Pyrrha saw outside was something to behold. There were more airships, fighter-craft, more sea-ships here than she'd ever seen in her entire life. Everyone and everything had gathered, and the airships were already hurtling towards the distant coastline. Bubbles ushered them onto another helicopter, which took off just as the carrier started launching its own fighter-craft, the air soon was practically abuzz with an endless amount of aircraft taking off and hurtling towards the land as one great army - while below, countless boats launched from their mother-ships, all of them carrying gigantic ground vehicles and filled to the brim with soldiers and fighters. It was the greatest assembled army in the history of two planets, and they all were bringing their arms to bear against one woman, at the word and behest of one man.

It filled Pyrrha's chest with no small amount of hope that they could, in fact, win this battle.

But that hope was tested when, after an hour of travel, and as they were reaching their destination, Bubbles pulled out a tablet and started fiddling with it, pulling up a feed from one of the Terrans' unmanned aerial vehicles that had been sent ahead of them. RWBY, JNPR, Ozpin, Qrow, and Neo all surrounded the man to get an idea of what the situation looked like right now, and what Pyrrha saw made her gasp, and even gave pause to Aldric's more vocal nay-sayers.

Salem's castle appeared partly in ruins, with some large portions scattered about as though smashed to pieces and thrown about like a child throwing a temper tantrum. The ground was covered in pock-marks, fissures, and scorched craters, and was practically crawling with Grimm. Just as the fleet of men, women, and machinery had been the largest Pyrrha had ever seen, so too was the horde of Grimm the UAV was showing them. She couldn't believe there were so many Grimm in one place.

Soon, however, something attracted Pyrrha's eye, and the attention of the UAV's camera - an object, no bigger than a dot on the screen, being thrown from one of the castle's still-standing towers.

"That's where they'll be." Ozpin said, a firm frown on his tan, young face. "The Relics." He clarified, his voice coming through the headphones everyone had put on.

"But what was it that just got thrown?" Weiss focused.

"Let's see..." Bubbles responded, manipulating the camera and zooming it in on the dot as it hit the ground.

Pyrrha already knew, though - the Grimm were reacting faster than Bubbles was with his drone, assembling in front of the small dot as it grew bigger on the screen.

It was him.

It was Aldric.

The camera wasn't close enough, or good enough, to tell how he was, physically, but Pyrrha could see him leaning over to one side, and he was moving stiffly as he pushed himself to his feet. There were a few moments of stillness before Aldric, heedless of his own safety, charged right into the horde of Grimm, just as another figure of whom appeared to be holding a stick of red light not unlike that which Aldric had wielded in Haven.

Pyrrha looked up to Bubbles, "can we get there any faster?!" She demanded, looking between him and the tablet.

Bubbles shook his head, "this is as fast as we -" But his words were drowned out by the sound of wind howling in everyone's ears and tearing at everyone's clothes; Bubble's head snapped over to the far end of the helicopter, and Pyrrha and the others' gazes followed him.

And they saw Ruby standing there, the helicopter's canopy opening in front of her. Just as Yang charged forward, desperately calling her sister's name, Ruby vanished in a cloud of rose petals.

---

Aldric remembered trying to envision what his undead evil twin from an alternate timeline looked like, after he'd first read the Record entry that George had left him. He'd imagined some kind of Ghost Rider figure, with rough, leathery, ashen skin, armor plates made from its own skeleton and fused to its flesh, and a skeletal jaw welded to its face in a strange facsimile of an undead knight. He'd always thought that it would have looked like it would have taken all of its aesthetic cues from the Chaos Space Marines, or an edgy comic from the early aughts.

Instead, what he got was the mirror image of himself - just with gray, off-white skin, black sclerae, and glowing red pupils.

When Salem ordered it to kill him, Aldric gulped - and a split second later, he saw one of its hands clench tight into a fist. Immediately, Aldric felt his throat close, as though someone had put a clamp on it and locked it tight. Aldric's head quickly turned red, his veins in his throat and jaw bulging as blood tried and failed to flow out, and his lungs burned as they tried to pull in oxygen that wouldn't flow.

Right... Aldric croaked. Just kill the Batman. Aldric clenched his teeth and, thinking fast, brought one of his hands just in front of his throat, fingers cupped like he was trying to scoop water from a sink.

Aldric splayed the fingers out, and physically felt the resistance when he tried to use his semblance to forcibly open his throat back up. It felt like he was trying to bend cast-iron bars with his fingers, but he made progress and could just barely feel wind passing through his throat again. He could feel the blood thundering in his ears and he pulled harder, lips pursed as his body shook - but he won out over the creature and opened his windpipe enough to breathe adequately.

So the demon switched tactics, and went for Aldric's heart.

This brought Aldric to his knees, feeling as though he'd been kicked in the chest by an elephant. With his radar he could see his heart struggling to inflate properly, and this immediately wreaked havoc on the rest of his body - up to and including his lungs, which backfilled with blood, causing it to rise up his throat. He coughed it out and brought his hand down to his chest. It felt like a fist had closed around his heart, and just as with his throat, forcibly prying open this fist felt like he was trying to pull something apart that was never meant to be pliable.

He realized fast that this wasn't going to work - so he changed tactics as his vision darkened and his arm started to tingle. He threw his hand out, clenched a fist, and wrenched it backwards.

He actually didn't expect to successfully rip out the Terran Grimm's heart, or for it to allow him to do it, just as he didn't expect the creature to barely even flinch. It simply dropped its gaze, looking down at the jet black mass of muscle and inky pools of blood that stretched halfway to the Master. It looked back up to Aldric, expression unchanged - until it saw a mass of electricity gathering in Aldric's palm, which the Master thrust towards it. The electrons Aldric had ripped out of the air passed between him and the Grimm in an instant, and it had the result he wanted - even if the Grimm's organs were just for show, relics of what it had once been, it still obeyed some biological laws - like muscles seizing up when exposed to electricity.

This got Aldric what he wanted, and the hold on both his throat and his heart were dropped instantly. He fell forward onto his hands, gasping for air as his heartbeat desperately tried to correct itself.

Can't let it do that again! Aldric thought, pushing forward and thrusting his arm forward as he stumbled to his feet, and then back to his knees.

The Grimm was, fortunately, hit by Aldric's blind telekinetic attack, but it wasn't sent flying nearly as far as Aldric would have liked. Its feet left the threshold of the tower, but it didn't go more than a few meters before it slowed itself down, and then reoriented itself, moving so stiffly that it appeared like a puppet being manipulated by an inexperienced puppeteer.

Aldric, gasping, hauled himself back up to his feet, using his semblance to keep his balance as his head snapped up. He saw the Grimm rocketing right past Salem, her dress and her hair blowing about in its wake. Aldric groaned, spared just a second to look at the table with the Relics, then down to the putrid green flames that wreathed them all, and then back forward to Aldric Black.

Aldric knew he wouldn't win this game, so he decided he wasn't going to play. He dropped down low, bending his knees and bracing himself for Aldric Black's charge, hand raised and at the ready. When Aldric Black reached him, Aldric gritted his teeth and grabbed Aldric Black by his forearms. Aldric was pushed back several inches, and if not for his armor he knew that he would have felt this impact in his soul, he was struggling so hard against Aldric Black's raw strength. But overpowering the Grimm wasn't Aldric's goal - rather, it was exactly the opposite. Aldric used the Grimm's strength against him, and before the Grimm's own fists could close around Aldric's throat, the Master twisted around, a low growl building up to a loud yell as he threw Aldric Black away - the Grimm's own strength and speed immediately turning against it, as it shot away from Aldric like a bullet from a gun.

Using the little time he had, Aldric lunged towards the podium with the Relics upon it, throwing his arm into the putrid green flames - and gritting his teeth as he was burned by the magic fire. The flames licked through his armor and burned at his arm, and Aldric felt his muscles seize up, nearly immobilizing the arm, but he forced himself to push through, literally and metaphorically. He felt the flames lapping at his arm, he felt the pain of it tearing at him - his radar constricted until all he could see was what his eyes showed him. He felt a physical resistance, like a powerful gust of wind pushing against his hand as he reached for the lamp, the resistance so powerful that just as Aldric's fingers scraped the lamp's surface, it pushed against him so hard that their strength cancelled each other out.

But Aldric knew this was his one chance - seeing him go for one of the Relics, Salem would know what his whole plan was, and she wouldn't give him a second shot.

Besides, it wasn't like he had to keep himself alive after this.

So with caution thrown to the wind, with his own safety disregarded, Aldric pushed harder.

Just as his fingers curled around the handle to the lamp, Aldric Black returned - slamming its shoulder into Aldric's side, flying into him like a battering ram. Aldric cried out in pain, but even as the Terran Grimm pushed them both from the roof and carried them through the air, he didn't let go. He locked his hand to the Lamp like a steel vice, and it came with him.

The Terran Grimm kept carrying them forward - crashing into one of the castle's towers and dragging the Master through it. Aldric grunted and felt stones and debris smack against him, but he kept his grip locked. When they passed through the tower, Aldric got a brief look at it before the Terran Grimm slammed the both of them into the ground - and it looked like someone had hit it with a cannon, it was listing over to the side with an enormous, gaping wound carved into it.

He then hit the ground, and the Grimm was on top of him in seconds - his hands instantly locked around Aldric's throat and squeezing. Even against World Breaker Yang, Aldric had never felt physical strength like this before - it was like someone had wrapped his neck in titanium. Aldric could feel his windpipe being crushed, could feel the veins in his neck popping, and his spine creaking and cracking as the blank-faced Grimm tried its best to pop his head off.

Unfortunately for it, that meant its full focus, and both of its arms, were completely on the act of trying to kill Aldric. So even as Aldric's head pounded with the blood unable to drain from it, even as air trapped in his lungs, and even as his vision darkened, fixing this problem was as easy as thumbing the activator button for his lightsaber and twisting in a circular arc. The grip on his neck immediately died as Aldric cleaved through both of the Grimm's arms - and when the Grimm straightened up, backed off just an inch, Aldric hit it in the chest with a telekinetic blast, sending it sprawling away.

Aldric laboriously pushed himself to his feet, pulling the Grimm's limp arms off of his purple and blue, bruised throat, coughing as he felt the blood drain away from his throat. He cast a look at his off-hand; the vibranium limb was glowing red-hot, was partially molten in some areas, and radiating heat, but at the end, clutched in its firm fingers was the lamp - which was unscathed. Aldric would have sighed in relief, if he weren't busy coughing and sputtering, gasping for air.

That's one. He croaked, deactivating and securing the red blade to his hip. Now for two. But even as he reached for the severely depleted 'Nuclear Pocket,' he saw the Terran Grimm hauling itself back to its feet like a vampire from a B-movie, the jet black muscles in its exposed, scorched arms wriggling like worms, pushing their way out of the stumps and slowly growing, twisting and coiling around themselves as they formed the general shape of the arms it had just lost.

Aldric sighed, exasperatedly. Figures. He thought, pushing the relic into his pocket - it shrinking down to the size of a pebble, as the Grimm's arms returned to form far too fast for Aldric to do anything more productive with the relic than just throwing it. The Grimm, having concluded that just killing Aldric wouldn't work, made its next plan: If Aldric was too strong to just kill, it had to stun him. To drain him of energy. s

So it put up its fists and charged.

Aldric fell onto the backfoot, raising his off-hand as his shield unfolded. The Grimm reached him as fast as a bolt of lightning and smashed its fist onto Aldric's shield. The vibranium took the attack, but the Terran Grimm adapted almost instantly - and instead of following the attack up, it followed it through - pushing harder against Aldric's shield to keep the Master from moving, and using its bastard semblance to push the force of its attack past the shield, as though it didn't even exist, resulting in Aldric's face getting smashed by a telekinetic wave. This succeeded in throwing Aldric back as though he'd been hit by a truck - and the Grimm kept the momentum going by throwing itself at Aldric, using its semblance to move unnaturally, dragging itself to Aldric like a marionette across a stage. It slammed its legs into Aldric's stomach and stomped Aldric into the ground - tearing it apart as the two kept going, a deep groove left in their wake.

Aldric, grunting in pain, snapped his eyes open and in one fluid motion, switched on the lightsaber, lopped the Grimm's legs off with the red pillar of plasma, and rolled out of from underneath it. The Grimm didn't even pause - it stopped itself on a dime and reached out, grabbing Aldric not with its semblance, but its arm. Aldric witnessed as the leathery white skin stretched and tore itself apart as the jet black muscles extended impossibly far, wrapping around Aldric's legs and pulling the Master back to the Monster. Aldric was twisted around, and had to act fast to throw up his shield to block the Grimm's wide left cross; but just like the first time, it punching him with its fist was as much a tactic as it was a formality - when Aldric's shield absorbed the blow, it followed through with a telekinetic blast to the head.

Aldric flew out, and the Grimm yanked back with its arm, practically turning Aldric into a speedball, punching him a second time, and then kicking him when its legs reformed. After the third attack, when Aldric felt a tiny amount of blood going up his throat, he snapped into action - and as he came back to the Grimm, he swung wildly with his sword. The Grimm let go and backed off before Aldric could have bisected its face, and when Aldric hit the ground, he had to snap to his feet and behind his shield as the Grimm pulled a spear made from Grimmflesh out of nowhere, and threw it at the Master.

The spear hit Aldric's shield hard enough that, were it made of anything else, Aldric may have broken both his arm and his shoulder trying to block it. Worse was that the initial force of the attack wasn't all the Grimm had up its sleeve - as when the spear's momentum was arrested, it lost its rigidity and then started deforming, wrapping around Aldric's shield like a bundle of wire, and then twisting as hard as Yang could punch - trying its best to force Aldric to lose the shield. Unfortunately for Aldric Black, its human half was craftier than it - the arm the spear had wrapped around wasn't made of weak flesh, but strong metal. As the Grimm charged him again, Aldric brought him his sword and slashed it across his arm, severing the spear - and then following it up with an upwards slash that caught Aldric Black on the chest.

But if the Grimm even felt the attack, it didn't let it on. As Aldric cut deep enough into its chest that even without the hole he'd ripped into it earlier, he would have started seeing some internal organs, it just kept charging forward - smashing its open palm into Aldric's face. Just like with its arm before, its hand expanded to unnatural lengths, its human skin stretching and tearing as its fingers wrapped around Aldric's head like steel claws.

As the Grimm lifted him off his feet, Aldric twisted his blade around, but Aldric Black had learned enough by now to know what Aldric's response was to its attempts at grappling him - so before Aldric could lop off the Grimm's hand, the Grimm's free hand snapped to, and wrapped around, Aldric's sword-arm, and squeezed. As good as the sometimes magical metal around Aldric's hand was, it was still just a suit of high-functioning chainmail, and the hand it grabbed was the one Aldric hadn't replaced. So when it crushed, it hurt.

Aldric tried to resist, using his semblance to fight the Grimm's iron grip, but it - in its own twisted way - appeared to have not only wanted this to happen, but planned on it, because as Aldric used his semblance to keep his fingers from breaking, the Grimm used its power to assist its other hand in crushing Aldric's skull. Aldric's teeth gritted and a pained grunt was turning into an agonized yell - out of desperation, Aldric brought up his free hand, his shield expanded, and smashed it into the Grimm. He dug the pointed edge of the shield into the Grimm's chest, and then its throat, but the Grimm ignored it, even as black, ichorous blood flowed freely from the deep gashes in its skin. It was either going to get the sword, or get Aldric's life.

Aldric gave ground - but instead of dropping the blade, he deactivated it and shot it out of his hand with his semblance, throwing the thing away with the speed of a bullet leaving a gun. The Grimm's eyes followed it, and its momentary shift in concentration gave Aldric the chance he needed to break free and lunge away from the undead demon.

When Aldric landed several feet away, his skull pounding, he recalled that this thing was supposed to be acting on his memories. If this was the same Grimm that Solidus had killed, brought back by Salem's twisted powers, maybe that still held true? And if that still held true, maybe Aldric could reason with it?

"Do I really -" Aldric gasped, "really need to do a 'I know you're in there' bit?" He called out, as it stared off in the direction the blade had gone.

"No." Was its one response.

"So you'll help?" Aldric retorted, his head twitching to the side. "Ah that's great man, listen - buy me some time, and -" The Grimm didn't let him finish, it charged Aldric, who cursed, and put up his arms defensively.

Aldric ducked underneath the Grimm's straight punch, but was thrown back up when the Grimm applied its earlier trick, uppercutting Aldric in the jaw when its fist missed, and when Aldric straightened up from the recoil, he was immediately accosted by two quick crosses. Aldric shook them off and lunged forward, plowing his fist into the Grimm's chest, digging its pointed edge more flesh and dragging more ichor out of its body, but for all the damage Aldric was doing, the Grimm didn't even register it and kept going. It grabbed at the back of Aldric's neck and rammed its knee into Aldric's gut; Aldric pushed himself out of the way with his semblance, and then snapped back to the Grimm, elbowing it in the nose as he slid behind it. He kicked the Grimm in the back, but the Grimm used its natural strength and its unnatural powers to plant itself in the ground like a brick wall, so Aldric was pushed back as he kicked off of the Grimm.

Aldric Black whipped around and its fist shot forward, hitting Aldric in the chest. Aldric grunted, but wrapped his arm around the Grimm's - it feeling like chilly, oiled skin - and clenched down hard before he pulled the Grimm towards him. The Grimm let Aldric do this, and as Aldric raised his foot to kick the Grimm, it raised its off-hand to punch him. They hit each other at the same time, recoiling from the simultaneous blow for only a moment before they threw themselves back at each other. The Grimm smashed its fist into Aldric's nose, Aldric rammed his fist into the hole in the Grimm's chest, it coming out covered in drying black ichor, and dragging out some of its muscles and fragments of bone. The Grimm, seeing the damage it was doing when it hit Aldric in the head, versus the near lack-there-of when it hit him in the chest, focused its assault, while Aldric was rapidly coming to the conclusion that he simply couldn't do any meaningful damage to it.

So, he had to change tactics - and switch to finding a way of stunning or immobilizing it. He didn't have to kill this thing, he just needed a minute to secure his pseudo-victory.

So when its next swing came in, Aldric, knowing the alternative, took it - but that opened the Grimm up for Aldric's follow-up. He planted the tips of his fingers on the Grimm's chest and pushed with all his strength - his semblance sending the Grimm flying. He immediately felt Aldric Black struggle against him with its own powers, but Aldric just pushed harder, swapping directions and keeping it on the backfoot until he smashed the twice-damned demon into one of the towers of Salem's castle.

No time like now! If ever there was a time to pull out all the stops and just go nuclear, now was it.

So Aldric pulled out the Fat Man and launched. The detonation was glorious, a great orange bloom of fire and a shockwave Aldric felt from where he stood, and it brought the tower down on top of the Grimm. For good measure - and because he had one left - he launched a second nuke before he dropped the now spent and useless nuclear catapult. Heart hammering in his chest, he reached for one of the few nuclear options he had left. Around the two soul gems gleaming with the souls of fallen Masters and Maidens, past the kryptonite spear, but above the few remaining weapons, was arguably, if not the most dangerous thing he had, then at least the second most.

But as Aldric's fingers curled around the vial, he realized he hadn't sensed the bomb going off.

Oh fuck... He looked up and saw the bomb floating in mid air, and the upper half of the tower lifting up.

"Oh fuck!" Aldric yelped, pulling out the vial and throwing himself to the side as the Grimm first threw the mini-nuke back at Aldric.

Aldric was thrown off course and sent sprawling across the ground when the shockwave of the explosion reached him, and that left him stunned long enough for the Grimm to throw what remained of the tower after the first explosion like a giant spear. It slammed into Aldric like a meteor, crumbling right on top of him, but of course, that wasn't it.

No, Aldric would have counted himself lucky if that had been it.

The impact had jarred from his hand the vial. The vial containing the nuclear option he had that could deny Salem - and Aldric Black's wild attack had torn it from Aldric's hand. Fortunately, Aldric's radar located it in just a second, but that didn't help him when Aldric Black arrived, hitting the giant pile of rubble like a missile and causing it all to fly into the air - unearthing Aldric, who, groaning in great pain, turned over onto his back.

And then groaned again when he saw Aldric Black, looming over him, glowing red from the light of Vader's lightsaber.

"You fuckin' dick." He gasped, reaching for the vial with his semblance, as Aldric Black regarded him. "Thought we were done with that toy." He said, eyes sliding shut as he clenched his teeth in pain.

The Terran Grimm didn't offer a response, instead listing forward until gravity took over. It then lunged the superheated stick of plasma in front of it, which slammed into Aldric's chest upon impact. But, instead of digging through and impaling Aldric, the two layers of armor he'd adopted did their job, even as Aldric could feel them heating up and his chest beginning to burn. Red plasma shot out in all directions as the stream was broken and Aldric Black dug it into Aldric's chest so hard that half of its length was struggling against the layered mithril and vibranium.

But, Aldric remembered what happened last time he trusted a super-metal against a lightsaber: Cinder tore off an arm of his suit, and poked a hole in it that still existed, and Aldric Black was desperately trying to cut into, so he didn't trust the mithril for anything more than the few seconds he wanted it to buy him. So with an angry grunt, as his chest began to smolder and the mithril was scorched black, Aldric threw a wide cross with his cybernetic limb, hitting the Grimm in the cheek and, with assistance from his semblance, burying it into the rubble next to him.

Aldric pushed off the rubble pinning his legs to the ground and hopped out of the pile that had once been a part of Salem's castle, casting out his semblance to grab the vial. He located, grabbed, and ripped it out from underneath the former tower, but as it settled in his hand, the Terran Grimm reappeared, throwing its lightsaber at Aldric's head before he could do anything with the vial or what was inside it.

The Master dodged to the side, stowing the vial back in the belt as he snatched the sword out of the air, pulled it back towards him, and then charged the Grimm. Aldric Black threw its strength into a telekinetic wall that Aldric collided with, but Aldric pried it open, using his semblance to rip a hole in it as though it were a bubble, and through this opening he shoved the blade, burying it deep into Aldric Black's chest. The Grimm actually gritted its teeth, but otherwise showed no sign of acknowledging the damage Aldric was doing to it - instead grabbing at Aldric's fleshy arm, dropping its telekinetic resistance, and pulling Aldric towards it, slamming its knee into Aldric's chest before it slammed him into the pile of rubble and debris. Aldric twisted the sword back and forth, opening up a huge gash in the Grimm's chest before it chopped at Aldric's wrist in a blow that would have snapped it like a twig if not for his armor.

It ripped the blade from Aldric's hand, tore it out of its chest, and then swung down at Aldric's neck. Aldric rolled to the side, grabbed several huge boulders from the former tower, and threw them all at Aldric Black, who took it like a champ: Some exploded on impact into clouds of dust, some bounced off of it, tearing huge chunks of flesh from its body and becoming smeared in black ichor, and some were cleaved into pieces by its blade, and once the storm of stones was finished, the Grimm charged Aldric, surging forward like a rocket.

Aldric backhanded the sword away, using his shield to take the blow and open up the Grimm's chest for another attack - which came in the form of Aldric shoving his fist into the Grimm's largest, gaping wound as the Grimm twisted the lightsaber into a knife's grip and stabbed down at Aldric's shoulder. Aldric could feel the heat coming off of it, scorching the left side of his neck and face, but he pushed on with his next crazy idea - and with his semblance, he stopped the very atoms that made up the Grimm's body from moving, or at least in the area immediately around his fist. With how cold it was, this snap-froze the immediate areas around the small zone of absolute zero, and when the liquids in the Grimm's body froze and expanded, it practically burst open with black, ichorous icicles.

This finally got the Grimm to react, as now it was missing almost all of the skin and muscle on its chest, leaving only the inner meat, its ribs, and its organs. Aldric kicked it in the ribcage and sent it stumbling backwards, the effectiveness of this plan over the others giving him an idea.

But he wasn't the only one getting ideas from this encounter - the Grimm, it seemed, was inspired too, as its head snapped up, and Aldric saw the first change in its expression since they'd begun fighting:

Rage.

Aldric wasn't fast enough to react to the Grimm snapping back towards the Master. It grabbed at Aldric's mithril shirt and yanked it towards the Grimm, while it kneed Aldric in the stomach, sending him back, and opening up a gap between the shirt and the suit underneath it - which the Grimm shoved its sword underneath. Aldric felt the end of the blade on his collarbone, his skin boiling away where contact was made, and saw the blade inches from his eye as he began to bellow in pain.

With his semblance, Aldric shoved at the blade in the Grimm's hand, hitting the activator button through sheer luck and removing the blade from the now glowing armor on his chest. Aldric then lunged forward, slamming his forehead into the Grimm's nose, which instantly began bleeding black ichor. The Grimm followed this up by slamming the butt of Aldric's blade into the side of his head, stumbling the Master to the side, but when the Grimm made to move again, it found itself immobilized - its feet frozen to the ground.

Aldric couldn't fight off a grin as he fell forward onto his hands, and then pushed him back up, yelling as he twisted around and smashed his fist into Aldric Black's face, and followed that up with an uppercut, before he grabbed the sides of Aldric Black's head. The Grimm reactivated Aldric's lightsaber and shoved upwards towards Aldric's jaw as the Master, roaring out in anger and determination. The Grimm's head began to be covered in frost around Aldric's fingers as Aldric felt the blade drag its way up his chest and towards his jaw.

But, just as Aldric allowed himself to think that maybe he'd do this, maybe he'd actually win, the Grimm changed course - and its blade sliced back down Aldric's scalding chest, and cut apart his belt. It knew how important it was to Aldric - either because this was the same one from the future, reborn, or because it had seen Aldric relying on it throughout the fight - and knew that if it wanted to survive Aldric trying to freeze its head, the best way to do so was to get Aldric to break off. Here, it got two birds with one stone: It would disarm Aldric, and keep the fight going.

Aldric couldn't help but take the bait - kneeing the Grimm in the stomach and kicking off of it, snatching the belt as he flew back several meters. The Grimm, in response, thrust its hand forward and grabbed ahold of the belt with its bastardized semblance, stealing it out of Aldric's grip just as he landed. When Aldric was able to react, it was already halfway towards the Grimm, and panic set in - if it broke it, destroyed the belt and everything in it, Aldric would lose everything, and he'd have no idea how to get rid of the relic.

So when Aldric landed, he too grabbed ahold of the belt and pulled it towards him. It froze right in the middle between the two, and instantly was pulled taut as the two titans struggled to overpower their opponent. The wind began to pick up and wail, twisting and billowing outwards from the belt as the two struggled over it. Aldric had to plant his feet behind him, as he felt himself slowly being dragged backwards, away from the belt, as the winds picked up in strength and he poured more and more of his energy into what was becoming a literal tug-of-war. The Grimm, in one of the first human things it had done in the entire fight, did the same, its blade held out to its side and its feet braced behind it, two small piles of dirt forming around the balls of its feet.

Aldric's entire body began to burn, every muscle felt like they were clenching and pulling all at once, and as the windstorm turned into a small twister around them, picking up and throwing about pieces of debris ever-increasing in size as time went on, Aldric felt, and sensed, the belt tearing, and it gave him an idea.

He stopped struggling entirely, and gave the belt to Aldric Black - enthusiastically. He stopped pulling entirely and instead pushed, with the only caveat being two cuts in the belt he left, which dropped the nuclear pocket to the ground as the belt hit Aldric Black in the chest, and the combined strength of Aldric himself and the Terran Grimm hit it full force: It went flying, so far and so fast that Aldric blinked and couldn't see or sense it anymore. He sacrificed the belt - all the weapons, all the armors, clothes, food, ammunition, and medicines, all the things he didn't need anymore, for the one pocket that he did need.

Aldric dropped to his knees, gasping for air, wondering if there wasn't steam coming off of his body, he felt so hot and so sore. It was just adrenaline keeping him going right now, adrenaline and his all-consuming need to deny Salem her victory. He stayed like this for a second before he scrambled forward, crawling on his hands and knees to the pocket he'd sheared off of the belt.

Gotta move... Aldric gasped, feeling around the pocket for the vial and, when he found it, pulling it out and crushing it.

In his hand, surrounded by glass and a destroyed Pym-particle throwing star, was a small green ring. As fast as he could considering how damaged he was, the Master slipped the ring onto one of his fingers and felt a warmth flow through his body, coinciding a small wave of green energy washing over him when it settled against his knuckle.

Oh that's that good shit. He gasped, his face red from both the blood pumping through it, and the not-insignificant amount of blood that had leaked out of it, but his body feeling blissfully numb as its energy coursed through him.

Aldric took in a deep breath and pulled the lamp out of his pocket, replacing it with the severed belt pocket. The Lamp grew in his hand until it was its usual size. His radar began shrinking down of its own accord as the adrenaline flooded from Aldric's system, but he focused on the task at hand, bringing the lamp up in front to him, while he raised his right hand, the ring glowing on his long finger. He looked back up at the tower, and a wide smirk grew across his face as Salem looked down on him in the distance, a frown of equal parts concern and curiosity marring her otherwise stony features.

Aldric clenched his fist, and the ring pulsed with green energy - a wormhole ripping open reality right next to him. Salem's expression immediately switched to one of alarm, and despite the distance, despite the deafening wind roaring in his ears, Aldric heard her clear as day.

"Stop him!" She screamed.

The moment the lamp had gone through the wormhole, Aldric felt something wrap around his stomach. The second the wormhole snapped shut, Aldric was yanked off of the debris pile and pulled back towards the castle. In the brief second Aldric had to look down at what had caught him, Aldric saw an arm of grimmflesh, and shredded human skin in patches around it.

"Fuck!" Was all that could get past his lips before he was yanked back to the castle. He felt his heart drop out of his chest when, upon reaching the Grimm, he was greeted by his own face.

Completely healed, all of the damage Aldric had dealt over the fight appearing to just have been erased, like it had never happened. Aldric was confused for a moment, until he saw a pool of oily black tar a few feet behind Aldric Black, and it just made him groan. The thing had cheated.

Aldric Black, without injury, lifted its stolen lightsaber. It ignited the blade and stabbed down at its Terran counterpart - Aldric had to throw his hands up and physically block the blade, knowing full and well what that was doing the instant he started to feel his skin heating up and burning underneath the armor.

Aldric cried out in pain as he felt his fleshy hand fry from the lightsaber heating up the armor covering it. Aldric Black whipped away the blade, lifted him up and then smashed him on the ground, its arm acting like a chain and Aldric's body the ball.

And of course, making things go from bad to worse, now that Aldric had gone and pissed her off, Salem decided to pull out all the stops now that she'd seen Aldric's tricks. More traditional Grimm began swarming the castle grounds, charging Aldric as Aldric Black tossed him around like a cheap doll, before slamming him into the ground and letting go of him, so it and the hordes of Grimm could, as one, crash onto him like a tidal wave. Aldric and the Terran Grimm were immediately crushed under the weight of hundreds of demons, from the tiniest of insects to the most mountainous of Goliaths. Aldric Black only let this go for a second before it used its power to create a pocket of air around them, so it could sit up straight and begin smashing its fists into Aldric's face.

Aldric just took it, a small smile growing across his face, even as his lip split and blood leaked from between his teeth and the growing number of cuts the Grimm was leaving across his face, because in the end it didn't matter: He'd still did it. He'd gotten rid of the Relic. His satisfied sigh was only ruined by grunts of pain and air being shot out of his lungs from each vicious punch from the Grimm above him before it, after deciding it had properly beaten the resistance out of Aldric and stunned him well enough, it wrapped its slender hands around Aldric's throat again and went for the kill.

Aldric didn't even resist, because he knew well enough what would come next. Salem waited for a long time - she waited right until Aldric was about to black out from oxygen deprivation before she let out her next command.

"STOP!" She shouted, her voice audible even through the literal pile of Grimm. "Bring him here!" She ordered.

And without delay, the Grimm piling on top of them began sliding off of each other, the mountain turning to a molehill in seconds. The Terran Grimm wrenched Aldric himself into the air by his throat, and then launched the both of them to Salem's tower with a heavy push from its legs. When they reached the Lady of the Grimm, it threw Aldric to the ground at her feet. Aldric pushed himself up to a kneeling position, but could go no further as his Grimm counterpart rammed its boot onto one of Aldric's legs, the feeling not unlike when Aldric had been buried underneath the immovable rubble in Beacon's vault.

Salem, for the first time, crouched down to Aldric's level, and the Master was minorly surprised the witch's expression wasn't one of lividity.

"What did you do to it, Aldric?" She whispered.

From behind a veneer of blood-stained teeth, Aldric grinned. "The funny part..." He grunted, hoarsely, blood and spittle flying out from his swollen face. "Is that when I made this ring, I thought I'd use it as a weapon. My most powerful one." He coughed, and spat out some blood. "It's more suited for that, after all... I'd thought that even if it would never choose me, I had enough willpower to make it do what I wanted it to." He chuckled, "and then when I pull it out, all I want it to do is make a magic asshole to give an enema with a magic lamp." He wheezed out a few laughs.

Salem's right eye twitched, and she ripped the green ring from Aldric's finger, getting to her feet and examining it. "Where did you send it?!" She growled, her usual facade almost literally cracking apart.

"Fuck would I tell you for?" Aldric scoffed, even as he knew well and good what was going to emerge from it.

"I can steal your soul." Salem threatened, "make two Grimm Aldrics, and yours will have your memories. I can make it tell me."

Aldric laughed, though the effort hurt his chest. "Don't know how much time you spent with Aldric Black, lady... But you should know it only has raw data. Straight-memory. No thoughts or feelings or emotions. You make me a Grimm, all it will tell you is that I sent it away. It won't know where." He said, gasping for air. "And I doubt you could make two to begin with... Else I'd be in a Meta Cooler situation - staring down a couple thousand of them, instead of just one at a time." He grinned, cheekily. "I'd sooner believe..." He sputtered, "a Grimm Cinder... But without her magic, what good ever was she?" He chuckled, "what else ya got?"

"I will hurt you." Salem growled.

"Go the fuck ahead." Rumbled the injured Master.

Salem was silent a moment, "and not just you." She added after a delay, "those people from Beacon. I'll kill them, and I can assure you no one can drag out a death quite as long as I."

"Oh you know damn well and good they were all a means to an end."

"I'll find any allies you've made in the effort of betraying me and hurt them, too."

Aldric laughed, "kill the terrorist, the gangster, the headmaster, and the teacher?" Aldric spit out some blood, "shit, not a one of them that hasn't made peace with death already... Not a one of them I wasn't prepared to lose." He said, "and besides that - once I let Ruby die... Well, none of them are here now, are they?" He rumbled, "so fuck 'em."

He sensed Salem grit her teeth, and after she finished examining the ring, she rounded on Aldric. "Then how about your family, on Earth?" She demanded, kneeling down in front of him again, her eyes wide and locked onto him. "You care about them, I know."

That's another for mind-reading. Aldric grinned, and lifted his face defiantly. "Fuck around and find out." The ring he'd used, the things he'd put in his belt, it all paled in comparison to what he'd given to his mother. You'll kill her eventually, but even though she doesn't know how to properly use it, she'll give you a black eye you'll never forget.

Angrily, Salem struck him across the cheek, snapping Aldric's head from one side to another. "No one's will is unbreakable, Aldric -"

"Hal Jordan would argue that." Whistled out from Aldric's lungs, as his head lolled about.

"I know how to keep you alive forever." She threatened. "Even if I can only make them one at a time, with your Grimm self as my lieutenant, I will kill every single man woman and child alive and force you to watch as every bastion of humanity falls, until you are the last and only human alive." She ranted, pacing the rooftop terrace, her eyes angrily locked onto the podium with the Relics, her hand clenching the ring tightly enough to leave an imprint on her cold skin.

Aldric snorted, some blood and spittle flying from his swollen face as he did. "No you fuckin' won't." He challenged, as bluntly as his hoarse, rumbly voice allowed. "You could've destroyed Humanity a long time ago, and that was before you made the bone-headed decision to bring Earth into it." He said, before raising his eyes, his head feeling like it was made of lead. "The mere fact that I'm standing here... On the corpses of so many people... On a throne built of lies... You're smart, lady. You know I'll let anyone and everyone die before I tell you where I sent it. Torture me forever if you want. I won't break, and whatever you want that relic for - you'll never have it."

Salem looked down at him, rage briefly flashing over her face, before it returned to its normal, true neutral expression. She sighed, and turned away from him - before whipping around and, with an enraged scream, smacked him across the face a second time. Aldric flew over the edge of the terrace and plummeted towards the ground, hitting it like a ton of bricks and bouncing twice before he came to a halt. Seeing stars, Aldric groaned as he slowly pushed himself upright, seeing a horde of Grimm building right in front of him. Aldric Black dropped to the ground, clutching Vader's lightsaber in its hand, enveloped in bright red light.

Grunting, his body aching, Aldric lifted, and then planted his left foot in the ground, followed by his right foot. He spread his arms to his side as the Grimm started pawing at the ground.

"COME ON!" He roared defiantly, before charging headlong into the Grimm hordes.

They met his charge and crashed into each other like a river crashing into a lone rock. Aldric, his shields extended, could attack in any direction and he'd hit something - he carved open Grimm, he broke exoskeletons, he dodged lightsaber swings and soon choked the very air with the smoke of dying Grimm. His momentum, however, could only last for so long against numbers like these, and soon enough the first Grimm caught him with a swipe of its motorcycle-sized claws, this stumbled Aldric back into another Grimm that leapt on its back and shattered its teeth on the layers of armor on Aldric's shoulder. It slid off and retreated, but before Aldric could recover, the Terran Grimm appeared behind him and slammed her sword onto his back like a baseball bat; it bounced off leaving only minor burns on the armor, but it caused Aldric to fall forward - and desperately pull himself out of the way of a swing from Aldric Black that would have cut his head off from the nose up.

Aldric hit the ground, and a boarbatusk came charging in, its horns trying and failing to gore Aldric in his abdomen, but its speed and strength succeeded in throwing Aldric deeper into the hoards, where several Grimm threw themselves at him all at once, clawing, ripping, and tearing at his chest, none of them smart enough to realize they were doing nothing.

None except the Terran Grimm, however.

Aldric Black hauled Aldric up with his semblance, and slammed him back down onto the ground before charging up, kicking him in the bruised chest, and causing Aldric to stumble back, where an Ursa was, waiting to lop Aldric's head off. Aldric twisted out of the way - the claws hitting Aldric's shoulder and bouncing off. The Master fell to his knees, planted his hands on the ground and pushed back, sliding away from the undead Grimm, before he popped up with a gun from his belt and fired wildly. It did little, but the little it did caused a pause just long enough for Aldric to reach into his belt.

Before his hand could close around the soul gem, he found himself thrown to the ground when an ear-piercing shriek filled his ears and sapped him of his energy. Aldric gasped for air, knowing what this was and having to force himself to move before Aldric Black landed on top of him, its sword missing his head by inches. Aldric didn't even have time to try and attack though, as a blob-like Grimm crashed into him like a linebacker, throwing Aldric like a sack of potatoes.

Aldric's armor was barely doing anything anymore, there were so many attacks from so many directions, from creatures that weighed more than him, that were stronger than him, were more durable than him - it could absorb the impact all it wanted, but the extra variables meant damage was bleeding through. Aldric wasn't even able to fight anymore, he was just being torn apart, beaten senseless and thrown around.

His only respite came when a Nevermore came in, grabbed him with its enormous talons, carried him high in the air, and threw him like a rag doll. Aldric fell through the air, tumbling end-over-end as he cleared the castle grounds and hurtled towards the wasteland surrounding it.

Aldric hit the ground like a boulder, only remaining three-dimensional because of his armor. He rolled across the ground for several feet before he finally came to a halt, his entire body feeling like it was one stray breath away from falling apart.

He didn't need his Radar or his enhanced senses to know that the hordes were advancing on him. He could feel the ground rumbling beneath him, shaking from the force of the feet beating against it. His body was all but refusing to work anymore, his muscles had shut down, feeling like they'd been carved apart with a rusty, salt-covered butter knife. His bones felt like they were made of glass, his vision was blurry, and his breathing came out in agonized, rattling rasps. He could barely even twitch his fingers, let alone get back up and fight.

I could just lay here... Aldric thought to himself, air rattling from his lungs. I could just let it happen. I've done my job. I can die now. No more struggle, just let them kill me. He thought, allowing his tired eyes to shut. It would be nice. Probably wouldn't even take long. Unless she actually did make good on her threats, but both he and her knew she'd never break him, so why bother keeping him around when he may break out and resist her?

No, better to kill him now.

And Aldric could let it happen.

"Dad..." He murmured, his whispers weak, his eyes barely focused enough to see the red sky above. "Helmut... Ben." He coughed, voice a pained, weak whine, barely even reaching his ears. "Ruby... Is this enough?" He asked the dead, as he heard Grimm howl and roar, heralding his imminent demise. "Did I..." He twitched his fingers, and had to use his semblance to close them into a fist - the mere act of which sent white-hot lances of pain from the back of his wrist, down his arm. "Make it right?" He croaked, again unable to move himself, so again having to force agonizing pain through his body as he used his semblance to bypass what his shutting down body was unable to do, pushing himself to his side, pressing his clenched fist and his open palm into the ground, and screaming out in agony as he hauled himself to his feet.

When he was up, he stumbled over a step, his organic arm going limp and swinging freely, his only usable one now being the nearly molten vibranium one. Swaying side to side, he looked out to the castle.

Blurry though it was, Aldric could still see the mass of black and white hurtling towards him. The horde was, indeed, advancing on him with what looked like every Grimm in the wasteland. Headed by the twice resurrected Grimm, they moved with cold purpose, all of their glowing red eyes locked onto him. The fact that he'd survived so long against him was enough to prove to the former Master that going straight for the Kill wasn't an option. They had to defeat and destroy Aldric - overwhelm him, completely and utterly. Kill him through raw attrition.

The thought made Aldric smile a little, as he blinked hard, trying to focus his vision. Aldric Black, and through him, Salem, had decided he was so much of a threat that in order to ensure he was dead, they needed to throw everything they had at him. Aldric was pretty sure that if they'd been able to summon every Grimm on Remnant, they would have.

"I guess I'll..." He wheezed, "ask you in a bit."

He stumbled forward a step, using his semblance to force his muscles to do the work they pointedly refused to do on their own. Though his muscles ached and his body screamed in protest, he also forced it to straighten up. He gasped for air as he took another step forward, metal hand pressed against his stomach. Alone, against the greatest horde of Grimm he'd ever seen, with what he could only describe as a demonic version of himself at its head, Aldric advanced at a steady limp, his good hand going for the nuclear pocket, going for the gems that would never be used as intended, but would still let him do something stupid in an attempt at denying Salem her 'lieutenant.'

But before he'd made it two steps, he heard the briefest gust of wind - and he was stopped. It passed by like a gasp, but for a heartbeat he felt like he had been caught by a vaudeville hook and stopped fast, and stranger was that his arm had been yanked out of his pocket. Jaw slack, chest rising and falling as he gasped for air, the frowning Master looked at his hand, and then down to his feet, before looking up to the approaching horde. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary, and Aldric Black wasn't telegraphing anything.

Aldric gulped, and pushed forward again - but again, he was stopped, but this time, in a literal blink-and-you-miss it moment, he saw an instant of bright, pure white light, before it passed by like a floater in one's eye. When Aldric blinked, he saw a great cloud of black smoke as scores of Grimm vanished in their death throes, and Aldric Black was petrified, encased in concrete - though already wrenching itself out, cracking open its concrete tombs and pushing out of it.

Head tilting, frown deepening, Aldric experimentally reached for the pocket again.

And for the third time, this unseen force stopped him - and just like before, it left something behind.

But unlike last time, this small artifact of its presence stayed behind, just long enough for him to notice it before it was picked up by the wind. Aldric looked down at his feet, and watched as a small, thin, red rose petal was picked up and carried off by the gust of wind the force brought with it. Breath coming out in ragged, exhausted gasps, he stared at it uncomprehendingly as it danced in the wind.

Then, he sensed something coming in behind him, it coming to a halt just as he heard the dead, dry grass crunch underneath it.

Aldric turned to face it slowly, having to lean all his weight on his good leg.

He couldn't believe what he saw.

Or rather:

Who he saw.

Standing before him, her scythe in her hands, held behind her back, garbed in a red and black uniform, and several inches taller than he remembered, was a dead woman. Her bright silver eyes, filled with boundless hope and optimism, lifted from the ground to lock with Aldric's gunmetal gray orbs, and her smile met his astonished, exhausted expression.

Aldric couldn't find the words, his brain just ceased functioning as he watched Ruby Rose lift up her scythe and approach him. When she reached him, before she even said a word she stowed her scythe on her back and brought him into as tight a hug as she could, her arms wrapped around his neck. The picture must have looked insane - this pristine warrior, her red hood flowing like a cape, embracing the bloodied and beaten fighter in a field of death and decay. It was enough to make Aldric genuinely wonder if this wasn't Death, letting him know it was his time, and everything would be okay, now.

Ruby let go of him, and took a step back, her smile not leaving her face even as she wiped away a single tear.

"It's okay." She said, "we're here, now."

"We?" Aldric asked, as she turned around.

Aldric followed her gaze, looking to the horizon, and he saw it. Starting out as simple black dots against the red sky, they grew larger and larger, quickly becoming gray and white lances, spearing into the dead lands. Airships, fightercraft, jets, bomber planes, helicopters, bullheads, Human and Terran alike - all flying together, and altogether casting a great and deep shadow, blotting out the sun and turning the red sky gray through sheer mass.

And that wasn't all - his eyes caught by a cloud forming underneath him, Aldric traced this cloud down to the line where the ground met the sky, and he could see even more. Tanks, jeeps, trucks, mech suits of all kinds from Earth and Remnant, charging across the ground towards Aldric and Ruby. Aldric's entire body was slack from shock as they all reached him and formed up - The helicopters reaching him first, and dumping out scores of Huntsmen and Huntresses, with the first ones to land being the ones he recognized by sight. Teams JNPR and RWBY spilled out of their helicopter and rushed towards the numb, shocked Aldric and the widely smiling Ruby; Aldric didn't miss the dirty looks he got, but he was distracted by Yang, who was the first after Ruby to approach him, her hand outstretched - his old lightsaber held tightly in it. He accepted it numbly, but found that it was just an opening for her to try her absolute damnedest to shove his nose into his brain, and if it wasn't for Pyrrha catching him with her semblance, he would have fallen over entirely.

Next to land was Qrow, Taurus, and - amazingly - Torchwick and Neo, with Oscar Pine appearing next to them, his eyes showing the telltale gold that indicated his guest was in control. Qrow was the only one not to give him a courtesy, as they assembled next to him and readied their weapons; Aldric limped back around to face the hordes of Grimm as the helicopters continued landing, continued spitting out ever-increasing numbers of Huntsmen and Huntresses, some wearing Atlas' uniforms, some wearing the patch of the White Fang, some appearing unaffiliated, having been dragged from the Garden by Torchwick; and as they all formed up, then the ground vehicles arrived, skidding to a halt behind the assembled superhumans, the vehicles readying their weapons and emptying themselves of troops, just as many draped in the combat vests of Earth as were wearing the armor of Atlas, or the haphazard uniforms of the White Fang, all loaded for bear and ready to fight.

As Aldric finished turning around, with Ruby to his left and Pyrrha to his right, he beheld Salem's hordes of Grimm. She had taken the situation in and had decided that she would spend the time Aldric's army was building, to build her own - and from all corners of her wasteland, her Grimm were rallying to meet the gathered forces of Humanity. Pyrrha got Aldric's attention and tried pressing his shield into his hands, but he shook his head and pushed it back to her, as the last familiar face arrived - descending from the sky with gouts of fire shooting out from her feet.

The one wearing Aldric's face, sans his new scars, garbed in his old coat, and a facsimile of his Beacon outfit. The person he'd once called Venom Aldric, but now called Solidus Cinder, touched down just in front of Aldric, who regarded her as best he could through the pain he was in. She met his gaze equally, forcing Aldric to fight off a vertigo-like feeling as he looked into his own face, before, after a moment, she dug into her pocket, and pulled out a small pill bottle.

Aldric snorted as Solidus retrieved a single green lima bean - her last one, if the fact that she threw the bottle away was any indication. She presented it to him, her hand open, and her false eyes wide and earnest, over tightly closed, nervous lips. Aldric regarded the bean a moment, before he pursed his lips and nodded once, accepting it. She rounded him, standing behind him and readying her own weapon as Aldric laboriously raised the bean to his mouth, crunched down, and swallowed. It was pure bliss, feeling his bones knit, his skin stitch back together, and his skin and muscles' swelling go down, a literal second wind welling up in his soul as well as his body as everyone around them readied and armed their weapons.

Though still gasping, though still for all the world bruised and bloody, Aldric felt, and allowed, a grin to tug at the corners of his face, as he pushed his radar back out.

He'd done it. He didn't know how, but he'd done it. He'd saved Ruby, his alliances hadn't fallen apart, and now they were here - just in time for the final number. Victory wasn't a hopeless dream anymore, it was a tangible reality. The armies of men and faunus, of soldiers, huntsmen, and huntresses, the greatest fighters in the history of two worlds, had all heard his call, and assembled.

The fight, it seemed, was long from over, he realized, as he located and snatched up a Terran and Human radio at random, bringing them to him. No, it had just begun.

And all the things he'd had planned could come to fruition.

"Ruby." He gasped, "Pyrrha." He attracted their attention, and nodded to the tower. "Take whoever you need. You two and Jaune need to get there."

They nodded, and as one could have predicted, passed words to their teams.

"Venom." The woman wearing his face looked at the back of his head, "you help me take down Electric Boogaloo." She nodded, eyes falling to Aldric Black.

The radios reached him, coming to a halt, floating in front of him. He pressed down on their broadcast buttons, his voice reaching everyone.

It was time to sound the battle cry.

This was it.

The end.

It all culminated in this moment - here the war was won, or here it would be lost.

They were all just waiting for the starting gun. The signal flare. The magic words that would set everyone's minds to one goal.

And with how everyone just appeared to be waiting on him, Aldric could only think of one thing to say:

"Are we going to stand around all day!?" He bellowed into the radios, the heartbeat between this word and the next appearing to silence the entire universe, as all things waited for his word to sound the final battle.