Fandom Distorted Mirror [IC]

[Gus Gungus]

Her hands pulled away from each other after that knowledge was revealed, moving across her desk to bring up screens of various points in the city and around Beacon itself. Many had the droids on them, but it was as Qrow described. Their faceplates were glowing red and they were not targeting Grimm as they should have been. Instead, in many cases they were going after civilians trying desperately to flee or taking shots at the huntsmen and huntresses trying to protect the people. That was good and bad at the same time. Bad for happening in the first place, but it did give some credence to the idea that this Qrow was from the future. How else would he have known that would happen? The only other possibility she could think of was one she didn't want to entertain. No, he had to be from the future. Or at least, one future? A different one, perhaps? That would explain his attitude to her. No matter. "It seems you are correct. That changes things. As for your other questions, in light of your accurate prediction...you may not trust me, Qrow, but I am choosing to trust you, despite Raven's animosity towards you and despite the you that I know having thoroughly proven himself to be untrustworthy."

Qrow held her gaze steady at that, the look falling over his features curious and unreadable. He was having to take a hell of a lot on the chin here not to lose it, so it was lucky that was a big part of being a hunstman as long as he had, but her choice of wording still provoked an odd reaction in him. In no small part because it was so similar to something Oz would say.

"Trust's a funny word. They know about the two of you yet? What the Brothers did to you both? Do they know he can't be killed?"

Thinking too much about all the different angles to this was bound to drive him nuts, but somehow he had a feeling at least the spirit of one thing remained the same. Either this Salem couldn't die and the Ozpin she knew was locked in an endless cycle of rebirth or vice-versa, the particulars didn't really matter in the end; the evil that threatened the world, essentially, couldn't be stopped. The gravel to his voice was even lower than usual as he probed her with narrowed eyes.

"You might wanna find a way to break the news before they figure it out for themselves. 'Cause that's the day you really lose, not tonight."
​

Her hands moved again, bringing up new screens. "Yes, the Fall Maiden is here. The young Cinder Fall, a first-year student here. She received the power at random, and we've only just started teaching her on that power in secret." Her hand swept across her desk repeatedly, making the displayed screen switch from camera feed to camera feed until she reached the one she was looking for. It revealed Cinder to be in fierce combat with hordes of Grimm alongside the rest of her team. Her right hand began to slide across the table more. The headmistress rapidly went through various other feeds, and confusion flashed across her face before she lifted her head to look at Qrow. She tapped on her desk and two screens popped up, revealing two very different situations.

One displayed Ruby Rose carving through plenty of Grimm, scythe slicing apart many lesser ones with impressive skill.

The other showed a masked Ruby Rose using her scythe in much the same way...but with more lethal intent, and directed at...one of her students?

"Qrow. What is this?!"

"That's..."

That was one hell of a way to focus his thoughts at least.

The experienced huntsman's eyes were wide open in a way experienced huntsmen's eyes rarely were at that, and she wasn't even sure which screen's contents distressed him more. He practically vaulted over the desk so he could look at them from her angle, having kept his distance before out of distrust and a sense of self-preservation that suddenly weren't weighing on his mind so heavily as he grabbed Salem's shoulder.

"Is there anyone else here that shouldn't be?! Find Yang Xiao Long! Raven's kid! NOW!"

​

 

[Schnee Corp Lawyer]

You're in danger.

The human wants to hurt you.

Kill it before it gets the chance.

The voice screaming in her head was more than just instinct this time. Eve stopped in her tracks the moment she realised this... insane person really wasn't moving, but it was less the defiance that played on Eve's psyche and more Yang's insinuations. Someone she had zero recollection of claiming to know her, to have beaten her? A human? Her mind was racing through possibilities, memory after memory of her time with the White Fang, of a time before she wore the mask...

She couldn't place her.

Who was she?

Who WAS she?!

She clenched her hand tight around Wilt to steady the building shake in her hand, dark thoughts and memories bubbling to the surface. Planting her feet, the faunus curled her lips into a snarl and shifted her weight low. Waiting. If the blonde wanted this, she could come to her.

"Are you stupid?! I'm giving you the chance to get out of my way before I hurt you. Pull my name off some news report and pretend we're acquainted all you want, I didn't come here for you." She growled, a low, warning edge of hostility creeping into her voice.

"But that doesn't mean I won't make time if you push me. I can tell you like to talk. Back off now or you don't talk without a machine's help, ever again."​

That got a grim snort of amusement out of her as she narrowed her eyes and gave her hands one last flex. "Gee, thanks, so glad you're giving me the option for a maiming this time instead of just assuming. You sure know how to make a girl feel appreciated. Hey, maybe that's what Blake saw in you." she drawled. The longer this ugly trip down her subconscious went, the more frustrated she got with it, and she was far past kidding herself if she thought her brain was ever gonna concoct a scenario involving Adam Taurus that didn't end in violence.

"Far be it from me to keep any version of Adam from shutting up though. Lets just get this over with so I can get out of here."

This was it. She decided. Her and her brain were making a blood pact at this moment. If she won this fight, these dreams were done, and this creep was gone from her head forever, regardless of how many x chromosones Yang's subconscious decided he... she.. whoever needed.

Despite her words, she stood still for a moment, only a slight bounce between her toes as she studied this version of Adam, gauging her height and reach, how it'd be different from last time, and twisted her wrists a few times to get the right shells chambered. In an instant she pushed off the floor hard enough to crack the tile in a charge forward with fists raised defensively. She stopped just short of the range of Wilt's blade and threw a quick flurry of punches, a string of close range shotgun blasts shooting off at the White Fang's leader.

 

[Schnee Corp Lawyer]

Cinder did likewise run into the fray, albeit in the opposite direction of Ruby and trusting the rest of team WTCH to do the same. Dust arrows were quick to find themselves buried up to the shaft in numerous Grimm, many more falling to the swift flurries of her slicing out with her twin blades. A particularly big Beowulf roared in challenge and began to charge straight for her. She smirked, reconnecting her blades into bow form with a satisfying click, notching an arrow as she prepared to-

*BOOM*

Get sent flying off her feet by a hammer hitting her out of nowhere, apparently. Cinder hit the ground with a pained grunt, her body skidding along it for a further 20-ish feet before she slid to a halt, her bow clattering along the ground as it slipped from her grasp. The fall maiden was quick to jump back to her feet, eyes looking around for the truck that had just hit her. Golden eyes settled on a tiny girl, swinging around a hammer that was bigger than she was by far. Currently that hammer was crushing the Beowulf like it was nothing.

Seeking to take advantage of that distraction, Cinder ran for her bow, picking it up and loosing three arrows in one fluid motion, right at that girl. All of them were blocked handily, crushed to pieces by swings of that absurd weapon. With the Beowulf fading away, the girl turned towards Cinder with a crazy wide smile on her face.

"What is your deal?!"

"You are!" Not one to waste time with more words, Nora dashed forward, leaping left and right to avoid arrows as she went and her hammer priming for a strike to send the archer up into the sky.

*BLAM BLAM BLAM*

Watts had been more than a little annoyed that everyone seemed to take Ruby's instructions better than his, particularly since she'd basically said the same as he. Nonetheless, it was he who electronically hotwired the airship that got them where they were were going, and his dust pistol was busy making short work of a group of grimm flanking Hazel and Tyrian before he heard the hammer strike that had sent Cinder flying. He'd whirled, sneered, and Nora found her that the path of her charge was going to take her through the path of a wall of flames that had sprouted where his bullets hit.

"Valkeryie. Why am I not surprised that you're involved in this? What, losing to us twice wasn't enough? Miss your atlesian cell already? How did you get out of that?"

 

[Schnee Corp Lawyer]

What the hell was she thinking?!

Blake stood over the corpse of the student she'd just finished off, a look of sheer incredulity under her mask as she watched her Shadowfang soldiers suddenly beset by not just grimm, not just hunters in training, but by their very own brothers and sisters. The White Fang. This wasn't how this was supposed to go. They were supposed to be the ones who did what the white fang couldn't do, but they were still supposed to be on the same side! Did Eve not know this was a declaration of war?! Did she not understand that Sienna wouldn't just let this go, let alone their benefactor?! She found her breath shaking a bit, a mixture of fury and anxiety blossoming into an ugly boquet in her gut. She weighed her options, before she eventually put a finger to her earpiece.

"Fall back."

A smattering of protests joined the chaos that the comms had become as their plans so quickly went awry, and she growled as the frustration bubbled to the surface.

"Thats an order. Fall. Back. We're not leaving Vale yet. But this mission's compromised. When I find out who gave the white fang this information..."

The raw, frustrated anger in her voice was a far cry from Sienna's charismatic steel, but it had much the same effect, and students and white fang soldiers alike found their shadow fang enemies slipping into the shadows and scattering into the woods that surrounded beacon. All except for Blake. She caught sight of a White Fang member finishing off an ursa that had forced a pair of wounded students into a corner against the cafeteria, and she leaped up into the night sky. The white fang member caught her breath, before she shot the students a slightly stilted smile. "Hey, see? We faunus ain't all bad ghck-"

She didn't even had a moment to think about a counter attack before a kick whipped her across the forehead from above, Blake landing deftly behind her and twisting in the same motion to sweep the legs out from under her. She hit the ground with a heavy thud, and Blake rolled on top to straddle her with Gambol shroud levelled at her, and a rapid stacatto of gunfire filled the air until the telltale sound of a shattering aura was heard. She leaned in close with one of her blades pressed against the soldier's throat. "Where is she!?"

"Hey-"

Blake's weapon snapped up at the student who tried to speak up, and the clack of gunfire sent a trio of shots scattering across his aura, shattering it. He didn't continue. The White Fang soldier shot the pair an exasperated look before she turned back to Blake, her mouth twisted into a growl of defiance. "Like I'd tell you, traitor-" Blake's blade started to press down, drawing blood. "-ah, aahhh she's in theschoolplease-"

Blake vanished in a flash, a hazy version of her left in place for a few moments before it faded away. The white fang soldier tried to catch her breath as she held a hand to her throat, stemming the bleeding that she couldn't tell the severity of with the adrenaline in her system.

 

[MyrtenRose]

Qrow held her gaze steady at that, the look falling over his features curious and unreadable. He was having to take a hell of a lot on the chin here not to lose it, so it was lucky that was a big part of being a hunstman as long as he had, but her choice of wording still provoked an odd reaction in him. In no small part because it was so similar to something Oz would say.

"Trust's a funny word. They know about the two of you yet? What the Brothers did to you both? Do they know he can't be killed?"

Thinking too much about all the different angles to this was bound to drive him nuts, but somehow he had a feeling at least the spirit of one thing remained the same. Either this Salem couldn't die and the Ozpin she knew was locked in an endless cycle of rebirth or vice-versa, the particulars didn't really matter in the end; the evil that threatened the world, essentially, couldn't be stopped. The gravel to his voice was even lower than usual as he probed her with narrowed eyes.

"You might wanna find a way to break the news before they figure it out for themselves. 'Cause that's the day you really lose, not tonight."

"..." There was a flash of shock across her face as he revealed exactly how much he knew, before an unreadable expression took its place. No spoken response came in response to any of those questions. There was no time for it.

"That's..."

That was one hell of a way to focus his thoughts at least.

The experienced huntsman's eyes were wide open in a way experienced huntsmen's eyes rarely were at that, and she wasn't even sure which screen's contents distressed him more. He practically vaulted over the desk so he could look at them from her angle, having kept his distance before out of distrust and a sense of self-preservation that suddenly weren't weighing on his mind so heavily as he grabbed Salem's shoulder.

"Is there anyone else here that shouldn't be?! Find Yang Xiao Long! Raven's kid! NOW!"

"Someone else who shouldn't be here? You tell me. You're the one who seemed to pop out of nowhere." Salem remarked, an eyebrow raising up, curiously taken aback by being ordered around by somebody else. But she didn't have any reason to protest that action, so one of her hands reached out to keep looking. Eventually she caught a glimpse of something that caught her eye and magnified that screen, revealing the blonde girl with such a clear resemblance to Raven it had to be her daughter. One of her arms was a prosthetic, a fact she made note of as yet another thing Qrow had said repeated in her mind.

The likelihood that he was indeed from a future was seeming more and more truthful. If Raven's daughter was supposed to lose a limb tonight, then this Yang must have been from that time as well. She was facing off against a redheaded faunus in one of the school's hallways. While that scene played out for Qrow, Salem kept flickering through more camera feeds to see if there was any sign of another Yang, as had been the case with Qrow's niece, Ruby.

She didn't see any, but the headmistress wasn't sure if that was a good sign or a bad one. But there was another troubling sight, as she caught a glimpse of a small figure with pink and brown hair full-on sprinting away down another hall. "…a second Neo as well?" Salem looked over to Qrow. "I don't suppose you have any explanation for these...dopplegangers?"

 

[MyrtenRose]

*BLAM BLAM BLAM*

Watts had been more than a little annoyed that everyone seemed to take Ruby's instructions better than his, particularly since she'd basically said the same as he. Nonetheless, it was he who electronically hotwired the airship that got them where they were were going, and his dust pistol was busy making short work of a group of grimm flanking Hazel and Tyrian before he heard the hammer strike that had sent Cinder flying. He'd whirled, sneered, and Nora found her that the path of her charge was going to take her through the path of a wall of flames that had sprouted where his bullets hit.

"Valkyrie. Why am I not surprised that you're involved in this? What, losing to us twice wasn't enough? Miss your atlesian cell already? How did you get out of that?"

"What??" The hammer wielded skidded to a sudden halt before the wall of fire, wheeling around in the direction they had come from. "Tch. Flukes, that's all that was. I won't lose again. Not to some kids dumb enough to think that cell would hold me forever." Lightning sparked and crackled around her body and her hammer, power flooding into her veins thanks to her semblance before she pushed off the ground and lunged at Watts, her hammer moving in for an overhead swing intended to flatten Watts against the ground.

It didn't.

With Watts having made an opening in the horde of Grimm, Hazel was quick to run up and block that hammer blow with his bare forearm like it was no big thing. A clenched fist was quick to follow, cracking Nora in the shoulder with a thunderous boom, the punch sending Nora flying through the air and cracking a nearby wall on impact. But if anything, that only seemed to make her smile even wider. Her hammer transformed and in moments, she was spam-firing grenades at both of them.

 

[Schnee Corp Lawyer]

"What??" The hammer wielded skidded to a sudden halt before the wall of fire, wheeling around in the direction they had come from. "Tch. Flukes, that's all that was. I won't lose again. Not to some kids dumb enough to think that cell would hold me forever." Lightning sparked and crackled around her body and her hammer, power flooding into her veins thanks to her semblance before she pushed off the ground and lunged at Watts, her hammer moving in for an overhead swing intended to flatten Watts against the ground.

His eyes shot wide and he took a few steps back as he fired on the encroaching Valkyrie, his shots pinging off her aura but doing not nearly enough to slow her down-

It didn't.

With Watts having made an opening in the horde of Grimm, Hazel was quick to run up and block that hammer blow with his bare forearm like it was no big thing. A clenched fist was quick to follow, cracking Nora in the shoulder with a thunderous boom, the punch sending Nora flying through the air and cracking a nearby wall on impact. But if anything, that only seemed to make her smile even wider. Her hammer transformed and in moments, she was spam-firing grenades at both of them.

"..Ah. Thank, you, Hazel." he said with a cough as he let out the breath he didn't realizing he'd been holding. He leveled his pistol at Nora as her weapon began to transform, a smirk on his face as he called out loud enough to ensure Nora clearly heard him. "Tyrian, Cinder, focus on the grimm! Hazel and I shouldn't require assistance with this rabble." Despite his apparent confidence, he had to dive to the side as the first grenade struck, and barely raised the hardlight shield on his arm in time to block the next, the force of the explosion sending him flying backwards. He landed in an awkward roll as he coughed out an "Ow" as he came up to one knee and levelled his pistol at Nora.

He didn't fire yet, however. He trusted Hazel to do what he did best and jump into the fray to keep Nora off of him, but the Valkyrie was rarely found alone, and her quiet associate had proven... dangerous. His eyes scanned the streets, the rooftops, anywhere the criminals silent bodyguard might be lurking.

 

[MyrtenRose]

"..Ah. Thank, you, Hazel." he said with a cough as he let out the breath he didn't realizing he'd been holding. He leveled his pistol at Nora as her weapon began to transform, a smirk on his face as he called out loud enough to ensure Nora clearly heard him. "Tyrian, Cinder, focus on the grimm! Hazel and I shouldn't require assistance with this rabble." Despite his apparent confidence, he had to dive to the side as the first grenade struck, and barely raised the hardlight shield on his arm in time to block the next, the force of the explosion sending him flying backwards. He landed in an awkward roll as he coughed out an "Ow" as he came up to one knee and levelled his pistol at Nora.

He didn't fire yet, however. He trusted Hazel to do what he did best and jump into the fray to keep Nora off of him, but the Valkyrie was rarely found alone, and her quiet associate had proven... dangerous. His eyes scanned the streets, the rooftops, anywhere the criminals silent bodyguard might be lurking.

Hazel only gave a vaguely supportive grunt in reply, though Tyrian was more vocal in his acknowledgement of Arthur's orders. Hazel's attention remained locked on the ginger criminal, enough so that he was able to spot her expression temporarily change from that wild grin to a look of annoyed anger at Watts' words. While their leader was knocked back by the force of Nora's grenades...Hazel was not. The large student simply began to walk forward, unflinchingly closing the distance no matter how many grenades hit him. When the last one hit, he was close enough to Nora that all the smoke from the blast was enough to obscure even a man of his size. Before she could reload, one of his hands shot through the smoke and gripped her by the neck, lifting her up enough that her feet weren't even close to touching the ground.

Hazel took another step forward, and Nora was forcibly pinned against the wall, her grenade launcher lying discarded on the ground while she lashed out with both fists, a mad frenzy of punches to the arm holding her up that didn't seem to even faze Hazel. "NO NO NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Watts, in the meantime, was wise to be wary of any others potentially rushing into the fray. His scanning of the rooftops revealed nothing, but as he looked over the streets, it became more clear why Cinder hadn't replied to his order to focus on the grimm. He spotted her lying face-first on the ground, with said bodyguard just behind her looking...off. It was like all the color from his body and his clothes had been grayed out. After that hit from Nora had taken a significant chunk out of her aura and with her attention split between the criminal and the Grimm, Ren had taken advantage to sneak up on her and deliver a knockout blow before she even realized his presence.

And when the bodyguard noticed he had been spotted, he was swift to rush Watts while Hazel was busy restraining Nora and Tyrian was fending off Grimm. Both his weapons fired at Watts as he ran.

 

[Gus Gungus]

That got a grim snort of amusement out of her as she narrowed her eyes and gave her hands one last flex. "Gee, thanks, so glad you're giving me the option for a maiming this time instead of just assuming. You sure know how to make a girl feel appreciated. Hey, maybe that's what Blake saw in you." she drawled. The longer this ugly trip down her subconscious went, the more frustrated she got with it, and she was far past kidding herself if she thought her brain was ever gonna concoct a scenario involving Adam Taurus that didn't end in violence.

"Far be it from me to keep any version of Adam from shutting up though. Lets just get this over with so I can get out of here."

This was it. She decided. Her and her brain were making a blood pact at this moment. If she won this fight, these dreams were done, and this creep was gone from her head forever, regardless of how many x chromosones Yang's subconscious decided he... she.. whoever needed.

Despite her words, she stood still for a moment, only a slight bounce between her toes as she studied this version of Adam, gauging her height and reach, how it'd be different from last time, and twisted her wrists a few times to get the right shells chambered. In an instant she pushed off the floor hard enough to crack the tile in a charge forward with fists raised defensively. She stopped just short of the range of Wilt's blade and threw a quick flurry of punches, a string of close range shotgun blasts shooting off at the White Fang's leader.

Eve initially had no intention of listening to this punk run her mouth, but the longer her smack talk went the more she stiffened, the look of perplexed annoyance falling away into a mouth-ajar expression that was genuinely thrown for as much as it still exuded disdain. Her posture coiled even further, teeth and grip in competition to outdo each other for which could clench the tightest; Yang probably had a pretty good idea what the look of pure spite the faunus was stabbing her with under her mask looked like.

Frankly, though, that wasn't the unnerving part.

The unnerving part was how still she was. How patient. The Adam she last encountered was a pathetic shadow of the person he used to be, disgraced, unhinged, bereft of any followers or even anyone who cared about him, amounting to little more than a persistent afterthought in their journey who inevitably thrashed and raged his way to an early grave. The person standing before her that was none of that. She didn't possess the same seething hatred for Yang Adam did, didn't attribute losing the one person she cared about to her as he did. She had far more in common with the cocky, vengeful, terrifyingly impersonal Adam Taurus who almost took away everything that made Yang who she was with a single effortless swipe of his sword, with the silent, haunting personification of malice that had stalked her every nightmare for months, than with the deranged wretch she and Blake had been forced to put down.

That was the unnerving part.

The scary part was the way her snarl slowly twisted into a grin, the sneering, barbed look of someone taking back control of the situation in her mind just like that.

"Now I see. When I heard Blake had taken up with humans, I couldn't believe it. After everything they took from her. After the things I've seen her do..." She interrupted her drawl with a shake of the head, wistful if not exactly approving. She finally swapped her blade's grip over the the hand she used when she actually intended to draw it, digging her heels in to her stance in preparation, a stark contrast to the boxer staying light on her feet. "Congratulations. You just became why I'm here. You're going to take me to her."

But there had been enough talking, and Eve met Yang's onslaught with a scoff as Wilt came out in a slick motion to parry each of the gauntlet shells head-on. The moment she saw an opportunity, she slid her left foot back and pushed off it to launch herself forward in a blur, swinging to catch the prosthetic arm in a crossguard between blade and scabbard, then pushed up from her coiled stance in an effort to pull Yang off balance while simultaneously wrenching Wilt and Blush apart in a scissor motion. The faunus replaced the blade in its scabbard and followed up with a trio of precise slashes to the torso, in a bid to force her on the defensive and begin the process of whittling down her aura.​

 

[Gus Gungus]

"Someone else who shouldn't be here? You tell me. You're the one who seemed to pop out of nowhere." Salem remarked, an eyebrow raising up, curiously taken aback by being ordered around by somebody else. But she didn't have any reason to protest that action, so one of her hands reached out to keep looking. Eventually she caught a glimpse of something that caught her eye and magnified that screen, revealing the blonde girl with such a clear resemblance to Raven it had to be her daughter. One of her arms was a prosthetic, a fact she made note of as yet another thing Qrow had said repeated in her mind.

The likelihood that he was indeed from a future was seeming more and more truthful. If Raven's daughter was supposed to lose a limb tonight, then this Yang must have been from that time as well. She was facing off against a redheaded faunus in one of the school's hallways. While that scene played out for Qrow, Salem kept flickering through more camera feeds to see if there was any sign of another Yang, as had been the case with Qrow's niece, Ruby.

She didn't see any, but the headmistress wasn't sure if that was a good sign or a bad one. But there was another troubling sight, as she caught a glimpse of a small figure with pink and brown hair full-on sprinting away down another hall. "…a second Neo as well?" Salem looked over to Qrow. "I don't suppose you have any explanation for these...dopplegangers?"

"Lady, I have no idea. I've lived this. Things are the same, but... But different. I dunno what else to tell you. I..."

Qrow's mounting urgency finally came to the forefront as he watched the screens of Ruby and Yang—His Ruby and Yang, he was pretty sure—Fighting for their lives. The same battles they fought that night everything changed. A grave look overcame him, and he abruptly turned, engaged Harbinger's shotgun barrels and blasted out Salem's window, shards of glass collapsing outward, falling like rain.

"I have to go. You got a scroll that works? I'll need it if you expect to hear from me again. If not... Good luck."

He stepped over to the ledge, the wind rippling his hair and cloak. Pausing with one hand on the wall, he glanced back without looking at her directly.

"So you know... in the version of events I remember, Cinder set this all up. She killed the Fall Maiden and stole her power. For Salem. For you. She's moving on the relics. I don't know what that means for you, but the Ozpin I knew tried to stop her and didn't live to see tomorrow. And you're standing in his shoes. B-"

He caught himself on the verge of adding a 'be careful' to the end of that sentence, blinking in surprise at himself. He guessed in a weird kind of a way, this... felt like old times. Or was. Was old times. He turned, stepped through the shattered window and was gone, no longer renowned huntsman of Beacon Qrow Branwen.

Just a dusty old crow.​

 

[Schnee Corp Lawyer]

Eve initially had no intention of listening to this punk run her mouth, but the longer her smack talk went the more she stiffened, the look of perplexed annoyance falling away into a mouth-ajar expression that was genuinely thrown for as much as it still exuded disdain. Her posture coiled even further, teeth and grip in competition to outdo each other for which could clench the tightest; Yang probably had a pretty good idea what the look of pure spite the faunus was stabbing her with under her mask looked like.

Frankly, though, that wasn't the unnerving part.

The unnerving part was how still she was. How patient. The Adam she last encountered was a pathetic shadow of the person he used to be, disgraced, unhinged, bereft of any followers or even anyone who cared about him, amounting to little more than a persistent afterthought in their journey who inevitably thrashed and raged his way to an early grave. The person standing before her that was none of that. She didn't possess the same seething hatred for Yang Adam did, didn't attribute losing the one person she cared about to her as he did. She had far more in common with the cocky, vengeful, terrifyingly impersonal Adam Taurus who almost took away everything that made Yang who she was with a single effortless swipe of his sword, with the silent, haunting personification of malice that had stalked her every nightmare for months, than with the deranged wretch she and Blake had been forced to put down.

That was the unnerving part.

The scary part was the way her snarl slowly twisted into a grin, the sneering, barbed look of someone taking back control of the situation in her mind just like that.

"Now I see. When I heard Blake had taken up with humans, I couldn't believe it. After everything they took from her. After the things I've seen her do..." She interrupted her drawl with a shake of the head, wistful if not exactly approving. She finally swapped her blade's grip over the the hand she used when she actually intended to draw it, digging her heels in to her stance in preparation, a stark contrast to the boxer staying light on her feet. "Congratulations. You just became why I'm here. You're going to take me to her."

But there had been enough talking, and Eve met Yang's onslaught with a scoff as Wilt came out in a slick motion to parry each of the gauntlet shells head-on. The moment she saw an opportunity, she slid her left foot back and pushed off it to launch herself forward in a blur, swinging to catch the prosthetic arm in a crossguard between blade and scabbard, then pushed up from her coiled stance in an effort to pull Yang off balance while simultaneously wrenching Wilt and Blush apart in a scissor motion. The faunus replaced the blade in its scabbard and followed up with a trio of precise slashes to the torso, in a bid to force her on the defensive and begin the process of whittling down her aura.​

It absolutely unnerved her. It unnerved her every time he had this stupid dream. Unnerved was probably too weak a word for how she felt as this Taurus stood there like a calm storm, ready to play her part in the calamity of this night once more for what must have been the hundredth replay.

She just wasn't gonna let that hold her back any more.



Yang's stance was solid despite her barrage, but when it was clear it wasn't getting through, Eve's opening came as Yang paused to twist her wrists again, only to grimace as the faunus pushed the offensive. A repositioning shot from her real hand pushed her into the air and at an angle she could use it to grip Eve's scabbard to keep the night's main course from being served on her, but the extra air time meant she was stuck on the defensive when the three cuts sliced through, the brawler's gauntlet's catching the first and last but flaring her aura at a full it from the second.

She snarled through the pain and immediately pushed forward wicked right hook, then left, then right, left, right, left, right left right left- She kept it up as she grit her teeth, using every swing to keep Eve from being able to dodge to far right or left as she pushed her towards the wall before she let out a violent roar and seemed to throw all that aside as she suddenly jackhammered forward with a flurry of a dozen full strength punches in a second, straight for Eve, the kind her semblance could eat for breakfast and spew right back at Yang in bloody vengeance if she blocked-

Which if she did, Yang immediately stepped back and shot Eve a saccharine wink before she flicked her wrists and the explosives stuck to her blade and scabbard all went off at once.

She flexed her prosthetic hand as she watched the ensuing smoke slowly clear, making sure nothing in it had gotten too screwed up at the start while growled out "What we took from her?! I don't care if you're not real, you of all people don't get to say that. You're never touching her again."

Calm was a relative term.

 

[Schnee Corp Lawyer]

Hazel only gave a vaguely supportive grunt in reply, though Tyrian was more vocal in his acknowledgement of Arthur's orders. Hazel's attention remained locked on the ginger criminal, enough so that he was able to spot her expression temporarily change from that wild grin to a look of annoyed anger at Watts' words. While their leader was knocked back by the force of Nora's grenades...Hazel was not. The large student simply began to walk forward, unflinchingly closing the distance no matter how many grenades hit him. When the last one hit, he was close enough to Nora that all the smoke from the blast was enough to obscure even a man of his size. Before she could reload, one of his hands shot through the smoke and gripped her by the neck, lifting her up enough that her feet weren't even close to touching the ground.

Hazel took another step forward, and Nora was forcibly pinned against the wall, her grenade launcher lying discarded on the ground while she lashed out with both fists, a mad frenzy of punches to the arm holding her up that didn't seem to even faze Hazel. "NO NO NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Watts, in the meantime, was wise to be wary of any others potentially rushing into the fray. His scanning of the rooftops revealed nothing, but as he looked over the streets, it became more clear why Cinder hadn't replied to his order to focus on the grimm. He spotted her lying face-first on the ground, with said bodyguard just behind her looking...off. It was like all the color from his body and his clothes had been grayed out. After that hit from Nora had taken a significant chunk out of her aura and with her attention split between the criminal and the Grimm, Ren had taken advantage to sneak up on her and deliver a knockout blow before she even realized his presence.

And when the bodyguard noticed he had been spotted, he was swift to rush Watts while Hazel was busy restraining Nora and Tyrian was fending off Grimm. Both his weapons fired at Watts as he ran.

"Hrm." He said as he finally caught sight of where Cinder had ended up. A slight pang of guilt shot through him at assuming she was just being a headstrong brat again when she didn't immediately answer his orders- Lie Ren made eye contact with him.

"Shit."

He crouched low as the bodyguard charged forward, covering as much of himself with his shield as he fired his own weapon back at Ren. His eyes cast around the street, seeing what he could make use of, before the criminal was on top of him and forced him to jump backwards from his first strike. He swung his pistol down as he spun the barrel, and the next trio of shots that rang out glowed blue with an ice dust infusion, intending to make the silent killer sit still for a few seconds so Watts could figure out a more permanent solution.

 

[MyrtenRose]

"Lady, I have no idea. I've lived this. Things are the same, but... But different. I dunno what else to tell you. I..."

Qrow's mounting urgency finally came to the forefront as he watched the screens of Ruby and Yang—His Ruby and Yang, he was pretty sure—Fighting for their lives. The same battles they fought that night everything changed. A grave look overcame him, and he abruptly turned, engaged Harbinger's shotgun barrels and blasted out Salem's window, shards of glass collapsing outward, falling like rain.

"I have to go. You got a scroll that works? I'll need it if you expect to hear from me again. If not... Good luck."

He stepped over to the ledge, the wind rippling his hair and cloak. Pausing with one hand on the wall, he glanced back without looking at her directly.

"So you know... in the version of events I remember, Cinder set this all up. She killed the Fall Maiden and stole her power. For Salem. For you. She's moving on the relics. I don't know what that means for you, but the Ozpin I knew tried to stop her and didn't live to see tomorrow. And you're standing in his shoes. B-"

He caught himself on the verge of adding a 'be careful' to the end of that sentence, blinking in surprise at himself. He guessed in a weird kind of a way, this... felt like old times. Or was. Was old times. He turned, stepped through the shattered window and was gone, no longer renowned huntsman of Beacon Qrow Branwen.

Just a dusty old crow.​

"...Very well." He had no more knowledge than she did of what had led him to pop up here, or why there were multiple versions of the same person running around. Nothing more needed to be said on that matter right now. Ordinarily, him shooting out one of the windows would have at least earned an angry or annoyed reprimand, but in this moment, that was the least of her concerns. The headmistress was quick to withdraw a scroll from one of her pockets, tossing it over before he left. When he was gone, one hand rose up to rest against her chin as she pondered his words. In his version of these events, Cinder was responsible. That...didn't mesh well with the Cinder she'd come to know. The girl possessed a mean temper, that was true, but she also had a big heart. Moreover, she was already the Fall Maiden and was fighting against the Grimm.

No, it didn't make any sense for this Cinder to orchestrate any of this.

But somebody had, and if whoever it was that was acting on Ozpin's orders wanted the relic, then Cinder would be their most crucial target. All this madness to get to one person. Salem shook her head. The time had come. I can't hide up here any lon--

Her thought was interrupted by the very ground shaking beneath her feet. She was only able to keep standing by holding firmly onto her desk. The quaking of the earth was felt by all on the ground, whether they were at Beacon or in Vale. It amplified by the second, getting more and more violent until it culminated in the THUNDEROUS echoing sound of a mountain practically exploding in the distance. A giant Grimm burst from its depths, and as Salem stepped closer to the shattered window, even from this far away she could tell what it is. The Wyvern he spoke of. Every beat of its wings brought it closer and closer. In almost no time at all, it was upon them.

Worse still, pools of black dropped in great number from its skin, hitting the ground and giving rise to more and more grimm. "..." Without another word she swiveled on her feet, heading right for the elevator and taking it all the way down to ground level. This madness had to stop. Now.

 

[Gus Gungus]

Yang's stance was solid despite her barrage, but when it was clear it wasn't getting through, Eve's opening came as Yang paused to twist her wrists again, only to grimace as the faunus pushed the offensive. A repositioning shot from her real hand pushed her into the air and at an angle she could use it to grip Eve's scabbard to keep the night's main course from being served on her, but the extra air time meant she was stuck on the defensive when the three cuts sliced through, the brawler's gauntlet's catching the first and last but flaring her aura at a full it from the second.

She snarled through the pain and immediately pushed forward wicked right hook, then left, then right, left, right, left, right left right left- She kept it up as she grit her teeth, using every swing to keep Eve from being able to dodge to far right or left as she pushed her towards the wall before she let out a violent roar and seemed to throw all that aside as she suddenly jackhammered forward with a flurry of a dozen full strength punches in a second, straight for Eve, the kind her semblance could eat for breakfast and spew right back at Yang in bloody vengeance if she blocked-

Which if she did, Yang immediately stepped back and shot Eve a saccharine wink before she flicked her wrists and the explosives stuck to her blade and scabbard all went off at once.

She flexed her prosthetic hand as she watched the ensuing smoke slowly clear, making sure nothing in it had gotten too screwed up at the start while growled out "What we took from her?! I don't care if you're not real, you of all people don't get to say that. You're never touching her again."

Calm was a relative term.

Eve seemed all too happy to oblige and play this game, under the impression Yang was playing right into her hands as she slid backwards in perfect time with the kickboxer's advance, swinging Wilt in wide-yet-honed arcs to bat aside her knuckles again and again and again. A vicious smirk adorned her face as her hair and markings started to glow a more vibrant shade of red- The weight on her blade felt off.

She barely had a moment to wonder why, or why Wilt wasn't sliding back into its sheath properly for the moonslice she was planning, before the sticky bombs went off the second she flicked her eyes down to check, her aura battered between the force and the force of the wall it put her through as she was propelled across a lecture hall to land in a heap of rubble and broken chairs. Her aura flared red as if to protest the sheer quantity of damage it had just taken all at once—had her battles thus far tonight not been effortless, and her aura been in a more depleted state from the start, that might've been dangerous.

She pushed herself up to one knee with an audible snarl, the sensation of hair in her eyes only serving to ramp up her mounting frustration as she- wait. Hair in her eyes?

The sight that awaited Yang as the smoke cleared was almost pitiful, the faunus scrambling through the wreckage on hands and knees as she desperately tried to find her mask. Once it was in her hands and hastily affixed back over her face, the snarl that awaited Yang eclipsed all that had come before it to the same extent the sun eclipsed a candle as she pushed back to her feet and promptly put her fist through a wall. "YOU HUMAN FILTH! I SHOULD KILL YOU!"

Her subsequent zigzagging charge for Yang was fast even by the huntress's standards, Eve a blur of movement that only solidified for a bare instant at several different points in the room before she slammed into Yang's guard like a tidal wave of fury, trying to back her opponent up to the wall with an onslaught of swings and flurries that didn't let up. Once she was close enough for what she had in mind, the exchange turned vicious as Eve feinted a strike with Wilt only to snatch a fistful of Yang's hair instead, a particularly insidious tactic with the intent of throwing off her balance as she attempted to wrench the huntress's head back to expose her jugular and bring her weapon's hilt down on it. Hard. If that worked, she used the grip on her hair to swing her around into the wall, where she moved to drive Wilt up against her neck and rest Blush across the blade in its rifle configuration with the barrel leveled at Yang's face.

"What do you think this is?! Not real? WHO ARE YOU?!"​

 

[MidwayLives]

As the negative emotions coming off both Neo and Ruby attracted the Grimm like moths to a flame, the two put aside their mutual urge to kill the other to 'trim the fat' so to speak. For Neo, it was to rid herself of the annoyances that seeked to hinder her goal. For Ruby it meant so much more than that. With each swipe and each shot fired, a Grimm was slain, and Ruby could feel the adrenaline coursing through her veins. She despised these creatures like they were the plague. Just an unruly black miasma that needed to be cut down like the persistent weed that it was. Howls and screams filled her ears and they sounded like the most beautiful music.

Skidding to a stop once she saw a Beowulf, Ruby's eyes narrowed and the fingers on her prosthetic hand clicked due to how tightly she was gripping her weapon. This Beowulf wasn't the one who'd taken her arm. She'd seen to that herself back on that fateful day. But she wouldn't let that happen again. "Not again..." Ruby leaped up as the Beowulf's claws reached out to maul her. "NOT AGAIN!!!" The scythe punched through the Grimm's skull like a fist through a rotting pumpkin and came out the underside of it's jaw. "RAAAAAAAAAAGHHHHH!!!!" Letting loose a horrendous bellow, Ruby yanked the Beowulf to the ground and ripped her weapon free, standing over it's corpse and taking note of every second as it started to dissipate.

However, while Ruby seemed to have been lost in her rage, Neo wasn't going to pass up an easy opp when she saw it. After stomping on the head of a downed Grimm, Neo quietly drew the hidden blade from within Hush's handle and sought to plunge it straight into Ruby's back.

*SHUNK*

....Wait, there was supposed to be a shunk..Where was it? Giving a good yank on the blade and feeling it stuck, Neo slowly looked up to see the cold eyes from earlier staring down at her. Ruby wasn't so careless as to let her guard down and grabbed the blade with her regular hand.Given the constant back and forth that Neo was giving the weapon, blood began to drip from the palm of Ruby's hand and down the length of Hush's blade. Shifting Crescent Rose onto her back, Ruby let the blade go, seemingly uncaring of the nasty gash it'd left on her hand. Somewhat offput by the semi-mutilation that 'Bloody Red'(Neo's way of distinguishing the two)put herself through, she readied herself and went in for another plunge, hopfully straight into Ruby's chest this time-

*THWACK*

This time, there WAS a sound. That was the sound of Ruby's artificial hand crashing against Neo's aura and sending her stumbling back. All while Hush and it's blade fell by the wayside as Neo angrily rubbed at her face to try and get the blood out of her eyes. Lashing out, Neo could only let out a muted cough as she was yanked off her feet with Ruby's artificial hand wrapped around her neck, her aura preventing her from closing it around her warm flesh.

~~~


Neo still couldn't see right due to the blood splatter this rotten little brat had thrown in her face. But she had more pressing concerns like the hand trying to crush her throat. Scrunching up her face as she felt the warmth radiating off Ruby's real hand as she used the back of it to wipe away the blood. Better to let Neo see what was happening. Ruby attempted to pull her hand back but Neo wouldn't have it and gripped onto the hand and tried to bite down onto the digits that were close enough to her face. Ruby paid the attempt little mind and merely shook Neo roughly in her grasp until she loosened her grip on the fingers.

"I'm...sorry." Ruby said as Neo glared with her with a look that seemed all too familiar to Ruby. Eyebrows furrowed, teeth gritted, and eyes full of nothing but fury and anger. "I wouldn't have used the blood in any other case. I would have rather beaten you on my own merits but I've a job to do and I WON"T let him down..." The tensile grip in this artificial hand was no joke and Neo lashed out with a kick, busting Ruby in the face and sending her mask flying off. In return all Neo would see was the cold glare of a child staring back at her with blood trailing from her now busted lip.

"....!!!"

This...This kid hadn't been joking around. From the moment Neo had impeded her, she'd made it her goal to murder her and then continue on. Gripping onto the metal limb and futilely pulling on it, her form shifted. To resemble that of Blake. The faunus girl she'd seen as a part of her Red's team. Taking the form of Yang had angered her so maybe this would-

"*cough*"

Ruby's gaze only hardened and Neo's aura was showing signs of cracking. Shifting her form to that of Weiss, Ruby paused for another moment...before continuing to squeeze. Neo was fast running out of ideas. Her weapons were left by the wayside and if she attempted trying to make another attempt to kick her way free, it'd probably have emboldened this little psycho to kill her quicker. How was it fair for her to finally have had the chance to get revenge on one of the beings she hated and SHE was the one struggling?? There was only one idea she had left. Her form shifted one more time and Ruby was....staring at herself?

"...." Neo could feel 'Bloody Red's' grip on her relaxing. These weren't random forms that she'd been taking. They were all people Ruby knew but they all looked so different. Yet as she stared down this mimicry of herself, Ruby felt her organic hand reaching out to her-

*VSSSH!*

Ruby's grip on Neo loosened completely as a shot from an Atlas solider slammed against her aura. Watching as Neo fell to her knees and slowly began to re-take her normal appearance, Ruby stared her down. "Seems like we'll have to finish this...some other time..." Watching as the soldiers closed in and leveled their guns upon her. "Next time I'm aiming for your head. Stand down, Red Masque! You're under arrest!" Ruby wouldn't admit it aloud but this skirmish with Neo had taken something of a toll on her. She needed to do what she came here to do. Therefore her hands remained at her side as the same soldier barkedd another order. "Put your hands in the air! NOW!"

...

"No."

The soldiers fired and Ruby vanished as rose petals fluttered in the wind. "Damn it! DAMN IT! We had her dead to rights and she got away!" One of the soldiers complained. "I don't know what you're complaining about, we got a shot on her! She was looking pretty tired to me! If we can track her down then we can bring down the Red Masque once and for all." Watching the soldiers talk amongst themselves with barely concealed annoyance, Neo reached for Hush. These idiots didn't realize their lot in life. They were just grunts, destined to die to someone greater than them. If it wasn't going to be 'Bloody Red?' Well...

"Hey kid, you okay?" One of the soldiers asked Neo as he turned to face her.

Neo nodded.

*SHUNK*

Ripping her blade free from the chest of the soldier she'd just stabbed, Neo calmly pushed his corpse to the ground and turned towards his two comrades. Both of whom were understandably confused. "What the-WHY?! We saved you from that maniac!!!" That earned him a glare and a shrug from the mute psychopath. Lunging towards the soldiers, one of them pressed the com on the side of his helmet. "ALERT TO ALL ATLAS SOLDIERS, WATCH OUT FOR A WOMAN WITH PINK AND BROWN-AGH!" Smiling calmly as she yanked the blade free from the soldier's throat, Neo took the dead silence to simply...

Catch her breath. Taking the form of a Atlas soldier in full gear, Neo made her way off from the current scene. All while the briefest thought occured to her that if this place(whatever it was, dream, some kind of semblance, whatever),had a 'Red' willing to kill her, it had to have some kinda version or take on her. Well. Let her take the rap.~

~~~


Having escaped the soldiers for now, Ruby finally let the pain of her injuries take their toll. Falling to her knees as the pain that Neo's wound on her hand had left, she grit her teeth. It hurt like you wouldn't believe. It'd been like someone had taken cold steel and run it over her palm. Well, rather that's exactly what happened. But...No matter how much it hurt, she couldn't let it slow her down. He would have encouraged her to keep moving forward, no matter what. Tearing a piece of fabric off her cape, Ruby wrapped it around her injured hand and tied it snug. It, along with Neo chomping down on her fingers like a cornered fox, hurt.

Rising to her feet, Ruby looked over at her mask. She'd managed to grab it after retreating and it looked like garbage. The bottom was chipped, the upper right corner was cracked. She'd made this mask with her own two hands. It's what people thought of when they thought of the Red Masque. Though most people exaggerated how 'horrid' it looked for effect.

"...."

She let the mask fall to the ground and walked off in pursuit of the Maiden. She could build a dozen masks. But she could never build Ozpin the world the two of them dreamed of by herself. She would find this maiden. No matter the cost.​

 

[MyrtenRose]

"Hrm." He said as he finally caught sight of where Cinder had ended up. A slight pang of guilt shot through him at assuming she was just being a headstrong brat again when she didn't immediately answer his orders- Lie Ren made eye contact with him.

"Shit."

He crouched low as the bodyguard charged forward, covering as much of himself with his shield as he fired his own weapon back at Ren. His eyes cast around the street, seeing what he could make use of, before the criminal was on top of him and forced him to jump backwards from his first strike. He swung his pistol down as he spun the barrel, and the next trio of shots that rang out glowed blue with an ice dust infusion, intending to make the silent killer sit still for a few seconds so Watts could figure out a more permanent solution.

The shots hit as intended, freezing Ren's legs to the ground before he could pursue further. It bought Arthur a precious couple seconds as Ren was forced to fire upon the ice with his guns, loosening up the ice enough for him to break free of its cold grasp. As soon as he turned back to Watts, one of his guns was thrown almost akin to a boomerang, intending to knock that pistol out of Watts' hand. Regardless of whether that worked he continued his pursuit, his other gun keeping up its automatic fire at Watts in an attempt to keep his attention and deny him any chance of thinking something up. If Ren was even the least bit concerned or unbalanced by the earthquake, he didn't show it.

But on the plus side: the violent shaking and the thunderous echo was more than enough to rouse Cinder from her temporary unconsciousness. Groggily she forced herself to her feet, nursing the back of her head where she could definitely feel the bruise( :< ) "Ow, damn it." She shook her head trying to clear the stars from her vision before the sound of an earsplitting roar hit her like a ton of bricks and forced her into 100% awake mode. There was a whooshing sound overhead, and something temporarily eclipsed the pale moonlight and left her in darkness, but by the time she looked up whatever it was already out of her sight.

Cinder quickly looked around to take stock of the situation. Hazel was over there, holding the wildly struggling Nora against a wall. Tyrian for his part seemed to be having the time of his life going ham on the grimm horde. And--

"Arthur!" Cinder called out in concern upon spotting him, beginning to run over that way. Though they bickered often, and loudly, in regards to how he led...he was still their leader. And he needed help.

By this time, however, Nora had grown COMPLETELY ABSOLUTELY POSITIVELY sick of her current predicament. The criminal ceased throwing punches for the arm with muscles the size of tree trunks keeping her pinned here. No, every last single spark she could muster poured into her, dramatically increasing her strength. Both her hands reached out to grab the sides of Hazel's head and she pulled it towards herself, her head moving forward in turn to meet his with a vicious headbutt. The crunch of his nose breaking brought up a smile to her face. He may not have felt any pain from that, but the sheer force was still enough to push him back and his grip loosened just enough for her to wrench herself free. Before he could recover she had Magnhild in hand and a powerful swing sent him flying into, and through, a restaurant window.

The big guy landed sprawled upon one of the tables within and before he could get up, she had reloaded and let loose with another salvo of grenades. They probably did not hurt him any more than the last batch, but that didn't matter. The explosions weakened the building's foundations and brought the whole thing crashing down on top of him. Figuring that would be enough, the back of her hand wiped at the corner of her mouth before she turned to find her next target. She settled on the scorpion faunus.

 

[MidwayLives]

"What??" The hammer wielded skidded to a sudden halt before the wall of fire, wheeling around in the direction they had come from. "Tch. Flukes, that's all that was. I won't lose again. Not to some kids dumb enough to think that cell would hold me forever." Lightning sparked and crackled around her body and her hammer, power flooding into her veins thanks to her semblance before she pushed off the ground and lunged at Watts, her hammer moving in for an overhead swing intended to flatten Watts against the ground.

It didn't.

Roman calmly stopped dead in his tracks and gestured to Nora. "Ah! Hey, another obstacle getting in our way. Right on time!" As if the Grimm and Lil Red(who Roman was still convinced seemed shady as hell. C'mon, who walks up to someone and claims they're dead? He'd tell you who: people who'd slit your throat in your sleep or fortune tellers and those guys were the biggest load of crock that Roman'd ever seen.) weren't enough. Drawing Melodic Cudgel, he prepared for what no doubt was going to end up a bare knuckle life on the line fight to the-

Oh.

She went after Watts. Okay.
​

Regardless of whether that worked he continued his pursuit, his other gun keeping up its automatic fire at Watts in an attempt to keep his attention and deny him any chance of thinking something up. If Ren was even the least bit concerned or unbalanced by the earthquake, he didn't show it.

*VSSSSH!*

As the flare from his cane exploded the ground in front of Ren and hopefully got his attention, Roman smiled and started to make his case.

"Hey! I know, I know, I talk a LOT and you barely talk enough to fill up a sticky note! We're like a pear and a orange! So, with that in mind? Wouldn't you much rather try to kill me than that nerd, Watts?? C'mon! I know you've got it in you I mean it's not everyday we get to put ourselves to the test-" Roman totally wasn't rambling to show how scared he was on the inside. Semblance or not he'd cream this guy. Firing another shot, Roman laughed! "What's wrong?? Cat got your tongue??"

He'd heard of the exploits with Nora and Ren from Cinder and co. Truth be told, Roman just chalked Ren up to be nothing more than dumb muscle! Which meant he totally stood a chance and wasn't just throwing his life away!

He just had to last long enough to for Neo to spontaneously arrive and save him. Yeah, that made sense didn't it?

"Chicken, cheep-cheep-"
​

By this time, however, Nora had grown COMPLETELY ABSOLUTELY POSITIVELY sick of her current predicament. The criminal ceased throwing punches for the arm with muscles the size of tree trunks keeping her pinned here. No, every last single spark she could muster poured into her, dramatically increasing her strength. Both her hands reached out to grab the sides of Hazel's head and she pulled it towards herself, her head moving forward in turn to meet his with a vicious headbutt. The crunch of his nose breaking brought up a smile to her face. He may not have felt any pain from that, but the sheer force was still enough to push him back and his grip loosened just enough for her to wrench herself free. Before he could recover she had Magnhild in hand and a powerful swing sent him flying into, and through, a restaurant window.

The big guy landed sprawled upon one of the tables within and before he could get up, she had reloaded and let loose with another salvo of grenades. They probably did not hurt him any more than the last batch, but that didn't matter. The explosions weakened the building's foundations and brought the whole thing crashing down on top of him. Figuring that would be enough, the back of her hand wiped at the corner of her mouth before she turned to find her next target. She settled on the scorpion faunus.

 

[MyrtenRose]

There it was. Fresh off killing a pack of Grimm, she heard the flap of wings pass by overhead. A quick turn of her head and she caught sight of it. The dragon grimm. The one she had been waiting for this entire time. Whether this was actually a nightmare, or some kind of illusion, or if it was real...whatever the case, this was that night at Beacon revisited. But maybe it didn't have to be the Fall of Beacon. Cocking Crescent Rose, Ruby made a beeline for the nearest tall building, using her sniper scythe to propel her up to the edge of its roof. Once there, she sighted down and tracked the dragon as it circled around. She fired a few shots to catch its attention and she could tell those ominous red eyes were looking her way. As she intended, on its next circling pass, it headed straight for her. A grin of audacity came to life on her face as she folded up Crescent Rose and slid it onto her back. She had already gotten the better of this dragon in the past.

She had done the same with a much bigger grimm.

Standing here, now, there was not even a sliver of doubt within her. Her eyes slid shut as she focused, listening to every beat of those inhuman wings, bringing the dragon closer and closer. When it sounded like the dragon was almost on top of her, those silver eyes opened again, releasing a bright flash of light that spread out a great distance. When it subsided, Ruby was staring right into that gaping maw, maybe only 10 or so feet away from her in the air. For a moment, it seemed to twitch...but that moment passed. The only movement that followed was that completely petrified stone beast plummeting towards the ground, shattering upon impact and beginning to fade away.

That got a soft smile out of her. "One problem down." From this vantage point, she began to snipe the grimm the dragon had managed to spawn on its last circling. When the last of them was vanquished, she hopped off the building and raced off. "There has to be someone else that---oh, d'oh." Ruby resisted the urge to slap herself for not thinking of it sooner and pulled out her scroll. There was no signal for Weiss or Blake, but there was one for Yang! Ruby skidded to an instant halt, attempting to contact her sister.

 

[Schnee Corp Lawyer]

Eve seemed all too happy to oblige and play this game, under the impression Yang was playing right into her hands as she slid backwards in perfect time with the kickboxer's advance, swinging Wilt in wide-yet-honed arcs to bat aside her knuckles again and again and again. A vicious smirk adorned her face as her hair and markings started to glow a more vibrant shade of red- The weight on her blade felt off.

She barely had a moment to wonder why, or why Wilt wasn't sliding back into its sheath properly for the moonslice she was planning, before the sticky bombs went off the second she flicked her eyes down to check, her aura battered between the force and the force of the wall it put her through as she was propelled across a lecture hall to land in a heap of rubble and broken chairs. Her aura flared red as if to protest the sheer quantity of damage it had just taken all at once—had her battles thus far tonight not been effortless, and her aura been in a more depleted state from the start, that might've been dangerous.

She pushed herself up to one knee with an audible snarl, the sensation of hair in her eyes only serving to ramp up her mounting frustration as she- wait. Hair in her eyes?

The sight that awaited Yang as the smoke cleared was almost pitiful, the faunus scrambling through the wreckage on hands and knees as she desperately tried to find her mask. Once it was in her hands and hastily affixed back over her face, the snarl that awaited Yang eclipsed all that had come before it to the same extent the sun eclipsed a candle as she pushed back to her feet and promptly put her fist through a wall. "YOU HUMAN FILTH! I SHOULD KILL YOU!"

Her subsequent zigzagging charge for Yang was fast even by the huntress's standards, Eve a blur of movement that only solidified for a bare instant at several different points in the room before she slammed into Yang's guard like a tidal wave of fury, trying to back her opponent up to the wall with an onslaught of swings and flurries that didn't let up. Once she was close enough for what she had in mind, the exchange turned vicious as Eve feinted a strike with Wilt only to snatch a fistful of Yang's hair instead, a particularly insidious tactic with the intent of throwing off her balance as she attempted to wrench the huntress's head back to expose her jugular and bring her weapon's hilt down on it. Hard. If that worked, she used the grip on her hair to swing her around into the wall, where she moved to drive Wilt up against her neck and rest Blush across the blade in its rifle configuration with the barrel leveled at Yang's face.

"What do you think this is?! Not real? WHO ARE YOU?!"​

Yang strode through the hole in the wall as she watched Eve scrambled through the mess, any pity she felt not showing through her glare as she finished clicking the shells back into Ember Celica for a reload. She took back up her stance as Eve looked up, and when she roared at her, Yang didn't do anything except scoff. That sounded more like the Adam she knew and hated. "You tried." *Ch-CHICK* "Didn't take."

Then Eve disappeared, and when she finally sat still long enough for Yang to even think about focusing on her, it was when she was right in front of her and slamming Wilt's hilt straight into her gut. Even in her dreams, there was such a thing as too cocky, and Yang had to push herself to the limit to keep her defenses up as Eve reminded her how difficult a fight it had been even with Blake's help. She weaved her own strikes in, reading every swing as best she could for any chance to get her own jabs and shots in as the sound of gunfire filled the lecture hall and tore holes in the walls, floor and ceiling- The surprised yelp of indignant pain Yang had as her hair was suddenly wrenched was far higher pitched than she wanted it to be, and her aura flared dangerously as she was slammed again and smashed into the wall.

She heaved her breath in and out as she felt the barrel of Blush pressed against her, mentally assessing her own aura levels and trying her best to remember just how much punishment Adam's own could take. Though even in her own surety in her just so very, very wrong interpretation of events, her face couldn't help but scrunch up at the sheer venomous confusion in Eve's voice. "Yea *cough*. Nice try dream. The old 'pretend you're not a dream' trick. But I saw that movie, and I'm done with this." Yang flexed her hand, and one of Ember Celica's stick shells jutted out of the gauntlet on her prosthetic.

Which immediate went off, blasting them both.

It was an astoundingly stupid move for most people. Even if it did free her, it still left her wide open for a shot from Blush. But she wasn't most people, and she'd let her own semblance build up this entire time. She planted her feet rather than let the explosion move her, and reached inside herself for beating Eve had been giving her this entire time. A secondary explosion filled the room, clearing the smoke from the first, and Yang immediately launched herself on Eve's trajectory as her eyes glowed red and her hair seemed to burn, a look of calm determination rather than any sort of rage on her face as-

She barely registered the black blur that shot past her, the gunshot that accompanied shrouded in the explosions from before, and in the next moment someone's forearm clotheslined her out of her strike, sending her flying way past her target and crashing to the floor in a baffled heap. "...ow."

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Blake stood up and pulled Gambol shroud back to her hand with a flick of her wrist, and turned to face the pair that behind her. She'd landed in the classroom's window seconds earlier, following the sounds of a battle far too intense to be anyone but Eve and someone who was managing to keep up with her, and the unfolding scene left her only enough time to act on instincts. Old instincts. One she'd thought she'd buried. A storm of emotions raged inside of her, and she just stared for a few seconds as she tried to decide which of them to try and process first.

"...Why, Eve? Why are you here? Why now? Do you even understand what you're sticking your neck into?! How many Shadow and White Fang this stunt is going to get killed?!"

"...B...Blake?"
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

But now you're standing here with that look in your eyes
The look that makes me ṱ̶͠ḣ̷̝ȋ̵̭n̵̜̅ķ̶͘ ̸̕ͅt̸̟̉h̷̯̍a̸̭͋ṱ̵̐ ̴͓́y̴̺̓ǫ̸̌u̶̜̅ ̵̦͑w̸̘̿a̸̺̓n̶̳̑ṱ̸͒ ̸͚̒m̵̝̓e̵̟̕ ̶̨̿t̴̞̅o̴̠̓ ̷͖̄d̶̖̓i̸̤̕e̴̥͐

Yang stared in mute surprise at the sight before her as the faunus begrudgingly turned her attention onto her where she had pushed herself up to her knees. The voice sounded the same, sure, even with that same bit of scratchy earnestness when partner was really worked up about something. But... but so many other things looked so wrong. Why was she wearing some weird White Fang mask remix? Why had she just stopped Yang from smashing that pile of trash into next century? And... why was their so much blood on her (kinda cool looking) uniform, if her aura was clearly fine?

"And why are you even here? You weren't supposed to be on this mission!"

"I... mission? What-"

*DON'T YOU WORRY ABOUT THE DARK I WILL LIGHT UP THE NIGHT WITH THE LOVE IN MY HEART I WILL BURN LIKE THE SUN THAT WILL KEEP YOU SAFE AND-*

"REALLY?!"

She still answered though, and Blake shook her head with disgust and dismissed that interruption as the least of her problems as she turned her focus back to Eve. "...Ruby?"

At any sort of confirmation, she let herself flop onto her back and stare at the shattered ceiling with an empty smile. "I am having the worst dream right now, sis. Like, my subconscious taking pity and interrupting it with a call from my favorite baby sister bad, apparently." :' )

 

[MyrtenRose]

She still answered though, and Blake shook her head with disgust and dismissed that interruption as the least of her problems as she turned her focus back to Eve. "...Ruby?"

At any sort of confirmation, she let herself flop onto her back and stare at the shattered ceiling with an empty smile. "I am having the worst dream right now, sis. Like, my subconscious taking pity and interrupting it with a call from my favorite baby sister bad, apparently." :' )

"Yang!" She greeted, ecstatic that it had gotten through without any issues. "Wait...you're feeling like you're stuck in a bad dream too?! Like-the-you're-seeing-faces-you-think-you-know-but-they-aren't-acting-like-they-should, that-kind-of-bad-dream? Because-if-so-I'm-having-the-same-exact-dream!!! I-ran-into-Cinder-and-Tyrian-and-Hazel-but-they-were-all-fighting-a-Nevermore-and-they-said-they-were-Beacon-students-and-they-all-looked-kind-of-young-and-even-Roman-was-there! I-saw-him-die-but-he-was-there-and..." At this point even Ruby had to take a breath from her super-fast talking. She just hoped the words didn't blend together too much. "...Something is just crazy weird here, Yang!"

 

[Schnee Corp Lawyer]

The shots hit as intended, freezing Ren's legs to the ground before he could pursue further. It bought Arthur a precious couple seconds as Ren was forced to fire upon the ice with his guns, loosening up the ice enough for him to break free of its cold grasp. As soon as he turned back to Watts, one of his guns was thrown almost akin to a boomerang, intending to knock that pistol out of Watts' hand. Regardless of whether that worked he continued his pursuit, his other gun keeping up its automatic fire at Watts in an attempt to keep his attention and deny him any chance of thinking something up. If Ren was even the least bit concerned or unbalanced by the earthquake, he didn't show it.

But on the plus side: the violent shaking and the thunderous echo was more than enough to rouse Cinder from her temporary unconsciousness. Groggily she forced herself to her feet, nursing the back of her head where she could definitely feel the bruise( :< ) "Ow, damn it." She shook her head trying to clear the stars from her vision before the sound of an earsplitting roar hit her like a ton of bricks and forced her into 100% awake mode. There was a whooshing sound overhead, and something temporarily eclipsed the pale moonlight and left her in darkness, but by the time she looked up whatever it was already out of her sight.

Cinder quickly looked around to take stock of the situation. Hazel was over there, holding the wildly struggling Nora against a wall. Tyrian for his part seemed to be having the time of his life going ham on the grimm horde. And--

"Arthur!" Cinder called out in concern upon spotting him, beginning to run over that way. Though they bickered often, and loudly, in regards to how he led...he was still their leader. And he needed help.

By this time, however, Nora had grown COMPLETELY ABSOLUTELY POSITIVELY sick of her current predicament. The criminal ceased throwing punches for the arm with muscles the size of tree trunks keeping her pinned here. No, every last single spark she could muster poured into her, dramatically increasing her strength. Both her hands reached out to grab the sides of Hazel's head and she pulled it towards herself, her head moving forward in turn to meet his with a vicious headbutt. The crunch of his nose breaking brought up a smile to her face. He may not have felt any pain from that, but the sheer force was still enough to push him back and his grip loosened just enough for her to wrench herself free. Before he could recover she had Magnhild in hand and a powerful swing sent him flying into, and through, a restaurant window.

The big guy landed sprawled upon one of the tables within and before he could get up, she had reloaded and let loose with another salvo of grenades. They probably did not hurt him any more than the last batch, but that didn't matter. The explosions weakened the building's foundations and brought the whole thing crashing down on top of him. Figuring that would be enough, the back of her hand wiped at the corner of her mouth before she turned to find her next target. She settled on the scorpion faunus.

Arthur's roving eyes caught sight of just what they needed, and they lit up with a devious smirk as he preened at his own genius-

He froze in shock as something massive flew overhead, so surprised that he barely even noticed when Ren's weapon knocked his own out of his hand. "...Thats... going to be problem-"

Before he could even fathom the scale of the beast in question, even try to formulate threat assessment... a glow that must have been astoundingly bright at its apex shone in the distance, and the dragon came crashing down. "...Or it won't be-" a burst of gunfire scattered across his back, and he cursed in pain as he dived to the side to avoid the rest of Ren's barrage. He broke out into a sprint, holding his shield up behind him as he started to make his way towards Torchwick, eyes on something behind him as his rings lit up on his hand and he began to fiddle with a floating screen. He stumbled in surprise as the building fell on Hazel, but another burst from Ren slamming into his shield reminded him that he didn't have time to wait. Hazel would be fine anyways. Probably. He hoped.

 

[MidwayLives]

​

Standing here, now, there was not even a sliver of doubt within her. Her eyes slid shut as she focused, listening to every beat of those inhuman wings, bringing the dragon closer and closer. When it sounded like the dragon was almost on top of her, those silver eyes opened again, releasing a bright flash of light that spread out a great distance. When it subsided, Ruby was staring right into that gaping maw, maybe only 10 or so feet away from her in the air. For a moment, it seemed to twitch...but that moment passed. The only movement that followed was that completely petrified stone beast plummeting towards the ground, shattering upon impact and beginning to fade away.

These Grimm seemed endless. She knew why she continued to see so many of them despite how quiet she felt she was moving. Between the anger directed solely at herself for being forced to retreat before she could have ended that impostor's life, and her determination to turn this entire school upside down to find the Maiden, it was like a buffet to them. No matter how many she hacked up or shot, another would eventually meander along to take it's place. Along her walk, she'd see squads of soldiers being overwhelmed by the beasts. They might have had a chance if she interfered.

She didn't.

Continuing to walk, thoughts raced through her head like a hyperactive child.

"Ruby...what did you do...?" "St-Stay away from me!"

"..."

The tremor she'd felt during the fight with Neo. It had to have meant something. Looking over and seeing the dragon flying through the air off in the distance. Perhaps this would be what broke the back of Beacon's resistance and the Maiden would have no choice but to show herself. Then, Ruby would take her.

No matter who stood in her way. But just as things seemed like they were going to turn up for her, Ruby blinked not once, not twice, but thrice. She'd seen some kind of flash off in the distance and the dragon cascaded down to the ground like a horrific monument to the evil that made up the Grimm's very being. What she'd just seen...It couldn't have been...She hadn't seen that...not..not since back then.

"AAAAAAAAHHHH! MY ARM!!!!" "RUBY!"

The Beowulf, blood staining it's maw, reared back one of it's claws. Yang reached out towards her sister...

"NO.."

So engrossed in her own thoughts, Ruby didn't seem to notice the crowd of Grimm that was growing ever close. Quite the opposite actually. Her teeth gritted to the point that she subconsciously wondered if it was possible to break them by gritting them so hard. Spreading her feet apart, Ruby threw her head back and...screamed.

"AAAAAAAAAHHHHH!!!!"

The Grimm stumbled back as a bright glow erupted from their potential prey's eyes. Then, there was nothing at all. They were frozen like statues or perhaps more succinctly: lambs to the slaughter. The blade of Crescent Rose was like a whirlwind of death and these Grimm had reaped it. Once there was nothing left to hit, Ruby's entire body shuddered. Leaning on Crescent Rose for support, her breaths were ragged. Her hands felt clammy and it felt as if a massive weight had fallen upon her shoulders. Her vision was blurred but she couldn't falter now. Not when this mystery lay before her. That impostor had shown her many faces. One of whom was hers. But...The features seemed softer, less corrupted by conflict and strife and misery. Looking at it almost seemed like looking into another world.

Digging her fingers hard enough into her impromptu bandages to draw blood, she winced and stood up straight. Something was wrong and she wanted-no, she needed to get to the bottom of it.

Now.
​

"Yang!" She greeted, ecstatic that it had gotten through without any issues. "Wait...you're feeling like you're stuck in a bad dream too?! Like-the-you're-seeing-faces-you-think-you-know-but-they-aren't-acting-like-they-should, that-kind-of-bad-dream? Because-if-so-I'm-having-the-same-exact-dream!!! I-ran-into-Cinder-and-Tyrian-and-Hazel-but-they-were-all-fighting-a-Nevermore-and-they-said-they-were-Beacon-students-and-they-all-looked-kind-of-young-and-even-Roman-was-there! I-saw-him-die-but-he-was-there-and..." At this point even Ruby had to take a breath from her super-fast talking. She just hoped the words didn't blend together too much. "...Something is just crazy weird here, Yang!"

As she ran, she continued to think about whatever it was that she'd find. Who was out there? Who'd stir up these feelings within her? Who...Who could have done what she'd just seen? It might have been more prudent to try to report it back to him. But she didn't want to, what if it gave him the impression this task was beyond her after all? No, she'd get to the bottom of this, no matter what might have been waiting for her.

Tearing a path in Grimm and whoever else may have gotten in their way, Ruby stopped at the foot of the building she'd sworn she'd seen that glow come from. Her heart felt like it was racing a hundred miles per hour. Shifting her weapon into it's rifle form, Ruby glanced over in the direction of the voice she heard. It sounded so familiar...

As she turned to face the one who had intrigued her so, the remnants of the glove over her prosthetic peeled away to reveal the glistening black metal underneath. Steeling herself, Ruby panted before focusing her furious gaze on the one she'd heard blabbing away...

"...Me?"​

 

[MyrtenRose]

As the flare from his cane exploded the ground in front of Ren and hopefully got his attention, Roman smiled and started to make his case.

"Hey! I know, I know, I talk a LOT and you barely talk enough to fill up a sticky note! We're like a pear and a orange! So, with that in mind? Wouldn't you much rather try to kill me than that nerd, Watts?? C'mon! I know you've got it in you I mean it's not everyday we get to put ourselves to the test-" Roman totally wasn't rambling to show how scared he was on the inside. Semblance or not he'd cream this guy. Firing another shot, Roman laughed! "What's wrong?? Cat got your tongue??"

He'd heard of the exploits with Nora and Ren from Cinder and co. Truth be told, Roman just chalked Ren up to be nothing more than dumb muscle! Which meant he totally stood a chance and wasn't just throwing his life away!

He just had to last long enough to for Neo to spontaneously arrive and save him. Yeah, that made sense didn't it?

"Chicken, cheep-cheep-"

Before he could even fathom the scale of the beast in question, even try to formulate threat assessment... a glow that must have been astoundingly bright at its apex shone in the distance, and the dragon came crashing down. "...Or it won't be-" a burst of gunfire scattered across his back, and he cursed in pain as he dived to the side to avoid the rest of Ren's barrage. He broke out into a sprint, holding his shield up behind him as he started to make his way towards Torchwick, eyes on something behind him as his rings lit up on his hand and he began to fiddle with a floating screen. He stumbled in surprise as the building fell on Hazel, but another burst from Ren slamming into his shield reminded him that he didn't have time to wait. Hazel would be fine anyways. Probably. He hoped.

Ren halted his run the moment the ground before him exploded, directing the briefest of looks over at Roman before he re-focused on Watts. All that talk was easily ignored. He had too much experience dealing with overly talkative gingers rambling on and on to let any of that nonsense get to them. His gun was still firing as he ran, and he caught the other one when it returned to him mid-sprint. When the next shot of Roman's came, Ren was swift in response, jumping clear over it and landing directly in Watts' path. One hand outstretched towards Watts, using Arthur's own running momentum against him as he ran right into the hand and Ren gripped his collar tightly. Ren's face was emotionless, but the raising of Stormflower spoke volumes. The bladed end came down--

--and got deflected off its intended path by one well-placed dust arrow slamming into the weapon, sending it veering way off course to the side and leaving Watts unharmed.

Ren frowned at the interruption. 3 opponents...no. Watts found himself quickly thrown over at Cinder, knocking both to the ground. Before they had even hit each other, Ren had already switched targets, rushing for Roman and swinging the bladed end of his weapons towards Torchwick.

 

[Gus Gungus]

Yang strode through the hole in the wall as she watched Eve scrambled through the mess, any pity she felt not showing through her glare as she finished clicking the shells back into Ember Celica for a reload. She took back up her stance as Eve looked up, and when she roared at her, Yang didn't do anything except scoff. That sounded more like the Adam she knew and hated. "You tried." *Ch-CHICK* "Didn't take."

Then Eve disappeared, and when she finally sat still long enough for Yang to even think about focusing on her, it was when she was right in front of her and slamming Wilt's hilt straight into her gut. Even in her dreams, there was such a thing as too cocky, and Yang had to push herself to the limit to keep her defenses up as Eve reminded her how difficult a fight it had been even with Blake's help. She weaved her own strikes in, reading every swing as best she could for any chance to get her own jabs and shots in as the sound of gunfire filled the lecture hall and tore holes in the walls, floor and ceiling- The surprised yelp of indignant pain Yang had as her hair was suddenly wrenched was far higher pitched than she wanted it to be, and her aura flared dangerously as she was slammed again and smashed into the wall.

She heaved her breath in and out as she felt the barrel of Blush pressed against her, mentally assessing her own aura levels and trying her best to remember just how much punishment Adam's own could take. Though even in her own surety in her just so very, very wrong interpretation of events, her face couldn't help but scrunch up at the sheer venomous confusion in Eve's voice. "Yea *cough*. Nice try dream. The old 'pretend you're not a dream' trick. But I saw that movie, and I'm done with this." Yang flexed her hand, and one of Ember Celica's stick shells jutted out of the gauntlet on her prosthetic.

Which immediate went off, blasting them both.

It was an astoundingly stupid move for most people. Even if it did free her, it still left her wide open for a shot from Blush. But she wasn't most people, and she'd let her own semblance build up this entire time. She planted her feet rather than let the explosion move her, and reached inside herself for beating Eve had been giving her this entire time. A secondary explosion filled the room, clearing the smoke from the first, and Yang immediately launched herself on Eve's trajectory as her eyes glowed red and her hair seemed to burn, a look of calm determination rather than any sort of rage on her face as-

She barely registered the black blur that shot past her, the gunshot that accompanied shrouded in the explosions from before, and in the next moment someone's forearm clotheslined her out of her strike, sending her flying way past her target and crashing to the floor in a baffled heap. "...ow."

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Blake stood up and pulled Gambol shroud back to her hand with a flick of her wrist, and turned to face the pair that behind her. She'd landed in the classroom's window seconds earlier, following the sounds of a battle far too intense to be anyone but Eve and someone who was managing to keep up with her, and the unfolding scene left her only enough time to act on instincts. Old instincts. One she'd thought she'd buried. A storm of emotions raged inside of her, and she just stared for a few seconds as she tried to decide which of them to try and process first.

"...Why, Eve? Why are you here? Why now? Do you even understand what you're sticking your neck into?! How many Shadow and White Fang this stunt is going to get killed?!"

"...B...Blake?"
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

But now you're standing here with that look in your eyes
The look that makes me ṱ̶͠ḣ̷̝ȋ̵̭n̵̜̅ķ̶͘ ̸̕ͅt̸̟̉h̷̯̍a̸̭͋ṱ̵̐ ̴͓́y̴̺̓ǫ̸̌u̶̜̅ ̵̦͑w̸̘̿a̸̺̓n̶̳̑ṱ̸͒ ̸͚̒m̵̝̓e̵̟̕ ̶̨̿t̴̞̅o̴̠̓ ̷͖̄d̶̖̓i̸̤̕e̴̥͐

Yang stared in mute surprise at the sight before her as the faunus begrudgingly turned her attention onto her where she had pushed herself up to her knees. The voice sounded the same, sure, even with that same bit of scratchy earnestness when partner was really worked up about something. But... but so many other things looked so wrong. Why was she wearing some weird White Fang mask remix? Why had she just stopped Yang from smashing that pile of trash into next century? And... why was their so much blood on her (kinda cool looking) uniform, if her aura was clearly fine?

"And why are you even here? You weren't supposed to be on this mission!"

"I... mission? What-"

*DON'T YOU WORRY ABOUT THE DARK I WILL LIGHT UP THE NIGHT WITH THE LOVE IN MY HEART I WILL BURN LIKE THE SUN THAT WILL KEEP YOU SAFE AND-*

"REALLY?!"

She still answered though, and Blake shook her head with disgust and dismissed that interruption as the least of her problems as she turned her focus back to Eve. "...Ruby?"

At any sort of confirmation, she let herself flop onto her back and stare at the shattered ceiling with an empty smile. "I am having the worst dream right now, sis. Like, my subconscious taking pity and interrupting it with a call from my favorite baby sister bad, apparently." :' )

Eve was pretty much completely flummoxed by the way this was going. She was the White Fang's greatest warrior, no question; the lieutenant she encountered had built quite a reputation himself, and he couldn't even offer up a challenge. She had bowled over Blake and Ilia in spars at the same time. High Leader Sienna saw training with her subordinates as beneath her, but she had never harbored any doubts as to the outcome if the day ever came when they crossed paths, either. Her career in bloodshed was one that had been met with very little resistance over the years, and that was how she expected tonight to unfold; with little resistance.

And yet it felt like this random blonde spewing gibberish had been preparing to face her for months. She was anticipating her offense in a way that suggested far more familiarity than seemed conceivable considering Eve had never encountered her once before in her life, a fact she grew more and more certain of the more she racked her brain trying to place her. She knew where the gaps in her defense were, how to time her counterstrikes to interrupt the rhythm of Eve's own offense so she could never really establish a pace that kept her in control. And it was frustrating her. Eve's semblance, her entire combat stratagem, were best suited to ending fights fast. The longer this dragged out...

Overwhelming Yang's guard enough to trap her against the wall was a more laborious task than she expected, and her own breath was ragged by the time she had her where she wanted her. In the end the advantage she seized didn't even last, and Eve barely had time to growl and unload as much of the clip into the huntress's face as she could before she was propelled backward like a bullet. She stomped a boot against the ground to try and control her momentum somewhat, briefly skipping across the classroom tiles like a stone across the surface of a pond before she managed to face the right direction, just in time to witness her quarry rapidly closing distance with what she assumed to be a semblance igniting her in a wreath of fire. What the hell was wrong with this human?

Fine.

"FINE!" She roared, every trace of the color red on her own person becoming luminous as she resheathed her blade in midair. She had been ready to unleash her semblance before, but the energy Wilt sponged from those detonations practically had the weapon quivering in its scabbard every time her hand touched it, so much energy accumulated that she frankly had no desire to send it at a living person.

It just didn't seem like she was gonna be left with much choice. Not if she wanted to do what she came here to do tonight. This blonde seemed to be on a rampage, anyway, and she had a hard time imagining anyone would miss someone that annoying.

The classroom was overcome with a swatch of brilliant colors, gold meeting crimson in anticipation of a meteor colliding with the sun.

Until the moon interrupted.

Blake's intervention was timely enough that she could abort that strike before it was ever unleashed, and a minor breeze seemed to ruffle her hair as it gradually faded back to its duller hue while Eve stared at the other faunus. The emotions knotting in her chest threatened to overcome her expression, but if there was one thing she could do it was wear a mask; she kept them locked behind that familiar grim visage of determination and grit. The one she only really wore when she was hiding something.

She slowly picked herself up, having skidded to a halt on one knee after the promised clash never occurred, her posture guarded and difficult to read.

"...No, Blake. I don't understand. I'm not even sure I can anymore." She eventually replied, the mildest note of a strain to her voice at suddenly being in her presence again after all this time forcing a distance. She was doing her best to brush it off, but Blake's voice, her scent, the passion and conviction she was bringing to bear... She could never admit it, but it threatened to overwhelm her. "You know I never wanted it to come to this. This is the last thing I wanted, but you forced me to intervene! Faunus everywhere will suffer for what you did here tonight, you do realize that?!"

Anger was the one emotion she never really could keep from slipping through the mask. There was just too much of it. Even at her angriest, though, she was never able to sustain it when it was Blake in the crosshairs; she'd wondered for years whether that made her weak, pathetic, or just overly attached, but she was never able to reach a satisfying answer. She was dismayed to learn that was still very much in effect, even after their time apart, and she let her breathing deepen in an effort to stay calm as her grip on Wilt clenched and unclenched to a similar end.

"I... I just want to talk. I missed you."

She sounded unusually vulnerable, almost guilty in admission.​

 

[Schnee Corp Lawyer]

"Yang!" She greeted, ecstatic that it had gotten through without any issues. "Wait...you're feeling like you're stuck in a bad dream too?! Like-the-you're-seeing-faces-you-think-you-know-but-they-aren't-acting-like-they-should, that-kind-of-bad-dream? Because-if-so-I'm-having-the-same-exact-dream!!! I-ran-into-Cinder-and-Tyrian-and-Hazel-but-they-were-all-fighting-a-Nevermore-and-they-said-they-were-Beacon-students-and-they-all-looked-kind-of-young-and-even-Roman-was-there! I-saw-him-die-but-he-was-there-and..." At this point even Ruby had to take a breath from her super-fast talking. She just hoped the words didn't blend together too much. "...Something is just crazy weird here, Yang!"

Even in her worst nightmares where her sister wasn't even real, she could count on Ruby to be supportive T_T

"Yea. Super weird. Adam's a girl now. Name's Eve. So that's nice! Never pegged her for that but hey, its the one thing I'd ever actually congratulate her on if we weren't just trying to kill each other. " she snarked as she swung herself up to seated again, purposefully a little too loud.

...

This was a really long dream.

Until the moon interrupted.

Blake's intervention was timely enough that she could abort that strike before it was ever unleashed, and a minor breeze seemed to ruffle her hair as it gradually faded back to its duller hue while Eve stared at the other faunus. The emotions knotting in her chest threatened to overcome her expression, but if there was one thing she could do it was wear a mask; she kept them locked behind that familiar grim visage of determination and grit. The one she only really wore when she was hiding something.

She slowly picked herself up, having skidded to a halt on one knee after the promised clash never occurred, her posture guarded and difficult to read.

"...No, Blake. I don't understand. I'm not even sure I can anymore." She eventually replied, the mildest note of a strain to her voice at suddenly being in her presence again after all this time forcing a distance. She was doing her best to brush it off, but Blake's voice, her scent, the passion and conviction she was bringing to bear... She could never admit it, but it threatened to overwhelm her. "You know I never wanted it to come to this. This is the last thing I wanted, but you forced me to intervene! Faunus everywhere will suffer for what you did here tonight, you do realize that?!"

Anger was the one emotion she never really could keep from slipping through the mask. There was just too much of it. Even at her angriest, though, she was never able to sustain it when it was Blake in the crosshairs; she'd wondered for years whether that made her weak, pathetic, or just overly attached, but she was never able to reach a satisfying answer. She was dismayed to learn that was still very much in effect, even after their time apart, and she let her breathing deepen in an effort to stay calm as her grip on Wilt clenched and unclenched to a similar end.

"I... I just want to talk. I missed you."

She sounded unusually vulnerable, almost guilty in admission.​

Blake let out a bitter, involuntary laugh at the admission as sh grasped at the side of her head. "Oh, now you want to talk?! You're the one who left Eve! Not me. But... that was... fine" She said, her tone stumbling as she broke eye contact "I... I thought you of all people would stay with us, with me, and help us do what needs to be done. But I'd never make you do something you didn't want to, and this war is... its dark work."

Her hands dropped to her side and clenched into fists, the bitter frown underneath her mask audible in her tone. "So I stayed. I stayed, because the faunus already suffer every day. My father, Ilia's parents, you, Eve, all of us have suffered under their rule, and my parents' way, not even your way was working. Sienna's way will work, is working. All you had to do was just stay away and keep playing hero, while we did the worst of it."

The frustration she'd worked herself up to finally overpowered whatever shame or regret had kept her from looking at the other faunus, and her gaze snapped back up in a furious glare as her voice cracked. "So why? Why couldn't you just... not? Why are you getting in our way, my way, when I'm doing this for all of us? For you?!"

------------------------------------------------------

If these were a pair of total strangers, witnessing this conversation still would have been astonishingly uncomfortable for Yang. Every word dripped with so much pain, regret, and history, choking the air in a heavy smog of tension. The sort of raw emotion that the people closest to you could drag up, that showed sides of yourself that you never wanted anyone else to see.

But it wasn't strangers. It was the person she hated the most (Sort of), and... Blake. Her partner. The one besides Ruby she'd do anything for in an instant. The shadow to her sun. The person that she...

Whatever exasperated amusement she'd been getting at how much therapy this dream was telling her she needed was slowly evaporating, and her annoyance was drifting into something else. She didn't care if this was fake, seeing Blake as some White Fang thug who never escaped their brainwashing hurt. Seeing her show so much feeling towards someone else, to him... that did worse than hurt, and she absently reached over to pinch her arm in some vain hope that it'd work to finally wake her up when getting smacked around by Eve hadn't.

Nope.

"...Any idea how to wake up, sis? Really wanna be done here"