Fandom Distorted Mirror [IC]

[MyrtenRose]

Ironwood didn't lower his fingers, and the second order he issued was far graver and more simplistic. He'd seen what the so-called 'politician' could do firsthand, and it was nothing to be underestimated.

"Send in everyone."

"Old habits die hard, huh, General? Still issuing orders." The very next person to emerge from the portal called out Ironwood, though despite her bone to pick with most military types these days, her words were more playfully sarcastic than genuinely mean-hearted. The second those words were out of her mouth, her eyes shifted to lock onto the frozen Weiss. "Esteemed councilwoman." Robyn greeted, her tone far more hostile when directed at the more dictatorial Schnee. She was swiftly followed by three others, the Happy Huntresses wearing the same sort of outfits as Ironwood and Winter taking up flanking positions around her with Fiona and May on either side and the larger Joanna taking up the rear. Her gaze pulled away from Weiss to temporarily scan the room, eyes lingering on Raven and Yang for a touch longer than any of the others. That...really didn't look good.

By the time her eyes settled back on Weiss in a narrowed glare, Robyn was already striding forward until she was in arm's reach of the councilwoman. "Busy day, I gather." She boldly commented, so assured of their control over the situation that she didn't seem to care that she was this close to a maiden.

Yet others still rushed through the portal after those four, the next person to emerge more familiar to Yang, perhaps shockingly so. Hardly a moment passed between the short ginger dashed into view before her aqua eyes looked towards where the blonde was kneeling by her mom's side. "..." Nora was instantly by Yang's side, worry plain in her eyes. "What...what happened?" She asked with a concerned frown. That was...it would take a lot of force to do that to somebody, Valkyrie knew that well. Another equally familiar pair of faces followed immediately after. The other Raven, responsible for opening the portal to her otherworldly brother to bring them all here. Those red eyes peered temporarily at Yang and her other self before shifting over to a different corner. "Qrow!" She called out in alarm, rapidly approaching to kneel by him in the same manner as Yang. And just behind her...

"...Yang."

She sounded even more sad and worried than Nora did, if such a thing were possible, as she took in the sight of Yang lingering by the side of the downed Raven. Ruby wanted to rush over there too, put a comforting hand on Yang's shoulder just as Nora was. To silently be there in a show of support. She couldn't even imagine what Yang must have been thinking in that moment. If...if she'd seen her mom before her in a similar condition...the silver eyed huntress doubted she would be able to hold it together even remotely well if she saw something like that. But she couldn't do that just quite yet. Ruby's eyes reluctantly pulled away from looking at her sister and instead locking onto somebody else in the room. A face that was so familiar that a large part of her wished she could let her guard down around her, even though she knew better.

Ruby strode through the crowd until she was standing next to the taller Robyn, a hard to determine look on her face as she stared at Weiss. Eyes dissected every inch of that face, looking for...something. Even she wasn't exactly sure what it was she was searching for. After several seconds of an almost physically painful awkward silence on her part, Ruby spoke without turning her head. "Hurry. We need to get them out of here as soon as we can." She referred to Raven and her uncle, and though she was the youngest person in the room, her voice carried just as much weight as Ironwood's when he gave orders. Only then, when whatever she had been trying to find in Weiss apparently proving fruitless, did she respectfully nod to Robyn and turn away. She instantly dashed for Yang's side, gloved hand moving to rest on the shoulder that Nora's hand wasn't. "I'm...sorry, Yang. Sorry that we...that I was this late in getting here."

Robyn leaned even closer, reaching out to mockingly tap her knuckles a few times against the forehead of the stationary Weiss, taking great amusement in the fact that somebody so fixated on power was in this position, completely powerless. "So then, James. You were on the council with this one for a while. Any suggestions on what to do with her? Imprisonment sounds fantastic from where I'm standing."​

 

[Indolent]

"Uh-huh." Tock nodded, satisfied with that as she glanced to the others. "Told ya, these two here, they're handy! Even though yeah I'm pretty sure I saw that one-" The faunus jerked her head over to Neo. "-fightin' against us back at Haven. So, shaky alliance it may be, but if there's anythin' you can count on about criminals and lowlives, it is for 'em to always be lookin' out for number one. To be pursuin' their own self-interest above all else. So! As long as our interests and theirs align, pretty confident we don't gotta worry about 'em." Though that did not mean she was going to take her eyes off either of them.

Emerald cocked her head, eyes fixed on Tock, as the pointed comment absolutely eviscerated struck home. A grimace born of annoyance at having to confront this particular aspect now of all times, even if that wasn't what the faunus was attempting.

"Yeah, well, I want to get home and Neo is keeping an eye out for herself in more than one way. Also kept an eye out for me too. There isn't anything here worth staying for and I legitimately think you guys have the best chance of facilitating that so yeah. I've got numero uno's best interests in mind but seems like I'll inadvertently be a hero and that's that's that's nice I guess." She almost gagged at the last there.

It was either flip to Ozpin's side without the safety net in the form of her Cinder and that wouldn't do. Especially since there were no other alternatives as well as it seemed like everyone and their grandmother was in the clock monster's pockets.

"..........Wait." She blinked a couple times, looking rapidly back and forth between Emerald and Hazel as she connected the dots. "Ohmygod...are you saying...is Hazel a dad where you're from??" Cinder gasped. It was not one born of worry, though, just surprise. And in the next moment a smile popped onto her face at the thought of that. She was so overcome with the pleasant feeling she felt radiating throughout every inch of herself that any fragments remaining of her more gloomy mood from the more solemn talk, they completely evaporated. In addition, her excitement at that drowned out her awareness of Emerald's weak denial of her nicknames which were apparently cute.

"You have to tell me more! What are their names? What are they like?? Does Hazel rock a dad stache??? No wait, what is he like as a dad????" Cinder's mouth ran a mile a minute. If Hazel was a dad there, than surely it would be fated to eventually be so here. "Who is his girlfriend????? Or boyfriend, no judgments! Is he married--"

"Okay, kiddo, calm down. Pretty sure we got way more important stuff to be doin'. C'mon now." Tock interjected, getting the teenage maiden to pout and grumble in response. Damn adult, harshing on her mellow when she was getting precious few chances for it in recent times.

"Uh." Wow, did Cinder really look like that, the flush to her cheeks with the genuine smile adorned between them and the glint in her one eye.

"Uhhhh."

"Uhhhhhhhhhh."

Inundated by the fusillade of questions, Emerald couldn't help but blink doe eyes in the headlights that was Cinder and her line of questioning. An innocuous comment slash joke had gone awry and to make the matter worse, she didn't expect this sort of reaction from Cinder's flipped incarnation. It really exacerbated those feelings earlier for her, unwittingly bidding an errant foot to complete a single back-step as Cinder's exuberance expanded beyond her own presence, very nearly encroaching into Emerald's personal space.

"I just meant that he acts like a dad! I don't know if he has kids, I hope not! Cuz that would have so many implications. He has a wicked beard! Too nice and concerned about others! Wait, why am I answering these questions y'know what never mind let's just go that was a terrible joke haha... ha."

A series of side glances were made apart from Cinder, a round lingering on Gretchen before Hazel before she turned to skedaddle for the ship.

"Great. Let's go then." The croc immediately turned, striding back for her ship to get this journey moving again.

"Yep." Emerald agreed, slipping in two votes in the ballot for the ball to get moving as she power walked back aboard.

Hazel, for his part, was effectively the latest in addition to statuary dotting the Mistralian landscape, a rarity far and in between to be discovered by the most intrepid of explorers that managed to not be devoured by the Grimm. His face was a clear indicator of difficulty in parsing all these things. Gretchen, on the other hand, had a thoughtful expression completed by the paced nodding.

"Yeah, that all sounds about right. Hey, I bet I'm a badass aunt!"

The thief power walked faster.

 

[MidwayLives]

Suddenly Harriet felt oh so vindicated....

 

[Gus Gungus]

Suddenly Harriet felt oh so vindicated....

But she was still out of a job.

 

[MyrtenRose]

Inundated by the fusillade of questions, Emerald couldn't help but blink doe eyes of in the headlights that was Cinder and her line of questioning. An innocuous comment slash joke had gone awry and to make the matter worse, she didn't expect this sort of reaction from Cinder's flipped incarnation. It really exacerbated those feelings earlier for her, unwittingly bidding an errant foot to complete a single back-step as Cinder's exuberance expanded beyond her own presence, very nearly encroaching into Emerald's personal space.

"I just meant that he acts like a dad! I don't know if he has kids, I hope not! Cuz that would have so many implications. He has a wicked beard! Too nice and concerned about others! Wait, why am I answering these question y'know what never mind let's just go that was a terrible joke haha... ha."

"...Cool."

It was the shortest of short replies, but as Tock pointed out and Emerald emphasized, they...really should get going. She didn't feel too great about Hazel and Gretchen getting dragged along, but as they both had said...they didn't think it was her call. Arguing the point just sounded like an absolutely tiring endeavor. One that she had very little interest in doing, instead jogging up after Emerald to hop onto the ship. "So......hey..." She started once on board, but faltered into silence before she could get any more out.​

 

[Indolent]

"...Cool."

It was the shortest of short replies, but as Tock pointed out and Emerald emphasized, they...really should get going. She didn't feel too great about Hazel and Gretchen getting dragged along, but as they both had said...they didn't think it was her call. Arguing the point just sounded like an absolutely tiring endeavor. One that she had very little interest in doing, instead jogging up after Emerald to hop onto the ship. "So......hey..." She started once on board, but faltered into silence before she could get any more out.​

Given their very nature, the interaction that followed might have been something akin to Gretchen affecting the very image of Sisyphos in his eternal quest of pushing the boulder with her brother Hazel, who was soundly defeated by a simple fact of life. But the reality saw Hazel lumbering on board without much urging, his features solidly pensive as he assimilated the similarities that had been drawn while remaining blissfully unaware of the truth the thief was very much clearly avoiding disseminating. Gretchen, on the other hand, was adamant in finding out more but exercised what little etiquette she had, rocking back and forth on heels as she awaiting a lull in the conversation with great anticipation.

"So... hey...?" Emerald parroted though without the mocking inflection she often adopted when she did so.

God, please let the rest of the flight impose a moratorium on talking.

 

[MyrtenRose]

"So... hey...?" Emerald parroted though without the mocking inflection she often adopted when she did so.

God, please let the rest of the flight impose a moratorium on talking.

“I...um...well, you’re from that other world and all...and there’s a me on that world...one who Hazel said is on our Remnant too....so um...do you know her?”​

 

[Indolent]

“I...um...well, you’re from that other world and all...and there’s a me on that world...one who Hazel said is on our Remnant too....so um...do you know her?”​

 

[MyrtenRose]

View attachment 707679

 

[Schnee Corp Lawyer]

One second the world felt so small; Yang, Raven, and Weiss trying to push in. Then it felt like the rest of Remnant all crashed back in at once.

The sound in Weiss' voice when she breached the quiet. The familiarity of Marrow's own as he shouted over the Heiress and just shattered that quiet instead. Nora's voice, coming out of a Nora dressed in chic winter wear instead of looking like knock off Torchwick. Her mom's voice, even seeing Ironwoods, Winter, after seeing no one but Weiss for an entire month it was all so much.

"...w-wait."

Too much. Way too much for her to handle, especially right now. Not when she was already dealing with this.

"... wait. stop, guys its..."

Not when her mom was literally broken. Not when they were all looking at Weiss like that. She heard it. She was absolutely sure that she heard it. It wasn't like she thought Weiss was sinless, hands completely clean of any of Ozpin's misdeeds, or even her own selfish ones. She knew her uncle was right on the money when he said that getting people to do what they wanted was Weiss' entire shtick. But you didn't manipulate someone by brushing off their concern and then sounding hurt and confused when they snapped at you, and only showed your concern after the fact. Weiss said it herself, but more importantly, Yang heard it in those words, and saw it in her face as she turned around to look at the heiress amid the chaos that just enveloped the cellar. Weiss Schnee was still human, and she still had a soul.

She also absolutely wasn't going to stand for this. as soon as that hold broke, she was going to tear into every person in this room, and they'd fight back, and then either she'd win or they would, with who knew how many of the people jammed into this cellar ending up just as bad as Raven or worse.

Including...

"...Yang."

She sounded even more sad and worried than Nora did, if such a thing were possible, as she took in the sight of Yang lingering by the side of the downed Raven. Ruby wanted to rush over there too, put a comforting hand on Yang's shoulder just as Nora was. To silently be there in a show of support. She couldn't even imagine what Yang must have been thinking in that moment. If...if she'd seen her mom before her in a similar condition...the silver eyed huntress doubted she would be able to hold it together even remotely well if she saw something like that. But she couldn't do that just quite yet. Ruby's eyes reluctantly pulled away from looking at her sister and instead locking onto somebody else in the room. A face that was so familiar that a large part of her wished she could let her guard down around her, even though she knew better.

Ruby strode through the crowd until she was standing next to the taller Robyn, a hard to determine look on her face as she stared at Weiss. Eyes dissected every inch of that face, looking for...something. Even she wasn't exactly sure what it was she was searching for. After several seconds of an almost physically painful awkward silence on her part, Ruby spoke without turning her head. "Hurry. We need to get them out of here as soon as we can." She referred to Raven and her uncle, and though she was the youngest person in the room, her voice carried just as much weight as Ironwood's when he gave orders. Only then, when whatever she had been trying to find in Weiss apparently proving fruitless, did she respectfully nod to Robyn and turn away. She instantly dashed for Yang's side, gloved hand moving to rest on the shoulder that Nora's hand wasn't. "I'm...sorry, Yang. Sorry that we...that I was this late in getting here."

...No

No no no. This fight couldn't happen. This fight absolutely could not happen. It wasn't the odds of victory that cracked Yang's resolve. They never did, and they never would, not when it was her and her sister in the fight. It was that no matter who won, it'd be a devastating loss in the long run, for a cost that was already higher than should've been paid. For a choice she made. There was a whole roil of emotions fighting for dominance in Yang's heart over so many sudden reunions and cutting losses all at once, but that thought gave one of those emotions the strength to tear the rest into shreds and come out on top.

Fear.

There was a frantic look of dread in Yang's eyes that looked wholly unnatural on her face for anyone who knew her as she scrambled back to her feet and shook the pair's hands off her shoulders. The look itself might've given people the impression that this month took a harder toll on Yang than expected, but if that didn't the fact that Yang completely ignored Ruby's words for the first time in possibly forever seemed even more damning. But it wasn't Ruby that Yang thought she was going to have trouble convincing, as she gently tried to nudge past winter to meet Weiss' eyes with a raw, desperate crack in her voice.

"Don't, Weiss. please. You don't have to do this. I know you can't see this as anything but a room of enemies, but I promise you that it doesn't have to be."

 

[MidwayLives]

Harriet was already at the manor's entrance by the time shit had gone down.

She'd punched the wall on the way out. Oops.

Just another debt on her tab to a miserable end to her career.

She'd gotten angry, she'd gotten upset, and she didn't know what to do now.

None of it had made any sense from the word go! Why was the prisoner left here?! Why wasn't she rotting in an Atlesian cell like Harriet felt she deserved?! Sure, she may have been nice, she may have been one of the nicest people in the world but it didn't matter! Enemies were supposed to be treated like enemies! She wasn't going to make food for her or talk to her!

But despite feeling like she had and saying what she did, what was there to show for it?

Her face stained with furious tears and absolutely...Nothing else.

As she stepped out, she gave one last look back.

Maybe if she went back now....

"No.."

She'd already made a fool out of herself. There wasn't much dignity left to waste.

The doors were shut behind her and she moved to leave. She just needed time to....figure things out. Where to even go from here.

~~~

'I'd stepped out from the portal looking as out of place as I'm sure I usually did among the colorful menagerie that lined the Resistance. My cloak was loose on me and my mask was dirtied with bits and pieces of grime and dust. I didn't cut the neatest picture to say the least. Wouldn't have changed it for the world though. I hadn't made the get-up in order to look fashionable but because the Resistance already had it's leader, it's symbol. I needed to live up to the same energy that a person like Robyn exuded. I couldn't do it as drab Grey Knights. I needed to do my part and so came the idea for my 'costume.' When I wear it, I'm no longer the journalist who'd had enough, I was a smaller piece of something far bigger than myself. I was part of the movement that was going to make things right.'

As he stood among those gathered, Grey tilted his head to the side, his mask thankfully hiding away his facial expressions.

'To think that after all this time, all the struggle, that we've finally managed to catch Weiss Schnee dead in her tracks. ...Pardon the phrasing, things still could have been deadly. She could refuse to come quietly and blood would no doubt be shed. No, underestimating Schnee would be a mistake, a big one. This was our best chance. Maybe the only one we'd ever get. Should do everything within our power. Bring down one of the pillars of the establishment and work towards something better...'

He paused.

'Some might say I spend too much time inside my own head, I'd say others don't spend enough...'

His hands rested at his side, the smallest blips of a black miasma twirling around his gloved fingertips.

.​

 

[Gus Gungus]

Weiss couldn't move.

Her mouth was half-open, but no sound was coming out. Her eyes had been open for so long they were starting to sting, but she couldn't blink. She could hear everything as they glared, poked, and prodded at her like she was their prized doll, but could do nothing to dispute, rebuke or object to any of it.

...no.

She was a woman who had cultivated her entire identity around an image of power. Around her sense of self. Around absolute dominion over every single aspect of her own life, and letting no one take that power away from her. Not Jacques Schnee. Not some ancient, eldritch, incomprehensible being who'd had his way with the kingdoms and their leaders at every turn. Not anyone. Not ever again.

Why couldn't she move?

Why was this happening to her?

She rushed for Weiss while the councilwoman was still in the middle of that laughing fit, aiming to drop her to the floor entirely with one well timed strong punch. After that she hunkered down atop the prone woman, briefly thinking about what she'd just drunkenly said...and apparently deciding that the cameras capturing any of this wouldn't make the situation substantially worse. Raven's solution to making sure the chick didn't hit her head...was to repeatedly thwack her in the head with the blunt hilt of Omen until she was unconscious.

Why did this keep happening to her?

There was one part of Yang that wasn't hindered by the lack of semblance, and while her hair was all up in Weiss' face, yellow painted fingers suddenly latched around her neck with the whir of gears and electronics with as much force as Yang could muster, attempting to choke the air from the maiden's lungs as she suddenly sat up and tried to twist herself to plant a boot on Weiss' dominant arm to keep Myrtenaster out of reach.

Why did people seem to derive so much fucking pleasure from making her feel powerless?

Robyn leaned even closer, reaching out to mockingly tap her knuckles a few times against the forehead of the stationary Weiss, taking great amusement in the fact that somebody so fixated on power was in this position, completely powerless.

What was wrong with them?

*CRASH* "WEISS! GET BACK HERE THIS INSTANT, YOU UNGRATEFUL LITTLE B-"

What was wrong with this world?

All she ever asked was to be respected, yet it had treated her with nothing but contempt from the moment she'd been born. She hated it. No matter how far above such concepts she tried to hold herself, she hated it so much it hurt. It was wrong. It had to change. No one deserved to feel like this. She couldn't keep feeling like this! She made her father disappear, and it should've stopped. She buried every single feeling and emotion so deep inside of herself that she didn't even feel like waking up most mornings, and it should've stopped. She'd become powerful, strong of mind, body, and soul, so powerful that most people were afraid to even look at her, more powerful than any of the vermin in this room could even conceive of, and it STILL HADN'T FUCKING STOPPED! She couldn't even SAY any of this, because apparently that wasn't allowed, apparently she didn't deserve the chance to defend herself, so she was limited to SCREAMING IT INSIDE HER OWN HEAD!

And what was worse? What was worse than all that pain?

SHE COULD ONLY RECALL TWO PEOPLE IN HER ENTIRE LIFE WHO EVEN SEEMED TO CARE! And both of them were...

They were...

Robyn was only allowed to play knick-knack on her sister's head for about a second before she found herself face to face with Winter, whirled around by a grip so tight it felt frozen as the woman's stern eyes narrowed at her in warning, cutting Ironwood off before he could even begin to reply to her. "Careful."

But it wasn't Ruby that Yang thought she was going to have trouble convincing, as she gently tried to nudge past winter to meet Weiss' eyes with a raw, desperate crack in her voice. "Don't, Weiss. please. You don't have to do this. I know you can't see this as anything but a room of enemies, but I promise you that it doesn't have to be."

...They were both standing in front of her.

Which meant they both saw it at the same time. The moisture glistening beneath her frozen eyes, the way it finally brimmed up enough to break into two slender tear tracks that rolled down her pale cheeks. For Winter, the sight was enough to make her guard drop, just a little.

FWIIIIIIIIIIIIISH



Because Winter was weak.

And in the same moment she, Yang, and Ruby were encased head to toe in ice, Marrow found himself spiked into the earth by a massive greatsword that swung through the suddenly-appearing glyph behind him as Weiss seized the opportunity to use the feeling she willed back into her hands almost twenty seconds ago. Less than a second after that she thrust both those hands up, eyes no longer frozen but unblinking and uncompromising in their resolve as they burned with the power of the Winter maiden. Hurricane winds buffeted everyone else in the room before they could react, flinging them all the way to the back of the cellar like plastic bags in a tornado as Weiss calmly walked over to Myrtenaster and picked it up.

The room's entire temperature had plummeted, Weiss's breath coming out in blue wisps that shone with the light of her eyes.

"I wish I could believe you, Yang. But you're naive, and these people are looking at me like I'm the monster. I'm going to build a world where people are better to each other. And to anyone who doesn't like that, I say this."

She swept a hand out, and an entire roomful of glyphs that spanned the cellar from floor to ceiling and wall to wall appeared behind her as her maiden eyes burned their brightest and all eight of Myrtenaster's barrels burned. Glows of varying colors started to appear in the center of each glyph; red, blue, yellow, and everything in between as she channeled dust and the elements through them in a balanced ratio.

There were no speeches, no arguments, no impassioned monologues that could convince these people of her point of view. She saw that now. More importantly, she saw why.

They were part of the problem.

Weiss clicked her fingers.

"Disappear."

Every single one of those glyphs fired their charge at once, and kept firing. The blue flame of the Winter Maiden and the red of dust, bolts of lightning and beams of hardlight energy, ice blasts and fiery meteorites; all of it annihilated the back wall of the cellar those opposing her had been blown into, Weiss intent on repeating the bombardment again and again until none were left standing.

Spoiler: Anyone who watched Remnanime found it kinda familiar

 

[MidwayLives]

...They were both standing in front of her.

Which meant they both saw it at the same time. The moisture glistening beneath her frozen eyes, the way it finally brimmed up enough to break into two slender tear tracks that rolled down her pale cheeks. For Winter, the sight was enough to make her guard to drop, just a little.

FWIIIIIIIIIIIIISH

'In my line of work, you tend to operate on how well you can read people. If you push them too far they'll end the interview and you'll be left with nothing. if you're too relaxed than they'll dominate the conversation and you wouldn't get what you wanted out of it. Unless of course you were a member of a trashy news outlet seeking little more than gossips and rumor-mongering. I don't think of myself in a positive light very often, hard to do these days when I look in the mirror and see it staring back. But I take pride in that for all I did, all I ever wrote, I verified every bit of it. I kept my sources hidden of course. They could be targeted and harassed for speaking with members of the press like me.'

Grey's eyes started to widen behind his mask.

'I once was offered the opportunity to try and interview some of Atlas's finest elites. I turned it down as a sign of growing protest. The sites in which I published my articles were being taken down, notes of harassment were thrown my way through proxies. I couldn't stomach it, who could? But I think if I had the chance to speak to Schnee, I know what I would have titled the article.'

He raised his left hand.

'The Tell-Tale All of the broken Pale Queen.'

"Get back!"

It'd been so long since he'd heard his own natural voice, unmodified by the interior of the mask, modulated to sound deeper and more intimidating.

But no matter how loud he yelled, it didn't matter.

'Too late. Guard was open and she took advantage-'
​

And in the same moment she, Yang, and Ruby were encased head to toe in ice, Marrow found himself spiked into the earth by a massive greatsword that swung through the spontaneous glyph behind him as Weiss seized the opportunity to use the feeling she willed back into her hands almost twenty seconds ago. Less than a second after that she thrust both those hands up, eyes no longer frozen but unblinking and uncompromising in their resolve as they burned with the power of the Winter maiden. Hurricane winds buffeted everyone else in the room before they could react, flinging them all the way to the back of the cellar like plastic bags in a tornado as Weiss calmly walked over to Myrtenaster and picked it up.

The room's entire temperature had plummeted, Weiss's breath coming out in blue wisps that shone with the light of her eyes.

His thoughts were unfocused, not at all out of the norm for him, but it wasn't usually associated with pain.

Usually.

Vomiting out a wad of black fog from the mouth of his mask, it seemed to ebb from his person little by little. Some of it coalesced around the tendrils of his costume to try and hold him in place but it was all for naught. He was pulled off his feet and flung back, one hand holding onto his mask to keep it from being flung away by the sheer ferocity of the winds assailing him and the others.

'Can't think...Can't...'
​

She swept a hand out, and an entire roomful of glyphs that spanned the cellar from floor to ceiling and wall to wall appeared behind her as her maiden eyes burned their brightest and all eight of Myrtenaster's barrels burned. Glows of varying colors started to appear in the center of each glyph; red, blue, yellow, and everything in between as she channeled dust and the elements through them in a balanced ratio.

There were no speeches, no arguments, no impassioned monologues that could convince these people of her point of view. She saw that now, and more importantly she saw why.

They were part of the problem.

Weiss clicked her fingers.

"Disappear."

What would be a proper assessment for what was happening?

Was it righteous justice? If it was, who was on the side of justice?

If Schnee simply killed all of them, he supposed that'd make her right by default.

Nobody would be left to oppose her.

If they killed her?

Well...

'Sometimes, reality is cruel with how....unfeeling it is in showing you how small you are..'

They'd had victory in the palm of their hand and they'd whiffed it.
​

Every single one of those glyphs fired their charge at once, and kept firing. The blue flame of the Winter Maiden and the red of dust, bolts of lightning and beams of hardlight energy, ice blasts and fiery meteorites; all of it annihilated the back wall of the cellar those opposing her had been blown into, Weiss intent on repeating the bombardment again and again until none were left standing.

'Do it. Do it. Do it. A mantra to get one's self doing what needs to be done. In times of indecision it's necessary. If something isn't done, we'll all die here and the Resistance with us. I couldn't let that happen. I'm only one person but I'm a part of something much bigger than me or the figure that trapezes around Mantle's streets could ever hope to be. I have the power to do something...'

His semblance, 'Ghostly Whispers' wasn't much for offensive measures. It was meant mainly to be used defensively. To either escape or give himself or others time to plan out a counter-attack. But if he forced himself and spread enough of it around, it had another effect.

A far more sinister one.

It preyed on the enemy's subconscious mind. Their faults, their worries, their fears. It brought them all to light. Pyschosis and hallucinations, all of that.

Was it a reflection of his own self-admittedly shoddy mental health? Probably.

But if he could use it to save lives then it'd be worth it.

Black Fog ebbed from around Grey's person and moved to engulf the entire cellar floor. Or what was left of it after Weiss's cavalcade of elemental attacks.

Grey for his part was left flat on his back, a chunk of his mask torn away to expose his eye as he coughed and wheezed.

'In pain. Aura weakened. Need to do this fast. Draining to use this much fog.'

Hoping that 'Ghostly Whispers' acted as enough of a smokescreen, he drew his knife from it's sheath hidden within his cloak.

'Hurting anyone was never my reason for getting into this. Bringing change, stopping the wrong people from getting what they wanted, bringing my home back to how I loved it as a kid. That's what I wanted, what I still want. But...I've gotten shaky over all this time. I'm not one hundred percent. If anyone has to do the dirty work, maybe it should be me. I could be written off and someone else could take the credit. I wouldn't mind it one bit..'

He just had to get close enough....

To do anything...

To stop this...

​

 

[Indolent]

The lingering silence that grew almost insufferable amid the lull discouraged even Gretchen's typical jovial aplomb, swaying her from capitalizing on an opportunity much like Brosel and his favorite snack. Emerald's easygoing demeanor had shifted beyond the perceptible, supplanting the clear shock on her face, with the atmosphere about her having uncertainty and conflict exuded in palpable waves that it registered less as standoffish and more impossible to even approach. The emanations were so pervasive the proximal Cinder could have made out the familiar sensations of anxiety and maybe fear.

The multi-faceted talent of acting she'd cultivated over the years was same one that allowed her exact control over her outward personality, a harsh intake of the breath with the eyes lidding shut in an affirmatory nod signaling her understanding while simultaneously quelling the onslaught of emotions she unwillingly released.

"Yeah, you can say I know her. We've worked together on and off for jobs, and don't kid yourself, we aren't... the good guys in our world. I should have expected this. The limited intel I got before Tock knocked on my door reported two of you in a local burst."

Namely because I cast a wide net to keep an eye out for her if she ever showed up here, even though that meant conflicting and mixed reports because of you.

Emerald broke the eye contact with Cinder, swerving for Neo as she looked to take stock of her reaction, knowing pretty much that she and Cinder weren't exactly on good terms. Especially with how she had emoted her distaste clear in abundance just moments ago outside the ship. Her thoughts were racing, a cavalcade of what ifs and would'ves; would Cinder react amicably to her presence here in this world? No, the more pertinent question was, would she respond well to the very idea of one underling of hers working with the deplorable few from their world in conjunction with the heroes of this one? The answer was self-evident, the source of the hesitation that took hold in Emerald. What if she were to come across her now working in concert with the esteemed agent of Salem, Tock and two students of hers? Again, the answer was self-evident.

But there was one thing she understood quite well, as much as her personal missive in all her time with Cinder might have given one the impression of the adoptive daughter that cared only of gleaning approval for herself. No, what she understood informed her that it would have taken precedence over all else. Her time spent with that Cinder wasn't merely spent in frivolity and entertainment, it informed her as to the person she held important. She had a drive, a burning ambition, that Emerald couldn't help but admire but it was that self same trait that also made the woman a frightening entity when she was slighted, the very image of a raging inferno personified when the embers were ignited.

She would want the powers of all the maidens of this world. A forlorn expression fell over her face, slowly turning to Cinder and her former teammate, and his weirdo sister, her lips drawn into a thin line as she worked out how to make the query.

"Vernal was taken in Argus, right?" Her words breezed out, almost a whisper that the wind could have easily absconded with were it not that they were inside Tock's ship.

Gretchen was the quicker to answer, nodding with a grimace clear on her face as she indicated towards Cinder, "Yeah, her other self took her. Hazel saw her as much, apparently she's a real mean one."

That was putting it lightly, Emerald thought, a wistful sight being all that Gretchen received as the thief re-centered her focus back onto Cinder, "Well, in the magnanimous spirit of cooperation, keeping secrets wouldn't do me any favors. It's probably safe to say Vernal is dead. If Cinder's here and she's taken Vernal, she's taken her powers and there's only two ways that can happen and they both usually end... poorly."

If Tock was already getting the ship moving with that urgency she had minutes ago, Emerald compounded it further more, "We need to get to Atlas."

 

[MyrtenRose]

Because Winter was weak.

And in the same moment she, Yang, and Ruby were encased head to toe in ice, Marrow found himself spiked into the earth by a massive greatsword that swung through the suddenly-appearing glyph behind him as Weiss seized the opportunity to use the feeling she willed back into her hands almost twenty seconds ago. Less than a second after that she thrust both those hands up, eyes no longer frozen but unblinking and uncompromising in their resolve as they burned with the power of the Winter maiden. Hurricane winds buffeted everyone else in the room before they could react, flinging them all the way to the back of the cellar like plastic bags in a tornado as Weiss calmly walked over to Myrtenaster and picked it up.

The room's entire temperature had plummeted, Weiss's breath coming out in blue wisps that shone with the light of her eyes.

"I wish I could believe you, Yang. But you're naive, and these people are looking at me like I'm the monster. I'm going to build a world where people are better to each other. And to anyone who doesn't like that, I say this."

She swept a hand out, and an entire roomful of glyphs that spanned the cellar from floor to ceiling and wall to wall appeared behind her as her maiden eyes burned their brightest and all eight of Myrtenaster's barrels burned. Glows of varying colors started to appear in the center of each glyph; red, blue, yellow, and everything in between as she channeled dust and the elements through them in a balanced ratio.

There were no speeches, no arguments, no impassioned monologues that could convince these people of her point of view. She saw that now. More importantly, she saw why.

They were part of the problem.

Weiss clicked her fingers.

"Disappear."

Every single one of those glyphs fired their charge at once, and kept firing. The blue flame of the Winter Maiden and the red of dust, bolts of lightning and beams of hardlight energy, ice blasts and fiery meteorites; all of it annihilated the back wall of the cellar those opposing her had been blown into, Weiss intent on repeating the bombardment again and again until none were left standing.

It was truly amazing how fast confidence in a situation could vanish once it became apparent that one was no longer in control of it. Robyn's cool confidence, bordering on cockiness, it quickly gave way once a number of them had been frozen solid and their mole among the Ace Ops had been flattened. And especially as the rest of them got swept back like they were less a skilled and strong bunch of huntsmen and huntresses but more like they were leaves fluttering in a hurricane. The leader of the Happy Huntresses was gritting her teeth together as she struggled to push herself off the wall before that onslaught struck. It didn't work.

That whole wall was just gone, and Robyn ended up collapsing to the ground with a pained grunt. She was definitely gonna be feeling all that for a while. She jumped back up, crossbow on her wrist unfolding as her eyes narrowed for where she could just barely see Schnee behind all that chaotic firepower she was letting loose with, Robyn doing her best to keep herself out of the line of fire. The crossbow quickly aimed to the left and then to the right, firing multiple explosive dust bolts in each direction aimed to ricochet off those two still standing walls and strike the winter maiden just before they blew up. Or so Robyn hoped. She hoped that the bolts were so fast, so small that they would go unnoticed amidst all the power Weiss brought to play with...and weren't obliterated by any of the wild blasts, either.

Nora wasn't have any better of a time after slamming hard into that wall herself, the young huntress reminded of better times when Ruby had pulled off a similar move just with sheer speed, flinging their entire team into a wall so hard that it cracked and bringing a decisive end to the food fight of fun. Valkyrie scowled, glaring at the maiden. She looked like Weiss. She sounded like Weiss. That just made her all the more difficult to deal with. To hear her rant and ramble on about how she was going to make the world better, like a true tyrant. Sure, it might have been better for her, and those with her or who she deemed worthy of remaining in this better world of hers...but everyone else? Those that weren't allowed, all the ones who suffered so she could build that better world...Nora doubted this true Ice Queen would give a damn about any of them.

A lot of the wave of projectiles Weiss was cutting loose with, it hurt. Like a lot. But there was some that didn't.​

bolts of lightning

Those, she appreciated. After she dropped to the ground, she stood again, eyes positively glowing with power of a different sort. A few more blasts struck her, but Nora bit down on the pain, doing all she could to banish the feeling out of her mind as she rushed forward, doing her best to weave between most of the various blasts Weiss continually sent their way. Not all the way to Weiss, mind you. Just far enough that Nora got to where the Ruby ice sculpture was standing frozen solid, whereupon she ducked behind the poor frozen girl. She hoped that Weiss's decision to freeze Ruby instead of sweeping her up with the rest meant that the winter maiden wasn't going to risk Ruby getting damaged by all those attacks, and thus give Valkyrie herself some cover...of sorts. From there she aimed Magnhild to launch grenades straight into the maiden's chest in an attempt to get her off her feet. Break her concentration with the glyphs.

Raven, for her part, the very second she hit the back wall, utilized her own magic ability. A bird soared into view where she had been knocked back into the wall. Wings flapped as she flew straight up to try and put her smaller frame above most of the firepower so she could more easily soar past it and put her in a better position to take advantage from. Namely by shifting back when she could and bring Omen down in a powerful swing.​

 

[MyrtenRose]

"Vernal was taken in Argus, right?" Her words breezed out, almost a whisper that the wind could have easily absconded with were it not that they were inside Tock's ship.

Gretchen was the quicker to answer, nodding with a grimace clear on her face as she indicated towards Cinder, "Yeah, her other self took her. Hazel saw her as much, apparently she's a real mean one."

That was putting it lightly, Emerald thought, a wistful sight being all that Gretchen received as the thief re-centered her focus back onto Cinder, "Well, in the magnanimous spirit of cooperation, keeping secrets wouldn't do me any favors. It's probably safe to say Vernal is dead. If Cinder's here and she's taken Vernal, she's taken her powers and there's only two ways that can happen and they both usually end... poorly."

"...……………………………..Oh." Cinder replied, the more forlorn mood back to take the place of her wild enthusiasm or her awkward stammering.

There wasn't a whole lot else to say about that. Sure, Vernal wasn't a friend. She had been a bandit for years, had stabbed them in the back...but that didn't mean Cinder wanted her dead. If she was really gone, then...that meant any training was over with. Done. At least up until she was lucky enough to manage to find another maiden who was willing to help her. Somehow she doubted this other Cinder would qualify. "...How?" The teenager asked, raw curiosity overflowing. "How does she steal maiden power? I didn't...I didn't even think that was possible."​

 

[Indolent]

"...……………………………..Oh." Cinder replied, the more forlorn mood back to take the place of her wild enthusiasm or her awkward stammering.

There wasn't a whole lot else to say about that. Sure, Vernal wasn't a friend. She had been a bandit for years, had stabbed them in the back...but that didn't mean Cinder wanted her dead. If she was really gone, then...that meant any training was over with. Done. At least up until she was lucky enough to manage to find another maiden who was willing to help her. Somehow she doubted this other Cinder would qualify. "...How?" The teenager asked, raw curiosity overflowing. "How does she steal maiden power? I didn't...I didn't even think that was possible."​

Why was she being so forthcoming with these people? It was a raucous thought that played on repeat in the back of her head, in something of a duet with a voice opposite, more a mumbling, the words nearly indecipherable save for a few as "change", "goodness", and "hope". None of was really making sense to her. Was it maybe that even as this was an alternate Cinder, she still felt at home disseminating the details after a fashion, much like an informal debriefing slash hashing out the deets?

Emerald couldn't help but glance away, frowning in the moment as she considered the question she was asked. Well, nobody ever liked having a question answered with a question but in this way, it was something to glean a modicum of stability in the conversation. When she looked back, Cinder saw a placid expression that spoke to the neutral tone in her words that followed.



"Do you really want to know?"

 

[Indolent]

Meanwhile, Gretchen totally struck up a conversation with Neo, the opener a clear segue into pictionary with presumably the best player in all of Remnant.

 

[MyrtenRose]

Why was she being so forthcoming with these people? It was a raucous thought that played on repeat in the back of her head, in something of a duet with a voice opposite, more a mumbling, the words nearly indecipherable save for a few as "change", "goodness", and "hope". None of was really making sense to her. Was it maybe that even as this was an alternate Cinder, she still felt at home disseminating the details after a fashion, much like an informal debriefing slash hashing out the deets?

Emerald couldn't help but glance away, frowning in the moment as she considered the question she was asked. Well, nobody ever liked having a question answered with a question but in this way, it was something to glean a modicum of stability in the conversation. When she looked back, Cinder saw a placid expression that spoke to the neutral tone in her words that followed.

View attachment 707877

"Do you really want to know?"

"I don't know." she answered honestly. On the one hand, she wasn't really looking forward to hearing any of the grisly details of things that possibly could have happened to Vernal. On the other...she was a maiden herself, so if there was some twisted version of herself going around ripping the magic out of peoples' souls...then she was likely on the list of targets as well. Knowing what to expect, to watch out for, it could only be prudent to have that information. Right? Regardless, Cinder looked even more haunted by the mere thoughts of her counterpart. To be that cruel, that selfish...not even in her worst nightmares had she ever envisioned herself as the villain, going around and inspiring terror wherever she traveled.​

 

[Schnee Corp Lawyer]

Weiss couldn't move.

Her mouth was half-open, but no sound was coming out. Her eyes had been open for so long they were starting to sting, but she couldn't blink. She could hear everything as they glared, poked, and prodded at her like she was their prized doll, but could do nothing to dispute, rebuke or object to any of it.

...no.

She was a woman who had cultivated her entire identity around an image of power. Around her sense of self. Around absolute dominion over every single aspect of her own life, and letting no one take that power away from her. Not Jacques Schnee. Not some ancient, eldritch, incomprehensible being who'd had his way with the kingdoms and their leaders at every turn. Not anyone. Not ever again.

Why couldn't she move?

Why was this happening to her?




Why did this keep happening to her?




Why did people seem to derive so much fucking pleasure from making her feel powerless?




What was wrong with them?




What was wrong with this world?

All she ever asked was to be respected, yet it had treated her with nothing but contempt from the moment she'd been born. She hated it. No matter how far above such concepts she tried to hold herself, she hated it so much it hurt. It was wrong. It had to change. No one deserved to feel like this. She couldn't keep feeling like this! She made her father disappear, and it should've stopped. She buried every single feeling and emotion so deep inside of herself that she didn't even feel like waking up most mornings, and it should've stopped. She'd become powerful, strong of mind, body, and soul, so powerful that most people were afraid to even look at her, more powerful than any of the vermin in this room could even conceive of, and it STILL HADN'T FUCKING STOPPED! She couldn't even SAY any of this, because apparently that wasn't allowed, apparently she didn't deserve the chance to defend herself, so she was limited to SCREAMING IT INSIDE HER OWN HEAD!

And what was worse? What was worse than all that pain?

SHE COULD ONLY RECALL TWO PEOPLE IN HER ENTIRE LIFE WHO EVEN SEEMED TO CARE! And both of them were...

They were...





...They were both standing in front of her.

Which meant they both saw it at the same time. The moisture glistening beneath her frozen eyes, the way it finally brimmed up enough to break into two slender tear tracks that rolled down her pale cheeks. For Winter, the sight was enough to make her guard drop, just a little.

FWIIIIIIIIIIIIISH



Because Winter was weak.

And in the same moment she, Yang, and Ruby were encased head to toe in ice, Marrow found himself spiked into the earth by a massive greatsword that swung through the suddenly-appearing glyph behind him as Weiss seized the opportunity to use the feeling she willed back into her hands almost twenty seconds ago. Less than a second after that she thrust both those hands up, eyes no longer frozen but unblinking and uncompromising in their resolve as they burned with the power of the Winter maiden. Hurricane winds buffeted everyone else in the room before they could react, flinging them all the way to the back of the cellar like plastic bags in a tornado as Weiss calmly walked over to Myrtenaster and picked it up.

The room's entire temperature had plummeted, Weiss's breath coming out in blue wisps that shone with the light of her eyes.

"I wish I could believe you, Yang. But you're naive, and these people are looking at me like I'm the monster. I'm going to build a world where people are better to each other. And to anyone who doesn't like that, I say this."

She swept a hand out, and an entire roomful of glyphs that spanned the cellar from floor to ceiling and wall to wall appeared behind her as her maiden eyes burned their brightest and all eight of Myrtenaster's barrels burned. Glows of varying colors started to appear in the center of each glyph; red, blue, yellow, and everything in between as she channeled dust and the elements through them in a balanced ratio.

There were no speeches, no arguments, no impassioned monologues that could convince these people of her point of view. She saw that now. More importantly, she saw why.

They were part of the problem.

Weiss clicked her fingers.

"Disappear."

Every single one of those glyphs fired their charge at once, and kept firing. The blue flame of the Winter Maiden and the red of dust, bolts of lightning and beams of hardlight energy, ice blasts and fiery meteorites; all of it annihilated the back wall of the cellar those opposing her had been blown into, Weiss intent on repeating the bombardment again and again until none were left standing.

Spoiler: Anyone who watched Remnanime found it kinda familiar

Yang Xiao Long was a lot of things, and unlike usual, the list of those things she'd supply if you asked wouldn't be very positive. Stubborn. Soft. Self centered.

But naive?

After everything she'd been through?

This was the ice covering of a mom trying to wrangle an angry daughter; it was less a coating and more of a block of it that Yang was trapped in. It didn't shatter the instant Yang gave it an aura boosted flex of her arm and legs. But if Weiss spared her a glance in the midst of all the chaos born of glyph magic and her foe's reprisal, Yang's lilac eyes were flickering red, the ice was starting to sweat, and a tiny crack started to form at the top of the shell.

 

[Schnee Corp Lawyer]

Tyrian and Trifa’s questioning eventually bore fruit; the man they’d questioned swore up and down he didn’t deal with the shadowfang. But he’d heard rumors that if someone wanted to get in contact with them, there was a street that they frequented to sell and buy information, deep in the back alleys of Mistral’s lowest level. By the time the pair got there, the rain that had been threatening to spill over the city for hours had finally broken through the clouds, and a light drizzle was dancing across the pavement as they reached the entrance of the alleyway.

It wasn’t anything special to look at. A side street off a side street crammed between two rows of businesses, with a single light post flickering on and off in the middle, it was the sort of place that would’ve been dangerous even before Mistral’s CCT fell. Ironically, the fact that it was so close to the base of the mountain meant it was safer than it had been back then; patrols often had to go down the neighboring roads to get to their spots on the walls. The petty crime had moved out of the area to easier and more lucrative positions above, sucking whatever life had previously existed in this little cut of the neighborhood, dark hearted as it may have been. Not a soul walked along it, and not a light in any of the few non-boarded up windows was on. However long they waited, nothing happened. It began to look like the shadowfang had packed up and left along with everything else that used to skulk in the dark down here. It was only once they turned to leave that a voice called over the sound of the rain


“Tyrian Callows, through field and fallow, the shadow fang he hunts”

The voice was… strangely familiar, yet neither of them could yet place it, nor pick out where it was amid the rain and the curve of the street.

“He questions and smashes, orders and bashes, pesters human runts”

Despite how familiar the voice sounded, its inflection was completely new to either of them; it was melodious and light, downright performative as it seemed to bounce around them. But faunus ears were sharp, and the direction was easier to pick out the more their entertainer spoke.

“What might he want, one of Salem’s finest? why would he be out to find us?”

Finally Tyrian saw him; a figure just on the edge of one of the roofs overlooking the city, a faint glow in his eyes as he looked down at them.

“To kill and maim us? catch and detain us? Punish us for so called crimes?”

The figure leaped gracefully off the roof and landed deftly atop the light post, and though it was only from under he was lit, they realized why he looked so familiar; it was the human they’d been questioning earlier, if you could call it that. There wasn’t any doubt of that, yet he seemed wholly unfamiliar at the same time. He was almost comically graceful for such a heavy set man, perched in a crouch with both feet on such treacherous footing in the rain, his voice had an entirely different accentuation to every word, and his smile didn’t seem to be at all right for his face as he studied them, one hand on the top of the lamp for balance as he rubbed his chin.

“... Or has something else crossed his heart as he wandered all this time? He walks with but one, instead of three, no humans at his side. Does his heart perhaps shift, like the changings of the tide?”

The man cocked his head to the side, and for the first time it sounded like he was actually addressing Tyrian directly.

"Little faunus, you've searched from valley to peak; why is it that us you seek?"

 

[MidwayLives]

Tyrian and Trifa’s questioning eventually bore fruit; the man they’d questioned swore up and down he didn’t deal with the shadowfang. But he’d heard rumors that if someone wanted to get in contact with them, there was a street that they frequented to sell and buy information, deep in the back alleys of Mistral’s lowest level. By the time the pair got there, the rain that had been threatening to spill over the city for hours had finally broken through the clouds, and a light drizzle was dancing across the pavement as they reached the entrance of the alleyway.

"Hehehe, for your sake, friend?"

Tyrian moved the tip of his stinger off to the side just a bit.

Venom dripped out and burned away part of the ground where it'd landed.

"If I don't find the Shadowfang, you'd better pray that I don't find you."

With that Trifa and him were gone.

The time apart from his team hadn't treated Tyrian well at all. He'd hardly gotten any sleep, constantly on the move and picking fights with anybody who so much as looked at him funny. Which given his artifical tail and the scars lining his torso and forehead were more often than you'd think. His crusade for hunting down Ichabod's killer had been his sole motivating factor in continuing on like this no matter the cost to his health.

Or to his sanity.

Trifa had been out of the fighting scene for some time but she'd known Ichabod before Tyrian had ever met the man. She could understand and even sympathize with how the scorpion felt about the man. For as cold and seductive as she could be when she was on the clock, she just lacked the heart to tell him the things that Ichabod had trusted her with, things that Tyrian was never supposed to know. The skeletons lining that old man's closet were enough to give Trifa goosebumps. After hearing what Tyrian had been through and what had become of his old friends, she'd stay by his side if he asked her to but she could only hope that even now there were lines the scorpion simply wouldn't cross.

When they'd reached the alleyway, Tyrian's hair was soaked and he didn't bother moving the stands that threatened to cover his face. Trifa had kept her costume on the whole time they'd been doing this. Better to keep anybody with a grudge from figuring out who she was and going after her loved ones, y'know sensible stuff like that.

"Tyrian..."

"What?"

"...Look, if...If that guy wasn't just bullshitting and we're really gonna meet a Shadow Fang here, what are you gonna do-"

"What are you talking about, Trifa? I'll do what we've been waiting for all this time. I'll make them tell me where Taurus is."

"But you don't even know-!" Trifa paused and tried to relax. "You don't know that she's the one who...killed him. Maybe she did, maybe she didn't, maybe she's forgotten all about you!"

"She did. I know it." Tyrian scoffed at the notion that it could have been anyone else. He hadn't seen Eve in sometime but even to this day, her words still struck a chord with him.

'Go back to your owners.'

Tyrian looked down at his weapons. The ones that Ichabod and him had made together for when he was to be sent off to Beacon.

"If you find her..." Trifa let that sentence drift off.

Tyrian paused and took a step away forward into the alleyway.

"I'm going to-"
​

“Tyrian Callows, through field and fallow, the shadow fang he hunts”

The voice was… strangely familiar, yet neither of them could yet place it, nor pick out where it was amid the rain and the curve of the street.

“He questions and smashes, orders and bashes, pesters human runts”

Tyrian didn't get to finish his sentence as the third voice entered the conversation.

The one they'd come here to meet.

Tyrian tensed up, his nostrils flaring, and his hands clenched.

Trifa was a bit less apprehensive.

"...Something about this isn't clicking, Tyrian. Doesn't...he sound...i dunno, kinda familiar??"

"Who cares what he sounds like?? Get out here and show yourself!"
​

“What might he want, one of Salem’s finest? why would he be out to find us?”

"That..."

Tyrian's anger seemed to fade for a moment.

"...That's not me anymore."
​

Finally Tyrian saw him; a figure just on the edge of one of the roofs overlooking the city, a faint glow in his eyes as he looked down at them.

“To kill and maim us? catch and detain us? Punish us for so called crimes?”

The figure leaped gracefully off the roof and landed deftly atop the light post, and though it was only from under he was lit, they realized why he looked so familiar; it was the human they’d been questioning earlier, if you could call it that. There wasn’t any doubt of that, yet he seemed wholly unfamiliar at the same time. He was almost comically graceful for such a heavy set man, perched in a crouch with both feet on such treacherous footing in the rain, his voice had an entirely different accentuation to every word, and his smile didn’t seem to be at all right for his face as he studied them, one hand on the top of the lamp for balance as he rubbed his chin.

"What..."

Trifa's semblance was warning her that something wasn't right about this at all. Why was that guy here? Why was he speaking as though he was a Faunus himself? Had there been something that either of them had missed?? The tingling running down her spine made her uneasy and she took a step back.

"I don't like this, Tyrian."

Tyrian was just as puzzled but it quickly gave way under his indignant fury.

"Cut the crap, you're no human oaf. Show us who you really are..."
​

“... Or as something else crossed his heart as he wandered all this time. He walks with but one, instead of three, no humans at his side. Does his heart perhaps shift, like the changings of the tide?”

The man cocked his head to the side, and for the first time it sounded like he was actually addressing Tyrian directly.

Tyrian seemed to hesitate for a second again.

"....I don't need any humans to help me."

Trifa had never met those who'd made up Tyrian's team or the others he spoke of as friends.

...Did he really mean that?
​

"Little faunus, you've searched from valley to peak; why is it that us you seek?"

"I want to know where Eve Taurus is."

Tyrian's tail uncoiled from around his waist and smacked against the ground.

"And I want to know right now!!!"​

 

[Gus Gungus]

Ex-General Ironwood might have spent more time behind a desk than in the field in the years leading up to his abrupt discharge, but he still wasn't a combatant to be taken lightly. His aura and pain threshold were both immense. Half his mass was replaced by top-of-the-line Atlesian prosthesis. He was a humanoid tank.

He was a boots-to-ground style fighter with nowhere near the agility to evade an orbital bombardment like the one Weiss had just unleashed, and grunted as he fell limply from the crater in the wall it had dug him into, his aura shattering completely.

As her quarry scattered like ants under the councilwoman's relentless barrage, any designs on making a straight dash for her were complicated by the fact that rather than ceasing fire the various glyphs started to pivot as if each and every one of them were on an axis, every last huntsman, huntress, ex-soldier and dissident in the room not already encased in a block of ice finding themselves kept under intense pressure by the assault. To the unassuming eye her blasts' trajectories may have seemed random, uncoordinated devastation intended to senselessly obliterate everything in mass sweeping arcs. That was what the first bombardment had been.

But that wasn't what Weiss Schnee was really about, and anyone with true combat sensibilities knew the furrowed brow and look of laser focus in her eyes told another story entirely. Robyn realized it as soon as two tiny, pinpoint bolts of hardlight energy darted in to intercept her bolts, detonating them prematurely well before they reached her. Every single one of their movements were being tracked; the destructive onslaught she had settled into was meticulous. Even for a powerful semblance, even for a Maiden, these should have been absurd odds—the enemies gathered before her were some of the finest combatants to be found in all of Remnant.

But Weiss had spent every single day of her life for years training to become something Remnant had never seen before, and Weiss was rich. She had access to the best training, the best equipment, the best Dust. She had whipped and chiselled her versatile semblance into its perfected form until her very soul hurt, pushing it to its furthest limits and beyond in every single training session. She had leveraged her way into attaining humanity's lost gift of magic, a tool she had acquired only recently yet taken to with the zeal and will to grasp it of a prodigy. When Weiss said she strove for perfection in all things, she had meant it. All her boasts, all her conceitedness, all her talk of being the one among humanity to challenge Ozpin; It hadn't been the talk of an overprivileged, overconfident little girl, too pompous to recognize how out of her depth she was.

They'd been the words of a grown woman with infinite drive and resources who, through severe, uncompromising self-discipline, had ascended herself to the level of a very serious, very deadly threat. A powerhouse in every sense of the word. At a glance, it might've been easy to presume Carnelian to be the muscle in her organization, the enforcer to Weiss's cunning and big-picture ambition.

Weiss was happy to use that to her advantage, secure in the knowledge that it wasn't the case at all. He owed her father some favors, that was true, but there was a very good reason someone whose one admiration in life was the simple tenet of personal strength above all else listened to every single word Weiss told him.

Provided she kept this fight on her terms, it was hers to win. This cellar had one way in or out, and she was standing right beside it. All her opposition had been blown to the far end of the room, where she could see and track every single one of them. This wasn't a battle. It was an exercise in multitasking. It was a microcosm of her entire life.

It was a symphony, and she was the conductor.

And so it began.

His semblance, 'Ghostly Whispers' wasn't much for offensive measures. It was meant mainly to be used defensively. To either escape or give himself or others time to plan out a counter-attack. But if he forced himself and spread enough of it around, it had another effect.

A far more sinister one.

It preyed on the enemy's subconscious mind. Their faults, their worries, their fears. It brought them all to light. Pyschosis and hallucinations, all of that.

Was it a reflection of his own self-admittedly shoddy mental health? Probably.

But if he could use it to save lives then it'd be worth it.

Black Fog ebbed from around Grey's person and moved to engulf the entire cellar floor. Or what was left of it after Weiss's cavalcade of elemental attacks.

Weiss merely spared the first semblance being brought to bear against her an extremely dull one-second glance.

"Okay. I'm sorry to ruin your grand spectacle, but did you seriously just turn into mist at me a matter of moments after seeing me control wind???"

She flicked her wrist between barrages, and the same gale force gusts that had flung everyone to the back of the cellar started to howl and swirl around Grey as they dispersed his fog to engulf those around him, keeping it well away from Weiss and leaving his fellow dissidents to suffer whatever nonsense it entailed instead.

Those, she appreciated. After she dropped to the ground, she stood again, eyes positively glowing with power of a different sort. A few more blasts struck her, but Nora bit down on the pain, doing all she could to banish the feeling out of her mind as she rushed forward, doing her best to weave between most of the various blasts Weiss continually sent their way. Not all the way to Weiss, mind you. Just far enough that Nora got to where the Ruby ice sculpture was standing frozen solid, whereupon she ducked behind the poor frozen girl. She hoped that Weiss's decision to freeze Ruby instead of sweeping her up with the rest meant that the winter maiden wasn't going to risk Ruby getting damaged by all those attacks, and thus give Valkyrie herself some cover...of sorts. From there she aimed Magnhild to launch grenades straight into the maiden's chest in an attempt to get her off her feet. Break her concentration with the glyphs.

Nora, propelled by the lightning coursing through her veins, was the first to manage a decent charge free of the death zone Weiss had established at the back of the cellar, and was correct in her assessment that none of the glyphs risked damaging the Ruby glacier when she used it for cover. They did, however, blast Nora's grenades out of the air well before they impacted her, and the ginger-haired huntress couldn't help but feel the glare Weiss reserved for her ran a little colder than the detached one she was giving the rest of the room as she recalled how a certain look she'd been trying out (which multiple people had told her she pulled off impeccably!) had effectively been RUINED by some motormouth lowlife with a smashing fetish!!!!!!!!!!! Weiss rolled her eyes, hard.

"Wow, great friend, Yang! I wish I had people who used my family members as human shields. Also-"

This was the ice covering of a mom trying to wrangle an angry daughter; it was less a coating and more of a block of it that Yang was trapped in. It didn't shatter the instant Yang gave it an aura boosted flex of her arm and legs. But if Weiss spared her a glance in the midst of all the chaos born of glyph magic and her foe's reprisal, Yang's lilac eyes were flickering red, the ice was starting to sweat, and a tiny crack started to form at the top of the shell.

Raven, for her part, the very second she hit the back wall, utilized her own magic ability. A bird soared into view where she had been knocked back into the wall. Wings flapped as she flew straight up to try and put her smaller frame above most of the firepower so she could more easily soar past it and put her in a better position to take advantage from. Namely by shifting back when she could and bring Omen down in a powerful swing.

The broader glyph bombardment finally subsided (for now) when Weiss stepped back, flourished Myrtenaster over her head, and parried Raven's strike on an elegant guard that repelled the woman violently as its black vial of gravity dust flared, about a half dozen of the glyphs immediately surrounding Weiss all swiveling to focus on the Branwen and unleash targeted hell on her to chase her back into the dark fog engulfing the end of the room. Weiss had a calculated vision for this 'battle', and had no intention of letting anyone pull her into a one-to-one confrontation so she could start getting mobbed.

"-assuming you have no particular desire to see your mother hurt twice in the same evening, you're going to stay put."​

 

[MidwayLives]

Ex-General Ironwood might have spent more time behind a desk than in the field in the years leading up to his abrupt discharge, but he still wasn't a combatant to be taken lightly. His aura and pain threshold were both immense. Half his mass was replaced by top-of-the-line Atlesian prosthesis. He was a humanoid tank.

'My respect for Ironwood started and ended at whether or not his beliefs and goals were good for the people of Atlas. People like those on the streets. He may not have made all the right choices and there was certainly not a lot I agreed with him on.'

Grey watched him crash to the ground.

'If we are to survive this encounter and not end up as fresh cadavers in the nearest morgue, freezerburnt I'd imagine on top of it, I'll look back to that sight as the sign that we made a...slight error in judgement.'

Anything at all to lighten the fight against the absolute entity they were facing down.

'If my fog can mask me....If I can just get close enough...maybe I can..'
​

She flicked her wrist between barrages, and the same gale force gusts that had flung everyone to the back of the cellar started to howl and swirl around Grey as they dispersed his fog to engulf those around him, keeping it well away from Weiss and leaving his fellow dissidents to suffer whatever nonsense it entailed instead.

Grey had control over his fog, where it wafted off to, how much of it manifested, etc.

But, right now, he'd never felt so powerless.

'Breaths growing weak...Taking all I have to try and keep my fog from wandering off.....Need to keep it focused...'

His exposed eye darted around to those around him. 'Ghostly Whispers' obviously didn't affect him but it couldn't differentiate between enemy or foe. Much like a certain Brawnen's semblance. Hence why Grey tended to work in mostly solo endeavors or ones that required stealth. Big drawn out fights like this just weren't his specialty.

If he didn't deactivate it, it'd infect the others around them and he'd be left doing this alone...

And he just couldn't hack it. Not like this...

His left hand lowered and the fog began to dissipate....

​

 

[MyrtenRose]

Nora, propelled by the lightning coursing through her veins, was the first to manage a decent charge free of the death zone Weiss had established at the back of the cellar, and was correct in her assessment that none of the glyphs risked damaging the Ruby glacier when she used it for cover. They did, however, blast Nora's grenades out of the air well before they impacted her, and the ginger-haired huntress couldn't help but feel the glare Weiss reserved for her ran a little colder than the detached one she was giving the rest of the room as she recalled how a certain look she'd been trying out (which multiple people had told her she pulled off impeccably!) had effectively been RUINED by some motormouth lowlife with a smashing fetish!!!!!!!!!!! Weiss rolled her eyes, hard.

"Wow, great friend, Yang! I wish I had people who used my family members as human shields. Also-"

"IT ISN'T LIKE YOU LEFT ME MUCH CHOICE, ICE QUEEN!!!" Nora snapped back in frustration. It wouldn't have been an option normally considered but all their backs had literally been against the wall. Tough times, tough calls. She'd apologize if needs be when this was over. Thankfully she had been right on the fact that Weiss didn't intend any harm for Ruby, but that was small comfort considering every single grenade got blasted far before they made contact. Trading fire wouldn't work. Not from this position. Not with her being sure to run out of ammo well before those glyphs let up.

Aqua eyes poked up from just behind the frozen Ruby's shoulder, glaring at Weiss.

But that wasn't what Weiss Schnee was really about, and anyone with true combat sensibilities knew the furrowed brow and look of laser focus in her eyes told another story entirely. Robyn realized it as soon as two tiny, pinpoint bolts of hardlight energy darted in to intercept her bolts, detonating them prematurely well before they reached her. Every single one of their movements were being tracked; the destructive onslaught she had settled into was meticulous. Even for a powerful semblance, even for a Maiden, these should have been absurd odds—the enemies gathered before her were some of the finest combatants to be found in all of Remnant.

Purple eyes narrowed as she witnessed that. Even in all that chaos, Weiss had the awareness to notice her bolts and the precision to cleanly remove them from the equation long before they were an actual threat. Robyn was silent as Nora traded words with Weiss, more focused on the actual fight than to engage in verbal combat. They simply had to get something past her awareness, put Weiss on the defensive with an assault that could not be as easily anticipated. The solution seemed pretty obvious. The Happy Huntresses rushed forward in an attempt to stay clear of that mist(as well as avoid the glyph bombardment) as best they could, even as Grey started to dispel it himself.​

The broader glyph bombardment finally subsided (for now) when Weiss stepped back, flourished Myrtenaster over her head, and parried Raven's strike on an elegant guard that repelled the woman violently as its black vial of gravity dust flared, about a half dozen of the glyphs immediately surrounding Weiss all swiveling to focus on the Branwen and unleash targeted hell on her to chase her back into the dark fog engulfing the end of the room. Weiss had a calculated vision for this 'battle', and had no intention of letting anyone pull her into a one-to-one confrontation so she could start getting mobbed.

The very second that glyph artillery barrage let up, Robyn seized the opportunity. "May!" There was an unseen nod from the blue-haired huntress who stood behind the larger Joanna just in case any more sudden glyph blasts came flying in, they could be soaked up by someone tougher and less vital. Marigold's hands glowed as her semblance activated. An unnoticeable dome(from Weiss's position, anyway) spread out and everybody within range, including Robyn and Nora, suddenly disappeared under its effects. Raven got pushed back, both by the initial gravity dust and then the following glyphs blasts. She too vanished suddenly though, all traces of her lost in mid-air as the knockback forced her within range of the dome. Omen stabbed into the ground then and Raven grinded to a halt before she could get swept up in whatever remained of that dark fog.

May started forward then, a slow stride that likewise pushed the edge of the dome closer and closer to Weiss. Robyn's gaze suddenly shifted towards Nora. "Volts!" If Nora was bothered by that nickname, it didn't show. In fact she seemed rather amused by it. Nevertheless, as soon as that call out faded, Nora nodded. Magnhild shifted from grenade launcher to hammer form in a blink and the energetic warrior hopped to stand atop it as a click propelled her forward at high speeds. Nora suddenly popped back into sight as she shot past the edge of the barrier, the hammer already swinging down aiming to smash Weiss into the ground in a similar manner as Marrow had been earlier.

But neither did Robyn leave it to just that, even if that did strike true, she worried it would not be enough. A thought that seemed to occur to someone else as well, as both she and Raven rushed forward. The crossbow wielder came in from slightly to the left as the swordswoman likewise came in from slightly to the right. Robyn let Raven take a small lead as the Beacon huntress broke through the invisibility dome first, Omen slicing out in a flurry of attacks to try and overwhelm Weiss. Skidding to a stop behind, Robyn aimed her weapon away from directly at Weiss in favor of more towards the wall behind her. Several bolts were fired at differing angles, but all intending to bounce off that wall and strike the Schnee in the back even as Raven came in swinging from the front.

Her bolts were likewise joined by others, Joanna firing freely even though May could not while still projecting her semblance.​