Someone once said that Trivia Vanille had no empathy for others. It was the father of Velvet Scarlatina, a bunny faunus classmate whom Trivia had spread some nasty rumors about in high school at 18. Trivia couldn't speak due to a heat stroke she'd suffered as a child when the nanny left her in the car, so she'd spread the rumors on social media, She'd felt nothing when she learned that the girl subsequently tried to drown herself in the Atlesian sea.

It was shortly after Trivia had fallen madly in love with and started secretly dating Roman Torchwick, the god of the Hunt. She'd known that her parents would never approve of their relationship, not only because of their ten-year age gap, but because of his role in the Hunt, a show her parents had deemed unethical and disgusting. Unfortunately, Mr. and Mrs. Vanille had gone through their only daughter's scroll and discovered the relationship, which they blamed for her treatment of Velvet Scarlatina. They told her she was forbidden to see him as long as she lived under their roof and grounded her.

It was then that Trivia felt something: murderous rage. How dare they separate her from the love of her life. How dare they mess with her freedom.

Trivia had used her secret scroll to inform her beloved of the injustice, and a plan had formed. She'd drugged her parents one night and Roman set fire to their mansion, killing them. Trivia Vanille became Neopolitan that night, dyeing half her hair pink to match her pink eye and beginning a new life with nothing but her lover and the clothes off her back.

She would do anything for Roman.

So of course when he told her he needed her to kill a faunus in Vacuo who happened to be the Summer Maiden, claim her power, and use her semblance to set up a girl named Cinder Fall for the Hunt, she'd accepted the mission.

Make her seem as evil as you can, Roman had told her.

In the end, it wasn't personal. Neo didn't particularly feel any malice toward Cinder. She simply understood that her man would be legendary for having Cinder slaughtered in the Hunt. He promised he'd marry her if she went through with all of this. They'd live happily ever after after this. Plus, there was a part of Neo that simply enjoyed playing the bad girl. Taking out popular celebrity Pyrrha Nikos, killing the woman in Mistral who had offered her clothing- all of her misdeeds had made Cinder look terrible and had the people of Remnant calling for Cinder's blood. Killing the elderly Winter Maiden, Fria, to make it look as if Cinder was trying to kill all the Maidens for their power was the next step in the plan to make Cinder look terrible. Imagine how the public would react to Cinder slaying an innocent, frail grandmother. With the exception of Weiss and Blake's video, everything was going their way.

Of course, there was the problem of Cinder's blonde half-sisters who had been recruited to their cause. Staci was tolerable, but Dria had an irritating habit of flirting with Roman. Neo would eventually have to deal with her.

Neo had just incapacitated Winter Schnee and was facing off with Penny when all of a sudden Fria formed a swirling pillar of icy magic around herself and Penny, blocking Neo off from both of them.

...

Ruby and Weiss stumbled upon an unexpected scene: inside a massive bubble of ice, a glowing Penny stood before an elderly woman lying on the ground. Winter was regaining consciousness, and Weiss instantly went to her sister. Standing not far from them all was Cinder's imposter.

Ruby glared at the impostor, her heart filling with anger over the lives this person had taken and over what they were doing to the girl she cared about. Ruby found herself lunging at the girl with Crescent Rose, shouting, "I know you're not Cinder!"

She cut the girl's arm off.

Using Maiden power, the girl formed fog around herself so she couldn't be seen clearly. It dawned on Ruby that this Cinder impostor must be the Summer Maiden, in order to be able to use such power with her aura broken. Ruby tried to make out the woman's features through the fog. All she could see was that this woman was shorter than Cinder and had longer, thicker hair. She saw the woman's severed arm on the ground. Then she saw the woman burning that arm and scattering its ashes away with wind. She did that so there'd be no DNA evidence left behind proving that she isn't Cinder, Ruby thought.

Ruby tried to run after her, but the maiden flew away.

Ruby went over to a sad-looking Penny. "Are you alright? What happened?"

Penny looked down at the elderly woman. "She's gone, and I'm the Winter Maiden now."

"No," injured Winter replied, "she's a part of you."

There was a pause, and then Winter added, "I suggest you all surrender and comply with the general's orders."

Ruby knew what Winter was talking about: Ironwood was abandoning Mantle, declaring martial law, and had called for their arrests.

"We can't do that," Weiss said.

So Winter gave them a head start, calling for medical attention and reinforcements.

Acting quickly, Ruby tore off a long strip from the bottom of her cape and used it to wipe the blood off of Crescent Rose. She handed it to Winter.

"Give this to Ironwood. It has the blood of the blood of the real person responsible for these crimes on it. Tell him I cut the person's arm off, but the person burned it away with Maiden power. Tell him that the real criminal is the Summer Maiden."

Although she and the general weren't on good terms right now, Ruby had to believe that he'd at least care about stopping the real person responsible for these crimes. Wouldn't he?

Their friends showed up with the ship and they left Atlas. Unfortunately, they learned that Emerald had showed up and stolen the relic of knowledge from Oscar. Apparently her semblance had evolved, and she was now able to use it on more than one mind at a time.

...

Time passed. Ruby and her friends were at the Happy Huntresses hideout in Mantle, and on the television was a news report about Jacques Schnee being missing while there was a warrant for his arrest for cheating in the election.

"He's probably hiding somewhere in Mistral, waiting for the hunt," Weiss suggested. "It wouldn't surprise me if the queen and prince were protecting him,"

Out of nowhere, Ruby remembered something completely random. "Hey Weiss? Remember when I had my near death experience back in Mistral? Well, I made contact with Pyrrha's spirit and she had a message for you. She told me to tell you, 'it's ok'. She said you'd know what that meant,"

There was a long silence, and Weiss was blushing.

The next news report was about Robyn Hill and Uncle Qrow's arrest. Robyn Hill was in an airship crash and was left in a coma. Ruby hoped she'd pull through, and wondered if they'd be able to prove Cinder's innocence.

Just then, Ruby's scroll chimed. It was Yang.

"What's wrong, Yang?" Ruby asked.

"Oscar has gone missing. A grimm came for him. It...talked. Ren, Jaune, and I are going after him."