Rainbow Dash smirked at everyone present, despite the joke clearly falling flat. Unlike her, very few of the people present seemed happy to be awake this early. Sunset was clutching a mug of coffee like it was the last one in the world. Her grumpy-looking friend had already finished one mug of what initially looked like coffee, only to immediately empty a can of energy drink into it, dump some kind of black sludge in, swirl it around, and start downing it one big swig at a time.

The natives of this world seemed a bit more put-together, mostly just regarding her with blank stares. If they thought her understatement was funny, then they had some great poker faces. It was probably best to just keep 'em coming and not worry about which jokes landed.

"Well, it happens to the best of us!" Rainbow gestured up to the floating screen above the headmaster's desk, which was showing an image of the knightcrawler army that had been at their gate the day before. "But now that they're here, these guys are gonna keep coming and coming at your defenses until there's nothing left! You need an exterminator, and you need it yesterday."

There was a pop and crackle of electricity as Aurelia exited the machine and materialized on her shoulder.

"And unfortunately, Baalchionic creatures don't die easily, as I'm sure you've all learned." Auri added. "Only Chiracian methods can put them down for good and make sure they're gone. You need help."

"Which is why WE'RE here!" Rainbow couldn't help grinning wider. "We've already been pinch hitting for you guys on the battlefield, so you know what we can do!"

With another crackle, Auri disappeared back into the circuitry of the desk behind her, causing the display to change to a video of them fighting back the horde. Dash had to resist the urge to sit there and watch herself turning bugs into paste in the most awesome manner possible.

"Unfortunately, we're only allowed to support you guys, not fight your war for you." Rainbow let a little of her disappointment creep into her voice as a blurry photograph of the Queen Knightcrawler that had shown up yesterday appeared on the screen. "I mean, I'd LOVE to keep this up, but your problems are getting bigger than even we can handle!" The picture changed, this time to show the struggle between the yellow-haired girl and the nyctomorph that had taken her arm. Once again, Rainbow was grateful that Aurelia could interact with tech directly. Throwing together a memory-based slideshow was a lot easier than trying to make a powerpoint presentation. She had wanted to wing it entirely, but Auri had insisted on practicing their pitch a couple of times before they came in, which meant that she knew what was coming next. "However... we CAN make you an offer!"

She couldn't help feeling a swell of pride when the next picture was a memory-perfect picture of Radian shining in the sunlight.

"Radian has been fighting Baalchion for almost as long as time has existed! We know their strategies! We can rain fire and lightning on their heads and burn them right out of your universe like THAT!" She snapped her fingers for emphasis and sent sparks through the air to illustrate that her promises were more than just talk. "Aurelia and I are here to negotiate an alliance between Remnant and Radian. Once you join the Alliance of Light, the full might of Chirac and his army of dragons will be at your call!"

Dash knew that behind her, Aurelia was flashing through the different types of dragons, just like they'd practiced. First was a long, wingless dragon with short, stubby legs and a narrow snout. Its skin was pale and wrinkled, with scales fine enough to look like an almost glossy surface.

"You've got knightcrawler nests? Knucklers can root them out! They're built for tunneling and hunting underground!"

Next up was a picture of a dragon with a vastly different body type. It had wide wings that were nearly three times the length of its body. Any other attributes it had were hardly noticeable, however, in the face of its underbelly. Starting from its lower jaw and going all of the way to the base of its tail, the scales on its belly were stretched and distended outwards like a frog mid-croak, giving it the appearance of what might have been a more traditional dragon after having been blown up like a balloon and deflated several hundred times over.

"These handsome fellas are known as 'Flarebiters!' Most dragons can breathe fire or lightning, but a single attack from a flarebiter can leave a pile of ashes where-" Rainbow paused for a moment, pretending to ponder her next words for dramatic effect- "Well, where just about ANYTHING used to be! Nyctomorphs, smokescreams, and even thoughtcatcher webs are instantly dusted!"

After the... pleasant... visage of a flarebiter, Rainbow knew that her audience likely needed a palate cleanser, so the next image was a bold-looking dragon with sapphire-blue scales, looking very much like the traditional, more majestic dragons in a fantasy novel.

"Even just a standard breed like your classic four-legged-two-winged-thirty-foot-long dragon is Radian's classic warrior, and they can bite, claw, and burn their way through even a knightcrawler queen with hardly a scratch!"

She'd wanted to end on a high note, and Auri had known exactly the picture that would get her point across:

It was a feathered amphithere, legless with only wide wings and covered in shimmering hues of red and orange. Auri's memory had caught it mid-flight in Radian's sky as it circled just outside of Chirac's spire. The sky behind it was the perfect shade of blue to show that there wasn't a cloud to be seen or a speck of any kind between the sunshine and the inhabitants below. It was the perfect image of peace and freedom. Behind it, at least three different worlds could be seen orbiting Radian alongside their twin suns.

"Once we finish kicking those Baalchi-spawn to the interdimensional curb, Radian is ready to bring Remnant into our world's astronomical system, under our total protection! You'll never have to worry about invasion again!" She held out her hand, letting the display fade as Auri came back out to climb onto her shoulder again.

"We already have at least three habitable zones for Remnant that could leave you without much major impact on your climate and wildlife." The little dragon seemed a bit smug as she turned to look at her robotic counterpart laying around Sunset's neck. "We can also promise that OUR messengers don't have maintenance or 'down time' issues. Our information network is a living electrical consciousness made up of millions of smaller dragons like me flowing through Radian's internal conduction network and moving at lightspeed from one world to the next."

That hadn't been part of their planned speech, Auri was going off-script. Normally, that would have been fine, but... the annoyed look Sunset was giving them was a sign that a little bit of Chiracian pride might be going a long way. If it was, though, Auri didn't seem to notice.

"We make light of the situation because we know that we're already under Lord Chirac's protection. We have nothing to fear. However, you can't just ignore the fact that a dark god has his gaze set directly on Remnant. You need an equally divine force to protect you, or all of Remnant will be pulled down and drowned in eternal darkness."

With THAT somber warning delivered, Rainbow forced a chuckle to try and break the tension. "Sooooooo... any questions?"

"And what, exactly, would Radian expect from us in return for this protection?" Professor Ozpin asked. Rainbow wasn't sure how a school headmaster was relevant enough to attend a lecture on saving the world, but the fact that everyone else seemed to be taking their cues from him implied that there was more to his position than he was letting on.

"Well, joining the alliance would mean that your world would be relocated to a safer place close to Radian. There would also have to be some changes to infrastucture to make sure that everything from both worlds blends smoothly..." Aurelia gave a light shrug. "After that, everyone in Remnant would be considered full citizens of Radian. Our knowledge would be your knowledge, and vice versa. Complete transparency and exchange of information."

Rainbow spotted Sunset's friend muttering something under his breath, but it was too quiet for her to make out.

"And our resources?" General Ironwood folded his arms and eyed them carefully, like one would a hungry predator.

"Shared and shared alike. Radian doesn't have any problem caring for anyone!" Rainbow shrugged. "We're not going to raid your planet for food or something, we've got plenty thanks to the fact that we've got a deity who actually sticks around to help."

"I mean, on a day-to-day scale, not really..." Rainbow shifted uncomfortably. "But..."

Aurelia seemed much less hesitant with her answer. "Remnant would be expected to fight alongside us in future conflicts with Baalchion. Full citizenship comes with full duties in the war to push back the darkness." The little dragon surveyed the room. "As far as I can see, this world is already filled with strong and capable warriors. I've also seen the monsters with which you all struggle, these 'Grimm.' I can say with confidence that they would not be able to exist in a world of light. The aid we would ask for is little more than you already expend fighting your own home's monsters."

"I mean, in the grand scheme, it's practically free. We just want to help you guys!" Rainbow shrugged.

"You're asking us to join a war! That's hardly free." The general leaned forward in his chair, clearly getting agitated.

"A war that you're already fighting!" Rainbow pointed outside at the high-speed blizzard just past the window. "And losing. If this goes on much longer, your whole world is going to be an ice cube before Spring arrives! We're offering you the way to win!"

"And say we wanted to accept. How would we make our acceptance known?" a voice asked from the desk behind her. Other political leaders of this world had all been listening in from a distance.

"Can a single nation accept these terms, or does the entire world need to be in agreement?

"No one's actually considering this, right? All this talk of gods and monsters? It's absurd!"

"Well, it's the only explanation we've gotten so far for what's happening out there!"

Auri and Dash had been against bringing more decision-makers into the mix, one of the pieces of advice she'd been given before she left was to keep negotiations as simple as possible. Surprisingly, Sunset's buddy had also seemed put-off when Professor Ozpin said that the leaders of the other nations would be sitting in on the call. So far, if his sour facial expression through her whole speech had been any indication, it was the only thing they'd agreed on.

"W-well-" As what felt like a tidal wave of questions slammed into her, Dash could feel those same jitters creeping up into her bones that had accompanied her... less polished class presentations in high school.

"The offer of alliance is to Remnant." Aurelia shot her a sympathetic glance as she glided over to the desk and spoke closer to the microphone. "Join Chirac in complete salvation or be left to fend for yourselves in the face of utter annihilation."

That statement, of course, only served to set the people on the phone on the path to even more arguing and worrying. Judging by her confident strut as she walked back to the desk's edge, however, Aurelia was quite proud of her contribution.

That, however, was when a hand rose from the assembled people present. It was Sunset's new buddy again, this time with the slightest hint of a smile.

"An alliance Radian solely dictates the terms of, under possible world-ending penalty?"

"And how many other worlds have accepted this alliance?" His gaze seemed to dial in on Aurelia. Dash felt a little wounded that he'd spotted that Auri was the more knowledgeable one.

That left a long, long pause in the conversation, long enough for several of the gathered people in the room to start giving each other confused looks.

"...one. Chiracians are much longer-lived than most races. We have have outlived-"

Phoenixes? Rainbow's eyes widened in surprise. In all of her time in Radian, she'd never heard of any phoenixes, but she had to admit that they would fit right in.

Aurelia was even more shocked, with the scales on her face flushing down to a much darker bronze color as she settled in to a more angry expression.

The guy seemed to weigh the answer back and forth, choosing whether or not he wanted to argue over it.

"That WOULD be the perspective the dragons had on it, I suppose. They WERE just trying to avoid extinction, though."

Rainbow gave Aurelia a confused look, but her little friend was too busy staring daggers into him to give her more than a whisper. "Later..."

"Well, if you're finished with your sales pitch, mind if I give my proposal on how we're going to deal with this ourselves?"

Rainbow reached up to roll back her sleeve on her favorite punching arm. "I'll show you pro- postla- I'll show YOU a sales pitch!"

In spite of her threat, he didn't seem fazed at all by her anger, standing up out of his seat and giving her a condescending pat on the shoulder as he walked past to take her spot in the front of the room.

"Last time I fought somebody while I was half-asleep it didn't go well. Don't make the same mistake he did."

Rainbow felt her rage boiling higher as lightning crackled across her fingers. One punch at mach speed was all it would take, she'd be moving too fast for anybody to even see it...

She was here representing Radian, representing Chirac. He was trying to get a rise out of her to make them look bad. With all the self-restraint she could muster, she forced herself to sit down. She made sure to go out of her way to go take his chair next to Sunset, though.

"To be fair, you guys insulted Isis first..." Sunset sighed. "But Penn might have taken it too far."

A blonde-haired woman sitting just behind Sunset scoffed. "Hardly surprising. That boy and disproportionate retribution go hand in hand."

Despite her frustration, Rainbow couldn't help noticing the smirk creeping up on Sunset's face as Penn took a ready stance at the front of the room.

"Just thinking about the first time we did this..." Sunset leaned back slightly in her chair, settling in to watch her new friend. "I'm going to compare and contrast."

"Ladies, gentlemen, and others, good morning." Penn took a moment to look around the room before taking another swig of his energy drink and placing the mug on Ozpin's desk. "For those of you who don't know me, my friends call me Penn, but if that's too informal, then I also answer to Director Bakersfield." He snapped his fingers and an emblem appeared on the screen behind him.

It was what looked like a small, round shield, but the edges were riddled with holes and the entire thing was shattered into pieces. The long, winding form of a snake was laced through each and every one of those holes, haphazardly climbing through or around the edges at random intervals, only stopping to reach each end of its body towards the center, where its tail and mouth met. All in all, the snake seemed to be stitching the shield back together with its own body. Around the bottom edge were the letters B. U. C. K. L. E. R. in bold black letters.

"I am the Director of the Broken Universe Coalition of Knowledgeable Lorekeepers, Entities, and Researchers, or BUCKLER for short. We're a subdivision of SHIELD, the Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division. We represent and give aid to worlds in need of help following a recent collapse event in multiversal boundaries." He spoke through the complicated acronyms with practiced ease, but the concentrated furrowing of his eyebrows gave away that he was focusing hard on not messing up. "And before any of you speak up saying that the multiverse isn't real or that the idea of other universes is absurd, I'd like to remind you that your planet is being terraformed by an alien race as we speak."

"Now, with that said, I also am something of an expert on Chirac and Baalchion. Their abilities, their strategies, and the strength of their forces. This is why professor Ozpin personally asked for my team and I to come." He made a nod to Sunset, who only smirked and nodded back to him.

"Doing great..." she whispered, just low enough that only the people next to her could hear it.

"Now, I have no plans of speaking in esoteric terms of light and darkness, so before we can talk about the enemies you're facing, I need to give a quick science lesson." He leaned back against the desk before nodding in their direction. With a soft hum of motors spinning to life, the little robot dragon took to the air, finding a spot high on one of the walls to perch and watch him. "To our friends working remotely today, we should be transmitting a live visual feed from Professor Ozpin's office. Now, for those of you already familiar with the topic, I would ask that you bear with me. For all the rest, I would like to propose a question: what is the means by which we determine the direction of time?" With the question posed, he picked up his mug and began to pace in front of the desk.

"If you were to ask the premiere physicist of my world, the answer would be threefold: memory- because you can only remember the past and not the future-, the expansion of the universe- because the universe IS expanding over time-, and the progress of thermodynamics, namely entropy." He paused, taking another sip of his drink.

"Is anybody else getting Professor Oobleck vibes from this guy?" Ruby whispered somewhere behind them.

"Now, if there's one thing I've learned in my travels, it's that memory can be tampered with. The expansion of the universe is theorized by many to have an eventual stopping point somewhere in the future. That leaves the solely irrefutable measure of the direction of time, of progress, as entropy." He took another long sip, tilting the mug back far enough to look as if he had finished his drink. "Entropy is defined as the progression from organization to disorganization, from definition to homogeneity." He suddenly seemed very interested in his mug, looking closely at it. "From a state of order..." He suddenly tossed the mug up into the air, watching it smash into a hundred pieces as it collided with the hard tile floor. Several people present jolted in their seats at the sudden noise, mostly the younger students. "...to a state of chaos. Heat dissipates, acids and bases neutralize each other, food decays, and ceramic mugs shatter and scatter. That, to simplify a VERY complicated topic, is entropy."

The general took a breath, as if readying himself to speak, but Penn didn't allow time for any questions, yet.

"Entropy is the fusion that powers stars and sends the energy of atoms scattering through space. It's the force that moves electrons from high concentrations to low, creating electric current. While he calls himself a God of Light, Chirac is, in truth, a God of Entropy."

"That's BLASPHEMY!" Aurelia nearly jumped out of their seat right then and there, but Rainbow managed to barely keep a grip on her friend's tail.

"It's the scientific way of looking at things. You can call it what you want." Penn had clearly expected the outburst, being completely unfazed by nearly having an electric dragon fry him where he stood. "Honestly, I think that's a WAY more powerful thing to be a god of." He kicked at one of the larger pieces of ceramic on the floor. "Now, question for the group: I can't put this mug back together. What has happened has happened. Even if I glued each and every shard, every grain of powder, back together, it would not change the fact that it was shattered and permanently changed. That's how entropy works. But what if it just... fell in reverse? All the pieces returned to how they once were, as if it had never happened? What kind of force could drive that?"

"Some kind of... anti-entropy?" Ruby asked, sounding profoundly anti-confident in her answer.

"Exactly." He snapped his fingers and pointed to the younger girl with a smile. "For the sake of consistency, I call this force 'counterentropy.' THIS is the force that causes heat to concentrate and move out of its surroundings, lowering temperatures and creating frost and ice. It pulls light back to its point of origin, leaving the universe dark. It undoes injury and makes the universe shrink back from its expansion. It is the equal and opposite force to entropy, pointing the arrow of time backwards." He took a deep breath. "It's... difficult to wrap your head around. Saying that it reverses time is a bit of a stretch, but it's the easiest way for people like us, who were raised in a world defined by entropy, to wrap our heads around it. This is the force that Baalchion embodies. Some time ago, I talked about Chirac and Baalchion in the more esoteric 'light and dark' terminology, saying that the big bang was an act of light and that the darkness wants to undo it. The truth of the matter is much closer to this being two equal-yet-opposite forces cancelling each other out on a cosmological scale, like a universe-sized tug of war with time itself as the rope."

"Wait, is that why they heal from anything but fire or electricity so fast?" This marked the first time Ren had spoken. "Because they're excessively entropic processes?"

"Yes." Penn nodded. "Just like how, if you wanted to really hurt a Chiracian, ice and highly processed, decay-resistant materials will be your best bet."

He pointed back up to the display, which now changed to show an expanding black circle.

"As entropy powers the universe onwards and outwards, we are progressing towards a few different possibilities for its inevitable... final state. If you were to ask Chirac, Baalchion, or any of their followers what the final state of an entropic universe is..." he tapped on the holographic display, watching the circle stretch thin as it expanded, finally becoming so thin that it faded away entirely. "They would tell you that the universe will, eventually, just run out of juice. Infinite expansion with a finite amount of matter and energy means that eventually, all of existence will go quiet. Every atom will be accounted for, every star burnt out, every black hole decayed into radiation that has spread evenly over everything. In short... the universe's constant expansion runs out of gas billions upon billions of years from now. Nothing left, everything spent." He gave a small, sad sigh at the idea. "We call this 'heat death,' because it's defined by all heat energy in the universe being completely dispersed. Where the disagreement lies... is in whether or not this is a cosmos-wide emergency or merely the final state of a life well-lived." He snapped his fingers again, this time changing to an image Rainbow knew very well: It was Chirac in his favorite form, a titanic winged serpent with iridescent white scales and shining blue eyes.

"If you were to ask Chirac, the embodiment of entropy, he would say that this is the full potential of the universe realized. Every creature in existence got the chance to live as they chose, every possibility turned to certainty and every moment spent to its absolute fullest. It is existence resting in peace."

With another snap of his fingers, the image changed, this time to one that made every molecule in Rainbow's body tense.

It was a dark figure sitting on a black throne of twisted tubes and crumbling dirt. It looked humanoid, but there wasn't enough light to make out any details of his face. His body was long and lithe, bony and starved-looking, even beneath the seemingly tailored suit. Knightcrawlers and countless other monsters were moving in and out of the tunnels and tubes in his throne, as if the picture had been taken candidly in the midst of manufacturing more of his army.

"But to Baalchion, the conscious manifestation of counterentropy, it represents the ultimate defeat. Heat death is just that: death. It is the total erasure of the universe's once-infinite potential. It is the final end to all experience, all possibility, everything worth having. Chiracians believe that Baalchion wants to destroy the universe, but... in his own twisted, opposite way of thinking, he's trying to save it. He wants to return everything to its pure state of complete potential, to how it was before the big bang, when everything everywhere was all not-happening in equal measure to everyone." Penn took a moment to sigh and shake his head. "I can understand where he's coming from, to be honest. Thinking about entropy and the passage of each second that can never be returned, even as I sit around wasting it doing things that don't matter... it's enough to make just about anybody want to go back." he shrugged. "They call the end of the universe 'The Great Dying,' and they don't understand why anyone would WANT to die. From their perspective, this is a rescue mission. Any kind of damage or injury they deal, they know will be undone once they win. Because of that, they are willing to do anything to save us, including hurting or killing us."

He paused for another moment, staring at the image a little longer than Dash thought was necessary before snapping his fingers again. This time, the image changed to one that she'd heard about and seen pictures of in her training in Radian, but never seen face-to-face: the dark sun emblem of a Baalchion gate.

"There are a few things beyond even the gods, though. One of them is the existence of creatures like humans or faunus, who developed without their direct intervention. We grew and formed in the mix of entropy and counterentropy, and we thrive in the agonizingly slow march forward that their battle creates. The flow of time as we know it is the result of an almost-perfect stalemate between the two, with Chirac and entropy winning out by only a hair over Baalchion." He leaned back slightly against the desk. "Sure, if Baalchion wins then we all go back to nothing, but imagine if the expansion and decay of the universe was left unchecked?" He took a moment to gesture to Rainbow Dash. "I mean, Dash is almost the same age as Sunset, but after six months in Radian she looks almost twenty years her senior!"

"HEY!" Rainbow jumped out of her chair, only to feel Sunset's hand on her shoulder pulling her back.

"Rainbow, he's right!" Sunset whispered, pulling Dash back down into her seat and grabbing her by the shoulders. "Look at yourself!"

"So what if I put on a little muscle? That doesn't make me OLD!" Rainbow gestured to herself.

"Now, by sacrificing the life of such an independently-formed individual, through ways that, honestly, no one but Baalchion understands, a portal can be opened directly to his realm. This is the type of portal that has been formed under the remains of what was once Evernight Castle. Reports of missing persons have been coming in from Vacuo for some time, now, and I believe he's been using more life energy to expand and fortify the portal." He sighed, clearly regretting something in his explanation. "Usually, the knightcrawlers and other low-ranking creatures are sent as an expeditionary force, establishing a base of operations quietly to avoid drawing Chirac's attention for as long as possible. Once they have a strong enough foothold, larger and more powerful creatures, commanders in their ranks, broodmothers for their troops, start coming through. This usually marks the change from scouting to a full-on invasion, which is what is happening to Remnant now. However, even without Chirac's 'help' dooming Remnant to age itself out of existence within a few centuries, we can still stop them. The portal is their greatest asset, but that also makes it their greatest weakness."

With a snap of his fingers, an image of a sword entered the picture, simplistically overlapping with the picture of the portal. "Using ancient materials extremely resistant to change, able to resist both entropy and counterentropy, the power flow keeping the portal stable can be disrupted. For smaller portals, this is usually enough to destroy them. Without a link back to their counterentropic homeworld, Baalchion's forces will rapidly deteriorate and the terraforming will right itself within a year. For a portal of greater magnitude, though..." the image changed, shrinking the sword down to the size of a toothpick, " you might need either multiple points of disruption or the careful application of a high concentration of entropic energy, such as, well, a bomb." The tiny sword in the picture multiplied and pinned down all the edges of the portal for a moment before an explosion overtook the screen, clearing away everything and leaving only the words "PROBLEM SOLVED" in its place.

"These types of weapons and materials aren't easy to come by... which is why my companions and I didn't come empty-handed." With another snap of his fingers, the display changed to show the twisted, mangled remains of a car. As they watched, another dragon-shaped robot with yellow-and-black paint pulled heavy-looking black items out of the trunk.

"As we speak, my friends, we are gathering our reserves of an extremely rare metal from another dimension to be re-forged into a weapon capable of disrupting the portal. This metal, called Netherite, was gathered from ancient debris in another world's version of hell, alloyed with gold, and given atomic bonding and structure with carbon in the form of diamonds. It's ancient, it's near-unbreakable, and with the enchantments that were placed on this holy armor, it can repair itself using ambient energy. By shaving off small pieces with a grinder and modifying the industrial-grade weapons forge in the basement to operate at temperatures well-beyond its initial purposes, we can forge weapons capable of closing the portal. According to our calculations, those weapons could be ready in..."

"Just over five and a half days." He leaned back against the desk, taking a moment to sigh. Rainbow raised an eyebrow, wondering just how he could be so tired. All he was doing was talking. "This material is extremely valuable and was collected by BUCKLER at great cost, but we are prepared to share what little of it we have with Remnant freely. Once these weapons have been forged, two agents will have to be designated to make their way stealthily into the enemy stronghold and disable the portal at its heart.

This was where the General finally rose out of his chair. "I'll call the Atlesian Ace Ops, they have the training for this type of mission."

"Unfortunately, General Ironwood, that won't be possible." Penn groaned, leaning back even further and looking wistfully up at the ceiling. "The metabolic processes that give humans and faunus their energy are still inherently entropic. Trying to sneak humans into a Baalchionic nest of this size would be like trying to sneak a magnesium sparkler through a deep freezer in the dark. Robots powered by electricity or aura have the same problem, they can be sensed by Baalchion's minions." He put one hand to his forehead and dragged it down his face. "And now we get to the part that I really hate... As it turns out, you, BUCKLER and Chirac aren't the only ones who've noticed the incoming invasion. On our way here, we were reached out to by an old mutual enemy... who wants to help."

This sent stirs and whispers through the room, and Rainbow couldn't help noticing Sunset's hand clench in restrained frustration.

"That would be myself..." a chilling voice came through the speaker on Ozpin's desk. Above them, the display on the screen changed to a chilling figure with blackened veins, chalk-white skin and hair, and blood-red eyes. She seemed to be regarding the room with an air of condescension that made Rainbow immediately dislike her. Even Penn had to force himself to look at the screen directly, obviously afraid of the person behind it.

She blatantly ignored Penn's greeting as she continued on. "If Remnant is destroyed or conquered, then there is nothing left for me. While I do not LIKE any one of you, the enemy of my enemy is my ally." She gestured as if the information was obvious. "As it stands, my Grimm and I have no such biological processes. In theory, we should be able to get closer than any of you without being noticed. And if we are, well... we have the numbers to engage this army of darkness head-on." With a smirk, the image switched off, leaving them in silence.

Looking around the room, Rainbow could see that everyone who hadn't known what was coming was completely horrified. Even the even-keeled Ozpin had a look of mild surprise on his face. When the general began to turn a furious-looking shade of red, Rainbow wondered if Penn had manage to botch his own "sales pitch."

"You expect us to leave the fate of our world in HER hands? In the hands of the Grimm?"

"No!" Penn held up both hands in a placating motion. "No, definitely not! But Salem is one of the few who could get close enough without being noticed, and the portal is directly underneath her former base of operations. It's her home territory. Combined with her other abilities, having her on the away team would leave victory near-certain. Just to be certain that there's no double-crossing or last-minute changes, however... BUCKLER has our own agent for whom biological processes have all but stopped." He took a deep breath. "Their body isn't even human, any more, and, as far as we can tell, doesn't really qualify as organic. Testing is still being done to figure out what exactly they ARE, but... in theory, they don't have those entropic metabolic giveaways, either. They've also done this type of infiltration mission before, in another world to stop a different invasion."

That started another round of angry arguments, with several people on the call trying to speak over one another. Rainbow tried not to smile at how terribly his proposal was going. He'd started off strong, but his plan was terrible in the late game.

"Okay, OKAY, QUIET!" Penn slammed his fist on the desk, and a silence fell over the room again. "Now I'm not ANY happier about this than you, believe me! But the easy way out will doom Remnant, and sending in anyone else will result in them instantly being caught before they even make it through the front door!"

"But we've gotten in there before!" Jaune piped up from behind them. "Team RWBY even managed to get all the way to the room with the portal!"

"Yes, and I'm sure you THINK it was your own craftiness that got you there." Penn's voice dropped low. "But let me ask, did the entrance seal up behind them? Was there a portal guardian waiting for them? Did the maze's layout suddenly change? Did they have to fight their way out? If I had to guess, that was a trap and a test. A way to gauge your strength before you had the knowledge or means to shut the portal. If you made it that deep, it was because you were allowed to. But Baalchion's in the endgame now, and there's no more need to test your world's warriors. When was the last time anybody ELSE made it that deep into the nest?"

"Exactly." Penn leaned back again. "If I had a way to keep my hands off this and more local hands on it, I would take it, believe me. But as it stands, the only two people have any chance of making it in there without being noticed are Salem and I. In theory, Agent Missy might be able to, given that she's also not human, but her skillset doesn't include stealth! Given the situation and our resources, this is the way that has the greatest possible chance of success."

There was a long, drawn-out pause as Penn waited for anyone else to raise a question.

"This isn't the easy way, but it gives Remnant its best possible chance at long-term survival AND keeps them neutral in the war between Chirac and Baalchion. In another version of my homeworld, it was similar but opposite. Dragons came to our world to conquer. Using hardened steel, we fought them off ourselves while turning away from the entreaties of the darkness. Our warriors became known as slayers of dragons and faded into legend, and the darkness was forever associated with moral weakness... and neither side ever came back."

Penn snapped his fingers one more time, and a timer appeared on the holographic screen. It showed five days, fifteen hours, and fifty-five minutes. "Whether you go with BUCKLER's proposal or not, netherite weapons will help you, so I had my associate set up the grinder and forge last night. We've already started on harvesting the material. You're going to have five days to deliberate, and I'm going to have five days to improve on this plan wherever I can. We don't need an answer now. Thank you all for your time and attention, and- uh- sorry about the mess with the mug, I'll try to find a broom."

Having finally spoken his peace, Penn returned back to the seats, where he more or less collapsed into his chair. In his place, Professor Ozpin took center stage.

"Well, it seems as if we've all been given a great deal to think about. I would like to thank Miss Dash and Director Bakersfield for their time. With that said, I know that Penn and his agents were attacked yesterday and still took the time to prepare a presentation for early this morning, and several of our remaining students who've been involved with these extradimensional exploits also got up extra early to be here. I believe it's safe to say that, should we have more questions regarding either proposal, we can find a way to direct them to you after you've all gotten some more rest. You are all dismissed." He took a moment to nudge a piece of ceramic with his foot. "And I'll have this mess dealt with, no need to worry about that."

There was a mumbled chorus of thank yous that came up as most of those present rose from their seats and headed towards the door. As they did, Rainbow was able to pick up on a hushed conversation between Penn and Sunset.

"Better than the Dalek invasion. I think the powerpoint presentation really helped. Less frenzied energy, more 'I know more than you' vibes. Eight out of ten."

"I don't think anything's going to top that time you talked us out of that so-called 'ticket' in Mechanicsburg!"

Penn groaned slightly, but his smile betrayed his real feelings. "Don't remind me of Mechanicsburg, I still owe Mamma Gkika a favor!"

As the two of them snickered together, Rainbow couldn't help feeling just a little... left out. Sunset was HER friend, after all... why weren't they laughing about old adventures together?

"So... convinced there's something wrong with that guy NOW?" Aurelia whispered. "He just admitted he wasn't human!"

"Yeah, but I thought your problem with him was that he was pretending to be human when he wasn't?" Rainbow muttered back.

"Yeah, until he started casually dropping blasphemies into the conversation as fact and undermining our negotiations!" Auri hissed.

"Yeah, but... he kinda seemed like..." Rainbow had to stop and think for a moment. "If this was a game, I'd say it sounded more like he hates the sport, not the teams." She rubbed at her neck, making sure to not catch Aurelia's tail under her hand. "You know what I mean?"

Rainbow Dash knew she tended to get a bit hot under the collar. It was part of her competitive nature, and she was usually able to channel it into whatever game she was playing at the time in a healthy way. That didn't mean she couldn't be a sore loser at times, but she was at least aware enough to see when it was getting in the way. She often wondered if Chirac had paired her with Aurelia because she had the same issues, but was less aware of them.

And, unfortunately, Rainbow could see that Auri wasn't just hot under the collar, something about Penn's presentation had left her boiling.

"There's more wrong with him than we're seeing... How did he know about the phoenixes? How did he know so much about Lord Chirac AND Baalchion? There were things he explained that even I've never heard of!" Aurelia hissed in Rainbow's ear. "We NEED to figure out what his deal is!"

Rainbow could tell that there wasn't any getting Auri out of this single lane of thinking. She glanced down the hall, watching Penn wave a quick goodbye to Sunset before ducking back into their dorm room. Sunset, on the other hand, turned and began to walk back towards them, already giving Rainbow an excited smile.

"Fine. YOU do some scouting, I'll talk to Sunset, okay?" Rainbow cupped her hands under Aurelia and tossed her into the air. The little dragon barely managed to get her wings unfurled to right herself before she started to come back down. She stuck out her tongue at Rainbow for a moment, then vanished into the light fixtures in a bolt of gold electricity.

"Wow... I've never seen a dragon that can do that!" Sunset stared for a moment at the spot where Aurelia had vanished before giving Rainbow another wide grin. "So, I'm already up, and the coffee's really only just starting to kick in... wanna hang out while I run through my morning training? Beacon's got some awesome facilities!"

Rainbow grinned as she put her arm around Sunset's shoulders. "Sunset, after all this time, I'd be happy to hang out in a garbage dump if it was with you. Lead the way!"

As Sunset giggled and began to set the pace, a lingering thought hung in the back of Rainbow's mind. I really DID get taller than her...

Sunset chuckled at that. "Try not to take his bad mood to heart. He's sleep-deprived AND still mad about losing the car yesterday."

To her surprise, that made Sunset pull back from her, separating the two of them at arm's length. The mix of shock and insult on her face made it obvious Rainbow had made a mistake.

"JUST a car? Just a car? Sylvia wasn't-" Sunset's hands balled into fists for a moment as she tried to hold back her anger. One deep breath and a long sigh later, she seemed to have her temper under control again.

Sunset's eyes narrowed in a way that made Rainbow suddenly have flashbacks to the days when Sunset was known as the queen of the bullies.

"Well, I didn't get that luxury. When I met Penn, all he had was that car and a half-renovated one-bedroom rental. When he saw I needed help, he didn't hesitate to pack all his necessities in his car and leave that house behind. That car has been the only roof over my head that I've been able to count on in six months. We've sat in that car, safe and sound, as we searched everywhere for the other Rainbooms!" When she took a step forward, Rainbow couldn't help taking a step back out of fear. "We drove that car through every state, every city, every town from South Padre to Topeka, up and down EVERY street, following my geode in the hopes we might catch a GLIMPSE of one of you! We rode it into the ground from one universe after another after another after another, and she NEVER let us down! Even when she DID break down, Penn would pick up his tools and have her running and ready to go in less than two days! And when our lives were on the line- which was A LOT!" Sunset's voice was cracking, now, and Rainbow could see tears running down her face, "-that car NEVER failed to outrun anything and everything the multiverse could throw at us! She was our home! Our sanctuary! The only way that we survived when this trip stretched out from a week-long tour to find the Rainbooms into a six month odyssey just to find ONE! PERSON!"

"W-well of course you didn't!" Sunset's voice cracked again as her rage seemed to leave her. She was shaking now, a trembling, tear-stained mess. "I ha-haven't even gotten to t-tell you! We only j-just found each other! Why am I g-getting so mad at you for this?" she looked down at her shaking hands, eyes widening as if seeing them for the first time. "I j-just got you back... why am I fighting over this? Why did it make me so mad?"

Rainbow looked her friend up and down, but there wasn't any sign she'd been hurt. It was only now, in this moment of vulnerability, that the aura of confidence that had been around Sunset since she arrived faded at last.

She was run ragged. Her hair was clean, sure, but the split ends and obvious lack of any special care would make Rarity scream. He clothes were the same, but worn threadbare in places. Cuts and slashes in her jacket, her jeans, and even near the bottom of her blouse had been clumsily stitched shut. She didn't look malnourished, but there was a difference in her physical build. She looked more toned, the kind of muscle you only got from constant, daily use. There were still half-healed scrapes and cuts on her body, along with wide bruises just beginning to form, all likely from the battle the day before, but she was acting like she didn't even know they existed.

An important part of being a team leader was seeing when someone was burning out, pushing too hard and risking hurting themselves... and Sunset was strung tighter than a tennis racket.

One thing that Rainbow Dash prided herself on was that she was a hard person to shake up. She had a tendency to roll with the punches and land on her feet. That was how you needed to think if you wanted to be a reliable teammate in any type of sport. Sure, Sunset was a great leader and was good at improvising, but if what she was saying was the truth...

Sunset nodded, clearly not trusting herself to speak without her voice cracking.

Rainbow felt the bottom drop out of her stomach. "You've been living in that car for six months straight, having crazy adventures the whole time, and never even had a home to go back to?"

"Syl was our home..." Sunset mumbled. "She wasn't just a car... she took care of us and we took care of her..."

"Oh geez..." Rainbow wrapped both of her arms around Sunset's shoulders, pulling her as tight as she could. "SunShim, I'm sorry..."

"We- we took care of her and now- and now we can't..." Sunset kept mumbling as she pressed the side of her face against Rainbow's chest. "She took care of us for so long and I can't do anything- I couldn't do anything to stop it and I just- I just don't know what to do..."

In Rainbow's mind, memories of the last six months flashed images through her brain. Images of her sitting around, jumping from rooftop to rooftop practicing her parkour, sitting at massive dining tables alongside the dragons, where every meal was a feast for someone her size. She thought of the amphithere-feather mattress she slept like a baby on in the specially-made darkroom they'd given her away from the never-setting suns. She thought of all the days spent racing and studying and laughing as if nothing was wrong, as if her friends were just going to turn up on their own eventually. She had been content to let Chirac and his scouts do the searching for her just because she'd landed someplace cool.

And the whole time, Sunset had been diving headfirst into the multiverse for them, crawling through the mud and the pain scrambling for even a sign they were alive, without any place to call home except a beaten-up old sedan... which Rainbow had just called "just a car" after it was destroyed right in front of her eyes.

"I'm sorry, Sunset... I didn't mean it..." she whispered, trying her best to comfort her friend.

"I-I'm sorry, too..." Sunset mumbled, beginning to pull away. "I just- I think I've been holding too much in... I wanted us finally finding each other to be a happy thing, but... there's so much wrong right now. I think I just-"

"Dude, it's cool!" Rainbow pulled tighter, forcing Sunset back into the hug. "Sounds like things have been pretty heavy since we got split up. Do you want to tell me YOUR story before I finish mine?"

That finally got a laugh out of Sunset, and Rainbow Dash took that as a sign that it was okay to let her go. She was still giving a soft chuckle as she wiped the last of the tears from her eyes.

"If I try to tell you MY story, it'll take all day..." She sniffled loudly as she tried to erase the evidence of her momentary breakdown. "And you already started yours! Maybe we can take turns?"

"Yeah, let's- Oh!" Sunset perked up slightly. "Team RWBYS is probably gonna want to hear the full version, too! They only got the abridged version last time because it was an emergency and- oh, uh, that's ALSO a long story. We should go get them! We can make a whole thing out of it!"

Both girls turned to look down the hall, where the girl in the red dress was standing, looking like she was about to deliver some bad news.

"Weiss and Yang... Well, Yang might be able to join, if she's feeling up to it, but..." she rubbed at the back of her head as her own tears welled up in her eyes. "Weiss... you're going to have to see her, yourself."

For the second time, Rainbow felt the bottom drop out of her stomach. Those girls who fought the nyctomorph... When they said they were Sunset's friends, I was so excited I didn't think about telling her-

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The sound of tearing metal was like screaming, the cracking of fiberglass and plastic was like bones snapping.

He should have sent an advance party. Had Isis go through first and scan the area. He was reckless. He was stupid.

He could have stopped it if he had the guts. If he had the stomach to exercise some control. If he would just take accountability and-

"Yeeeah... that's not gonna happen..." he mumbled to himself, throwing off the covers he had pulled over his eyes. With a long sigh, he swung his feet back over the edge of the bed. "This crap's gonna haunt me for a while."

He glanced around the room for a few minutes to make sure he was alone before dropping onto the floor. He REALLY wasn't in the mood for exercise, but Missy wouldn't be happy if she came back and found out he'd started slacking on his anti-depression workouts.

"Push-ups, sit-ups, squats..." he mumbled to himself as he started his routine. "Then there's gotta be a treadmill SOMEPLACE on campus."

"You can't dodge questions with me. I MEAN trying to just jump in to working on solving all the problems. You need time to process what happened."

Penn focused on his push-ups, trying to ignore the way they made him feel like blood was rushing to his head. "The best thing for me is to find a problem and solve it, then solve the next one, then the one after that. Solve enough problems and things will-"

Penn stood still for a second, thinking carefully about how to respond. She had a good point.

"I need to solve problems right now. I need that cycle of seratonin. 'Problem. Think. Solution. Problem. Think. Solution.'" He mumbled, timing his squats to each word. "It's the only way I can feel confident enough to keep moving. If I curl up into a ball of depression now, we lose Remnant, Sylvia never gets rebuilt, and we never get back on the road to find the other Rainbooms." He paused again, though this time his pondering was more for show. "Not to mention that losing would mean we die, too, given we're stranded on Remnant."

"But you have FIVE DAYS! It's okay to take a second to breathe and FEEL something!" Reason was beginning to get exasperated, never a good sign. Also, she had another really good point. "Isis is making the portal-closing weapons, parts for Sylvia are being shipped in, and the jury is still out on whether they're actually going to use your plan! Your stupid, STUPID plan, might I add? There's no way you're going in there alone with Salem. The only reason Sunset didn't raise a fuss is because you told her it was just a temporary plan."

"It's a placeholder..." Penn mumbled. "I'll figure out a way to get a better team in there without being noticed. I just needed a believable team for today."

"Believable to ME. I wasn't kidding about Salem and I being the only ones without those metabolic signatures."

"Well, unless we express-deliver some of those car parts, I've got nothing to wrench on, and I'm not in the mood for trying to read another novel from the Star Wars Expanded Universe or watching any movies."

The long pause on his partner's end chalked a tally on his side of the "Good Points Made" board.

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"So... all this time later, and all that it took for us to work together was a new ice age." There was only a hint of a mirthless smile on Ozpin's lips.

"I would hardly call this 'working together.' If all goes as planned, we'll hardly have to speak a word to one another." Salem dismissed him with a wave as she turned towards the door. "I only stayed after all the rest left so that I could inform you that I have every intention of honoring this truce, no matter how temporary it may be."

Salem smirked at that a bit more. "Because you have no choice. Because if I am anything, I am honest. Because I think you know that I'm in need of new toys."

"The boy? He may be clever, but I think you greatly overestimate him." There was a faint tone of disbelief in Ozpin's voice. "In fact, I'm surprised you haven't already gotten tired of them. I thought you didn't believe in heroes, any more?"

"Heroes? Ha." The word seemed to amuse Salem more than expected. "I would hardly call them that. It's more like the amusement one feels watching a bird attempt to fly for the first time."

"I expect them to flounder and flail and tumble in the grasp of forces they do not understand, yes."

Salem paused at that. Ozpin had thought the question was a natural follow-up, the kind she would have had a response ready for well in advance. Instead, her hand wandered to a place just below her sternum as she stared ahead for a moment, as if she wasn't even aware she was doing it.

That was enough to make Ozpin balk slightly. Despite keeping his comments to himself, Salem seemed to spot his disbelief.

"I think that you underestimate them, Ozma. This isn't just ego talking. I've been following them for some time now." She took a moment to toy with the two chess pieces she'd pulled from her pocket: a king and a rook. She revolved the two around one another, letting them play at a delicate dance. "They may be children, but they seem determined to never make the same mistake twice. They might make for formidable allies one day."

"You've changed." Ozpin's tone was one of disbelief. "The Salem I knew would never have-"

"Call it the power of a multiversal perspective." For a moment, she let the disguise drop, just long enough to fix the headmaster with a soul-shattering glare. "And I stopped being anything resembling 'the Salem you knew' when you stabbed me in the back for the sake of the gods."

Ozpin's grip on his cane tightened to a white-knuckled force that threatened to crush its head.

This time it was Salem's grip that clamped down, instantly grinding the chess pieces into black powder. A ripple in the room's air threatened to shatter every window.

"Of course you would, my dear Ozma... Your memory always HAS been very selective." Returning to her disguised form, Salem strode across the room to the door. "We may be temporarily allies, but I will NOT suffer attempts at provocation."

"And your pre-recorded message earlier? All of that was truth?" Ozpin asked. There was no urgency in his voice, no attempt to make her stay. It was a serious question phrased to sound like idle curiosity.

"Of course." Salem stroked her chin for a moment. "Of course, that's given that I can find a way to convince the boy NOT to tremble at the sight of me so that we can work together."

"And out of everything said today, I somehow think that might just be the most impossible." Ozpin smirked into his mug as Salem passed through the doorway... only to find that his hot chocolate had been magically frozen solid.

"Hmph... she always DID need the last word," he muttered, setting the now-cold chocolate back onto his desk. "Some things never change."

The Multiverse in a Nutshell

by Pennington Inkwell

A Proposal I Can't Get Behind