Cards of Remnant

by TheMaster4444

Ruby Rose has wanted to be a Hunting Duelist all her life, to train her aura to manifest the monsters in her deck to fight the Grimm. So when she gets an invitation to join her sister at Beacon Duel Academy, she jumps at the chance. But old powers are stirring, and ancient summoning methods not seen in eons are about to clash, with the fate of Remnant in the balance.

43. Time To Say Goodbye - Part 1

beta-ed by xenosaiyan

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"Alright, kiddies. I'll start us off," Torchwick decided, placing a card from his hand down on his duel disk. "I activate the continuous spell Dangerous Machine Type-6."

A huge sapphire sphere sprouted up from the train's floor, mechanical and sleek, more hi-tech than the dueling car could ever hope to be. But it was also more unstable than the steady grey steel of the surrounding vehicle, its panels snapping loose and sparks crackling from every surface. At its front were six white gambling spheres, spinning so fast that their blurring movement created enough energy to power the rest of the hair-brained contraption.

Weiss' eyes narrowed. "Ruby said you used a Barrel Dragon deck. But I see you have more chance cards than just coin flips."

"What can I say? I'm a gambling man of all types. A gambling man of all types with a BM-4 Blast Spider," Torchwick declared, normal summoning a mechanical spider with two missile launchers mounted on its back (ATK 1400/DEF 2200). However, immediately after the machine hit the field, it was sealed inside a giant red six-sided die. "It won't be around long though. For my next roll, I'm activating the spell Dimension Dice. If I control a card with an effect that requires rolling a die, I can tribute one monster and summon any monster in my hand or deck with an effect that also rolls a die."

"W–what? H–How?" Blake stammered, the cat faunus desperately tearing her gaze away from Adam, the masked bull faunus glaring steadily at both huntresses as his ally took the first turn. "You don't have a card that rolls a die out."

"He does," Weiss glumly corrected her teammate, her icy eyes on Dangerous Machine Type-6. "That deathtrap of his may look hi-tech, but when its effect activates during their Standby Phase, all it does is roll a die and do something based on the result."

"Precisely, Ice Queen," Torchwick mocked. The thief flamboyantly gestured towards the enormous die before him. "Now, I dimension the dice and special summon Orgoth the Relentless!"

The walls of the giant red die fell down to reveal a giant warrior in heavy blue and purple plate armor. Weiss had been about to snap in annoyance at even Roman Torchwick of all people calling her "Ice Queen" as soon as they met, but the terrifying stakes of the situation slowed her tongue. The menacing horned helm of the new enemy knight silenced it completely, the champion slashing the air with its enormous greatsword (ATK 2500/DEF 2450).

The heiress' knowledge of gamble monsters admittedly wasn't as extensive as her knowledge of most other archetypes (after all, what reckless fool would use cards they couldn't even make sure would do what they needed them to do?), but even she knew the threat posed by the creature known as "The Ultimate Dice Monster".

"Once during the Main Phase, Orgoth The Relentless can roll a six-sided die three times and gain attack points equal to the total result times one hundred until the end of your turn," Torchwick explained, a white six-sided die manifesting on the flat of the warrior's giant sword. "Go! Dice Roll!"

With far more dexterity than Weiss expected from a warrior his size, Orgoth flipped his blade around and smashed the white die to the floor with the flat of his weapon. Three black dots stared up at the duelists before the cube bounced back into the air.

"Go! Dice Roll!" Roman shouted again.

The warrior they called relentless whacked the die back to the floor without hesitation. Once more, a three stared up at the rest of the duel field.

"Dice roll!"

Again, a three.

"Perfect," Torchwick grinned, Orgoth's muscles bulging beneath his armor and stretching the heavy plate (ATK 3400). "I'm afraid luck is not on your side, ladies."

"What do you mean?" Blake inquired. "You could have rolled more than nine hundred extra points."

"But he got three threes," Weiss worriedly informed her tag partner. "Orgoth has three extra effects that activate if any two of the die roll results match."

"And all three activate if all three rolls get the same number," Torchwick gloated, pulling two extra cards from the top of his deck. "Effect number one, Orgoth can't be destroyed by battle or card effect until our next turn. Effect number two, I draw two cards. Effect number three, Orgoth can attack directly this turn. Admittedly, that last one isn't so important now, but if tall, dark, and horny rolls it again on his turn? Well, best hope you can pull off an OTK through an invincible monster with more attack points than your daddy's dragons, Ice Queen."

Once more, Weiss could only clench her fists in impotent rage, her terror at the imminent Grimm invasion of Vale stemming her fury at her Blue-Eyes being associated with her father. She couldn't afford to lose her cool with so many lives on the line, especially when Blake was so off-balance already.

She carefully watched as Torchwick set a card facedown and drew for her own turn as soon as he ended his. She was lucky that their opponents wanted off the train as much as they did. Smashing into the side of a mountain at high speed wasn't a gamble anyone would take, no matter what slim chance the various hardlight generators might cushion the impact enough to survive.

Still, even with time of such essence, Weiss paused a second when she saw what she'd drawn.

Galaxy Cyclone. A spell card from her father's personally sponsored support card line. From one of his personal archetypes. The jagged scar over her left eye, the scar given to her by the ace of that archetype's main deck, roiled at the sight of it.

'The Schnee family does not lose.'

'That's all I know! I swear!'

'We are the apex. The most powerful duelists on Remnant.'

'Please don't hurt me, Schnee! Please!'

Weiss gulped, shutting her eyes as she struggled to force out the competing memories of her father's berating lectures and Banesaw's terrified, traumatized pleas.

She took a deep breath to steady herself and gathered her courage. "They're going to flood Vale with Grimm. It's Roman Torchwick and the Blood-Soaked Bull. They're… they're just criminals. Like Ruby said, they're the bad guys in front of you."

"Make your move, Schnee," Adam demanded, uncaring for the words his enemy muttered to herself under her breath.

"Yeah, some of us would like to be off this train before it hits the mountainside," Torchwick snarked.

Weiss glanced at Blake, her teammate's stance still shaky, her amber eyes still struggling to hold The Blood-Soaked Bull's gaze as her cat ears pressed down her black bow against the top of her skull. At the sight of her teammate so petrified, the heiress immediately hardened her icy orbs and slammed her spell card into Myrtenaster's spell and trap card zone.

She was terrified of doing the wrong thing and becoming like her father. But she was more terrified of doing nothing when her friend needed her.

"I activate Galaxy Cyclone!" Weiss declared, a cosmic twister springing up within the wide dueling card and rampaging over Torchwick's facedown card. "It destroys one set spell or trap card on the field."

Adam scowled at the sight of the spell. "One of Jacques Schnee's personal Galaxy archetype cards. Made to support his Photon and Cipher archetypes."

"Oh, don't be too hard on the heiress, my bovine companion," Torchwick gleefully shrugged, unperturbed by his partner swiftly turning his glare on him for that last racist comment. "I mean, who wouldn't have their rich daddy buy them a boatload of rare cards with his blood money? Provided they have a rich daddy of course."

"Talk all you want. Money can't buy skill. Otherwise, you might hold a candle to me with all the people you've robbed," Weiss taunted back, trying to sound more sure than she actually felt. With Blake still fumbling, she had to at least put up a brave front to inspire her teammate.

Ruby wouldn't have let the enemy get to her no matter how high the stakes were. Yang wouldn't have stopped until the duel was won. That was the kind of reinforcement that Blake needed right now, and Weiss refused to fail in filling the part.

"I set the trap card The Phantom Knights of Shade Brigandine facedown. Then, since I have no other trap cards in my graveyard, I can activate it this turn and summon it as a Level Four Monster. Then, I normal summon The Phantom Knights of Fragile Armor," Weiss proclaimed, her trap card flipping up and materializing as a dark breastplate filled with a ghostly sapphire flame (ATK 0/DEF 300). It was soon joined on her field by a more complete set of scattered armor, the fiery azure specter in it shaped more like a person with limbs and a head that could be made out (ATK 1000/DEF 1000). "I build the Overlay Network with my Level Four Phantom Knights of Shade Brigandine and Phantom Knights of Fragile Armor!"

'Though it is an unsightly beast, it is a powerful one. If only you could muster the spine to use it.'

Jacques' words snaked through Weiss' mind as her violet galaxy spiraled into existence at her feet, her trap monster and effect monster morphing into golden energy nodes and flowing into the stars. She noted with bitterness that she had learned to do what he desired.

Then she noted with pride that she learned to do it in spite of him. He may have forced her to learn to Xyz Summon, but she never would have had the will to call forth her beautiful dragon without her friends.

'They're your monsters! It's your power!'

"From the black darkness hidden behind the mirror, bare the fangs of rebellion against the stupidity that would make you guilty of its crimes!" Weiss roared, thrusting her arms wide as her Overlay Network erupted with a brilliant golden nova. "Xyz Summon! Rank 4! Dark Rebellion Xyz Dragon!"

Violet lightning bellowed from the eruption of the Overlay Network and smashed into the walls of the dueling car. Only the compartment's sturdy design, equivalent to the floor of Beacon's sparring arenas, kept it from being torn apart as the Schnee heiress' loyal beast emerged from the supernova. The dragon's purple hide glimmered in the pale, artificial lighting, its wings spreading as the empty spaces between each of its sections hummed with a tempest's heat. The jet-black talons flanking the beast's jaws crackled with electricity as it growled at its mistress' enemies (ATK 2500/DEF 2000).

"Huh. Well, it's a lightning-related dragon. Just not the one I was expecting," Torchwick remarked, more amused than threatened by the violet Xyz Monster. "Gotta say, doesn't look like the kind of monster a Schnee would use. Darker color palette than you lot tend to go for."

"It is a tool of domination. Of killing," Adam cooly observed, though Weiss could feel the intensity of his glare even hidden by his Grimm mask. "The Schnees have never been ones to turn down a useful attack dog. It suits them perfectly."

Dark Rebellion growled at the Blood-Soaked Bull's insult. Weiss herself bristled at the faunus' demeanment, but more for what it implied of her monster than of her. After all, his analysis was a perfectly accurate statement of her father and the legacy he'd carved into their family.

Fortunately, the adrenaline rush of having summoned her Pillar Dragon filled her with enough energy to push aside any renewed doubts for the moment. Though the white-haired huntress glumly noted that Blake was still skittish and rigid in the face of her former partner. They'd never seen the mystical surge from summoning one of their dragons fail before, but was it possible that the Odd-Eyed Bandit's trauma was interfering with its effects?

Dark Rebellion hummed back at his worried mistress, shaking his head mournfully at the trembling Blake as a faint sensation of emotion and intent drifted through Weiss' mind.

'The choice to rebel cannot be made for someone.'

Which meant that, in the end, only Blake could choose to stand up to Adam. Despite her fears, the cat faunus had chosen to chase the White Fang, which had made a confrontation with her former lover inevitable. It may have come sooner than any of them had expected, but a huntress' duty rarely went solely to expectations. At this juncture, the only choice was to fight or to die.

Meaning it was Weiss' responsibility as Blake's teammate and friend to give her as much support as possible to help the cat faunus choose 'fight'.

"I activate Dark Rebellion Xyz Dragon's special ability! By using two Overlay Units, I can target one monster on my opponent's field and halve its attack points. Afterward, Dark Rebellion's attack points permanently increase by the amount that your monster lost," Weiss announced, thrusting her arm towards Orgoth The Relentless. "Go! Treason Discharge!"

Dark Rebellion Xyz Dragon flapped out its wings, the empty spaces between each section of the appendages filling with violet electricity conjured by the stormy ords embedded in the dragon's hide. The purple lightning surged across the field and fell over Orgoth like a giant spider web, the giant warrior never yielding even as the sparks scratched up his imposing armor (ATK 1700). Weiss' magnificent dragon threw its head back and roared with euphoric power as its muscles bulged with the stolen strength (ATK 4200).

"Like I said, it fits perfectly for a Schnee," Adam scoffed. "Why rely on your own power when you can exploit that of others."

"Well, duh. That's the smart thing to do. Why wear yourself out when you can make someone else get exhausted and reap the rewards?" Torchwick countered. "You know what I'm talking about? Right, Ice Queen?"

"Dark Rebellion Xyz Dragon! Attack Orgoth The Relentless!" Weiss shouted, praise from Roman Torchwick making her stomach curl. Which was probably the gangster's true aim for doing it, maximizing the effect of his partner's more emotional words in the psychological warfare component of the duel. "Lightning Mandible Charge!"

Her tempestuous dragon roared, soaring across the field and digging its fangs into the floor of the train car. The specialized metal resisted with sparse scratches as Dark Rebellion slammed into Orgoth The Relentless with a thunderous crash.

Or rather, slammed into Orgoth The Relentless' sword. Living up to its name, the giant warrior did not waver even with less than half its opponent's attack points, smashing its blade into the crackling mandibles of its foe. The armored knight held fast, his effect protecting him from destruction even as errant bolts of lightning zipped past his master and The Blood-Soaked Bull.

Roman & Adam: 5500 Life Points

Torchwick smirked, wiping a tuff of soot from his pristine white coat. "All that for a scratch. Best luck next time, little miss heiress."

Weiss frowned as Dark Rebellion Xyz Dragon retreated back to her side. Twenty-five hundred points of damage wouldn't normally be 'a scratch' but the scale of a tag-duel changed things. Still, it was the duel's first blood, and she raised her monster's attack points to over four thousand in the process.

If nothing else, it was a start.

"I lay two cards facedown and end my turn," she announced, sliding Phantom Knights' Fog Blade and True Light into Myrtenaster's back row.

"Draw," Adam coldly declared, ripping a card from the top of his deck.

"Wait!" Torchwick called out, snapping his fingers at his Dangerous Machine Type-6 with a manic grin. "It's our Standby Phase. It's time for a gamble!"

"What?!" Blake exclaimed, hopping back in fear.

Adam growled. "I have no need, nor desire, for your tomfoolery, oaf."

"Oaf? You wound me, my horned friend. How long have we been doing crime together?" Torchwick mocked his partner. "Besides, it's mandatory. So long as Dangerous Machine Type-6 is on the field, we have to roll a six-sided die during our Standby Phase and apply an effect based on the result."

The patchwork machine was lit with vibrant electricity, its six gambling spheres spinning faster as the energy built atop itself. Weiss hunkered down and prepared for the worst. Depending on the result, this could go very badly for her and her teammate.

"You played that card knowing I would be drawn into its idiotic risk?!" Adam snarled.

"You're a terrorist, Taurus. I think you can handle a little risk," Torchwick shrugged. "Besides, the thing about gambling is that the greater the risk…"

The six gambling spheres suddenly stopped dead. A black five was shown on each of their surfaces.

Torchwick grinned. "... the greater the reward."

Dangerous Machine Type-6 erupted with lightning, the sudden maelstrom leaping across the field and slamming into Dark Rebellion Xyz Dragon. Weiss' Pillar Dragon let out an agonized death wail as it exploded into shards of aura, the adrenaline boost fading from its mistress' veins.

"When it rolls a five, Dangerous Machine Type-6 destroys one monster the opponent controls," Torchwick gloated, Orgoth The Relentless defiantly flourishing its blade as the foe that attempted to vanquish it was cut down in an instant. "Forty-two hundred attack points, gone. Just like that."

Adam scoffed at his partner's victory, sliding a card into his duel disk back row. "I activate Pot of Desires. I banish the top ten cards of my deck, and, in exchange, I draw two cards."

Weiss hadn't been confident about their chances before, but The Blood-Soaked Bull going plus one in card advantage, when her only monster had just gotten offhandedly destroyed by his partner, sank that faith even further. She had her two trap cards, but of them, only Fog Blade would be useful at the moment, and with Orgoth The Relentless ready to roll again and how thoroughly Six Samurai could swarm the field, one negate would only be of limited use unless she timed it just right.

But against such a ferocious opponent, if she messed up even a bit, they were dead.

"We can't win," Blake murmured, her eyes locked on the spot where Dark Rebellion had stood before it was disintegrated. "I brought you all to your deaths."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Weiss petulantly challenged. "In case you haven't noticed, we still have more life points than them. We still have all our life points!"

"B–but–"

"But nothing! Buck up, Odd-Eyed Bandit! A duel isn't over until the last card is played!" Weiss commanded, the Ice Queen spitting fire to relight the flames of her friend's resolve. "If you can't trust yourself, then trust in me! The me that trusts you!"

Blake cocked an eyebrow, more confused than inspired. "... what?"

"I'm not Ruby! Forgive me if inspirational speeches aren't my forte!" Weiss shouted, flailing her arms in a panic. "Just… trust me. Stand with me! And if we lose… if we die, then… then, we die with honor."

"Honor is a fool's prize. Glory is no use to the dead."

Weiss and Blake whipped back across the field, the Grimm mask of Adam Taurus staring back at them as his eyes slithered behind its slits. The bull faunus had calmly completed his hand, his focus deadset on the young huntresses before him.

"But you will not even have that. I will bury you here, Schnee and Belladonna, oppressor and traitor, under a sea of rock and Grimm. There will be no tales told of you amongst the humans and the weak, no stories of the brave little huntresses who gave their all to try to stop the age to come. You and your frail cowardice will be lost to time, known only as two more insignificant foes who tried to stand against the inevitability of my new world," The Blood-Soaked Bull promised. "No one will even remember your names."

Blake's body trembled, sweat glistening down her face before she'd even made a move. Weiss wanted to counter their foe, to encourage her teammate to stand against his threat, but she couldn't find the words.

There was something different about Adam, even from back when they'd encountered him less than an hour ago after interrogating Perry. He was colder and more focused, more lethal. A pressure seemed to emanate from him and squash down on the huntresses' spirits, a surety of purpose that sought to suffocate them. He had a duel anchor around Blake, so it couldn't be a semblance, and it didn't feel like magic to Weiss.

It was sheer presence, sheer will focused on bringing about a single reality, without compromise. It must have been what allowed him to kill Dr. Oobleck.

And Weiss had no idea how to keep it from killing them too.

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"I set the Pendulum Scales with Scale 1 Amazoness Golden Whip Master and Scale 7 Amazoness Silver Sword Master!" Ilia shouted, her two women warriors with weapons of precious metal rising on either side of her, encased in translucent pillars of light. "Swing far pendulum! Take what you need and carve a smile across the sky! Pendulum Summon!"

Yang couldn't help the look of worry that creased her face as Amazoness Tiger, Amazoness Spiritualist, and Amazoness Baby Tiger streaked down from the Pendulum Summon portal and onto Ilia's field atop the train's rear car. The trio of tribal monsters all sat on sideways cards in defense position, but when they were staring down her little sister, Team RWBY's ace couldn't help but feel threatened.

Damnit! She needed to get her head on straight. Bumblebee was the fastest runner in Vale, so it could just barely keep up with the train's ludicrous speed, but Ruby and Ilia were behind a hardlight shield. In theory, Hot Red Dragon Archfiend could overwhelm it eventually with consistent overpowering attacks, but, based on the research she and Ruby had done trying to replicate the 'Uncle Qrow and Zwei Birthday Surprise', the locomotive would hit Vale before she could breakthrough. Besides, her little sister, her team leader, had given her a job to do. She and her ace were to stay back in reserve. They were the bottleneck for the Grimm if things went completely pear-shaped, so she couldn't engage–Woah!

"Holy Kuribohs!" Yang yelped, swerving Bumblebee to the side as a glint of steel appeared in the corner of her eye.

With the runner moving at such scorching speeds, ninety-five percent of turbo duelists would have crashed then and there, either from the blade-tipped parasol slicing at their head or from desperately flailing their mount into a crash when they tried to dodge it. Fortunately, Yang Xiao-Long was a peer of Pyrrha Nikos and Blake Belladonna in riding skill, and elegantly span her beloved runner out of the path of the attack, circling about to race side-by-side with her new assailant.

It was the short bitch from the docks who'd tried to kill Weiss and then tried to silence Banesaw at The Club, the one with the pink and brown eyes. Neo, if what Junior called her was really her name. The smug woman rode within a duel runner that was just one giant wheel, pulled by her cartoonish parody of Blue-Eyes White Dragon. Hot Red Dragon Archfiend roared at the sight of the craven foe, but the short criminal merely smirked with interest at the demonic dragon, just as she'd done in their previous two encounters.

She looked down at Yang with a playful smirk, pointing her knife-tipped parasol at the blonde like a sword. Like a challenge.

Yang frowned. They'd deduced that this enemy had some sort of illusion semblance from all the disappearing acts she'd pulled. Without knowing its limits, she couldn't know if the figure racing beside her was the real deal or not before she threw a duel anchor. If it was a fake, the real Neo could blindside her in that exposed moment. No matter how much she wanted to let Hot Red Dragon Archfiend melt the smug smirk off that bitch's face, she couldn't afford to go on the attack.

Besides, Ruby told her to stay in reserve so she could be the bottleneck, not punt a miniature ice cream lover into the wall. Even if she was a psychotic ice cream lover who tried to murder Weiss back at the docks, a crook who a hundred percent deserved a good smackdown–

No! No, no, no. She had to stay on her guard, not get lulled into some grudge match.

Neo turned her parasol over, revealing a tuft of hair lingering on her blade. A tuft of silky, perfectly maintained, blonde hair.

That little sack of smug Kuriboh dung! She was gonna have Hot Red Dragon Archfiend tear her limb from–

No! No! No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no!

Yang smashed her eyes back to violet from the red that had briefly consumed them. She took several deep breaths, calming herself and pulling away from her enemy.

Neo cocked an eyebrow at the act, seemingly legitimately surprised. The short woman pulled her arm back and sheathed her parasol in a holster on her duel runner, accelerating away without another taunt.

Yang watched her go towards the train with narrowed purple eyes, wary that it could still be an illusion she was dealing with and that she had to be on guard about an attack from another direction. In hindsight, that supposed tuft of her hair had probably been an illusion too. The aura protecting her body, including her golden locks, hadn't flickered, so even if the parasol had hit its mark, it should have been able to cut its target.

Which meant that Neo had known that she'd been driven into a rage when her hair was cut by an enemy before. Any of Junior's goons who'd been around during the Little Sun Dragon's first rampage at The Club could have told her that, but the mute woman would have likely had to ask about it. Had she been researching her? She had seemed pretty peeved when Yang had stolen Weiss' Blue-Eyes back from her at the docks, but was that enough to earn a grudge?

The new hypothesis caused Yang to pay more attention to where the Neo she could see was currently driving. Driving towards the train, towards the rear car… towards Ruby.

"Don't even think about touching my sister, you bubblegum half-pint!" she roared, her eyes erupting crimson, her golden mane a calamitous blaze as Hot Red Dragon Archfiend howled from above.

If Neo had been researching her out of some petty grudge, then she could know that the best way to get to her was through Ruby. She could tell Ilia to drop the hardlight barrier and blast her little sister from behind while her monsters were sealed by a duel anchor. Yang would follow orders and have faith in her sister when she was in a fair fight she could win, but she would not stand back in reserve while she was sniped from behind.

She was Team RWBY's ace. It was her job to be strong to be strong enough to protect them all, whenever she was needed.

Bumblebee's engine roared. The golden duel runner shrieked up next to a surprised Neo, a duel anchor flying out around the pink-and-brown-eyed woman. It must have been the real crook because she didn't disappear into glass shards when the aura snare wrapped around her wrist, her cartoon Blue-Eyes White Dragon vanishing just like Hot Red Dragon Archfiend.

Neo's runner dropped back, its speed reduced without the monster that'd been pulling it. Due to the duel anchor binding them, Yang had to pull back with her until they were just behind the rear train car, off to the side.

"Duel!" Yang shouted, her eyes and hair aflame and ready for battle.

Yang Xiao-Long: 4000 Life Points

Neopolitan: 4000 Life Points

The ace of Team RWBY ripped her starting hand from the top of her deck. She'd finish this creep long before a bottleneck was necessary.

---

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Neo knew she should have listened to Roman's orders right from the start. She had the detonator for the bombs that would let the Grimm into the tunnel (she would have pickpocketed it from anyone else it was assigned to anyway). She should have gone to the escape tunnel and hit the big red button on the stick, trusting that her One Thing would manage his own way out. With the Blood-Soaked Bull as extra muscle, he'd exit stage left from the Grimm and the authorities as they always did.

But then she'd seen Yang Xiao-Long racing behind the train, that big fiery dragon she was so reliant on in her duel with Banesaw flying above with such pride. And well, she'd been looking forward to playing with her since she'd humiliated her by snatching back the Schnee's dragon card back at the docks. She was the partner of Roman Torchwick, the greatest thief Vale had ever known! She wasn't some secondhand street rat like Cinder's green-haired lapdog! She was a professional!

She'd studied her target during the angry blonde's duel with Banesaw, watched carefully as her rage had commanded her as she'd put all her pride in her mighty Synchro dragon. She'd inquired to the Malachite twins about their previous encounter with the girl, learning of her explosive love for her hair. With all she knew, she was confident she could tear the little huntress in training apart in the most terrible of ways, picking her apart piece by piece before finally ending her.

But then the girl hadn't taken the bait. It was impressive that she'd dodged the initial swing when they were both driving at such high speeds, but Neo had expected the illusion of a cut piece of her hair to drive her into an easily exploitable rage. It had, for a moment. She'd seen her eyes flicker from purple to red. But then she'd pulled back.

That had been outside the profile Neo's research had established. The thief was still confident she could school the blonde in a duel, but if she played differently than expected, it might take longer than the criminal had initially expected and jeopardize the greater operation. The mission that Cinder would have their heads for if it didn't go off, even if it was earlier than planned.

It was a choice between Neo's pride and her faith in her partner's instructions and planning. Which meant it wasn't a choice at all.

She'd pulled The Second Thing away from her target and sped up, planning to head for the escape tunnel and then blow the tunnel wide open for the Grimm. But then Yang Xiao-Long had, for whatever reason, decided to act as predicted after all, stampeding after the criminal with eyes and hair ablaze.

Neo smirked as she drew her starting hand, not one to look a gift horse in the mouth. With a confident flick of her wrist, she slid her signature continuous spell card into her duel runner's back-row.

Neopolitan: 3000 Life Points

The massive green tome that was Toon World span opened in front of Second Thing, surrounded by a cartoonish whirlwind. A smoking, animated city blossomed from its pages, the one thousand life point cost for its activation paid.

She saw Yang glance down at her own duel runner's display screen. Since they were in a turbo duel, their runners transmitted some card information (but not all) to each other, just in case they ended up moving too quickly for their voices to be heard over the racing winds. Made it helpful for Neo.

"Toon World. Continuous spell," Yang read off from her runner's screen, her brow furrowing in befuddlement. "Activate by paying one thousand life points… and then? This card literally does nothing?"

That was what Jimmy Vanille had said when he'd seen the first card his daughter forged, based on the cartoons she fled to so much to escape his and her mother's demands for her to be 'normal'. Neither of them understood what true imagination was, to take a blank page and paint a masterpiece. To take a world where all but her partner demanded she 'speak' and make a symphony of fun in its place.

Well, fun for her and Roman. Everybody else wasn't one of the two things she cared about.

She normal summoned The Black Stone of Legend, tributing the dark egg in an instant. The sphere glowed with thin lines of scarlet light, racking open and summoning a Level Seven or lower Red-Eyes monster from Neo's deck.

Ironically, she'd had the egg card and what she was going to summon with it long before she'd met Cinder. Red-Eyes Black Dragon wasn't the symbol of the Schnees, but it was rare in its own right and Neo wanted a version for herself. She'd stolen one of the original cards from a traveling rare deck collection, copied the dust formula on Hush, sold the original on the black market for a tidy profit, and then got to work forging her own take on the dragon of potential.

That exaggerated take stretched and snapped its way out of Toon World's pages, its nose sharp like a beak. It leered at Yang with its oversized claws and big, adorable cartoon eyes (ATK 2400/DEF 2000).

The blonde tilted her flaming head at the monster with more confusion than intimidation. "So you make cartoon copies of a bunch of monsters, not just Weiss'?"

Neo merrily nodded, clapping at Red-Eyes Toon Dragon's childish growls at the opponent. Then she snapped her fingers to activate her monster's effect.

Her Red-Eyes immediately abandoned its efforts to be intimidating, bashfully looking back its duelist with a bashful look of 'Do I really have to?'

Neo nodded again. Her dragon relented with a resigned groan, spitting a fireball loogie onto Toon World's pages, activating his effect to special summon another Toon monster from his duelist's hand.

Said monster was a pale blue dragon that immediately leapt out of its tome and grappled Red-Eyes Toon Dragon into a brotherly headlock. Blue-Eyes Toon Dragon (ATK 3000/DEF 2500) cackled as it pinned its struggling sibling to its chest and ground its claws into the other monster's skull, a classic sibling noogie.

"I don't know what I was expecting from your wacky deck," Yang admitted. "But this… was not it."

Neo held up her hand in front of her mouth, miming a coy, ladylike laugh. She slid Toon Bookmark into her duel runner's systems, using its effect to search Toon Mask from her deck, the perfect trap to handle the kind of move she was sure Xiao-Long would make. She then set that card and Toon Page-Flip facedown.

There was an old cartoon about a coyote that furiously chased a road runner through the Vacuo desert. The canine beast was brilliant, capable of conceiving incredible technology that won every fight with any Grimm it happened to come across. But it always chased after that same road runner that was just too much for it, too consumed by rage and pride to simply let it go and go after other prey. Thus, its prey always knew it was coming and knew how it could perfectly outwit the predator.

It was time to see if Yang Xiao-Long was the road runner or the coyote.

---

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"Since you have monsters on your field and I don't, I can special summon Vice Dragon from my hand by halving its attack and defense points! Then, I'll normal summon Flare Resonator!"

Yang slammed her two monster cards onto Ember Celica, her duel disk mounted onto Bumblebee's dashboard and connected to its internal systems. The aura bodies of a gargoyle-like dragon with bumpy gray skin (ATK 1000/DEF 1200) and a tuning fork-wielding fiend with a back of roiling flames (ATK 300/DEF 1300) flashed into existence on either side of her racing mount.

They would not be there for long. Yang had neither the time nor desire to take it easy on this murderous crook.

"You were right to run back at the docks! Behold the pride of my Burning Soul! I tune Level Three Flare Resonator with Level Five Vice Dragon!" the blonde shouted, her flaming hair billowing behind her as her monsters rose above her. Flare Resonator split apart into a trio of emerald tuner rings, Vice Dragon soon running through them as a column of twinkling blue stars. "Stare into the eyes of raging fire! I burn and ignite the ruler's heartbeat that will light the heavens themselves! Synchro Summon! Level Eight! Hot Red Dragon Archfiend!"

A pillar of blinding light blazed through the tuner rings and the stars within, illuminating the dark Mt. Glenn tunnel in a surge of raging effulgence. Yang's ace, the mighty dragon she'd forged with her own hand, her very spirit and strength, soared above her powerful runner, the red and black champion roaring down on Neo with calamitous wrath (ATK 3000/DEF 2000).

The pink and brown-eyed woman smirked at the sight of it.

"When Flare Resonator is used as material for a Synchro Monster, that Synchro Monster gets a three hundred attack point boost!" Yang yelled, Hot Red Dragon Archfiend's chest puffing up as the flames broiling in its maw grew brighter (ATK 3300). "It was strong enough to wipe you out before, and now it's gonna do it! And blow away that stolen mockery of my friend's monster too!"

Blue-Eyes Toon Dragon paused its noogie of Red-Eyes Toon Dragon long enough to gape at Yang with stretched-wide eyes and a jaw that'd plummeted down to the subway tracks. It then pointed to its younger sibling, apparently asking if the blonde huntress was referring to the other dragon.

Neo giggled at her monsters' antics. With the lives of her team and everyone in Vale on the line, Yang had significantly less patience for them.

"I activate Hot Red Dragon Archfiend's special ability! Once per turn, it can destroy every other attack position monster on the field!" she proclaimed, throwing a fist up to command her mighty beast. "Burn'em away! Absolute Power Blaze!"

Hot Red Dragon Archfiend's entire body ignited in a titanic swath of flames, lighting the dark tunnel like a second sun, brilliant and unyielding in its majesty. The raging conflagration steadily coalesced in the palm of the dark beast's claw, only to be slammed down onto the field with a furious roar.

A wall of flame stampeded across the tunnel, Blue-Eyes Toon Dragon and Red-Eyes Toon Dragon hugging each other as they sobbed in utter terror. But their tears were not enough to put out the inferno as the blaze obliterated them both and cleared the way to Neo's life points.

Yang allowed herself a grin at her strength's domination of the field, her heart alight with her Burning Soul. All the doubts that'd been swirling through her mind from her talks with Mercury and Dr. Oobleck, and finding out that Clear Wing never wanted her, melted away as her eyes blazed a defiant red.

"I activate Twin Twisters!" she announced, discarding Magic Hole Golem for the spell's cost as cyclones swirled up on either side of Bumblebee. "Say goodbye to Toon World and one of your facedowns!"

She wasn't stupid enough to attack right into two possible trap cards. Honestly, standard dueling logic dictated that she should take out those two facedowns over the continuous spell that did literally nothing. But Yang didn't think someone that Junior and the twins were so trepidatious about would play a continuous spell that cost a thousand life points for no reason. Best to take it out rather than risk a nasty surprise.

Unfortunately, that surprise came when a bookmark with a big cartoon smiley face leapt out of the thick Toon World book and gobbled up the twister that was barreling for it.

Yang recoiled, her eyes shocked back to purple as she blinked to make sure the stress of the situation hadn't made her hallucinate. She glanced down at Bumblebee's display screen, information flashing across that, by banishing Toon Bookmark from the graveyard, a Toon World's destruction by card effect could be averted.

"Uh… okay then," she muttered. "You may have saved Toon World, but your other card is… gone?"

Yang's eyes widened as the facedown card Twin Twisters was streaking for flipped up to reveal a trap. A cartoonish goblin mask with a scuffed-up top hat stretched and snapped out of the flipped-up card, heartily cackling as it ducked and dodged the incoming tornado.

Neo switched which of her eyes were brown and pink. She raised her hand and snapped her fingers.

The goblin mask bounced across the field and smashed itself over Hot Red Dragon Archfiend's face.

"Archfiend?!" Yang screamed, her beloved ace thrashing in fury as it clawed at the invading cartoon covering. All it accomplished was causing the goblin mask to laugh louder, its eyes crazed as green steam was expelled from its ears.

All the while Neo smiled.

---

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"I activate the continuous spell Shien's Dojo," Adam announced, sliding the continuous spell into Wilt's back row before slamming down a monster onto its display. "Then I normal summon Secret Six Samurai - Kizaru."

The gallant samurai with flowing black hair and glowing brown robes flourished into the train car (ATK 1900/DEF 1000), diligently presenting its blade beside Orgoth The Relentless' towering figure. Blake winced as his arrival heralded the clinking of an ancient Bushido Counter atop Shien's Dojo.

"Oh my. You ladies are in for it now," Torchwick chuckled. "Once he uses Orgoth's effect and brings out a monster with that dojo, you're going to have quite the monster to deal with–"

"Appear!" Adam interrupted, thrusting out his arm and conjuring a glowing blue square in front of him. "My circuit that takes the prize!"

"Circuit?" Blake squeaked. "You can Link Summon?"

"Wait, you're summoning it now?" Torchwick queried, his head whipping towards his teammate with befuddlement. "But you haven't summoned your second samurai yet… oh you horned sack of bull! Don't you dare–"

"I insert Orgoth The Relentless and Secret Six Samurai - Kizaru into the link markers!" Adam pressed on, morphing both his monster and his duel partner's into streams of energy that slammed into the bottom two corners of the blue square grid. "Arrowheads confirm! Bottom left! Bottom right! Link Summon! Link-2! Battle Shogun of the Six Samurai!"

The square grid erupted into twinkling shards of energy as a towering warrior in black and gold armor strode onto the battlefield (ATK 1000). Another Bushido Counter clinked down Shien's Dojo as the new commander took a seat in an imperial chair.

Blake felt her throat dry up, memories flashing through her mind of Penny's Code Talkers and Firewall Dragon battering down every defense Ruby could muster back during the Promotion Exams. And now, Adam had that same kind of monster, the monster that gave him more than one Extra Monster Zone. Was this how he killed Dr. Oobleck? Was this how he was going to kill Weiss–

"What the heck, you Blood-Soaked buffoon?!" Torchwick shouted. "You just used my monster as material for your Link Summon without asking! A powerful monster, I might remind you, that you didn't even bother to try to use its effect to draw two with–"

"The dead exist in the past. And I must tend to the future. I do not settle for the gambling antics of a common thief. I take what I deserve and make my own luck, human," Adam snarled, discarding a monster from his hand to his graveyard. "When Battle Shogun of the Six Samurai is link summoned, I can discard a card to add a card with an effect to place Bushido Counters from my deck to my hand."

"Gateway of the Six," Blake whimpered in terror, knowing just how terrifying her former partner's deck would be once that spell was on the field. And to think he'd created a monster that could search for it?!

"Oh no you don't!" Weiss yelled, one of her trap cards flipping up. "I activate Phantom Knights' Fog Blade! This continuous trap will negate your monster's effect!"

"I chain Mystical Space Typhoon!" Adam countered, slamming a spell from his hand into Wilt. "I destroy on spell or trap card on the field!"

A cyclone shrieked down from the ceiling and ripped Weiss' Fog Blade apart just as the misty blade emerged from its card. And since it was a continuous trap, its effect left the field with it. Which meant that Adam still got to search for the exact card he needed.

"I activate Gateway of the Six!" The Blood-Soaked Bull roared, ripping the powerful continuous spell from his deck and flicking it into his duel disk.

A sacred altar rose up between Adam and Torchwick, an enormous blue plate engraved with intricate carvings from ancient Mistral. A wooden arch bent over the holy site, bedecked with smaller versions of the azure centerpiece.

"Hold fast, Blake," Weiss encouraged the cat faunus, spying her trembling. "It's not going to be easy, but we can survive this."

Blake was barely able to keep from snorting. Weiss didn't believe that platitude any more than she did. They both knew enough about the Six Samurai archetype to know just how its floodgates opened when Gateway of the Six was given ample Bushido Counters to work with.

And as Adam activated Monster Reborn and revived his Kizaru, it had that in spades. Two plates of Gateway of the Six's arch lit up as two Bushido Counter coins plotted on its altar, another falling onto Shien's Dojo and even into the hand of Battle Shogun of the Six Samurai. Altogether, The Blood-Soaked Bull had a total of six counters currently at his disposal, while his returned Secret Six Samurai's effect allowed him to search Legendary Six Samurai - Mizuho from his deck to his hand.

"I activate Gateway of the Six's second effect! I pay four Bushido Counters to add a Six Samurai from my deck or graveyard to my hand. I give up two counters from Shien's Dojo and two from Gateway itself to add a Legendary Six Samurai - Kizan from my deck to my hand," Adam announced, yanking the monster card from his deck as the coins vanished from his field. "Next, I send Shien's Dojo to the graveyard with its one remaining Bushido Counter to special summon Secret Six Samurai - Fuma from my deck."

"Fuma? A Tuner monster!" Weiss exclaimed, panic in her crystal blue eyes as the samurai most like a ninja flashed onto the field with a racing gust of wind, flourishing its twin giant shuriken (ATK 200/DEF 1800). "I activate the effect of Phantom Knights' Fog Blade in my graveyard! By banishing it, I can revive The Phantom Knights of Fragile Armor from my graveyard, but they're banished when they leave the field again!"

Blake watched morosely as her teammate's spectral monster rose back to the field, kneeling on a sideways card to protect them. It wouldn't be enough.

Still, it was smart of Weiss to bring it back now. As the SDC heiress had deduced when a Tuner monster hit the field, she wouldn't have been able to activate her trap's effect if she'd waited any longer.

"I tune Level One Secret Six Samurai - Fuma with Level Four Secret Six Samurai - Kizaru!" Adam howled, his warriors rising into the air breaking apart into a single emerald ring and four twinkling stars. "Warrior savior lionized by history! Depose the feeble cowards too weak to take the prize! Mobilize from legend! Synchro Summon! Level Five! Legendary Six Samurai - Shi En!"

A pillar of light blazed through the tuner ring, filling the train car with the last flare of a brilliant star. A youthful warrior adorned in crimson and gold armor (ATK 2500/DEF 1400) leapt from the effulgent column, taking up its position in one of the Monster Zones that Battle Shogun's arrowheads pointed to.

Blake's amber eyes skittered across Adam's field, spotting more Bushido Counters falling onto Gateway of the Six and Batte Shogun of the Six Samurai. Between the Synchro Summon and Fuma's summoning before it, the continuous spell had been replenished with four coins, while the Link Monster now held a total of three. Their fortunes grew to six and four respectively when The Blood-Soaked Bull special summoned the Kizan (ATK 1800/DEF 500) in his hand to Battle Shogun's second linked zone by its own effect. When the earth warrior hit the field, its special ability instantly raised its attack and defense by three hundred (ATK 2100/DEF 800) since its master controlled two or more other Six Samurai.

"I activate Gateway of the Six's second effect two more times," Adam proclaimed, Battle Shogun's Bushido Counters vanishing along with four of Gateway's. "I search two more Legendary Six Samurai - Kizan from my deck. And then, I special summon them since I control a Six Samurai with a different name."

Two more samurai in black armor with long nodachi flashed onto the field. Battle Shogun didn't gain new Bushido Counters since they weren't summoned to zones it pointed to, but Gateway of the Six received four new coins.

"I activate Gateway of the Six's second effect again!" Adam shouted, four counters disappearing from the continuous spell, four plates of its sacred arch ceasing to glow.

This time, the bull faunus tore the Grandmaster of the Six Samurai from his deck. Since the monster was based on an older, even more skilled version of the Kizan who'd existed in real life, the wizened warrior possessed the same ability to special summon himself from the hand as his younger self (ATK 2100/DEF 800). His appearance on the field gave Gateway of the Six another two counters, its final number totaling four.

"I activate the first effect of Gateway of the Six! By spending two Bushido Counters, I can raise a Six Samurai or Shien effect monster's attack by five hundred until the end of this turn. I'll use it twice on Legendary Six Samurai - Shi En!"

The final four coins vanished from the samurai's altar, the light fading from the plates of the sacred arch that surrounded it. At the same time, Shi En brandished his curved sword high, the blade erupting into brilliant flames to illuminate the train car and the dark tunnel it raced through (ATK 3500).

"Damn," Torchwick remarked, sounding reluctantly impressed. "That's quite the posse."

Blake's knees rattled beneath her as she looked across her enemy's field. Shi En, Battle Shogun, Grandmaster, three Kizans, every single monster zone that Adam and Torchwick had access to was filled. It was an army of ancient Mistral summoned from the annuls of history, ready for war. Meanwhile, the huntresses of Team RWBY had… what exactly? A defense mode monster that's name literally said its armor was fragile? A facedown that they couldn't activate without Shi En sweeping it aside without breaking stride?

They were dead. They were dead and so was everyone in Vale. She'd dragged her friends onto this insane mission of hers and… and for what? Redemption? Absolution? Closure? None of that was worth the lives of others! She'd known it was suicide to face Adam, but she'd chased after the White Fang anyway! She'd run to Beacon to hide from him, why had she thought that she could poke the Ursa with a stick and it wouldn't turn around and bite her?!

Her and everyone she cared about.

"Battle!" Adam declared, thrusting his arm toward The Phantom Knights of Fragile Armor. "Kizan! Destroy their last defender!"

The Kizan in the monster zone Battle Shogun's arrow was pointing at stepped forward, its blade lashing out across the field. Steel flashed under the train car's fluorescent lights, Weiss' spectral warrior shattered before Blake could even blink.

A blast of air rushed past her face, the cat faunus' gaze whipped back to her own aisle of the field. The second Kizan was already upon her, its nodachi whistling toward her throat.

"Blake!" Weiss screamed, reaching out her arm as she raced to shield her teammate. "Don't panic! Our only chance is to stay cal–Ah!"

"Weiss!" Blake shrieked, the third Kizan having seized the moment to strike the Schnee heiress while she was distracted.

Weiss Schnee & Blake Belladonna: 5900 Life Points

The SDC heiress was smacked against the rear wall of the train car by the sword slash, a solid thud sounding from the impact. Still, the wonder of aura allowed her to steady herself enough to stand.

Something that could not be said for Blake when the second Kizan blindsided her with its original planned attack.

Weiss Schnee & Blake Belladonna: 3800 Life Points

"Grandmaster of the Six Samurai!" Adam barked. "Direct attack!"

The wizened old man drew his sword from his cane, moving no less swiftly than his younger selves as he bore down on Blake. The cat faunus gasped for breath, without the strength to rise from her knees as despair claimed her.

She lowered her neck, ready for the blade to bash her down for daring to think she knew how to do good in the world.

"Gah!"

Weiss Schnee & Blake Belldonna: 1700 Life Points

Blake's head whipped up, her amber eyes widening as Weiss stood defiant between her and the samurai, between her and Adam, Grandmaster of the Six Samurai's sword slashing down the heiress' chest.

The white-haired gasped, the air knocked out of her even through her aura. The force of the strike knocked her off her feet, her back smacking down against the floor as she groaned and coughed.

"Weiss!" Blake screamed, scrambling over her fallen friend, desperately checking her over for injuries. She couldn't be dead. She couldn't be dead! She couldn't be–

"I'm… ugh… I'm fine… ugh," Weiss grit her teeth, grabbing her teammate's shoulder and forcibly pausing her panic. "My aura's not broken yet. We still have life points."

"For the moment," Torchwick gleefully chirped.

"No, no, no, please don't hurt her," Blake begged, tearfully looking back up at Adam, at the nightmare that had haunted her for so many months. "Please, kill me instead!"

"There is no 'instead', Blake. There is only 'first' and 'second'," Adam growled, a low, imperious thing. "Shi En! Destroy them! Breakthrough Moonslice - Birth!"

Shi En charged across the field, its burning blade searing a trail of horrifying crimson flames behind it.

Blake glanced down at Weiss, still struggling to rise from her back. Her friend who had forgiven her for her mistakes, who had done her very best to encourage her in their darkest hour, who had shielded her with her own body just a moment before. She wanted to protect her too. She wanted to protect Ruby and Yang and every innocent in Vale who had no idea the madness that was streaking towards them from the tomb of Mt. Glenn. If she couldn't do that, then she might as well have gone to Menagerie with her parents all those years ago, contented herself with her ivory tower.

But she didn't know how. Dr. Oobleck had wanted her to think back at the campfire, to approach the problem from every angle she could think of, not get trapped in any one line of thinking. But after all the mistakes she'd made, how was she supposed to know where to even begin?

… well, perhaps she could start with Weiss' latest advice and stop panicking. Her fear had consumed her since the moment Adam had jumped onto the train, her mind skittish and frantic. She'd barely looked at her hand since the duel began, too focused on the nightmare that'd befall her friends if they lost.

She looked down at her cards now, still not with any real hope in her heart, but desperate enough to go through the motions anyway.

Her eyes widened when she spied something that might give her a spark.

"P–Performapal Kuribohble!" Blake stammered, snatching the monster card from her hand and smashing it down on Gambol Shroud with everything she had.

Legendary Six Samurai - Shi En's blade stopped a mere inch from the cat faunus's face, a tingling bell snaring the man who would be shogun's attention. The famous warlord turned his head to spy a small brown puffball with a green and red tail and fuzzy hat, its headgear tipped with a jingling golden bell (ATK 300/DEF 200).

"A Kuriboh?" Torchwick observed, cocking an eyebrow. "Wow, you animals really did have to scrape the bottom of the barrel when it came to monsters, didn't you?"

Adam ground his teeth together. "It can be summoned from the hand when the opponent declares a direct attack. When it is, the attack target is changed to it."

Shi En's sword delivered a swift slice to Performpal Kuribohble, the puffball cleaved in two along with its hat, the golden bell tumbling to the floor.

Torchwick shrugged. "Big deal. She summoned it in attack mode, so we still win–"

"Any damage dealt in the battle brought about by Kuribohble's effect instead restores its controller's life points!" Adam snapped.

The golden bell struck the floor, breaking apart into a cloud of shimmering dust. Its last calming jingle rang through the train car as the vibrant energy swooped over to Blake and Weiss, their auras stabilizing as their stamina was restored.

Weiss Schnee & Blake Belladonna: 4900 Life Points

"Ah," Torchwick noted. "You see, that's much more annoying."

"Battle Shogun of the Six Samurai!" Adam roared. "Direct attack!"

The black and gold warrior rose from its imperious command seat, stomping down from the Extra Monster Zone with its long black blade. Blake leapt to her feet and raised her arms in a blocking position, tanking the ferocious slash on her aura. The breath was knocked out of her, but with the foe's attack points at only one thousand, she was able to stay on her feet with a solid stance.

Weiss Schnee & Blake Belladonna: 3900 Life Points

"How about that?" Weiss grunted, the tiniest smirk perking up her lips as she staggered up to her knees. "Six whole monsters and you were barely able to get rid of half our life points."

"Then I'll just have to unleash a seventh."

Blake's face went pale, the brief hope in her heart fizzling out as Adam tore a spell card from his hand and thrust it into Wilt's back row.

Just like in the duel with Taiyang back on Patch, six scrolls covered in beautiful, elegant calligraphy unfurled through the air. The intricate paper wrapped around two of the Kizans over and over again until the samurai were completely hidden by graceful text.

"Six Scrolls of the Samurai! I tribute two Six Samurai monsters to call forth their lord and master from my deck!" Adam howled, the scrolls binding his warriors set ablaze with a raging bonfire, the hellish light glimmering off his Grimm mask. "Heed this battle cry of vengeance! Depose the feeble cowards! Great Shogun Shien!"

The air of the dueling car went still at the thunderous pronouncement. Then, a blood-red katana slashed through the burning scrolls, the scraps of calligraphy blown away from the force of the attack. The warlord victorious, the shogun supreme, stood tall beside his younger self, smoke curling off his crimson armor as his furious eye bore down on Blake and Weiss (ATK 2500/DEF 2000).

"Attack!" Adam commanded. "Breakthrough Moonslice!"

The conqueror of Anima charged across the dueling car, its blood-red blade lit aflame as it appeared before Blake in the blink of an eye. She fell into a guard stance again, but her enemy's ace was far too powerful for her to withstand. With no more tricks up her sleeve, the Odd-Eyed Bandit's aura crackled as she was sent flying by the attack, soaring over Weiss and tumbling into a heap by the wall.

Weiss Schnee & Blake Belladonna: 1400 Life Points

"I lay one card facedown and end my turn," Adam said, a card manifesting in his back row behind his five samurai. "Stay down, Blake. If you do, I'll make this quick."

Blake ground her teeth together, desperately trying not to give into the terror that pleaded with her to take that offer. After all, they'd barely survived the round, and her former partner had gotten his ultimate combo in place to ensure she couldn't fight back.

Great Shogun Shien and Legendary Six Samurai - Shi En loomed over her, their pitiless glares belying their crippling effects. She could only activate one spell or trap card a turn, and then that card would be negated anyway. She couldn't set the Pendulum Scales. She couldn't Fusion Summon. Performapal Kuribohble let her and Weiss survive The Blood-Soaked Bull's onslaught, but no matter what she drew, there was no card in her deck that could break Adam's lock.

She couldn't draw for her turn. She might as well just stay down on her knees.

"Get up!"

Blake glanced up, an ivory hand reaching down to help her. Weiss stared down at her, her face steeled with her own imperious resolve, the scar over her left eye emphasizing how nothing could shatter the sapphire orbs within.

"I can't," Blake pleaded. "Weiss, I'm sorry. There's nothing I can do–"

"And I can't win this duel alone. So help me! By letting me help you!" the SDC heiress begged her. "He's strong. They're both strong. But they're not invincible. Trust me. Please. Just trust me, and duel."

Blake let out a mirthless chuckle. "You make it sound so simple."

"Because right now, it is," Weiss insisted, a soft, confident smile pulling up her lips. "No more watching people get hurt. No more ivory towers."

Blake remembered when they'd last spoken those words, when they'd howled as one deep in each other's memories. She remembered their defiance, how their spiteful clash of spirits had somehow ended up tying them closer together than ever. The wind of the subway raced through the train car's broken window, all that felt so far away.

Still, she found herself taking her teammate's hand.

Weiss hauled her up to her feet, the cat faunus steadying herself as she grabbed the top card of her deck. "My turn. I draw!"

"Goodie," Torchwick groaned. "And here I was hoping we could all run away before this thing hit Vale."

---

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"What's happening to it?!" Yang screamed, her eyes red as she glared at Neo across the duel anchor binding them and their runners together behind the train. Above her, Hot Red Dragon Archfiend still flailed and clawed at the cartoon goblin mask spraying green steam from its ears. The emerald miasma slowly gathered over the open Toon World book, the tome's pages blurring as they turned at a frantic pace. "What's that mask doing to it?"

Neo just kept smiling, pressing a button on her duel runner to send card information over to Bumblebee.

Yang glanced down at her display screen, her eyes frantically scanning the text, only her extreme skill allowing her to keep driving at high speed while doing it. "Toon Mask. If you control 'Toon World', target one face-up monster your opponent controls. Summon a Toon monster from your hand or deck with equal or lower Level to that monster's Level/Rank, ignoring its summoning conditions–I knew you played that continuous spell for a reason! It doesn't just 'do nothing'! Every card in your deck must need it out on the field to work!"

Neo sarcastically shrugged at her opponent, the goblin mask finally ripping itself off Hot Red Dragon Archfiend. The exaggerated face covering cackled as it curled itself into the green smoke, Toon World finally settling on a fairy tale of a warrior in purple and gold armor cradling a tiny white whelp of a dragon.

Yang immediately knew which toon version of a legendary monster the flippant criminal would be summoning next. She must have read The Legend of Buster Blader a hundred times when Ruby picked it as her bedtime story. A nameless farmhand who, after mastering the slaying of dragons to prove his worth and crafting their remains to his armor and weapons, had challenged every race and monster under the shattered moon, forging new weapons designed to kill them from their corpses. But then he saved a small baby dragon, raising it as his own and teaching it combat, gifting it with weapons to better guard it for their battles together. For a time, Buster Blader was, for the first time, truly happy and fulfilled, no longer alone or defined by his power.

But in time, the dragon's darkness came forth, and eventually, Buster Blader was forced to slay the whelp he raised, for it could grow up into nothing but a dragon. Yang always stopped reading before she reached that part. Both to make a better bedtime story for little Ruby… and to keep from seeing herself in the dragon whelp, and Summer and her dad in Buster Blader.

Toon Buster Blader must have never had to kill its dragon child, the purple-armored warrior's head oversized as it swaggered behind its enormous sword (ATK 2600/DEF 2300). The cartoonish warrior flourished its blade more and more, its muscles growing to exaggerated proportions with each swing (ATK 3600).

"Guess its effect is the same as the real thing," Yang noted, understanding that her Hot Red Dragon Archfiend on the field and the Vice Dragon in her graveyard were boosting it by five hundred points each, just like every dragon on that opposed the legendary warrior on the field or in the graveyard. "I lay two cards on facedown and end my turn."

With the new Toon monster's attack being higher than her ace's, that was the best she could do for the moment. It looked like she wouldn't be ending the duel in a single turn. But with what she had facedown, she was still confident she had it in the bag. Her archfiend was going to be stronger than ever once that fake Buster Blader attacked it.

During the End Phase however, Neo snapped her fingers, her final facedown flipping up to reveal a quick-play spell.

"Toon Page-Flip," Yang read off Bumblebee's viewscreen, three different Toon Monsters flashing across it. "If you control 'Toon World': Reveal three Toon monsters with different names from your Deck, your opponent randomly picks one for you to Special Summon, ignoring its Summoning conditions, also shuffle the rest into your Deck. You can only activate one Toon Page-Flip per turn. You're leaving what monster you're special summoning up to chance? You sure you want to make that kind of a gamble against me?"

Neo cheekily nodded, as if to say of course ice cream tasted better with sprinkles on it. Yang felt like she was being insulted somehow. Still, since it was random anyway, she selected a facedown card on her runner's screen.

Toon World's pages flipped by in a blur, this time releasing a mechanical dragon with a shark face painted over its mouth and toy gun barrels on its head and arms (ATK 2600/DEF 2200). Yang remembered it from The Club when it'd blasted Banesaw into a coma.

"Toon Barrel Dragon," she snarled. Torchwick must have lent his minion his copy to let her make her cartoon knockoff.

Neo drew for her turn and immediately pointed at Toon Barrel Dragon. Three coins appeared in front of the toy monster's three gun barrels, the merry shark-faced machine whacking each of the coins into the air. One came down tails.

Two came down heads.

Toon Barrel Dragon cackled, suddenly snapping its barrels towards Hot Red Dragon Archfiend. A trio of hot plasma tennis balls shrieked towards the towering red and black dragon.

"Don't think it's going to be that easy!" Yang exclaimed, hitting a button on Bumblebee as one of her facedowns flipped up. "I activate my continuous trap card, Follow Wing! I target my Hot Red Dragon Archfiend, and it can no longer be destroyed by battle or card effects!"

Just like back in her duel with Banesaw, a brilliant golden glow blossomed over Hot Red Dragon Archfiend's wings, elongating them into stalwart sentinels of life. The mighty gargoyle dragon let out a furious roar, sweeping its wings forward and slicing through the three plasma tennis balls. Toon Barrel Dragon squealed in terror, flailing as it burst into tears.

But Neo just kept calmly smiling.

Yang's brow furrowed at the flippant criminal's cockiness, but she tried not to let it unsettle her too much. After all, when the shrimp tried to use Toon Buster Blader to attack her archfiend, Follow Wing's second effect would activate and destroy the Toon monster, boosting her ace by the dragon slayer's original attack. Everything was going just fine.

Neo pressed a button on her duel runner's viewscreen. Yang glanced down at Bumblebee's display, new information on the Toon monsters on the field transmitted over to her.

"When you control 'Toon World' and your opponent controls no Toon monsters, this card can attack your opponent directly–" Yang's widened, her gaze whipping up to her enemy in horror. "What!?"

Both goofy, cartoon monsters pulled open their mouth, sticking out their huge, slobbery tongues at the golden-haired hunting duelist. Neo silently giggled at her minions' antics, merrily clapping her hands as they whipped around and wagged their butts at the snarling Hot Red Dragon Archfiend.

The peppy criminal waved her arm forward as if encouraging her monsters to go steal an ice cream cone. Toon Buster Blader leapt into the air, its legs stretching impossibly long so that it could step over Hot Red Dragon Archfiend and its flowing golden wings. All too soon, its giant hammer was falling down on Yang like a piano plummeting from a skyscraper window.

"Trap card open!" the blonde panicked, her second facedown flipping up as fast as it could. "Half or Nothing! Either halve all your monsters' attack points for the Battle Phase or end the Battle Phase!"

Neo didn't even flinch, Toon Buster Blader's sword sliced in half by the trap card's specter (ATK 1800) as it smashed into Yang's back.

Yang Xiao-Long: 2200 Life Points

Yang gasped as spittle flew from her lips, impact reverberating through her spine as the cartoon monster hit just like the real thing. Bumblebee's rear wheel swerved for a moment, the blonde turbo duelist gripping her runner's handles tight to steady her mount.

Neo didn't wait for her to find that balance. The glint of sadism flickered through her dual-colored eyes, snapping her fingers towards Toon Barrel Dragon (ATK 1300).

The shark-faced machine cackled and whipped its toy guns into position, aiming straight at Yang and her wavering duel runner. A trio of plasma tennis balls shrieked across the field, dodging through the air at impossible angles when Hot Red Dragon Archfiend tried to block them and protect its duelist.

Three explosions smashed into Bumblebee's side, the golden duel runner sent wildly spinning through the subway.

Yang Xiao-Long: 900 Life Points

Neo twisted her arm with Yang's duel anchor attached to it, deftly driving her duel runner closer to the side of the subway. Bumblebee's flailing trajectory was thrown off by the sudden jerking movement.

Yang's eyes widened in terror as she and her golden mount were sent hurtling toward the wall of rock.

---

RWBYRWBYRWBYRWBYYUGIOHYUGIOH

Blake glanced down at the card she'd drawn for her turn, Illusion Balloons. She swiftly added it to the four cards left of her starting card, her heart not filling with confidence at the arsenal she had at her disposal.

Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon. Performapal Skullcrobat Joker. Polymerization. Performapal Laugh Maker. Under normal circumstances, an incredibly solid hand for her deck, filled with powerful battle options and useful searchers. But with the Shien and Shi En lock on the field, she couldn't use any of them the way she needed to in order to gain a foothold on the field.

"Kitty cat, I would like to remind you that this really isn't a 'stand here getting lost in strategic thinking' kind of duel," Torchwick cut in, yanking her out of her thoughts. "This commute wasn't that fast back when Mt. Glenn was around, but you still might want to pick up the pace if you don't want all of us to go the way of the pancake."

A very fair point from the unrepentant criminal. Team RWBY's time limit was even more unforgiving than their opponents. Torchwick and Adam just needed to get off the train. Blake and Weiss had to get in to the driver's car and stop it before it blew a hole into the heart of Vale for the Grimm.

But, there just wasn't anything she could do! With the cards at her disposal, she had no way to break through Adam's lock to fight back against his samurai–

"I activate our trap card!" Weiss shouted, thrusting her hand forward. "True Light!"

"Huh?" Blake muttered, watching as the second facedown her teammate had laid on her own turn flipped face-up.

The continuous trap card flared, spawning an enormous stone tablet from its radiant glow, the smog conjured from Great Shogun Shien permitting it to activate. Upon its surface, intricate blue light surged through the rock, drawing the shape of a–

"Blue-Eyes," Adam growled, his fingers clenching into fists.

Blake gulped, knowing his brand must be burning under his mask at the sight of the legendary dragon of the Schnee Family. Every SDC mine and facility had Nicholas Schnee's mighty beasts stamped on every surface they could, a mark of company pride and power. For many faunus, they were an intense sore spot, but for none more than The Blood-Soaked Bull.

"Your pride will be your downfall, Schnee!" the bull faunus roared. "Legendary Six Samurai - Shi En's effect negates the activation of one of your spell or trap cards and destroys it! Imperial Iaijutsu Hunger!"

Shi En sheathed its curved sword, only to draw it again in a lightning-fast slash. The pressure of the movement sliced through the air, carving the True Light tablet in two with a ravenous shockwave, the image of the Blue-Eyes White Dragon split apart as the trap card that spawned it exploded.

Blake watched with wide amber eyes as the stone tablet's aura body disintegrated, her mind filling with… confusion?

Leaving aside that Weiss knew what Adam's Shien and Shi En cards did and how their combo worked, there wasn't any point to activating True Light at that point in the game. Blake was their 'two-headed giant's turn player, so her deck was counted as their deck for the purposes of their cards until her teammate's next turn. True Light either summoned a Blue-Eyes White Dragon, which Weiss would have summoned to defend them during Adam's earlier onslaught if she'd had on in hand, or searched out a spell or trap card that mentioned the monster from the deck, which Blake didn't have any. If it wasn't a continuous trap that could be flipped face-up without using one of its effects, it couldn't have even been activated.

So why had Weiss activated it? Were the stress and stakes of the duel getting to her more than the cat faunus had realized?

Yet, that didn't seem to be it. Because when Blake looked over at her, the elegant heiress was smiling.

"He fell for it," Weiss murmured, turning to her teammate. "You've got one spell or trap, Blake. Great Shogun Shien's effect is still active."

"Foolish, arrogant Schnee," Adam scoffed, missing Torchwick's uncharacteristically silent frown next to him. "This isn't a Battle Royale Tag Duel. You two count as the same duelist for effects like my Shogun's spell and trap card limit. And you just wasted it trying to fall back on your daddy's infernal dragon."

Blake watched Weiss bristle at the insult to her grandfather's dragon, but the heiress kept her crystal blue gaze steady on her cat faunus friend.

"Weiss, I don't know what you want me to do, but he's right–"

"No, he just thinks he's right. Blake, you have an opening," Weiss begged, her lip quivering just a fraction, hinting at the terror she was holding back behind the facade of the confident huntress. "Please, trust me."

It was that plea that made Blake move. Even as she didn't think there was anything she could do, she turned back to her hand to try. Because, after so many months, after trials and tribulations about who was right and who was wrong, and whether to go after the White Fang or not, there was one immutable truth that had emerged from the cat faunus' time at Beacon: Weiss Schnee was her friend. She did trust her.

And as she plucked the one card that might save them from her hand, she knew she needed to trust others. Particularly a group of monsters she'd done a great wrong to. Cards she only had because of Adam. Cards she now had to use to stop him.

"You are not my weapons. You are not my sins. You did not deserve any of the blame I laid at your feet for him," she whispered. "I don't know how to move forward. But I do know this madness cannot be allowed to happen. Please. Help me."

From her Extra Deck, she was greeted with a resounding chorus of "Yes!" In her hand, Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon leapt for joy. She slammed her only chance into Gambol Shroud.

And the spell card of mixing orange creatures over a navy spiral manifested in front of her.

"I activate Polymerization!" Blake yelled, putting every ounce of strength into her voice to fight back her fear.

Adam's dismissive laugh shredded that resolve in an instant, Great Shogun Shien's smoke listing towards the fusion spell to force it back. "It seems that time among the humans has made you weak and stupid, 'my darling'. You know that only one spell or trap card can be activated per turn in the presence of the… shogun?"

Blake blinked in shock as Adam's voice trailed off, amazed to see his confidence stunned so quickly as Torchwick groaned. Her own mind was equally befuddled as Shien's smoke took no offense to Polymerization's presence, the spell card forming its fusion vortex to await her materials.

"Yyyyeeeeesssssss! It worked!" Weiss cheered, leaping into the air and clapping for joy like if Ruby was suddenly told she could eat cookies for three meals a day. Of course, as soon as the heiress came back down, she heaved over and grabbed her knees for balance as she teetered atop her high heels. "Oh, thank goodness that worked! We were so dead if I was wrong and that didn't work!"

"If what didn't work?" Blake asked, unable to tear herself away from the fusion vortex that shouldn't have been working. "Weiss, how is this working?"

"What did you do, Schnee?!" Adam shouted. "Explain! Now!"

"She figured out the flaw in your lock," Torchwick groaned, rubbing the ridge of his nose in annoyance.

"What flaw?" Adam demanded. "How could she know about a flaw in my own combo that I don't?"

"The benefits of a classical education," Weiss declared, managing to gather herself enough to stand without looking like she was going to puke in relief. "Your talent and skill is, to put it simply, ridiculous. Forging your own Link Monsters and mastering Synchro Summoning outside the academies without a day of formal education is absurd, even with Sienna Khan's tutoring and a plethora of frontline experience. However, dueling is an intricate form of combat, with hundreds of tiny, unique interactions that a duelist could go through their entire lives without ever realizing they existed because they simply never came up in any of their battles. There's a reason the huntsman academies and the combat schools that feed into them spend years going over as many as possible. Real combat experience is invaluable, but extensive study can make one aware of a threat without having it be an unwelcome surprise first."

"I'm still not hearing an explanation," Adam growled. "How can you use a second spell or trap while Great Shogun Shien on the field?"

"Not "use". "Activate". That's the keyword of the effect," Weiss replied, pointing to Great Shogun Shien. "So long as Great Shogun Shien is on the field, the opponent can only activate one spell or trap card per turn. I activated True Light, however…"

The heiress moved her pointer finger over to Legendary Six Samurai - Shi En.

"Shi En's effect negated it," she continued. "I believe the exact wording is 'Once per turn, when your opponent activates a Spell/Trap Card (Quick Effect): You can negate the activation, and if you do, destroy it'."

"That still doesn't explain how you activated another one!"

"But it does. For you see, thanks to your Shi En, we never activated one to begin with," Weiss smirked, staring down the terrorist that had haunted Blake's nightmares with the confident swagger of an Atlas elite. Though, for once, it was earned. "Your effect negated the activation. Not the trap card's effect, but the very activation of the card itself. A crucial distinction if you want to be able to defend yourself from effects activated during the Damage Step, and not something most duelists would give any thought to beyond that. But in this case, it does mean that, as far as Great Shogun Shien's effect is concerned, True Light never activated. Meaning–"

"-they can still activate their one spell and trap card this turn that falls under the big shogun's limit," Torchwick glumly finished.

Blake and Weiss blinked at him in shock.

"What?" the thief shrugged. "I went to Haven. I dropped out, but it wasn't because I didn't study."

"You knew about this?" Adam snarled. "Why didn't you tell me?!"

Torchwick stared at his ally with the most exhausted, unamused look Blake had ever seen. It put the glares Weiss had given Jaune when he'd tried asking her out to shame.

"Why would I, a human, not tell you, an animal who has loudly and on multiple occasions made clear what you eventually intend to do to all humans, that there was a glaring and easily exploitable flaw in your go-to strategy that I could, in theory, exploit if we ever came to blows?" Torchwick replied, his sarcasm thicker than Shien's smoke. "Could not tell you off the top of my head."

"You filthy human rat–"

"I fuse Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon with Performapal Laugh Maker!" Blake roared, hope exploding through her chest as she realized the chance Weiss had bought her, Odd-Eyes and Laugh Maker swiftly manifesting and flowing into the fusion vortex.

The White Fang was full of talented and experienced duelists, but even then, its knowledge base was not nearly as wide as one of the other hunting duelist academies. They knew a lot, but blindspots were inevitable, especially when the demands of their activities required many of them to be taught by experience. Blake had learned from her mother, then Sienna, then Adam, but even with all their experience, they didn't have all the knowledge there was to learn in the Beacon library. Most duelists didn't. But Weiss had been tutored by the most learned teachers and duel theorists money could buy since she was old enough to hold a duel disk and had read half the Beacon library the minute she arrived in Vale.

Blake had thought Adam invincible. She'd thought she was powerless. Her friend had shown her that she was mistaken.

Adam and Torchwick were, individually, stronger than either huntress of Team RWBY, but they were not a team. Whether it was The Blood-Soaked Bull ignoring the potential gains of his partner's monster effect, or the greatest thief in Vale withholding knowledge of a tactical vulnerability for his own self-preservation, the pair's lackluster teamwork caused their strengths to barely add together. Whereas Blake and Weiss multiplied each other.

A true fusion.

"Mysterious dragon with dual-colored eyes! Fuse with the magical maker of laughter to bring forth the arcane dragon, wielder of shadows and ancient magic! Above the ridicule and hate! Above the binding of our fate! Fusion Summon!" Blake howled, smashing her palms together as her palms blazed with determination. "Rune-Eyes Pendulum Dragon!"

A brilliant golden circle erupted from the fusion vortex, a massive scarlet dragon spawning into existence from its glow. The giant magic ring embedded itself in the beast's back, the mysterious creature's eyes covered by gold, rune-covered caps as it roared across the train car (ATK 3000/DEF 2000). The dragon that, as Yang said, "shared Blake's angst and mystery" had arrived.

"I set one card facedown and then normal summon Performapal Skullcrobat Joker! His effect lets me add Performapal Inflater Tapir to my hand," Blake announced, her jester with a pink, patchwork top hat springing onto her field (ATK 1800/DEF 100). "Battle! Skullcrobat Joker attacks Battle Shogun of the Six Samurai!"

The circus jester chuckles and leapt across the dueling car, its joyful foot delivering a solid kick to the imperious battle commander's helmet. The samurai's head was knocked clean off.

Roman Torchwick & Adam Taurus: 4700 Life Points

"Rune-Eyes Pendulum Dragon! Since its fusion material that wasn't Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon was a Level Five or higher monster, it can make three attacks on monsters per turn!" Blake revealed, three bolts of arcane electricity bolting between a trio of points on her dragon's golden disk, forming a mystical triangle sigil. "Attack Grandmaster of the Six Samurai! Triple Spiral Sky Shot!"

Rune-Eyes Pendulum Dragon roared, sapphire lightning spraying from its back and frying the wizened old samurai.

Roman Torchwick & Adam Taurus: 3800 Life Points

"Since Great Shogun Shien technically isn't a 'Six Samurai' monster, you only have one other Six Samurai on your field other than Legendary Six Samurai - Kizan. Which means his attack points drop down to his original eighteen hundred," Blake declared. "Rune-Eyes! Attack number two! Triple Spiral Sky Shot!"

Once again, the mystical electricity erupted from the dragon's golden circle and a samurai was obliterated.

Roman Torchwick & Adam Taurus: 2600 Life Points

"Battle!" Blake roared for the final time that turn. She defiantly raised her arms to the sky, only to whip it down to point towards Great Shogun Shien and snap her fingers. "Triple Spiral Sky Shot!"

Rune-Eyes Pendulum Dragon let loose a shriek of mysteries that could never be told, tempestuous thunder crackling above it before finally exploding across the field. Great Shogun Shien raised its sword for battle, though at the same moment it nodded to its younger self.

Just like during the duel with Taiyang, another Six Samurai could be destroyed in the great shogun's place, Shi En leaping into the path of the lightning and howling as he was incinerated.

Roman Torchwick & Adam Taurus: 2100 Life Points

Adam ground his teeth together, glaring at Blake from behind his Grimm mask. The cat faunus would be lying if she said that act didn't still send a flash of fear through her. Shien's smoke still filled the field, she and her teammate still restricted to only one spell or trap card per turn.

But the shogun's army had been obliterated. He stood alone against the might of Rune-Eyes Pendulum Dragon, his full field of allies torn to pieces by The Odd-Eyed Bandit's fusion dragon. The two teams' life points were only seven hundred apart. Before they'd begun, Blake had thought the battle would be a massacre, but this?

This was a duel. And Team RWBY hadn't lost yet.

---

The Battle of Mt. Glenn has begun! Been waiting to write these duels for a LONG TIME. In my previous stories, I always started in Volume 3 because that was when RWBY's plot really started, with Volume 1 and Volume 2 purposefully spinning their wheels to focus instead on establishing the characters, but with the side effect that there's a very limited number of things that can be done with those two Volumes in fanfic if one still wants to use Volume 3 as the status quo shattering Wham Episode. One of the things that made me so excited to write this story when I first came up with it was that the Yu-Gi-Oh! dueling being the primary narrative tool of the story (and some altered pacing for certain arcs) gave me a chance to tweak things so that Volume 2's finale could have significant impact while, in theory, still allowing Volume 3 to be its own gut punch.

This first chapter of the battle showcases just how much trouble our heroines are in against their respective opponents, but also displays through Weiss helping fortify Blake's resolve and her subsequently letting loose Rune-Eyes Pendulum Dragon that while it is an uphill battle, it is not one completely devoid of hope.

Next Time on Cards of Remnant!

"Sorry. Three heads. Three monsters. That's the rules."

"With Amazoness Liger and Amazoness Tiger out, you can't attack any of my monsters."

"Don't think I'm out of this yet, short stuff!"

"Behold the pride of the Schnee Family! Rise!"

"Do you know how many times the average person blinks in a day?"

"Rally! Team RWBY!"

Next Time on Cards of Remnant: Time To Say Goodbye - Part 2

Please remember to check out and add to this story's TVTROPES PAGE! It even has a Characters Page now, allowing tropes for individual characters to be transcribed and viewed. :)

Thank you for Reading! I hope you enjoy what comes next!

Go Forth and Conquer!