And we're back! Ready for a third 'season' of action, romance, tragedy, and fun? I know I am.

Special thanks to RelentlessCrusader, GojiGrimlockSaurus, and Leaf Ranger for helping out with this chapter, plus a special shoutout to the RWBY Alternate History Community here on the site, do yourself a favor and check 'em out, and even add yourself to their followers. And most of all, thanks to every person who has ready this story, thanks to everyone who has faved and followed it. We wouldn't be here without you guys!

Theme for this Chapter: This is War by 30 Seconds to Mars

RWBY: Destiny of Remnant

Chapter 53: Return Part I: Going Back

The night was about to end on Shion, a pleasant tourist destination in the Kingdom of Mistral. The village was decently big, but not large enough to be labeled a city or town, but the people were friendly, the surrounding scenery was beautiful, and it was far away from large cities full of crime and business, so one could truly take time to appreciate life out here. It was altogether a wonderful place.

And yet nothing prevented a vicious horde of various Grimm species from attacking.

Screams, gunshots, and roars pierced the normally serene air as innocent people ran for their lives, holding their children close as armed men and women, led by several Huntsmen and a Huntress fought back against various different creatures that all shared the same pitch black fur with blood red eyes and bone while faces and armor. Some fell, others were not deterred by the counter attacks, and kept charging, revelling in the fear that drove them on. Fear was everywhere, and that assured the creatures of Grimm that they would enjoy this feast. It was an absolute mess in the village's main square, as all manner of Grimm teeming through the rubble-strewn streets, seeking prey to rend and tear apart in their carnivorous frenzy. Beowolves, Ursas, Boarbatusks, Beringels, Creeps and Tarantula Widows stalked amongst the burning rubble, ripping apart corpses and gorging themselves on the ones who hadn't been lucky while a pair of Deathstalkers screeched as they smashed apart everything that stood in their way, scattering rubble and bodies everywhere. Flocks of bat-like Vampires, vulture-like Scavengers, and even some Nevermores dominated the skies, swooping down on their chosen prey and carrying them off the ground to their deaths.

A grenade went off inside of the village, and now several buildings were in flames, only adding to the growing panic. Chaos reigned everywhere, with columns of thick grey smoke now reaching up into the skies as various kinds of Grimm rampaged through the burning buildings, destroying everything in their path and going after the hapless innocents who were struggling to escape. Despite the brave efforts of the Hunters and armed villagers they knew they couldn't hold out forever against the beasts and would soon be overpowered by the Grimm hordes and many would be killed before back up from the Mistral Defense Force arrived.

While there were a few still trapped in their homes, most of the villagers were now outside and had merged into a large group that was running for the safe area, a large fenced off compound with a shelter inside, was not too far from the village. It was closed off from the Grimm as it had a special electrified barbed wire surrounding it to keep the Grimm at bay, but it was a tough slog for some of the villagers, and the stress of the evil predators close behind them was making the situation worse. Not helping was the fact that it was late winter, and while the snow had melted, early morning frost covered the ground, and the air was very chilly, making it worse for the scared townspeople.

One man became too nervous and split off from the group, trying to make a run for it into the forest, where one could hide among the trees, but he wasn't even close to matching the speed of the Grimm, as a large Creep dashed after him and jumped, the claws of its powerful hind legs digging into his back. He fell to the ground and began to scream, only for the Creep to silence him as it's mouth bit down on his head and with a mighty rip, he was dead.

As the main group kept running, only a few of them daring to look back at the man as he died, an ear-piercing screech alerted them all to duck down to the ground as a Nevermore swooped down, it's sharp talons clawing open the clothes of several people, creating slashes that spilled blood that were quickly healed by aura for the most part. The winged beast pivoted around and landed on the ground and began to swiftly flap its wings, creating a powerful gust of wind that knocked many people down on their backs.

A man armed with a gun quickly jumped up used a heavy rifle to shoot at the giant bird, but it swiftly brought it's head down and its sharp beak bit the gun in two, knocking the man down and the force of its sudden attack had broken his arm. The crowd of people tried to scatter, only for Vampires to dive bomb and land atop of several people, and other Grimm began to surround them. The Nevermore brought up its head, raised its wings, ready to use them to cut through the crowd as the smaller Grimm kept them in place. It let out a screech, and then a single bullet ripped right through its eye.

The gunshot echoed around as the Vampires and the other Grimm attacking the group all looked up to see an airship approaching the village, the back ramp was open and standing in the lit area of the ship's entrance was a sixteen year old girl with shoulder length blackish-red hair, dressed in a grey shirt and black and red corset, a cape covered her neck and fluttered down her back, a necklace hung down her neck and body ending with an old whistle, she also had a low-thigh length skirt that had an ammo belt over it, lightish stocking with a black rose on them covered her legs, and her feet were covered by black and red boots, but the most noticeable thing about this girl was her stunning silver eyes, and the massive scythe-sniper rifle hybrid weapon she held in her hands.

This girl was known throughout Remnant as the one and only Ruby Rose.

Ruby took up the whistle and blew into it, getting the attention of the rest of the Grimm as the rest of Team Beacon appeared around her.

"You just have to shoot first, didn't you?" Weiss said to her.

"Yep." Ruby answered simply as the Nevermore let out a blood-curdling scream before it and the vampires were bombarded by a flurry of heavy bullets from Ruby, Yang, Pyrrha, and Ren, obliterating them and saving the civilians. The Nevermore wasn't finished yet, it took off and flew right at the ship, until Ruby switched the ammo chambers in Crescent Rose to a more explosive caliber of bullet, and when she fired at the Nevermore's other eye its whole head exploded in a small cloud of black dust. "Alright Team Beacon, let's get down there and save the day!"

"But it's the night hasn't ended yet, Ruby." Penny pointed out as the ship lowered towards the ground.

"Uh… let's go anyway!" Ruby declared.

"Good save." Coco deadpanned with a smile before they all jumped out, landing perfectly on the frosty. Yang, however, landed fist first on top of a Creep, her metallic hand slamming through its head.

"Incoming Grimm from the woods. On our seven." Fox reported.

Coco whirled around and transformed her purse into a minigun before opening fire into the forest, which resulted in the roars and cries of the charging Grimm. Some managed to make it out of the woods, only to be cut apart by Penny's swords as she sent them flying forward.

"Ross! Get back in the air, open fire on the Grimm and lure them away from the people!" Jaune ordered as he moved with the rest of his team to go help the civilians. From the cockpit the middle-aged man gave a thumbs up and the ship rose up, blasting down some of the flying Grimm nearby.

Pyrrha, still outfitted in the armor her parents had gifted her, jumped up and slammed Milo through a Boarbatusk as she came down before using Akouo to decapitate the pig Grimm before she turned Milo back into gun form and brought it around to shoot down charging Beowolves. She saw the villagers getting up, some cheering but most of them were still clearly afraid.

"Get to safety! Ren, Nora, make sure they get to the shelter!" She called to them, her breath visible in the cold air.

"You got it! Come on everyone! Let's go, last one there's a rotten egg!" Nora coached as she, Velvet, Ren, and Scarlet helped the people up.

"Penny, how many Grimm are we looking at?" Jaune asked as he severed a Beowolf from his legs and expertly blocking a blow from an Ursa, using his shield to bash it towards Pyrrha who shot its head off with Milo's gun form. During the past several months Jaune had decided to upgrade his family's weapon, and now Crocea Mors was a bit heavier, with a more elaborate cross-guard and hilt. With some input from Pyrrha, the shield was now accented with gold, since he was her 'golden knight' as she put it, with a hybrid of Pyrrha's emblem and his own painted onto the shield. Due to the modification the sheath now possessed the ability to become a wider blade for the sword, via extending the sharpened edges of the shield, doing so added to the weight of the shield's blows, making it more handy in a fight. When he showed it to everyone Ruby had joked to him about betraying the 'old fashioned' ways, only for him to reply that 'everyone needs to change sometime'.

He slightly seethed in pain as his aura quickly healed him, but ignored it as Pyrrha gave him a concerned look. He nodded to her and gave her a smile, which she returned before impaling a swooping Vampire.

Penny answered him with, "I got an adequate look at the Grimm horde, and judging by my estimates of what we saw from above my sensors indicate that there are no less than four hundred Grimm attacking the village. But that number has already begun to decrease, of course." She informed him as she used her swords to rip a Beringel and several Creeps to shred.

"Four hundred? That's a lot, even for us." Neptune commented as he helped Coco shoot down the Grimm.

"Eh, we've faced worse odds than this." Coco said as she climbed atop a stump to mow down the oncoming Grimm hordes, that had taken notice of the newly arrived Hunters.

"I hope that doesn't jinx us." Blake voiced as she sliced down a Beowolf with Gambol Shroud, back-flipping away from the clawed swipe of a second one, and decapitating the attacking Grimm, her buttoned up white coat fluttering in the wind.

"That's weird coming from a black cat." teased Yang as she slammed her fists down on Boarbatusk, caving it's head in.

Blake rolled her eyes as Ruby cut down a trio of Beowolves before jumping up and spinning around in mid-air to open fire on a pair of Scavengers who had attempted to swoop down at her. "Don't worry guys, we can take these 'em!" She said bravely.

"Who said any of us is worried?" Sun asked as he jumped on top of an Ursa and slammed Ruyi and Jingu Bang's combined form down and through its chest.

"If anything, it's the other way around!" Yang declared as her eyes and hair began to shine. She ran forward and slammed her fist into a large Ursa with enough force to send it flying into a tree hard enough to uproot it.

"Don't get cocky, we've attracted some company." Yatsuhashi stated, gesturing to the oncoming surge of Grimm.

"How many?" Weiss asked Pyrrha.

"I don't know, but I can tell it's the bulk of them. There's something else off in the woods, but it's not attacking. Something different from the rest of the Grimm…" Pyrrha said as she tried to get a good read on whatever she was sensing.

"A hybrid?" The Heiress asked.

"No, something else… maybe an elder Grimm." The Spartan replied.

"We'll see what it is later, right now it's keeping its distance and we've got to deal with the horde. Everyone get into position. Let's go with one of Professor Port's old battle maneuvers, Round Top." Jaune suggested.

"Good idea. Weiss, can you slow them down?" Ruby asked her partner.

The white haired girl scoffed and said "Of course." She walked forward and calmly created a rather large glyph and doubled it outward, creating more of them before pouring an adequate amount of her aura into them, creating thin, but slick patches of ice that stretched out into the field, making the Grimm slip and fall, some were trampled over by their fellow dark creatures.

All seventeen members of Team Beacon lined up, forming a barricade as the rest of the villagers got inside of the sheltered area.

"The villagers that made it out are alright, they lost one or two and many are injured, but they're inside for now." Ren reported as he got the StormFlowers ready.

"Good, once we wipe out this bunch my team will stay here to protect the villagers and make sure no Grimm get inside of the Shelter, I can sense a lot of fear in there, so those things are going to try to break in." Jaune said as he gripped his sword tightly.

"We're not letting them get through. Not one." Ruby said with determination. Not bothering to ask Jaune or Pyrrha if they could control the horde, as they had learned from experience that neither of them could control this many Grimm.

"Here they come! Brace yourselves!" Coco shouted as the Grimm hordes got closer and closer, some still slipping on the slick ice while others smashed the patches with heavy claws.

The seventeen young Hunters held their position, not firing a single shot or swinging a blade once as the horde got closer and closer, making the villagers watching from within the confines of the fenced off shelter wonder what they were up to or if they knew what they were doing.

The members of Team Beacon waited until the horde was mere feet in front of them. And then they launched their attack.

Ruby, Blake, Yang, Nora, Pyrrha, Ren, Coco, Sun, Scarlet, and Neptune all fired off a massive barrage of gunfire, various types of bullets or Dust based projectiles blasted off into the collective of Grimm. Within seconds dozens of the dark creatures were blasted into oblivion in the frenzied storm of firepower. Coco let out a small laugh as she decimated a dozen Grimm within a few seconds, reducing the fearsome creatures to black clouds of dust, while Nora fired off grenades with Magnhild's grenade launcher mode, firing towards the back of the horde and creating small but effective explosions that eliminated more of the dark creatures.

Blake, Ren, and Neptune worked together, firing into the horde, picking off multiple Grimm; While Blake was more careful, making her shots count and hitting the Grimm in weak spot, Ren let loose a bit more, but was still aiming at the right places, shooting the oncoming Grimm in the heads, necks, feet, and midsections to do very effective damage, and Neptune was letting out short but effective Dust bursts with his weapon's rifle mode, blasting the Grimm two or three times each to make sure they were either turned away or shot down, with the tech in his goggles helping him spot weak point on the creatures.

Sun had separated Ruyi Bang and Jingu Bang and was firing them off as he swung them around, bashing the faces of any Grimm that got too close, while adding insult to injury by shooting them down immediately after. Yang helped him out by shooting down the charing Grimm and punching away any that got too close, since the faster ones were good on dodging bullets at times, but weren't too lucky at avoiding her fists, or the weapons of the others. Yang got a particular kick out of punching a Boarbatusk that jumped at her so hard it went flying into the night sky.

"If anyone could make a…" She began, only for Sun to cut her off.

"Yeah, pigs fly, we saw it." He said as he bashed down a small, pitch black Beowolf that lacked the white bone armor.

"You don't need to spell it out for us." Blake added as she shot an Ursa dead on in the eye socket.

"My comedic talent is so unappreciated." The blonde brawler lamented with a smirk.

Ruby and Pyrrha worked together, using the rifle forms of their weapons to shoot down the larger, older Grimm, taking special care to shoot them in weak points such as heads, necks, and feet, so as to immobilize them. Pyrrha shot one right through the head as it roared at them, making it stumble around before it fell over and began to dissipate. The Champion of Sanctum kept firing off into the diminishing horde, shooting off legs and arms, blasting through heads and necks, and when one got close enough to her, it was instantly impaled by Milo, and decapitated by Akouo.

Ruby blasted down as many of the Grimm as she could before she changed the ammo chambers to a new, bigger type of bullet. "Let's see how you work…" She said, hoping this new type of bullet her dad had given to her was as good as he said it was. She aimed for an older Ursa, which was charging on all fours towards them, it's red eyes showed it was driven by the fear of the villagers not too far away.

Ruby fired and the bullet went soaring out of Crescent Rose and into the head of the elder Ursa, which dropped to the ground and within a second the head exploded and smaller bullets went flying out of the head and into the surrounding Grimm, ripping them apart like a nail bomb.

"Yes! Thank you dad!" Ruby cheered.

Those who tried to get around weren't successful in the slightest, as Weiss, Jaune, Penny, Yatsuhashi, Fox, and Sage all used their blades to cut down the attacking Grimm. The creatures of darkness were shredded and reduced to fading black dust clouds at the hands of their blades, and Ruby saw this.

"Hold fire, we've shot 'em down enough, now let's do some cutting!" She suggested, a slight silver shine to her eyes.

The guns stopped firing as Weiss, Jaune, and the others stepped forwards. "Think they're smart enough to back off?" Velvet asked.

"Not a chance." Sage remarked as they got ready.

"Some of them are, the smart ones anyway." Jaune corrected, as he pointed to some of the Grimm retreating towards the village, as they were clearly thinking that the armed defenders within weren't as strong.

"We're going to have to make this quick and get to the villages before those things kill the survivors." Sun said to Ruby, Jaune, and Coco, all of whom nodded.

"We'll wipe out the one's still coming and once they're done for the rest of you go the village while we protect the shelter." Jaune said, and everyone nodded in agreement.

"Okay, everyone, let's go!" Ruby shouted, and with that everyone ran forward.

Velvet used her weapon and Semblance to create a massive copy of Crescent Rose and she gestured for Yatsuhashi and Fox to get ready. Both boys nodded and hopped into the air and she swept the blue facsimile of Ruby's beloved weapon outwards, slicing the bodies of many Grimm into various pieces, and Yatsuhashi and Fox both jumped off of her creation and landed into the fray, with Yatsuhashi using his mighty sword to decapitate seven Beowolves in an instant. Fox landed atop a Boarbatusk and used his arm blade to slice it open lengthwise before separating a Beowolf from its legs and then stomping on its head one it landed on the ground. He noticed a small pack of four Creeps charging at him, but he didn't worry in the slightest. He jumped over the first one, landed in the middle of them, squatted down and expertly began to maneuver his arms about, cutting them apart and reducing them to fading slices of black body parts.

Nora slammed her war-hammer into a Creep, sending it flying into a large tree branch, where it was impaled, she sent a Beowolf flying towards Ren, who used the blades of his guns to slit its torso wide open. Nora smiled at him before turning her head to see a medium sized Tarantula Widow crawling towards them on its eight legs. Nora launched herself up into the air with a grenade from Magnhild and came down atop the giant spider with her war-hammer slamming down on it's back section, causing the creature to collapse and screech in pain. It struggled to get up, but it was put down with several shots to the fact, courtesy of Ren. Nora gave him a thankful smile, only for a Beringel to jump behind her and raise its arms to attack, only for Milo, in its javelin form, to impale its fist. Nora whirled around and slammed Magnhild into the Beringel's head, smashing it off.

"Thanks Pyrrha." Nora thanked her friend as she reclaimed Milo and turned it back into its rifle form.

"Any time." Pyrrha said happily before aiming Milo up and shooting down a Scavenger.

Jaune, Weiss, and Sage ran ahead, attacking any Grimm they could with their swords; Weiss gracefully moved about, running her sword through the thin bodies of Beowolves, running through their torsos, arms, and legs. She ducked down as a large Boarbatusk charged at her and ran Myrtenaster through its underbelly and out its back as it went over her. She quickly got up and slammed her sword backwards and upwards, impaling a Vampire that had tried to dive bomb her. She twisted her rapier around and it burst into black smog, she then brought it forward and activated the red Dust crystal within the hilt to incinerate a trio of Beowolves that were charging her.

Sage slammed his sword right through the open maw of an Ursa, and then yanked out and used his weapon to slice open the Ursa's stomach. As the bear Grimm fell, a large Beowolf took it's place, its boney claws flew at Sage, who parried the strike with his sword.

The sharp claws got close to Sage's face, but he pressed back. "Not happening." He snarled at it before he performed a sweeping kick, knocking its legs out from under it, allowing him to slice off its arms and then its head.

Sage allowed himself a smile of pride, before he quickly turned about to avoid getting his head impaled by the stinger of a Deathstalker. He swung his weapon quickly to keep the stinger at bay at the giant scorpion Grimm made its way closer towards him. All of a sudden Scarlet's grappling hook wrapped around the tale, managing to hold it in place.

"Cut the stinger, mate!" Scarlet called to his partner. Sage did so without another word, destroying the Grimm's main weapon of attack.

Sun jumped on top of it and used Ruyi and Jingu Bang to shoot its legs, weakening it even further, and distracting it enough for Sage to kill it via his sword to its face.

"Thanks for the help guys." Sage said gratefully.

"Anytime, bud." Sun replied before back-flipping into the air to wrap one of his weapons around the neck of a Vampire and the other to shoot its wings, making it fall to the ground dead.

Jaune ducked under a swing from an Ursa's arm before bringing Crocea Mors ups and severing the limb from the large Grimm before pivoting around and plunging his weapon into its back to finish it off, and after that he swung it around to cut a Beowolf in half and then impaling two more Beowolves with his sword. He rammed it through them, killing them instantly before he stopped, he had learned from Pyrrha how to detect negative emotions much better than he previously had, and there was something very… wrong coming from the forest, something that didn't sit right with him at all. It was moving away, but that made it all the more curious… Whatever it was they could handle it, especially after they had been given a bit of energy from the Aura Crystal before exiting the ship, but still… he wondered what exactly was out there.

This distraction ended up costing him, as he was knocked down by something powerful.

Jaune quickly recovered and looked to see a Geist in a solid Petra Gigas, a stronger physical form made up of inorganic material such as rocks and bits of metal from the village.

He ignored the pain in his side where it hit him as he got ready to move. It slammed down a stone fist, only for Jaune to roll out of the way and jump up onto its arm, which was a metal support beam connecting the rock hand to the main body and swung hard to sever it. He didn't succeed, but made a deep enough cut that the Gesit would have to repair it. It let out a ghastly scream and tried to smash him with its other hand before Neptune began shooting it from behind.

"That's right big guy, right here…" The bluenette said as he kept shooting at it. The Geist took the bait and swung its unharmed hand at the well dressed member of Team SSSN, allowing Jaune the opportunity to climb up its body. He made it to the top where he slashed its sword down across the top of its head, making it reach up to grab him, doing what he wanted it to do. Jaune jumped atop the hand, which suddenly began to drop, so as to slam him into the ground, but Jaune jumped, sword held out, and plunged it right into the Petra Gigas' eye, making it cry out in pain as it began to fall apart. Jaune landed on his feet and moved quickly to avoid the falling rocks and steel.

Neptune shot the frail legless form of the ghostly Grimm into oblivion as it tried to fly away as Jaune got ready for another bout. "Thanks." He said to the bluenette as he cut down a rather skinny Beowolf.

"No problem buddy." Neptune returned as he shot an approaching Creep.

Penny had used all of her swords to impale Grimm of various species, and she brought them up into the air and then slammed them forward once again, using the bony spikes and claws of the fading Grimm to do more damage to the now greatly diminished horde. Suddenly Ruby called to her.

"Penny look out!"

Penny quickly looked up to see a Tarantula Widow jumping towards her. Seeing a giant spider Grimm is not a pleasant sight, even seasoned Huntsmen aren't used to it, but Penny saw this as a perfect target.

She aimed her swords up and stabbed them into the air as the spider came down towards her and all seven of them slammed through it, making it screech in pain before she made them move in separate direction, cutting it to pieces, making the legs of the Tarantula Widow rain down from above.

"Gross, but kind of awesome." Ruby praised.

"Thank you Ruby, I do my best." Penny said with a happy smile.

The duo's attention was quickly stole by the voice of a certain older sister shouting "Oh yeah!"

They turned to see Yang as she ran towards a pack of twenty Grimm on her own. Yang used one Ember Celica to blast the head off of a Beowolf before running forward and punching off the head of another with her metallic arm. Another Beowolf tried to bring its claws down on her but she grabbed its arms and suplexed the wolf Grimm, slamming it into the ground before grabbing another Beowolf and tossing it over to Ruby, who quickly blasted it away.

Yang then jumped over a Creep and then stomped on its head before grabbing its leg and getting off of it, she swung it around, slamming it into the ground before tossing it into two other Grimm, and she finished them all off with several blasts of her gauntlet, adding to it as she jumped over them. As she came down another Creep jumped towards her only for Yang to kick upwards, making it fall flat on its back where Yang landed atop it and shot it in the head. Yang jumped off and came down next to another Beowolf, which she killed by ramming her gauntlet-clad fist through its head, only to be hit by arm of a bigger Grimm of the same species. Yang got up, her hair and eyes glowing thanks to her Semblance as she fired at the Grimm, getting it to duck before she ran up and unleashed a furious volley of punches at it head, which was soon reduced to nothing.

Yang allowed herself a smile before backhanding a smaller Beowolf into a tree, shattering the Grimm.

"Okay, allow me to show off my new toys." Yang said as she activated her metallic hand's recent upgrade, activating a blade that came out of the top of her robotic wrist. She jabbed her arm out and impaled a younger Ursa in the eye and finished it off by using her organic hand to punch its head off.

More came at her, which she only welcomed. Yang back-flipped, kicking a Beowolf down and as she landed on her feet she blasted it in the chest, killing it before another, much stronger Beowolf charged at her. She caught its clawed hands and managed to hold it back as its teeth chomped at her before she brought up her right hand and slit its throat open. She shoved it aside to deal with another charging Beowolf, which she utterly obliterated by stabbing it through the torso with the blade and blasting through it.

Yang looked over to the remaining five Grimm, 'tsk'-ing as they still came at her. "Oh well, more fun for me."

She ran towards them and ducked under the swinging arms to two Beowolves and sprung back up to blast both of them to death before ducking the lunging bite of a third. She swung around and used her gauntlet's blade to decapitate it

All of a sudden a Boarbatusk slammed into her, knocking her down, but the impact of the attack only added fuel to Yang's Semblance. The Boarbatusk tried to jump on top of her, but Yang punched it in the stomach with her wrist blade and then used her Semblance to fuel her strength, allowing her to tear it in half. She let out a shout of exhilaration before leaping out of the way of the final attacking Grimm, a rather old Ursa, which had longer, cracked bone plating and matted fur.

It lunged at her, but she quickly ducked away before it smashed into her, pinning her to the ground. She punched it in the fact several times while slashing at it with the right Ember Celica's wrist blade and kicking it in the gut, driving it off of her, and her hair shone a bright yellow as she landed a powerful uppercut on its jaw, knocking it down

It roared in anger as it reared up, claws out to slash her to pieces but used her Gauntlets to open fire on the large Grimm, blasting both of its arms off, it roared as it began to die, but not before Yang finished it off. She slammed her right hand into its chest and once she was in she forced it upward and opened fire, causing the Ursa's head to explode.

Blake watched as Yang finished off the Ursa, panting as she came down from an adrenaline high, and while the Cat Faunus could never deny that her partner was quite attractive, there was something about a sweaty Yang that made Blake get… excited.

She shrugged it off as she heard a loud screech from above.

"Nevermore incoming." Ruby said as she aimed to fire at the giant bird Grimm.

"I got it." Blake said to her leader as the avian predator came closer. Blake walked towards where the Nevermore would be and it swooped down to catch her in its beak… only for the Faunus to vanish once it snapped its beak down, and a weight to land on its back.

Blake had used her Semblance as a way to lure it in and now could get airborne. Blake stabbed the sheath into the back of the Nevermore and whipped out the katana/pistol body of her weapon and transformed it into the kusarigama-chain pistol form. Remembering what she had learned from Oobleck's lessons on Grimm anatomy, she twisted the cleaver sheath around in the neck of the Nevermore, forcing it to turn about and towards the other flying Grimm.

She used the glock pistol to shoot down Vampires and Scavengers, or used the kusarigama to sever their wings or cut open parts of their bodies, and soon the flying Grimm were falling from the sky and bursting into black dust on impact.

The Nevermore became harder to control however, and began flying towards a large tree. Blake slammed the cleaver sheath deeper into the neck and quickly jumped onto another tree before the Nevermore slammed into the giant tower of wood, impaling itself of several thick branches.

Blake glanced back at the Nevermore as it began to fade, only for a Scavenger to fly past her, and she wasted no time in hooking the string of her kusarigama around its neck. She jumped on top of it. She managed to control it for a bit, allowing her to use the cleaver to cut down several Vampires before the Scavenger fought for control. Blake looked over to Yang and signaled to her partner, and she nodded with a smile, giving her a thumbs up.

Blake stabbed the Scavenger through the back, dealing a fatal blow. She waited until it was closer to the ground before jumping off, allowing the Scavenger to collide into a Beowolf Sun had been fighting.

Sun looked over as Yang caught Blake in her arms, he shouted "Thanks! I owe you another one!" before he slammed the staff into the Beowolf's head.

Blake returned the smile before she realized she was still in Yang's arms.

"Comfortable?" The blonde asked with a smirk before she let Blake down.

"Good job everyone, they're running!" Ruby cheered as the now decimated Grimm horde ran back to the village, which now had several large holes of fire seared with Grimm dust outside of it, courtesy of Ross' ship.

"Yeah, but those defence guys won't be able to hold off against all of them. Time for you guys to get moving." Jaune said to Ruby, who nodded.

"Right, you sure you're okay staying behind?" She asked.

The blond knight smiled and said "Protecting people is something I love doing. Besides, there are still some Grimm around here, and we can handle them."

Ruby looked about, seeing about five dozen Grimm or so still creeping about the battlefield, but knew that Team JNPR could take care of them. "Okay," She said. "Alright guys, let's get to the village and wipe out as many Grimm as we can, we have to drive them off and keep the village safe."

"You got it, Rose. You heard the girl, people. Move out!" Coco commanded, leading Team CFVY towards the village.

"Nothing like fighting a Grimm horde at five in the morning." Velvet muttered as she yawned cutely while rubbing the sleep out of her eyes.

"I know, isn't it great?" Coco joked.

"You guy's sure you don't want to come with? Could use your help." Sun said to Jaune.

"We're alright, plus we can use our… gifts a little better now that there aren't as many Grimm around. Besides, I can see some people making their way here, we can help them." Pyrrha said, pointing to several small groups making their way past the retreating Grimm, kept at bay by Team CFVY.

The Monkey Faunus nodded before following his team and most of Team RWBY to the village.

"You still feel that presence?" Ruby asked the couple.

"No, it's leaving and getting further away, but I'm still curious as to what exactly it was." Pyrrha said to her.

"We'll figure it out later, go out there and kick some butt Ruby." Jaune said encouragingly.

Ruby smiled and nodded, before taking off, leaving a whirlwind of rose petals in her place.

Team JNPR went out to begin fighting off the remaining Grimm and making sure the survivors got to the fenced off area safely.

Ren helped out a group that had suffered heavy casualties, blasting away the Beowolves that were hounding after them. He helped the unhurt carry the wounded to the shelter, with Pyrrha keeping the Grimm off of them.

"We can't thank you enough for this, we would be dead for sure if you hadn't come along." A man said as he helped his injured friend to safety.

"We just happened to be flying by and saw what was happening. It's what we do, you don't need to thank us." Ren said kindly before he heard a roar. He whipped around to see that a Beowolf had jumped out of the woods and was rushing towards a woman, who let out a scream of terror. Ren dashed in front of her and slashed the Beowolf down, slicing open its chest and neck with the blades of the StormFlowers. "Hurry, get inside!" He shouted to the villagers.

"Ren! Hang on!" Pyrrha called as more Grimm began to charge towards the shelter. She threw Milo in javelin form into the back on an Ursa, adding to its death by ramming it further into its torso and suddenly ripping it off as she yanked it out, transforming it into xiphos form and slicing off the feet of a Beowolf.

Ren did his best, helping the civilians into the shelter, but his attention was captured by the sparks flying from the fence, as Beowolves were trying to tear their way through. The armed men inside took shots at them, but would accidently hit the barbed wire, weakening the main line of defense.

"Stop! Don't shoot! You'll let them in!" Ren shouted as he helped people get in. He made his way around and used his weapons to shoot the Grimm off of the fence, stunned that they were managing to bear the pain of the electric shocks. He noticed that the boney spines on their backs and arms were longer and sharper than those on the others, so these were clearly older ones, smart enough to sneak around them and let the other fall to Team Beacon.

Ren did his best to shoot them down, taking out several of them before the largest one dashed past him. Ren pivoted about as he saw the elder Beowolf smash its way through the guards that blocked off the entrance and made its way into the shelter area.

Ren ran as fast as he could to get inside as the Beowolf slammed its claws down on one of the guards, creating long bloody slash marks on his chest. Before the Grimm could do anything else, Ren unloaded half a clip of a StormFlower's ammo into its back, obliterating it.

Pyrrha looked over to the shelter, knowing that wasn't the end of it, as the remaining Grimm were now barging towards the shelter, towards the source of the screams and the fear.

"Ren!" She shouted, "I hate to ask this of you, but you need to use your Semblance!"

"She right!" Jaune added as he fought off an Ursa, "Get everyone inside and use your Semblance, it'll throw them off and make it easier for us to fight them."

"Are you crazy?!" cried Nora, "Renny can't cover that many people!"

"No, they're right! I'll do it." Ren said, before looking to the people around him and ordering "Get inside of the building, now!"

The frightened group of people did so without argument, even as more Grimm approached the fenced off area.

It wasn't long before everyone was inside of the shelter, with Ren being the last to go in. Once he was inside he looked around the crowded, panic-filled one room building and raised his voice. "Alright everybody, listen to me! My Semblance can hide us from the Grimm, but we need to be touching for it to work. Everyone grab onto one another." He ordered.

The frightened group of people did not argue, and while some of them didn't really believe he could do what he claimed, they were in no position to argue. Everyone began either taking each other's hand, placing hands on someone else's body, or simply leaning against one another as Ren took in several deep breaths. He gathered up his aura and got ready to spread it about the crowd as the roars of the Grimm got closer, but so was the sound of his teammates fighting them off.

He could do this. It would be a very draining experience, but he could do it. And then, with as much of his effort as he could, he activated his Semblance, spreading it across the room, shrouding the negative emotions that were attracting the Grimm, as well as making the color on all of the people fade away.

Outside the Grimm stopped, confused. The fear was gone. There was still the ones left back in the village as well as the other in the forest, but the massive gathering of fear that had been in front of them had instantly vanished without so much as a warning.

Jaune and Pyrrha quickly took advantage of the situation, reaching out with the abilities they had due to their Grimm sides to control the creatures of darkness. The creatures all stopped and turned around to face the pair, standing idly, almost submissive to them.

Nora stuck, slamming Magnhild down onto a Boarbatusk, crushing it flat, and then Jaune ran forward, cutting off a Beowolf's head before cutting a second one in half through the chest and then disemboweling another one. Pyrrha shot down several Grimm before controlling them to come towards her, allowing her to impale them with Milo and helping Jaune cut them down.

"I hope Ren's doing okay in there." Jaune said worriedly.

"We'll need to make this quick, for his sake." Pyrrha agreed as she stabbed Milo through the head of a Creep.

"Then let's hurry up!" Nora declared as she began firing grenades at the Grimm, the explosive devices went off, either killing the creatures of Grimm or knocking them off their balance, letting Jaune and Pyrrha finish them off with well placed slashes and stabs of their weapons.

"Careful Nora, we don't want to hit the shelter." Jaune reminded her as he sliced off a Creep's head.

"I know, fearless leader, I'm being careful." The energetic redhead assured him as she smashed a Beowolf into a tree.

Soon enough all the remaining Grimm were taken care of, and the other three members of Team JNPR ran into the shelter to check on Ren.

Once they made it inside they could see Ren on the floor kneeling and panting for breath as he poured all of his energy into his Semblance to keep the villagers shrouded from the Grimm's detection. The color of his skin, eyes, hair, and clothes had been washed out into a dull black and white monochrome, a side effect of his Semblance that spread to whoever was protected by it, so this left all of the gathered civilians rather confused as to what had happened to them, and several children were crying out of fear and distress.

Nora let out a small gasp at the strained look on Ren's face and ran to him while Jaune and Pyrrha made sure there weren't any Grimm following them.

Nora embraced Ren, and once he felt her arms around him he dropped, letting himself fall into her arms, letting his Semblance fall, therefor allowing the color to slowly but surely return.

Jaune and Pyrrha approached their friends as Nora lovingly rubbed Ren's hair. "You did a great job Renny, you did really good." She whispered to him.

"She's right. Thanks for going along with this, are you alright?" Jaune asked, the concern in his voice evident.

Ren nodded as he tried to gather his strength. "I'll be alright. It just took up a lot of my aura. I'll need some rest." He said.

"I'm sorry I suggested it Ren, but I just wanted to…" Pyrrha began, before her friend cut her off.

"Don't apologize, it worked didn't it?" Ren said to her reassuringly. "I'm exhausted, but saving all of these people was worth it. If I can prevent another village from suffering the same fate as mine, it's worth it."

The other members of Team JNPR smiled at their gallant friend and Nora hugged him even tighter, making him struggle to breathe for a few seconds as an old man, one of the town officials, approached them.

"We can't thank you kids enough for saving us, we'd be done for if it wasn't for you." He said.

"Just doing the right thing." Jaune said.

"Don't worry about the washed out color, it's just a side effect of Ren's Semblance, it'll wear off quite soon. Was a call to the Mistral Forces sent out?" Pyrrha inquired.

"Yes, they said they'd arrive as soon as they could, but the nearest base if forty miles from here." The man reported.

"Then they'll be here soon. Our friends should have driven the Grimm off by now, so while your village is damaged, it can be fixed." Jaune said to him.

"I'm just happy that it's still standing and we're still alive." voiced a woman in the crowd.

"This is Shion right? The tourist camping place?" Jaune asked, getting nods in return. He smiled and added "My parents brought me and my sisters here when we were younger, I'm happy we could help."

"Speaking of which, do you think the others need our assistance?" Pyrrha asked.

Jaune looked over to the village, seeing that the fires had been put out but sounds of fighting could still be heard. "I think they're okay without us, let's stay here and make sure no more Grimm try to make a move."

Pyrrha and Nora nodded, and after the latter made sure Ren was going to be alright, headed outside to guard the villagers.

Meanwhile, inside of Shion itself, Blake and Weiss had worked together to use their blue Dust crystals to extinguish the fires and prevent the buildings from burning while everyone else fought off the Grimm. Ross' ship was still the air, blasting away Vampires and Scavengers, forcing the sole remaining Nevermore away.

"This is the fifth Grimm attack in as many days." Blake said to Weiss as they worked in tandem, fighting the dying flames and reducing them to mere embers.

"I know, it's worrying for more than a few reasons." The Schnee heiress agreed and she easily stabbed Myrtenaster backwards, into the side of a retreating Beowolf that had tried to run past them.

"You think Salem's up to something?" Yang asked as she came up from behind them, sweaty and covered with soot from the flames, plus a few scratches from fighting the Grimm.

"Those monsters are always up to something, but this increase in Grimm attacks has me worried, but confused. They've only been attacking Mistral, Vacuo, and Vale, they've left my home country untouched aside from the usual skirmish." Weiss said to her.

"That is odd, so it means they're probably trying to start something." Yang agreed, "But we can worry about that later, Ruby, Coco, and Sun came up with a plan. We're gonna herd the Grimm into the center of town so Ruby can finish 'em off. Wanna help?"

"You don't even have to ask." Weiss said, and she and Blake put out one final flame, reducing it to mere smoke.

Ever since Ruby's experience in the mindscape with Argenteus and awakening the small piece of her mother's soul within her, Ruby had gained greater control over the powers of her silver eyes, and while she couldn't use them whenever she wanted, they rarely ever let her down when she was fighting a large amount of Grimm. She had learned to respect her gift and not use it more than necessary, so she only used it when they were facing something major.

An attack like this was certainly major.

In the town square Ruby jumped out of the way of a Beringel's fist as it tried to smash her into the ground. It roared in anger as she dodged its attacks over and over. She jumped over it, firing off multiple shots from Crescent Rose, but did little except enrage the large Grimm. It swiped at her, knocking her into a wall of a building.

Ruby grunted as she leapt away, narrowly avoiding the giant fist that smashed into the wall, creating hole. "Man I hope the villagers won't get angry." Ruby muttered to herself as she ducked under another swing of its fist. The hand shot out to grab her, but Ruby swung the deadly blade of Crescent Rose, severing the fingers from the hand.

The Beringel roared in fury as it jumped over Ruby and used its hind legs to kick her away, into the main street. The Silver Eyed girl quickly recovered and opened fire with her beloved weapon, creating multiple smoking wounds of the primeape Grimm.

All of a sudden a white blur streaked past them, and a razor-like cut appeared on the Beringel's chest, making it roar in pain. Ruby smiled as Weiss stopped, the glyphs under her granting her the speed needed to make the sudden attack.

"Are you alright?" She asked Ruby.

"A-okay. Thanks for the help." Ruby said to her partner with a smile. The Beringel roared at them, only to have its attention be robbed by Yang and Blake as they shot the large Grimm in the side.

Ruby saw her chance and took it, without another word she used her Semblance to dash towards and around the large Grimm, a whirlwind of black, gray, and red appeared around the Beringel, with rose petals swirling around like a tornado. The Grimm roared and tried to escape, only for Ruby to come to a sudden stop and slam the scythe blade of Crescent Rose deep into the creature's chest.

It's roar was cut off by Ruby blasting Crescent Rose at point blank range, obliterating its head.

Ruby took Crescent Rose down as the body of the Beringel dissipated and her team gathered around her.

"Nice kill, Rubes." Yang praised as she kept her eyes open for the coming Grimm.

"Thanks Yang, are the others making progress?" Ruby asked as she reloaded her precious weapon.

"Yeah, they're working with the local Hunters and the guys who are good enough to fight and are corralling them here for you." Her sister confirmed before jumping up in the air and using her cybernetic arm to grab the wing of a Vampire as it tried to dive bomb them. She slammed it into the dirt as she came down and Blake finished it off with a well placed shot to the head.

"Nice reflexes, Yang. You're getting better." Weiss said, rather impressed.

"Thanks, the more I train with this bad boy, the more it feels like a real part of my body." Yang replied.

A loud roar sounded off as a Beowolf went flying out on an alleyway, and was then recieved a hole in its chest courtesy of Penny's arm cannon. About a dozen or so other Grimm stormed out between buildings and out into the open, where Team RWBY quickly took them out.

"Looks like Penny's doing her part." Weiss commented.

Said robotic girl appeared atop a building that flanked the alleyway, jumping onto higher ground as she fought off several Beowolves with ease.

"Need some help Penny?" Ruby offered.

"Thank you Ruby, but I am doing exceptional at the moment." Penny reported as her swords ripped through the Grimm. "The others are making their way here, Coco and her team are coming from the east side while Team SSSN are driving the Grimm from the north side of the village. I just handled the south and I think the four of you have done quite well clearing the west."

Ruby and the others knew she was right, they could hear the sounds of fighting coming from the north and the east, and could see bursts of Dust energy as well as dust kicked up by the fighting.

"Almost ready, you better get into position Ruby." Blake suggested as she sliced a Creep's tongue off.

The leader of the team nodded, and said in a voice rich with determination "Now let's finish this!"

Weiss created a series of glyphs leading up the tallest building in the town square, allowing Ruby to get to the top with ease. She took out Crescent Rose and looked through the sniper scope to get a look on her friends' progress. Sure enough Team CFVY and the local defense groups were working in tandem to force the Grimm towards the town square, with Velvet using copies of melee weapons to fight the Grimm before her to prevent property damage. When a Deathstalker came at the Rabbit Faunus, she created a copy of Crocea Mors to sever its tail, and then used copies of the StormFlowers to slice off its legs, and then impaled its head with a copy of Sage's sword.

Coco was using the same tactic, not using the minigun form of the purse, and instead just slamming the bag into the Grimm hard enough to either destroy them or make them run. Yatsuhashi demolished any Grimm he could with his sword, slashing the beasts into fading pieces. Fox was quicker than the others, darting about with his bladed gauntlets out, landing carefully placed, fatal cuts to the Grimm that severed limbs and slashed open gaping wounds that either killed them instantly or weakened them enough for the other members of Team CFVY to finish them off.

To the north came Team SSSN, with Scarlet cutting and shooting down Grimm with his weapons, while occasionally tripping them with the grappling hook for his teammates to finish off. A sneaky Beowolf tried to attack Scarlet from behind, and just when Ruby was about to help him out by shooting the Grimm, the pirate boy whipped around and slashed it across the chest while shooting it in the face at the same time. Ruby made a mental note to congratulate him on the nice moves later.

Neptune currently had his weapon in its Guandao form, and he moved about as quickly as he could, cutting the Grimm off from their feet and legs, or cutting their sides wide open, or even landing a good slash on the neck to decapitate them. Sage put his sword to good use, slashing Grimm apart this way and that, all the while driving them further towards the town square.

Sun, however, was the most effective, using his weapons expertly as he blasted Grimm in a variety of ways while sending his Semblance created doubled to either explode against the Grimm or lure them towards the town square. Ruby watched as he used Ruyi Bang's connecting chain to wrap around the neck of a Beowolf while also shooting the nunchaku off into a Boarbatusk before finishing off the wolf Grimm, and then pivoting about to blast up an Ursa that had tried to maul him from behind, getting help from Neptune who stabbed his weapon right into the Ursa's neck.

While Ross piloted his ship about the area to shoot down or drive away the flying Grimm, the local Huntsmen helped her friends in driving the ever diminishing horde of Grimm closer and closer to her, but Ruby knew the end was near as she heard the sounds of airships not too far away. She looked up to the north and sure enough half a dozen Mistral Defense Force airship were incoming, all ready for action.

"Looks like the MDF finally got here." Yang voiced, "Better late than never. Whaddya say Rubes? Should we let them take it from here?"

Ruby shook her head and said "No, I want to make sure these Grimm get the picture and don't try to attack again."

Her teammates all nodded. "We'll shout when the time's right." Weiss said to her. With that the three young women, and Penny, quickly went to hide among the buildings, getting ready for the right time to strike.

Ruby closed her eyes and took several deep, calming breaths as she felt a warmth cover her entire body, an empowering feeling surged through her, her aura began to subtly glow, and the older Grimm that were unfortunate enough to still be in the village all looked up in alarm, this distraction allowed the members of Team Beacon and the local Hunters a chance to kill them, cutting down the Grimm's numbers even more.

Ruby's aura began to swell within her as she gripped Crescent Rose, waiting for her friends to get the Grimm in the right place. She felt a comforting presence around her, something she felt every time she used the powers of her eyes since since she had merged her aura with the portion of her late mother's own, which had laid dormant within her ever since her mother died.

She had gotten better at controlling her powers in the recent months, but she knew she still didn't have a complete grasp of them nor their full potential, but she was getting better. At first there had been a slight issue with Jaune and Pyrrha, since they still had the essence of alpha Grimm within them and her aura, now that it had merged with the more heightened aura of Summer Rose would sometimes perceive Jaune and Pyrrha as threats, which put them very much on edge due to their senses of their Grimm essence. Eventually, however, they had managed to work together through various missions and group meditation to make sure none of them saw each other as a threat, but Ruby couldn't afford to think about the past right now. She needed to keep her mind in the present for the sake of the village and victory over the Grimm.

On ground level, most of what was left of the Grimm horde flooded into the town square, driven further in by Teams CFVY and SSSN, as well as the local Hunters and armed law enforcers. Some of the Grimm tired to run, only to be blocked off by Weiss, using her glyphs to create ice blockades to bar them within the town square, aided by the other members of Team Beacon standing their ground to prevent them from escaping. Yang, Blake, and Penny all jumped out to join in, shooting or stabbing any Grimm that made a break for it.

"Now Ruby!" Weiss shouted. She looked up to see her partner begin to open her eyes… just as a large Beowolf appeared behind her. "Ruby! Look out!"

Ruby whipped around and smashed her fist right into the Beowolf's midsection, mortally wounding it. Her eyes opened and a brilliant light shone out of them, Ruby used her Semblance and her gift to smash through the Beowolf, reducing it to mere dust.

She looked down upon the Grimm below her, the light of her eyes freezing some of them. Ruby whipped out Crescent Rose and jumped to the ground.

Her attack had begun.

Ruby moved like a speeding bullet, her eyes freezing the Grimm in place while the blade of Crescent Rose cut them down to size; heads, arms, legs, torsos, and the like went everywhere as Ruby destroyed what was left of the Grimm Horde. The blade went this way and that, arcs of steel easily sliced through the Grimm, and those that had managed to miraculously avoid her silver eyes were blasted or cut down by the other members of Team Beacon.

Within twenty seconds, all of the Grimm were dead, either fading away or frozen due to the power of the silver eyes. Ruby stood triumphant, holding Crescent Rose upside down, behind her as a flurry of rose petals came to rest near her.

"Way to go little sister!" Cheered Yang as she rushed over and slapped her on the back, the silver light of her eyes dimming. "We totally kicked their butts, but you kicked 'em to the moon and back!"

Ruby smiled and said "Thanks Yang, everyone alright?"

"Team Beacon is all good." Sun reported. "Don't know about JNPR, but knowing them I don't think we got much to worry about."

"I'll go check on them, just to be sure." Sage volunteered. Sun nodded and the green-haired Huntsman took off for the shelter as Ross' ship came to land close to the shelter, as the MDF airships landed much nearer to the village

"Ruby Rose, correct?" Asked a man, the local Huntsman. Ruby nodded and the man smiled, before bowing his head to her. "We owe you and your team a great debt, Miss Rose. We wouldn't have lasted this long on our own. Some good people lost their lives tonight, but more would have died had it not been for all of you. Thank you all."

The other local Hunters and law enforcers bowed their heads as well, showing respect to the Hunters-in-training.

Ruby and the others smiled, but Coco was the one to speak up with "No need to bow, we're just doing our jobs, and we're happy to have helped."

"What she said." Agreed Ruby, blushing slightly, "But thanks for the gratitude, and I hope your village can recover from this."

"Don't worry, the physical damage can be mended, but thanks to you kids our home is still standing, and most of us are still alive. Thank you once again." The Huntsman said gratefully.

Team Beacon nodded back, before Blake used a red Dust crystal within Gambol Shroud to melt down the ice barricades Weiss had created, and the MDF troops came in to secure the town.

"Hey, sir." Ruby spoke up to the Huntsman, "We're uh… kinda friends with General Ironwood and he's kinda made it a thing that whenever I freeze Grimm like this a ship from the Atlas Military has to come and get them, so can you make sure no one messes with them until an Atlas ship shows up?" Ruby asked.

"She's right, we better call Ironwood's office and make sure they know we've got some Grimm specimens for 'em." Coco agreed.

The Huntsman nodded, and said "Understood, I'll talk to the MDF guys, and make sure the townspeople don't come near them, and I'm going to have them send their medics with you to check up on the townspeople. And one last time, for all of Shion, thank you, Team Beacon."

Ruby smiled and bowed her head to him. "You're welcome. Good luck." She wished him.

Ruby followed the others to the shelter and Ross' ship while the Huntsman and the other defenders met up with the MDF, and Ruby couldn't get rid of the proud feeling inside of her, knowing that they had saved lives. It was a feeling she always loved to experience.

Meanwhile, Pyrrha and Nora were currently approaching the opening of the forest, after spotting a pack of seven Beowolves moving through the trees. Nora had launched a grenade, but wanted to make sure she had eliminated them.

"The trees look scorched, and most of the tracks stop with the blast radius." Pyrrha said as she carefully observed the ground.

"Can you sense the rest of them?" Nora asked.

Pyrrha closed her eyes, using her Grimm senses to try and detect any others. She nodded to Nora, signifying she did. She slowly got up and took out Milo in rifle form, she took aim carefully and fired three times. Two roars went off, only to be suddenly silenced, while a third went on and got closer.

The last Beowolf jumped out of the foliage, only to be smashed into a tree by Nora.

"Got 'em!" Nora cheered. Pyrrha smiled as she put her weapon away. An old part of her would have felt guilty about this, but she had learned that the Wyvern she had been partnered with was a higher species of Grimm, to the point where they could be considered real animals with Grimm traits, therefore she had no guilt when it came to taking out normal Grimm.

Just then her scroll rang. She quickly answered it to hear Jaune's voice. "Hey Pyr, Sage just got back. The battle's over and the MDF got here, but Ruby and the others took all of the Grimm out and they're on their way back. Did you get the Beowolves?"

"Yes, we just finished up." She told him.

"Okay, just in time. Ross' ship has landed, I'm going to help Ren aboard." Jaune said to her.

"We'll be right there." Pyrrha replied.

"Good, be safe. Love you." He finished.

"Love you too." She returned before ending the call. "Ruby and the others have won and the MDF has arrived, so it's about time we left. We better get back and help Jaune get Ren aboard. Nora?"

Nora wasn't paying attention, which wasn't too unusual, but what was unusual was what she was looking at. "Hey Pyrrha, look at this." She beckoned, gesturing to a tree that had been uprooted, with several long claw marks slashed across its bark.

"What in…" Pyrrha said quietly before she walked forward to get a good look. "What could have done this?"

"Maybe a super old Alpha Grimm." Nora suggested.

Some species of Grimm could generate their own negative emotions, therefore allowing them to lead entire hordes of Grimm, while others started out as normal Grimm and became more intelligent with age, and would gain new abilities as they grew older. It was possible, however unlikely, that the creature that had uprooted this tree had been such a Grimm.

Pyrrha considered it as she examined the claw marks. "That a good theory, and it would explain the presence Jaune and I felt earlier. I don't think I'll be able to identify its tracks though, your grenade destroyed them, and the tall grass up ahead makes it unlikely we'll find more." She pointed out.

Nora blushed, a bit embarrassed. "Sorry."

"It's alright. Another mystery for another time. Besides, whatever it was it's gotten the message that this village wasn't easy to attack. We'll advise the MDF to keep on lookout." Pyrrha stated.

Nora nodded and said "Gotcha, now let's get back to Renny and the others."

The energetic redhead ran back to the shelter with her friend close behind. Had they ventured further into the forest, past the tall grass, they would have seen the tracks of the Grimm that had led the attack… tracks that resembled those of a rather large horse.

As the two returned they found Jaune helping Ren into the ship, while Teams RWBY, CFVY, and the rest of SSSN arriving with the medics brought by the MDF.

"The people are inside of the building, do you want us to have them bring the wounded out?" Sun asked the lead medic.

"No, we'll check on them inside." The lead medic answered before leading his teams inside of the shelter, the guards coming out to keep a watch for anymore Grimm.

As Pyrrha told the head medic, as well as the armed locals about the possibility of a large Grimm being in the surrounding area, Nora ran to Ren's side and helped Jaune carry Ren's weight. "Are you okay? You're not hurt are you?" She asked.

"I'm alright, Nora. I just need some sleep, I burned my aura out, no different from when we have a tough match." Ren, whose color had now fully returned, assured her softly.

"What happened?" Questioned Blake.

"The Grimm started going after the shelter, so I suggested Ren use his Semblance to shroud the villagers' fear so the Grimm would become confused. Making it easier for us to fight them off." Pyrrha answered as the head medic called in her information to the commanding officer.

"He was able to use his Semblance on that many people?" Velvet asked, impressed.

Coco nodded, "Makes sense, he was able to spread his aura about over a small area, if only for short period of time."

"And thank goodness it worked." Pyrrha voiced, "I almost regret asking him to do it."

"I don't." Ren spoke up. Jaune and Nora helped him turn around to face Pyrrha. The usually stoic ninja smiled and said "Saving lives is always worth it."

Everyone smiled and nodded in agreement, with Ruby saying "That's something I know will always be true."

"So we woke up early, saved the day before the sun even came up, and killed who knows how many Grimm. Now I say we all celebrate this by posing and looking totally badass and sexy!" Yang declared before taking out a pair of sunglasses on her face. Ruby, Sun, and Nora laughed while Blake, Pyrrha, Jaune, Coco, and most of the others just smiled. Weiss and Fox, however, just rolled their eyes. The brawler then looked at Ruby, Weiss, and Penny. "Except for the three of you, you're not allowed to be sexy."

"Aw…" whined Ruby sadly.

"What?!" Weiss shouted, enraged. This got Fox to actually laugh, as it did Coco, both laughing at what Yang had just said and the furious look on the heiress' face while Velvet's jaw had slightly dropped at the sheer ludicrous nature of the scene before her.

"Well all three of you can kick ass, but my sister's not going to be considered sexy by anyone who doesn't want a piece of my fist, Penny's just too innocent, and you're… well kinda…" Yang struggled to justify herself.

"If you make so much as one mention of my chest size I will…" Weiss began when Ruby went over to her.

"She's just joking Weiss, you know Yang." The girl in the red hood said, trying to calm her partner down.

"You shouldn't worry Weiss, and neither should you Ruby, I think both of you are sexy." Penny announced, making everyone look at her and noticing that she now had on sunglasses identical to Yang's.

Sun, Neptune, and Scarlet all fell on their knees laughing at this and Coco, Jaune, Pyrrha, and Nora all had a hard time keeping their composure, Fox was openly chuckling, and even Blake and the tired out Ren were giggling along with Velvet.

Ruby glared at the smirking Yang and pointed at her accusingly. "You planned this, didn't you?"

"I did indeed dear sister of mine. I simply had to give Penny the bait, and wait for the right time to strike." Yang said proudly as her little sister let out a groan.

Weiss kept struggling, wanting to give Yang a very angry piece of her mind, but now Ruby had help from Yatsuhashi in order to hold her back.

"Weiss, you gotta calm down." Ruby said calmingly.

Weiss looked like she was about to say something when Jaune's oldest sister, Bianca, came out of the ship. "Everything okay out here?" She asked.

"Everything's fine Bianca, we're just messing around." Jaune said to her as he and Nora went back to helping Ren onto the ship.

Bianca nodded and looked out to the horizon. "Sun's about to begin rising." She observed, making everyone look or glance over to see it.

"Too early for these." Yang said as she took off her sunglasses, and then looked to Weiss. "Hey, sorry if I hurt your feelings. I was just joking around, so nothing personal, okay?" She asked.

Weiss gave her a judgemental look before sighing and saying "Very well Yang, just promise to lay off on the jokes."

Ruby nodded to Yatsuhashi, who then released Weiss.

"Hey, I didn't really mean it, I mean you still got beauty where it counts." Yang assured her teammate, and the white haired girl nodded proudly.

"I know, I'm just… sensitive about certain subjects." She admitted.

"Kiss and make up later you two, I think we should get moving. We still got a little ways to go." Coco said as she led her team up the ram, with Scarlet and Sage close behind them.

Weiss shook her head at Coco's bluntness before nodding before looking to Yang and saying "Apology accepted."

"Nice to know. Let's say we get aboard guys?" Yang asked the others.

"Sounds good to me." Sun answered as he walked up the ramp behind Pyrrha. Blake and Yang followed in suite, with the Cat Faunus whispering something to her partner.

"Hey, Weiss, don't let one of Yang's jokes get to you. You know she doesn't mean it." Neptune said to his one time girlfriend. "And besides, I know they're a lot of guys and girls who'd love to be in a relationship with you. I know I was lucky to be once."

Weiss smiled at him, "Thank you, it means a lot."

He returned the smile before going up the ramp with Bianca.

Ruby came up alongside her partner and said "He's right, you know. Well, not in a romantic way, but I know we're all happy to have you as a friend. And I know I'm happy and lucky to have you as my partner."

Weiss' smile widened before she said "And I feel the same way, Ruby. Thank you."

"Anytime. Now let's get on the ship, we still have a visit to make." Ruby said before she noticed Penny still had Yang's spare pair of sunglasses on.

"Penny, did Yang tell you to give her sunglasses back?" Ruby asked, a mischievous smile spreading across her lips.

"No she didn't. She just told me to put them on when she mentioned the words 'let's pose', though now I know it was so she could make another one of her jokes. Why do you want to know?" Penny asked.

"Well I'll take them and give them to her later, is that okay?" Ruby asked.

"Very well Ruby!" Penny said cheerfully as she gave the glasses to her friend.

Ruby then dropped them on the ground. A smirk spread across Weiss' face, while Penny wore one of confusion. She was about to ask why Ruby had done that, when she quickly understood.

"Oh, payback." She observed.

"It's a sister thing. I'll show her who's the cute one." Ruby said smartly.

"So you do not think you are cute?" Penny asked, confused.

"No… well I think I am… but not in… oh let's just get on the ship." Ruby said, finally giving up. Weiss smiled and patted her partner on the shoulder before grabbing her hand and dragging her up the ramp.

Penny shrugged and followed them into the ship, as she had learned that even her human friends didn't understand their own actions.

The ramp closed up and ship carefully rose into the air and took off into the early morning sky, just as the sun was beginning to glimpse over the horizon, leaving behind a village that was still standing because of Team Beacon.

Cinder's eyes opened to see a ceiling that did not belong to her current bedroom, as it was white plaster as opposed to dark steel. Blinking quickly she shot up in the bed and observed her surroundings, seeing an ordinary living room with an average, if comfortable, couch that she had been sleeping on, a couple of recliner chairs, a coffee table, several bookshelves, a TV, as well as several pictures of...

She did a double take upon glimpsing her reflection in the glass of the photographs; the scar wasn't there, but that wasn't the only thing that caught her attention; the people in the photographs on the wall; it was her brother. And his lover… and a young girl she didn't recognize…

Suddenly she heard rushing footsteps approaching her, and in came the girl from the pictures. She was a bit skinny, with pale skin similar to her own, she was five or six, with dark black hair and had amber eyes similar to her own, but there was a youthful, with a bouncy energy and innocence to them.

Cinder was speechless as the girl hopped on to the couch in front of Cinder's legs, saying "Aunt Cinder! You're awake!"

"Wh- what?" Cinder said quietly, utterly confused as she felt her face, feeling no trace of the scar Ruby Rose had given her.

"You and daddy were sparring last night, and wouldn't stop until one of you won, so you fought all night and then you won, and then you went to sleep and now…"

"Jenny! I think you should let Aunt Cinder get some rest." Said the voice of a woman. Cinder looked up to see someone who was supposed to be dead standing in the entryway; Mila.

"But mommy I…"

"No buts, come on, time for breakfast. Want some Pumpkin Pete's?" Mila asked her daughter.

"Yeah!" The girl now identified as Jenny declared as she jumped off the couch, before whirling around to face Cinder and ask "You want some too Aunt Cinder?"

"I… I…" Cinder tried to say, utterly confused.

Mila gave Cinder a concerned look before kneeling down towards her daughter and saying "I think Aunt Cinder's still too sleepy for breakfast, you can hang out with her later, okay? Once she's gotten some more sleep then she can eat lunch with you and then she can show you some of her fire tricks. How's that sound?"

"It's sounds awesome! I'll go start breakfast! See you later Aunt Cinder, love you!" The girl said before darting out of the room and into the kitchen.

Mila chuckled before looking to Cinder, her face serious. "Are you alright?"

"You should be dead." Cinder said bluntly as she tried to think about her situation.

Mla looked shocked by what her sister-in-law just said before walking over to her and placing a hand on her forehead. "Are you feeling alright? Did he land that many hits on you?" She asked.

"He… Ashe… Where is he?" Cinder asked, her voice shaky.

"Do want to have another spar? Because if you do I'm gonna have to…" Mila was cut off by Cinder grabbing her.

"Where is he?" Cinder demanded.

"Right here." Said the voice of her dead brother. Cinder turned around to see him, wearing a dark shirt with jeans, and his face looked… brighter, the look in his eyes he had when they had reunited in Haven, a look of sadness and numbness, of anger and violence was gone, now there was a lightness to him, as if the burdens he had bore for years were gone. He looked happy.

She got up from the couch and slowly made her way over to him and tried to touch him, but once her hand landed on his face there was this odd sensation that was similar to touching someone, but it was… numb, like touching a solid shadow, there was something off, as though he wasn't real.

"I'm dreaming, aren't I?" She said.

Ashe's face darkened as he nodded. His eyes became dull and dark, tired and sad as he said "Yes."

Cinder turned around, only to now see Mila, a blade stabbed into her chest with blood pouring out of the wound and of her mouth, that was giving off a serene smile that was all too disturbing for Cinder to see.

She looked around the room, which was beginning to blur and fade, twist and darken. The pictures, however, were all too clear.

The photos had changed, now the faces of Amber, the Fall Maiden, Nikos, Rose, Arc, Raven Branwen, Roman Torchwick, and... her parents were all looking directly at her with hateful, accusing glares.

Ashe came into her field of view, and now he was wearing the dark outfit he had in Haven, his face looked tired and defeated, with just a small touch of something resembling happiness. He went behind Mila's bleeding, pale form and wrapped his arms lovingly around her.

"This home, this family was what Mila and I could have been had we gotten our happy ending." Ashe said to her as he became pale, his hair was now matted with blood and his face showed multiple bruises and scars as his jacket slowly disintegrated, showing off his his scarred and bruised body.

Jenny now ran into the room and embraced her parents, and Cinder noticed the joyful, loving, and innocent smile on her face as she nuzzled into her mother's hip and her father's stomach. Cinder noticed she had a bright aura about her, in stark contrast to the grim scene before her.

"Maybe this little girl would have been our child had Jude not killed Mila. Maybe it would have been a boy. It doesn't matter anymore." Ashe said with a pained voice as the young girl began to fade away.

Both Ashe and Mila dropped to their knees and wrapped their arms around the girl, Mila coughing up blood as she did so. Jenny whispered something to her parents and then turned to face Cinder, tears pouring down her face and yet she still wore a pure smile.

"Why?" She said to Cinder, before bursting apart into light, disappearing before her eyes.

"I… I…" Cinder tried to say before she looked at Ashe, now holding a dead Mila in his arms.

"You wanted more Cinder. More power, and she gave it to you. I hope you're happy." Ashe said hatefully as he rose up, carrying the dead body of his beloved in his arms and walking towards Cinder.

Cinder breathed in and stood her ground. "Yes, I had to have more power. Our family could have shared in that had mother and father not been so blind."

"Who's really the blind one here?" Said the voice of Ember Kasai.

Cinder jumped, and quickly looked around the darkening, fading room for the source of the voice, but saw nothing, except that the pictures on the walls were now blank.

When her eyes came back to Ashe he was right in front of her… and her hand had pierced his chest.

Now she could feel him. She could feel the bone, muscle, and flesh her hand had slammed through. She could feel his blood covering her arm. She could feel his heart in her hand.

He dropped Mila, who faded into dust and scattered about the floor, and slumped forward.

"You think you have power? You think you're a force to be reckoned with? No Cinder, you're nothing. Nothing but Salem's pawn." He said to her.

"No!" Cinder yelled furiously as she sent a burst of fire into his body, which exploded out of his back.

Her eyes now wide with horror, Cinder withdrew her arm from Ashe's body as he began to fade.

"You must love killing me. You enjoyed it. You probably savored it when you killed me. Didn't you?" He accused.

"No… no I…"

"Face it. You're nothing. You'll always be nothing as long as you serve her." The dream vision of Ashe said as he faded into nothingness.

Cinder watched as the room around her came apart and fell off into a dark void, leaving her utterly alone.

"I have to wake up. This is just a dream…" She said to herself.

"Yes it is." Said the voice of her mother. Cinder turned to see a ghostly version of her parents standing before her.

"A bit different from your usual dreams of power and destruction, isn't it?" Her father, Kojin.

"Don't blame me for this!" Cinder shouted. "We all could have benefitted from this, if you two hadn't been such cowards! You could have joined her, but you chose the weak path!"

"No. You chose the weak path. Look at yourself, my daughter, you're nothing more than a servant to a great evil, who holds the real power." Ember told her.

"And as long as you are subservient to Salem, you will always be weak." Kojin said to her bluntly.

"You're wrong." Cinder barked.

"No. We speak the truth, but your anger, lust for power, and arrogance have blinded you to the fact that whatever power you have is nothing compared to hers." Ember scolded.

"She's using you, and you're letting her." added Kojin.

"As long as you're her pawn, you'll never have true power." Ember said darkly as she began to fade away.

"Lies. You just want to hold me back. You always did! That's why I had to kill you…" Cinder stopped herself. "It wasn't my fault…"

"Yes it was. Salem poisoned your mind with lies as she promised you power…" Kojin said as he faded.

"A power that doesn't belong to you." Said a voice from behind her.

Before Cinder could even begin to turn around a blunt object bashed her in the side of the head, knocking her down. She fell flat on her back, before she felt something being held to her throat. She opened her eyes and saw…

"Does the corpse wear a familiar face?" Asked Amber, the last Fall Maiden.

"You're nothing! You're just a dream!" Cinder shouted furiously.

"Oh yes, this is just a dream. But dreams can be dangerous. You dreamed of having power, and now look where you are." Amber said as the tip of her spear elongated, becoming sharper. "You're such a sad, pathetic person. It is unfortunate that Salem promised you a gift that was never truly yours. You never had a claim to this power, it's a gift that you have misused and corrupted."

"I use these powers better than you ever could!" Cinder yelled as she threw Amber off. Using her Semblance Cinder illuminated the area, only to see nothing but darkness.

Amber laughed at her, a laugh that was mocking yet pitying at the same time. "Misery. That's the path you've chosen." All of a sudden her voice had a powerful echo to it, as if many women were speaking through Amber. "And be afraid, because the things you did to me, are nothing compared to what's going to happen to you."

Cinder let out a snarl of fury as she unleashed a barrage of fire onto Amber's body, destroying her.

"I have to wake up. This madness needs to end." Cinder said angrily.

"Does it ever?" Asked a voice she had not heard in a long time.

"Torchwick." She said as she glanced over to see him, leaning on his cane.

"I knew you saw me as the man of your dreams." He said cockily as he strolled over to her. "And best of all, you can't kill me 'cause I'm already dead!" Cinder raised her hand and lit a fireball, "Oh sure, that old song and dance. So predictable. They're right you know; as long as you remain the queen's faithful little pawn, you're not going to get much further in life. Take it from me, I learned it the hard way."

With that the late great thief vanished into the darkness, leaving Cinder alone once again.

"This has gotten ridiculous. I don't feel guilty for their deaths…" She said to herself, but she knew she regretted killing Ashe. So maybe…

All of a sudden a ferocious, yet familiar roar echoed through the dark void. Cinder quickly looked up to see the shape of a large beast flying downwards right at her. She jumped out of the way as the massive form of the Wyvern slammed into the ground, bellowing out a roar as it crashed.

Cinder created fires on both of her hands as she saw a figure riding atop the dragon Grimm rose up on all fours, maw open and ready to attack. Cinder looked up to see a rider upon the dragon, one she was all too familiar with.

"Nikos." She hissed.

Pyrrha looked down on Cinder and asked her a simple, yet familiar question; "Do you believe in destiny?"

Cinder let out a scream of fury as she unleashed a massive blast of fire that the Wyvern easily charged through. She tried to get out of the way, but it was no use, as her legs were caught in the mouth of the giant Grimm.

Cinder's body was being tossed this way and that like a ragdoll, the teeth of the Wyvern biting down into her legs, yet she felt no pain from what should be an excruciating attack, another sign that this was a dream.

The Wyvern threw her aside and Cinder went skidding across the floor of the void, that looked no different from the rest of the surroundings. She tried to get up but couldn't, she looked down to see her legs were ruined, yet she felt no pain from them. In fact she felt nothing but a numbness, an odd feeling like sand coursing through one's body.

And yet she could still feel the odd sensation of touch as someone grabbed her legs and began to drag her away. She looked up to see Jaune Arc hauling her by the legs. He stopped and hauled her up so they were facing each other, he gave her an evil grin and said "Fully deserved."

He began to land a series of quick punches on her, but aside from brief flashes of pain, she felt nothing but the numbness, which quickly drowned out any harm she felt. Something was wrong about this numbness. It was like she couldn't feel what was happening to her body aside from brief flashes and yet she was seeing it, she knew what was happening.

Jaune suddenly picked her up and tossed her over to another area, which was suddenly bathed in an all-too familiar silver light.

"Hello, teacher." Said the taunting voice of Ruby Rose.

Cinder looked up to see her enemy approaching her with Crescent Rose in hand. Ruby placed a foot upon Cinder's chest and held up her scythe. Cinder knew what was coming. She didn't fight it.

Ruby slashed Crescent Rose down, and Cinder felt pain once again, but not just a flash, this time it was a hot, searing pain exactly like what she had felt when she had first gotten her scar. No matter how much she tried to hold it, her scream of anguish erupted out and echoed everywhere as the blackness surrounding her shattered like glass and began to fall around her.

As Cinder clutched her face she could hear the taunting laughter of Ruby, Amber, and many others. She tried to block it out, and whispered a meditation mantra she had learned but the taunting, ghostly laughs became even louder, loud enough to force Cinder to cover her ears.

"Murderer."

"Pawn."

"Puppet."

"Traitor."

"Liar."

"You're weak."

"And you killed your family because you were weak."

"Your fault."

"All your fault."

"STOP!" She screamed.

And suddenly, there was silence.

Cinder slowly uncovered her head and looked up, to see that she was now on a giant chessboard, surrounded by statute version of Emerald, Mercury, Watts, Hazel, Tyrian, Sheer Kaa, Ante, Ziz, Sherizawa, and others, while figures of Torchwick, Adam, and Giger, among others, had been tossed aside off of the board. The other side of the board had all of the members of Team Beacon, along with Qrow Branwen, Glynda Goodwitch, Ironwood, and many others.

Suddenly a giant shadow loomed over her, and she knew who it was. A feeling of dread took over her body as she slowly turned around to see a giant Salem looking down on her with a calm, knowing smile.

"Shall we make our next move, my little pawn?" The Mistress of Grimm asked as her hand moved towards Cinder.

The current Fall Maiden tried to move, but found herself paralyzed as the white hand with dark veins approached her.

One finger gently extended outwards and touched her on the head, and a great, burning pain enveloped Cinder's body and she let out a horrible scream once again.

In a bright flash of light, a raven flew towards her.

Cinder shot up in her bed, clutching her face and letting out a gasp, as she finally woke from her nightmare.

She looked around her room in her current location, realizing she was alright and that everything she had just witnessed was nothing more than a dream.

A dream she wouldn't forget anytime soon.

The topic of dreams reminded her of what her master had said about Ruby Rose, as some months ago, shortly after the grand meeting, Salem had felt one of the oldest of the elder Grimm, the Dream Eater, perish at the hands of Rose and another warrior that she theorized was one of the Remnant Knights.

Ever since learning that the Knights had openly allied themselves with the Guardians of Remnant and the Councils yet again, Salem had ordered her forces to keep a low profile, while she had her pawns in high places begin to do their dirty work; threats of closing borders, taxation disputes, trade issues, and all the while she had the Grimm Commanders send out their hordes to attack villages in Vale, Vacuo, and Mistral, stirring up even more unease and negativity.

Cinder, Thorn, Anastasia, and the others were all ordered to train even harder, to prepare themselves for the coming battles, which apparently weren't far off. The Red Fang had been sent to cause chaos here and there, with Tyrian Callows overseeing their missions, and occasionally stepping in when he got excited.

Cinder herself felt like they were wasting time, they only had a year or so left before the seventh millennium began, which was supposed to be the beginning of the Age of Grimm, according to Salem herself, and yet they were still biding their time when they should be hunting the Maidens and the Relics down.

But they had no choice to do what Salem commanded. She could do nothing without her master's approval.

Just like the nightmares had said.

She got off of her bed and walked into the bathroom, turning on the light and quickly collecting some water from the sink to wash off her face, which had become covered with a sheen of sweat.

She looked into the mirror, the scar a distracting mark on what was otherwise a beautiful face. She lightly touched the scar gently, remembering the horrible pain she had been dealt that night; first by Ruby and then by her master, branding her with the scar as punishment for her failure at Haven. She remembered the humiliation of writhing in pain on the floor as everyone watched, without comparison the loss at Haven was the worst defeat of her life, she had never suffered such embarrassment before.

The more she looked at her reflection, the more Cinder began to think about her situation.

She thought about the Aura Crystal; if it truly was so powerful, than why hadn't Salem admitted as much when she first turned to her side? The Answer had been simple; pretending that the crystal was nothing more than a religious bauble that would hold her down was one of the main reasons Cinder had joined her.

Why did she kill her parents? Because they were holding her back. But was that the only reason? Salem had revealed that Ember had at one point been the Summer Maiden, who traded her powers away to another candidate for a peaceful life guarding the crystal. Ember had been a Maiden, and had a run in with Salem's forces and had bested them. She remembered what she told Salem about Ashe learning the Haakskeekah, her master had said that even in death Ember found ways to spite her.

Had Salem and Ember met each other in the past? Had her mother actually best her master in some way?

Was… was that the real reason Salem had chosen her? Was she chosen to be Salem's student as a way to getting revenge on her mother?

It had to be.

She then thought about her power. She was indeed a powerful warrior, but she should have been stronger. She needed to be stronger. She deserved more power.

She had the powers of the Fall Maiden… and yet it wasn't enough.

That arrow should have killed Jaune Arc. He shouldn't be alive. Neither should Qrow Branwen. Least of all her... Ruby Rose should be dead.

And yet they all lived.

She thought about her master, and the moment she branded the scar onto her face, promising to remove it once she had redeemed herself. Cinder had groveled to her, reverted to a gutless student, when such a thing was beneath her.

She had been training for about a year now. She needed to train, to grow stronger, to become even more powerful. She had already been a deadly warrior, but now with all those hours, months of training, combined with her natural talents, Semblance, and the power of the Fall Maiden, she would easily rank among the most deadly people on the planet.

And yet Salem was having her go about Remnant and form alliances with bandit clans, anti-Kingdom rebel groups, surviving White Fang cells that wanted to merge with the Red Fang, gangs, pirates, among other such rabble.

This should have been left to Callows and Rainart once she had become a Maiden, yet she was still being forced to lower herself to the level of thugs and fanatics.

Did Salem truly think so little of her? Or was this a punishment?

Hadn't she already suffered enough? Wasn't this blasted scar enough? Wasn't being forced to kill Ashe enough?

Ashe…

His suffering wasn't her fault. No. It was Jude's. Had it not been for her, he never would have even met that Mila woman. Jude was the one who ruined their happiness.

And yet Jude wasn't the one to kill Ashe. He had beaten him, whipped him, nearly broken him, but he hadn't killed him.

She did.

His blood was on her hands. As was the blood of her parents, as well as Amber, Douglas, and others who didn't even matter to her. All off their blood was on her hands.

But it wasn't her fault. No. Salem made her kill him. She made her kill her brother! It wasn't… it wasn't her fault.

She needed to make all her suffering worth it. She would get more power. She needed more to accomplish her goals…

What goals?

She looked at her reflection as she came to a depressing realization. She had no true goals other than to become more powerful, but to what end? What was the use of wanting more power if she had no real ambition for it.

Her actual goals, missions, and battles were not her own. They were Salem's.

She held her hands against her head as a slight pain began to pulse about her scar.

"No… I'm not… I'm not just a… pawn." She said to herself before she backed up to the bathroom wall, and then allow herself to slide down to the tiled floor.

Slowly, the truth began to flood her mind. Everything she had done, taking the Maiden's powers, allying with the White Fang and criminals like Torchwick, the breach, the Battle of Beacon, giving Pyrrha to Salem, unleashing the Wyvern, capturing Rose and Arc… it had all been Salem's bidding.

The only things that had been of her choosing were her followers, Emerald and Mercury.

She remembered her dream. What Ashe had told her. He was right. She had been nothing but a pawn in Salem's game the whole time.

But no more.

Over the years she had learned a few things about Salem, such as she was actually the third Mistress of Grimm, and that she was always in a game against the world of Remnant. The Opponents changed over the years, but the final goal, the prize of victory had always been the same; the destiny of Remnant itself.

But if Salem had replaced someone else as the dark queen, then she herself could be replaced.

Cinder's eyes widened as her mind came to life with this revelation. If Salem could be replaced, then who better to replace her than her lead disciple?

She could not openly turn against her master. That would be suicide. Despite her position as the Fall Maiden, Salem was nothing if not patient, and would simply search for the next Fall Maiden should Cinder be killed in some way, or simply have her immobilized and make her useful again when the time was right.

And she couldn't betray her master and run, Ozpin and his cabal would only have her as a prisoner and execute her once her usefulness was done. And she could never ally herself with the likes of Nikos, Arc, and especially not Rose. She hated them with every fiber of her being. She'd never help them. Never.

So that left her with one option, the best option. Play Salem's game, and win it. She couldn't speak it out loud unless in total isolation, and if she were to give even a slight hint of betrayal away, she could kiss her freedom goodbye.

So if she were to work subtly, manipulate other pawns of Salem who had doubts or grievances, if she were to have her own pieces and pawns that could work with her, and appear to be loyal to Salem until the time was right…

Then they could strike. They could overthrow Salem, and then… she would take her rightful place, and the world would be hers.

Everything would be hers.

Cinder allowed a smile to grace her lips as a plan began to form in her mind. She just needed the right pawns that would ally with her. Emerald was an obvious choice, she had proved her loyalty time and again, but Mercury was… questionable. She needed to be smart and careful if she was to succeed with this.

She would win in the end. She would rule over Remnant, better than Salem or Ozpin ever could. Everything that had happened to her, ever life she had taken, every sacrifice she had made, everything would all be worth it in the end.

She stood up and looked at her reflection. She looked better already.

Yes. The world would be hers.

TO BE CONTINUED...

This chapter was co-written by Relentless Crusader with help from GojiGrimlockSaurus.

Check out the art for the fic done by jkphantom9 at Deviantart.

Also, this story now has it's own TV Tropes page! Feel free check it out or contribute to it!

Welcome my friends! To the 'Maidens and Relics' Arc! I hope this chapter was good, so please let me know what you think.

Sorry the hiatus took so long, and I hope that all of you can forgive me. But stuff kept adding up to my to do list, personal issues and life in general.

On the bright side I managed to get a lot of things done; I watched both Fullmetal Alchemist shows and both are insanely good and I ended up falling in love with the series (though I wish there was a third version that could combine both versions so we could have the best of both worlds), I watched all of The Muppet Show, played Red Dead Redemption, saw Doctor Strange, Guardians of the Galaxy 2, Kong Skull Island, and Transformers TLK and enjoyed them all (though TF5 clearly needs a director's cut...), haven't seen Spider-Man Homecoming or Wonder Woman but I'm looking forward to them. Red Vs. Blue Season 15 was also enjoyable, but easily the weakest season thus far.

If you enjoyed this story, then please consider faving and following this fic and leave a review if you read it on fanfiction . net. If you're on An Archive of Our Own then please leave a kudos and a comment. Tell me what you liked and what you didn't, and how I can improve. Please guys give me some feedback, as it keeps me and this story going and if you want me to keep writing please tell me what you think, please! For those of you on the RWBY Reddit please give this fic a mention, thanks. Please guys, help me out here, let me know if you enjoy this story, what's good and bad about it, tell me if you liked it or tell me if it sucked, please, I work really hard to make this story good so please give me some feedback, please let me know that my efforts aren't wasted. Thank you all, once again.