SAPR

by Scipio Smith

Final Exam (Rewritten)

Final Exam

Merlot’s laboratory looked as though it had been built for giants, not men.

Pyrrha was glad that she had not voiced that thought aloud, for fear that it would make her seem childish, but it was one that persisted in the back of her mind nevertheless. She was no stranger to vast rooms with high ceilings looming overhead many times higher than the tallest of men, she was not amazed by the fact that the roof was not resting just above the top of Jaune’s head. In terms of the actual size of the room — or rather, the long corridor, since there seemed to be little to nothing to actually do in this place — itself, she was not unfamiliar with the scale of it. The ancient throne room in the Mistral Palace, where the Maple Throne sat, was just as large, while the Great Hall was larger still, even if one discounted the outdoor elements; in her own house, there was a ballroom that was as large as this grand chamber — she had entertained herself sometimes, idling away a few passing moments here or there, by imagining herself gliding down the stairs into that same ballroom, while Jaune stood at the bottom of the stairs and gasped in awe at how lovely she looked, just like a fairytale; there was a reason she kept a lot of her thoughts private — and of course, Beacon’s hallowed halls included many rooms — classrooms, ballroom, even the cafeteria — that were every bit as large and as high-ceilinged as this corridor.

But all of those places felt as though they had some purpose for their size. They were wide because they were intended to fit in a large number of people: petitioners and subjects, honoured guests, students. They had high ceilings in order that they not feel too cramped with the large number of people, or to impress upon the people filling up the room with the majesty of their host, or simply that the building should by its height appear grand and imposing. But none of that, as far as Pyrrha could see, applied here. This was a facility inhabited by, as far as they could tell, a single hermit-like scientist who rattled around this vast space with only his robots and his grimm experiments for company. What did he want with impressive spaces, what did he want with vast spaces?

“I’ve seen bigger,” Sunset murmured, “but not for so little apparent purpose.”

Pyrrha smiled inwardly.

“I … I’ve got an idea,” Jaune said.

“What is it?” Sunset asked.

“You’re not going to want to hear it,” Jaune said.

“Tell us anyway.”

“I think it needs to be big so that some really big grimm can move around here,” Jaune said.

Everyone fell silent at that, contemplating what kind of grimm would need a corridor this large, even one that was broken up by columns supporting the ceiling.

“You’re right; we didn’t want to hear that,” Sunset said.

“I told you,” Jaune said.

“We should keep going,” Ruby said. “There’s no sense just standing around here.”

Nobody could really argue with that, and so the four of them advanced down the corridor. It was sterile. Pointless. It wasn’t just the fact that there was nobody here — nobody human at least — to walk these halls besides Merlot, it was the fact that if he was going to build an enormous lab for himself and only for himself, he might have put a little more of his own personality into it. This corridor was soulless: sterile white hexagons upon the floor, grey metallic walls livened up only by a pipe or two running along them, a ceiling dimly lit and peppered with only a monitor here or there. It was as though, having retreated into this self-imposed exile, Merlot was playing the part of a successful businessman-scientist, building a vast corporate headquarters like the one he had had to abandon in Mountain Glenn in spite of the fact that he had no scientists or employees of any kind to fill it up.

The only thing of any note in the corridor at all was a terminal which, when Sunset approached and tapped her finger on it at seeming random, caused the enormous door at the end of the corridor to open, revealing … more corridor, this time with a bend.

“Greetings,” Doctor Merlot said cheerfully, “and welcome to Merlot Industries, where we’re building a better tomorrow … today.”

I stand by what I said about playing the businessman-scientist, Pyrrha thought.

“Did you actually say that to people you weren’t trying to kill?” Sunset asked. “No wonder nobody wanted to buy anything from you with a slogan that cheesy, even if you weren’t a murderous mad scientist.”

“Madness?” Merlot responded. “Sending children out to fight against the most perfect creature ever designed, that is madness. Sending just four of them to confront my security all by themselves is madness. If you want to call somebody mad, why don’t you take a look at dear old Ozpin in his emerald tower? This isn’t madness, this is scientific progress. This … this is the future.”

Sunset grunted. “So what’s the plan? Make enough of these freaks and then unleash them on the world?”

“Something like that,” Merlot admitted. “The new and superior race will need its breathing room, after all.”

“We won’t let that happen,” Pyrrha said.

“You cannot stop the march of progress,” Merlot declared. “And if you try, you’ll simply be crushed beneath my triumphant parade.”

“I wish his own grimm would hurry up and eat him,” Sunset muttered. “At least then, we wouldn’t have to listen to his voice. Plus, you know, the irony would be cool.”

“Students,” Professor Ozpin interrupted them. “In order for me to help you, I need not only your location but, ideally, detailed schematics of Merlot’s facility. If you come across any terminals, see if you can use them to establish a connection.”

“I’m afraid we’re none of us particularly good with computers,” Pyrrha murmured.

“Speak for yourself,” Sunset replied.

Pyrrha’s eyebrows rose. “I didn’t know you were a computer expert amongst your many talents.”

Sunset grinned. “As you say, I’ve got many talents. I wouldn’t call myself an expert, but I know enough to give it a shot.”

In fact, as they rounded the corner of the corridor, they came to a laboratory space which, in keeping the corridor that they had just left, wasted a truly staggering amount of said space while keeping the actual workshops tight and confined, with robotic arms that looked set up for the assembly of androids hived off behind glass panels in tiny spaces; while accepting that robotic manufacturing arms didn’t need a lot of room, Pyrrha still found it odd, considering how much space was wasted elsewhere. There was a terminal beside the window looking into the closest of such workshops, but when Sunset approached and started bashing the screen, she succeeded only in starting the robotic arms spinning and whirring, throwing android parts this way and that and tossing them onto the ground like a child throwing a tantrum.

There was nothing else in the room except an elevator, the doors open, inviting them, as if Merlot himself wanted them to go that way.

Except there was no other way that they could go.

Nevertheless, it was with a degree of wary caution that they entered said elevator — another example of something that was far too large for people, suggesting that Merlot’s most common use of it was to move his swollen, oversized grimm up and down within the lab — and readied themselves for whatever might be waiting for them on the other side, for surely something would be.

For all that the laboratory appeared to be built into the side of a mountain, the display on the terminal in the far left corner of the lift indicated that they were currently on the highest floor. The only way was down.

“Someone watched way too many movies where the super villains had lairs when they were a kid,” Jaune said. He brightened. “On the other hand, this kind of makes us Maven Danger, right?”

“Or Lemon Peel,” Ruby suggested.

“That series went kinda downhill after a while, right?”

“Not when she was in it,” Ruby said.

“The point is,” Jaune said, “when you think about it like that … this is actually kind of cool.”

Sunset stared at him for a moment, before a smile cracked the corners of her mouth. “Yeah, I guess it is.”

She looked a little more relaxed as she hit the button to close the elevator doors and send them rumbling down.

Pyrrha braced herself. She had little doubt that there was a welcoming committee of some kind waiting for them on the next floor down.

A feeling of light and warmth washed over her, bathing her in brightness, washing away some of the tension that she was feeling. It was so relaxing that it took Pyrrha a moment to realise that it really was a light: it was Jaune’s semblance, as he placed a hand upon her shoulder and recharged her aura.

“I thought that you could use it,” he said, slightly apologetically. “You used your semblance quite a bit on the way over here.”

“Yes,” Pyrrha admitted sheepishly. “But what about you? If you let your aura get too low—”

“I’ll be fine,” Jaune said. “I’ve got a lot to go around, right?”

Pyrrha smiled at him and reached up to squeeze his hand in hers. “Jaune, I want you to promise me something.”

He looked into her eyes, and she had to force herself to concentrate to keep from drowning in them. “Anything.”

“If it comes down to a choice between stimulating my aura or protecting yourself,” Pyrrha said, “I want you to choose yourself.”

Jaune was silent, as were Ruby and Sunset too; the only sound was the rumbling of the elevator as it bore them down.

“I don’t know if I can make that promise,” Jaune whispered.

“I’m being serious,” Pyrrha insisted.

“So am I,” Jaune replied.

Before Pyrrha could argue with him any more, the elevator came to a stop. There were a few moments during which, though the cab of the lift was completely still and absolutely silent, nevertheless, the doors remained shut. A few moments during which all four of the huntsmen prepared themselves for a fight with whatever was waiting on the other side of the doorway.

The door slid upwards, revealing a single enormous mutant beowolf and an entire platoon of white androids, all of whom seemed to have their guns trained on the elevator.

Pyrrha and Jaune had both started trying to bodily shield the other from the fire when a green shield erupted about ten feet away from the elevator door, encompassing some large storage containers stamped with the Merlot Industries logo.

Sunset had her arms flung up, both of them glowing with the same emerald light as her magical shield as the bullets slammed into it with a thunderous force. “Everybody run!”

Pyrrha, Jaune, and Ruby all dashed out of the elevator, temporarily protected by Sunset’s shield, which was already starting to crack under the rounds that were impacting it by the hundred every second. As she took cover behind the crate, Pyrrha could see the blue and green tracer rounds like laser beams cracking through the air to strike the shield with furious force.

Sunset growled wordlessly as her shield exploded outwards, the energy converting into a shockwave propelling not only its own force but every bullet and one or two grenades backwards the way that they had come, knocking androids off their feet at the same time as their own bullets slammed into their armour and the grenades exploded amongst them. The beowolf howled as it was injured.

That was their signal to charge out and into battle.

It was not so easy as it had been. Yes, Pyrrha could have used her semblance as she had done to dismantle all of the androids in mere moments, but that would have used up all the aura that Jaune had just replenished, and if she tried to keep that up moving throughout what seemed for sure to be a vast facility, then one or both of them would run out of aura long before they reached the end.

That would not happen. It seemed she couldn’t make Jaune promise to conserve his aura even at the cost of leaving Pyrrha’s aura broken and Pyrrha herself vulnerable, but she could try and ensure that they didn’t get into situations where he felt he had to expend the last of his aura to recover some small scraps of hers. She would win this battle as part of a team, fighting alongside her friends with the weapons that she had trained in her whole life.

This wasn’t Cinder or any other Maiden they were up against, after all; she did not need to push herself to her limits and beyond here.

She could do this well enough without.

And they did, but it was harder work and far more gruelling than it would have been to take the more self-destructive path. The androids were not completely devoid of tactical sense; they did their best to set up killing zones and trap the huntsmen in crossfire from which they could not escape. The mutated beowolf lumbered after them wherever they went, sometimes going for Pyrrha, other times for Ruby, sometimes for Sunset, and sometimes for Jaune, and in every case forcing them to flee before it, because the last thing they could afford was to get into a slugging match with that monster while there were still androids around to shoot them in the back.

But it was difficult, always trying to keep one step ahead as they whittled down the numbers of the androids. Ruby scooped them up with her scythe, lightning rippled up and down Jaune’s sword, Sunset snapped her fingers and two androids were transformed into little wind-up toy robots that looked almost cute for a moment before the beowolf stepped on them and crushed them into pieces, Pyrrha did what she could to turn the guns of the androids away from any of her friends when they seemed in especial danger, but it was hard work. Hard, gruelling work, and even when they had, through painstaking hit and run, turned the last of Merlot’s gun-toting androids into so many parts and so much scrap metal, they still had the mutant beowolf to deal with, so that by the time it fell to the floor, dead and turning to ash as the green ooze spread out in a puddle across the floor, they were all four of them looking almost exhausted.

And that had only been their first engagement since entering the lab.

“Ah, making yourselves at home, I see,” Merlot said, sounding unutterably smug as his visage stared down at them from a giant screen mounted on the wall. A door just below his smiling — smirking — face began to rise, revealing another oversized and rather sterile corridor. “I want my guests to feel welcome, but my security team rarely feels the same way.”

Sunset fired a bolt of magic out of the palm of her hand that shattered the screen into fragments.

“That doesn’t actually hurt me, you know.”

“No, but it makes me feel a lot better,” Sunset replied.

“I understand your frustration, Miss Shimmer,” Professor Ozpin said, “but the best thing you can do is not let Merlot’s childish taunting rile you. He’s trying to throw you off balance.”

“Rising above isn’t really my strong suit, Professor,” Sunset confessed.

“I’m not unaware of that fact, Miss Shimmer,” Professor Ozpin said mildly.

They moved on, but soon found their path down the corridor blocked by a set of burst pipes which had completely ruptured, venting vast jets of steam out across their path which would burn aura they would desperately need in what seemed likely to prove a battle of attrition.

Pyrrha glanced at the opening to a ludicrously large air duct — she could understand building many things to be larger than they strictly needed to be, but who needed an air duct large enough for three or four people to walk abreast? — but before she could suggest that they use it to circumnavigate the burst pipes, the steam jets that had been blocking their path simply ceased, as if someone…

As if someone had turned something off to help us out.

It was hard to tell, with the air ducts themselves being so dark and shadowed, but she could have sworn that she saw somebody moving in there through the grate of the vent.

Who could…? Cinder.

“Cinder?” Pyrrha called out. “Cinder, is that you?”

“Cinder?” Sunset asked.

“Someone turned off that jet of steam,” Pyrrha said, “and I could have sworn that I saw someone moving in the vent just now.”

Ruby swung Crescent Rose, slicing through the vent cover, shattering it into pieces that fell to the floor with a clatter and a rattle. She was the first one into the vent that was large enough for Pyrrha to stand upright as she followed, with Jaune and Sunset close behind.

There was nothing. No sign of anyone.

“Cinder?” Sunset yelled. “Cinder, stop playing hide and seek; we’re not in the mood.”

Answer came there none.

Ruby led the way, rounding the corridor in the vent to find … nothing. It was, to all appearances, a dead end, with no way out except the one that was being blocked by Team SAPR.

Checking the other way revealed a similar cul-de-sac, except there was a large crank at the end which, Pyrrha guessed, controlled the pipes.

“Where did she go?” Ruby asked.

“I … perhaps she was never here,” Pyrrha murmured. “Perhaps I didn’t really see anyone, just a trick of the light.”

“Then who turned off the steam?” asked Jaune.

There was a moment of silence.

“If she’s here, if she was right here, why didn’t she show herself?” demanded Ruby.

“I don’t know,” Sunset admitted. “But if it was her, then it seemed that she helped us out—”

“She could help us more by joining in the battle,” Pyrrha pointed out.

“I suppose so,” Sunset said softly.

Pyrrha hesitated for a moment. “I wish that she was easier to understand.”

Sunset snorted. “You’re not the only one.”

They pressed on, and into another battle against another large force of Merlot’s ‘security’: this time, red androids pressing a whole pack of beowolves — some of them not only mutated but grafted on with various additional animalistic traits — into the fray against them. The snarling beowolves pressed close all around them, and the androids stomped through the creatures of grimm with heavy, clanking steps, not seeming to care who or what they hit with their giant polearms as they swung them wildly in great swiping strokes. Pyrrha did her best to keep them from hitting any of her friends — and to get them hitting the grimm at the same time — but there were so many androids and so many grimm, and already, she was starting to feel weary; even she herself was struck a couple of times, though never severely.

By the time that they had prevailed in that action, all of their limbs were coated in sweat, their brows were shining with it also, and they were panting to catch their breath.

They had been a day and half a night on this island without rest … or perhaps they just needed to train harder.

Or both. It could be both, I suppose.

“Here,” Sunset said, reaching into the pockets of her jacket and pulling out four thick chocolate bars held between her fingers. “You’ll forgive me not levitating them over to you; I want to save that for when we need it.”

Pyrrha, who was not going overboard with her semblance partly for the same reason — and for many other reasons — said nothing as she stepped closer to Sunset and took the chocolate out of her hands. Ruby and Jaune did likewise, and all four of them devoured the chocolate eagerly; even Pyrrha, who rarely ate such things as they were bad for her body in every sense and respect, was grateful for the short term rush of energy that accompanied them.

“Thanks,” Jaune said. “Got any more of those in there?”

Sunset pulled a face. “One,” she said. “So we’ll have to share it at the last resort.”

“Oh,” Jaune said, not managing to restrain his disappointment. “Thanks anyway.”

“Yeah,” Ruby said. “I needed that. Although … next time, could you pack a bag of cookies instead, they might go fur—”

Sunset looked at her.

“Okay, I’ll be quiet now,” Ruby murmured. “Thank you!”

Sunset grinned. “I’ll try and remember, I promise. But we should keep moving now before more of Merlot’s security shows up.”

As they moved, as they jogged down these large but sterile, lifeless, and uninhabited — uninhabited at this point, for there was yet no sign of the grimm here or of Merlot’s androids past the ones that they had just destroyed — corridors, Pyrrha found herself thinking, in the absence of any enemies to fight or any conversation from her weary friends, about Cinder Fall.

Cinder who had saved their lives down in the tunnel, Cinder who had shut off the pipes for them, Cinder who had probably destroyed the squad of androids that they came upon next, shattered parts of red and white robots littering the floor.

Cinder, who might not be fighting alongside them but who was helping them nonetheless.

Cinder, whom Ruby would seek to kill if the battle brought them together.

Pyrrha glanced at Ruby, her red cape fluttering behind her as she moved.

Can you really go through with this, Ruby?

Pyrrha had told Ruby to do whatever she thought was right, and she would do likewise; that was … that had been a weak thing to say, in all honesty, a way of getting out of having to argue with Ruby or try to impose upon Ruby, a way of getting out of having to defend her position in such a way as to convince anyone else of her own rightness. It felt like a mistake now, not because she wished Ruby to do as she said, but … had Ruby considered what this would do? It would destroy her relationship with Sunset, and more importantly…

Ruby would have to live with what she had done. Even if she did it in secret, then she would know, and she would have to live with it.

Of course, if anyone could live with it, Ruby could; Ruby was the last person to argue that her own … her spiritual wellbeing, for want of a better word, was worth the risk of letting Cinder walk free.

Really, once you accepted Ruby’s premises: that the victory of the light justified any number of deeds that abandoned the light and that there was nothing a huntress should not be willing to do, give, or sacrifice for the greater good of mankind, then there were vanishingly few arguments in favour of letting Cinder live.

Nevertheless, nevertheless, in spite of all that and in spite of the fact that it would make their lives so much easier if Cinder were dead, Pyrrha hoped that Ruby did not go through with it — or that the opportunity to go through with it did not come their way.

Cinder was their enemy, true, but not today. Today, she was their ally, and even were she less than ally, even enemies could come together upontimes without fear of violence or treachery.

And allies who had and were fighting alongside them even more so.

And I am not convinced that our cause justifies all; rather, must we not justify our cause through our actions?

Her train of thought was derailed when they entered a laboratory. A laboratory, to call it that seemed far too kind and far too neat; it obscured the horror of what all their eyes beheld.

'Slaughterhouse' might have been a better word. The lab was full of faunus, the faunus stolen from Atlas, the faunus that had gotten Blake and Weiss and Rainbow Dash involved in combating Doctor Merlot’s activities in the north. The faunus had been brought here, to this island and this secret facility and this laboratory.

And here, they had died. Their bodies floated in tanks of blue-green ooze, lifeless, preserved like stuffed animals or frogs in jars, floating with their eyes closed as the ooze bubbled around them.

“My God,” Jaune murmured. “This … this is what you did with everyone you kidnapped.”

“More than that,” Sunset said. She sounded as though she didn’t want to believe what she was saying or, indeed, to say it, but that she could not stop the words from tumbling out of her mouth. “This is … this is how you got the wings and the fins and all the rest of it on your grimm, isn’t it?”

“And a gold star for the girl who’ll soon be the latest and greatest addition to my collection,” Merlot said, with a happiness that seemed especially inappropriate in the circumstances. “I told you that bonding my special serum to the grimm was an incomplete measure when it came to elevating them to perfection. But as a geneticist, I’ve always been fascinated by the faunus and their wonderful animal traits. So many humans are threatened by the superiority of the faunus over mankind, but I saw a marvellous opportunity. By selecting only the finest genetic specimens and exposing them to my serum, I’m able to bond their traits to this island’s natural ooze in such a way that passes their abilities on to the grimm during the bonding process. Soon, not even the shallow sea will protect Vale when I unleash an army of aquatic beowolves and ursai that can swim right up to Vale docks in a wave that will sweep aside the whole kingdom before them!”

“No, you won’t!” Ruby snarled. She began to swing her scythe wildly, striking the nearest tank to her again and again, scraping the glass with the blade of Crescent Rose. Her expression was wild and intense in equal measure, and her eyes burned with fury. “Because we won’t let you!” She hit the tank again and again. “We won’t let you do this!” The tank began to crack. “We won’t let you get away with this!” The cracks spread out across the glass. “We’re going to stop you hurting anybody else, you monster!”

The glass of the tank shattered into a million fragments as the ooze burst out across the floor, drenching Ruby — fortunately, it seemed that her aura protected her from suffering any consequences, and a moment later, an automated announcement declared that decontamination processes were in effect as sprinklers turned on to drench the lab and wash the goop away — as it pooled around the shattered tank across the floor, and the lifeless bodies fell down around Ruby. Thankfully, none of them struck her.

Ruby stood, the ooze being washed off her, her head bowed; Pyrrha couldn’t tell if she was looking at the bodies or if she had her eyes closed, but when she pulled her red hood, it was clear that she didn’t want them to see her face right now.

“Guys,” Ruby said. “We need to destroy all of these tanks. We can’t just leave them like this.”

None of the others said anything. One look exchanged between them said all that needed to be said.

Then they got to work. Merlot sent in androids to try and stop them, but their discovery of the horror being perpetrated here lent them a fresh energy derived from righteous anger, especially Ruby. She was like a fiend, a fiend trailing rose petals as she slashed her way between the tanks, felling the androids as she ran between them.

And when the battle was over, and all the tanks had been destroyed, she stood in the doorway and Pyrrha could see that her whole body was trembling.

Sunset put one arm around her and whispered something into her ear so softly that Pyrrha couldn’t hear it. Nor did she really wish to. It was for Ruby’s ears and hers alone.

“Pyrrha, Jaune,” Sunset said, gesturing with her head towards the door. “Come on.”

They left, standing just beyond the doorway as Sunset herself steered Ruby that way. Sunset raised one hand and muttered something like ‘I hope this works’ as her hand began to glow as red as fire. Sunset murmured words underneath her breath as the glow around her hands intensified. She clicked her fingers, and the entire laboratory burst into flame, burning in spite of the water descending on it from the sprinklers above, consuming the bodies of those poor faunus and all the evidence of what had been done to them.

Jaune looked as though he was about to ask why Sunset didn’t do that more often, but held his peace. For her own part, Pyrrha guessed it was a relatively costly spell, and difficult.

But it felt right to use it here, and she gave Sunset a small nod of approval.

“Hey, now—” Merlot began.

Sunset destroyed the screen. Again.

“I wish…” Ruby began, but trailed off.

“Ruby?” Pyrrha said.

“I wish I didn’t know how terrible people could be to one another,” Ruby said. “I wish it was only grimm that we were fighting.”

“I think we all wish that, Ruby,” Pyrrha murmured. “At least a little.”

They pressed on. What else could they do but to press on? They pressed on, and they soon came to a rocky ledge, overlooking a room that had not been built so much as it had been, by the looks of it, carved completely out of the rock of the mountain without bothering with the floor or ceiling or the walls that made up the rest of the facility: just a chamber carved into the stone, with an uneven surface for a floor and eight or ten more tanks filled with ooze being processed through them. Thankfully, there were no dead faunus in these tanks, but there were hordes of creeps pressed up against the tanks as though they desired the fluid within; they seemed to be humming to it, mewling for it, vast numbers of the grimm gathered around the tanks as though they were worshipping before religious altars.

SAPR defeated them, and destroyed all those tanks on general principle, but by the time they had done so — yes, they were only creeps, and even accepting that mutated creeps such as these were still just creeps at heart … but there were so many of them, and the toll of the constant battles since they had entered the facility was starting to take its toll on all of them — they had used up all their ammunition for all of their guns and almost all of their dust, which was to say that the only person who still had any dust remaining was Sunset, who hadn’t ignited her jacket yet.

“I’ll know the time is right for it when … when the time is right,” Sunset said.

“Please try not to destroy all of my possessions,” Merlot harrumphed, “although my androids will simply rebuild them if you do.”

Nobody replied. Nobody had the energy to respond to his cheap jibes and tired taunts any longer. Everyone was trying their best not to look into his hideous face. And besides, now that they knew just what he had done to the faunus, now that they knew exactly how monstrous he was, it seemed inappropriate to roll their eyes at his remarks as though he were nothing more than a boorish nuisance and a windbag who overestimated his own wit. He was much more than that, and much worse, and they could not ignore it, nor would they have wished to do so.

So they ignored him, or tried to ignore him as best as they could ignore someone whose voice they could not escape and whose face seemed to be watching them from every wall like the dictator in a dystopian fiction. They left the cavernous — in every sense — processing plant and soon — passing through a corridor that was empty, save for the remains of a few more androids that someone, most likely Cinder, had taken care of in advance — they found themselves in a room filled with computers.

It looked as though there had been android guards here, but once again, it appeared that Cinder had come or passed nearby this way before them and had taken the opportunity to ease the way in some small part for SAPR.

If Ruby strikes her down, then who will be the villain in all this? Pyrrha could not help but wonder, as her friends and teammates marvelled at the vast array of computers that took up the room; they were large, the units built into the wall with a dazzling array of lights blinking out at them, the machines themselves making slightly tired whirring noises; Pyrrha wondered how old these machines were and how long they had been working on … whatever it is that they were working on.

“Whoa,” Jaune said. “That’s a lot of computers.”

“Good work,” Ozpin said into their ears. “Can you find a terminal that you can gain access to?”

“Yes,” Sunset said, trotting over to a terminal set into the centre of the east wall. She tapped her hand upon it, and it responded instantly to her touch. “I’ve got one, Professor.”

“Wait, what are you doing?” Merlot demanded.

“Excellent,” Ozpin said, ignoring Merlot. “Can you proxy the signal over to me with your scroll?”

“Um,” Sunset hesitated. She looked at her teammates for help before seeming to realise that there was little help to be had from Pyrrha, Jaune, or Ruby in this regard. “Professor, I can crack into some systems and hide my digital footprint from an untrained eye, but that … what you’re asking for now is a little bit beyond my abilities, I’m afraid.”

Professor Ozpin sighed. “Yes, I did wonder if we might run into this difficulty. Thankfully, I think we should be able to manage. Over to you, Miss Sparkle.”

“Sunset? Sapphire, can you hear me?”

Sunset’s eyebrows rose. “Twilight? Is that you?”

“Yes. Professor Ozpin asked me to provide tech support.”

“But aren’t you still in Atlas?”

“No, we arrived back at Beacon yesterday. Anyway, you want to proxy the signal from Merlot’s servers to your scroll so that Professor Ozpin can receive it with a trace, correct?”

“You’re the scientist, you tell me.”

“Yes, that is what you want to do. So take out your scroll and follow my instructions exactly, can you do that?”

“Sure thing,” Sunset said as she pulled out her scroll.

“What’s going on?!” Merlot yelled. “Who are you?”

“I’m Twilight Sparkle of the Combined Atlesian Army-Airfleet,” Twilight said. “Now get ready, Doctor, because we’re about to put you on the map.”

“Oh no!” Merlot squawked. “How could I have been so stupid!”

“I find that very easy to believe,” Ozpin murmured dryly. “You never were as clever as you thought you were, Merlot.”

Merlot growled wordlessly, as though he were one of the grimm he had experimented. “We’ll see about that. It will be hard for you to upload anything once my grimm have torn you to shreds and devoured your remains!”

Thunderous footsteps began to thud outside the room, drawing closer with every step.

Pyrrha turned her back on Sunset and stepped into a guard. “Sunset, stay on the upload; we’ll hold them off.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes,” Pyrrha said, because surviving one more encounter with the grimm would mean little on this island if they couldn’t get their location to Professor Ozpin in time. “We can manage. Although, Twilight, anything that you can do to hurry this along would be very much appreciated by all of us.”

“I’m doing my best, but I’m only receiving your signal,” Twilight. “Everything is in your hands.”

Pyrrha listened with half an ear as Twilight explained to Sunset what she needed to do, deploying an array of scientific terms that sounded like so much nonsense to Pyrrha’s untrained ears. She was not completely ignorant of mechanics — she knew enough that she could strip down and reassemble Miló at least — but when it came to computers, she was more lost than not. She used one, but she rather relied upon it to work, and she would never have been able to repair one that didn’t work in the way that she could have repaired, or tried to repair, her weapons. She suspected it was much the same with Ruby, and while it seemed that Sunset had some programming knowledge, it was, nonetheless, a good thing they had help from a genuine expert.

Then the first grimm entered the server room, and Pyrrha had no time to think about anything but fighting to survive and protect Sunset from the grimm and the androids that charged into the room and invariably seemed to make a beeline straight for her, intent on crushing her bones and stopping the uplink to Beacon before it was complete.

They came in waves. Four waves. Beowolves, ursai, creeps, androids; they would charge into the server room in a great wave, like a tsunami trying to sweep away all resistance to them in a single charge, then, once all of that wave was dead, then Pyrrha, Jaune, and Ruby would be granted a brief respite, and then the attack would begin again, in even greater strength, with Doctor Merlot shouting ever more frantically for his grimm and his robots to win, to crush and to destroy them, to stop the upload before it was completed.

They didn’t. They did not crush SAPR, they did not rip them apart, they did not destroy them. Rather, though it was not always an easy battle — and made all the harder by the need to protect Sunset where she was working, which restricted movement slightly — eventually, the last grimm and android fell, and Twilight’s voice proclaimed excitedly, “It worked! Professor Ozpin, the upload’s complete. Well done, Sunset!”

“Excellent work, all of you,” Professor Ozpin said. “Now, let me see … yes, this is everything I need. Students, we have the location of Merlot’s island, and reinforcements are en route to your location now. It’s over, Merlot; why don’t you surrender now and save us all the trouble of rooting you out?”

“Over, Oz? Pray, tell me what makes you think this is over?”

“Your secret’s out, soon your island will be crawling with huntsmen; your grimm and your androids can’t protect you now.”

Merlot chuckled. “Perhaps not. But there is one thing that I can still do … and that’s make sure your puny protégés don’t survive long enough to savour their victory!”

There was a rumbling beneath the earth, a rumbling that grew louder and louder, a rumbling that made the whole room shake and the four huntsmen with it, that made dust fall from the ceiling as the floor tiles began to crack.

“What is it?” Jaune asked.

“Nothing good,” Ruby hazarded a guess.

Pyrrha tried and failed to get an accurate bearing on where exactly the rumbling was coming from. “We should—”

A giant deathstalker, larger even than the one they had confronted during the initiation that seemed so long ago, erupted up from beneath the floor, throwing all four members of Team SAPR across the room as their footings dissolved along with the floor itself as the deathstalker pushed its way up into the chamber, shattering floor tiles and spraying dirt up into the air as it emerged into the server room. Its stinger glowed a bright fluorescent green, matching the markings on its bleached white armour. Another of Merlot’s mutants.

“Behold!” Merlot cried. “My greatest creation. Come closer, students, don’t be shy; you could learn a lot from this enhanced specimen. They won’t teach you about this back at Beacon. Nature couldn’t make a beast this deadly, so I did.”

The deathstalker clicked its pincers, bringing them together before slamming them down onto the ground hard enough to make the earth shake once again. Jaune was knocked onto his knees by the shockwave, and the glowing green stinger prepared to descend upon him.

“Jaune!” His name burst from Pyrrha’s mouth as she ran towards him, but the stinger was descending so fast, and she seemed to be moving so slowly.

Ruby trailed a garden’s worth of rose petals as she burst passed the stinger before it could completely descend, grabbing Jaune by the hood of his hoodie and dragging him behind her, wrenching him out of danger as the deathstalker flung its stinger into the ground so hard that it got stuck there.

Ruby and Pyrrha exchanged smiles as Ruby got Jaune out of danger and Pyrrha ran towards the danger.

Thank you, thought Pyrrha, and hoped that Ruby understood.

Any time. That, at least, was how Pyrrha interpreted Ruby’s response.

Pyrrha charged for the deathstalker while it was still trapped, wriggling and jerking like a fish on a line as it struggled to pull its own stinger free out of the dirt. Pyrrha wielded Miló in both hands as, with a leap that carried her forwards, she thrust the tip of her spear into the bulbous and brightly glowing stinger.

Green ooze leaked out all around the edges of the wound, and a shudder wracked through the deathstalker’s whole body. If it had had a voice, Pyrrha was sure that it would have been screaming.

The pain provided the impetus it needed to rip its tail free and Pyrrha — a little too slow drawing her spear out of the wound — with it as she was flung up by the sudden whip-like motion of the tail that tossed her all the way up to hit the ceiling of the server room above before she fell back down to the ground, landing on some half-ruined tiles with a thump.

The deathstalker turned cumbersomely towards her, clicking its pinchers as it rounded on her, seeming to glare at her with its unnaturally glowing green eyes.

Sunset charged with a yell, wielding Soteria in both hands as she hacked at a black leg that was taller than she was. Merlot was taunting them now, but Pyrrha couldn’t really make out the words — she wasn’t paying him much attention right now — as she focussed on Sunset pounding on the deathstalker’s leg with a blade as black as the limb she sought to hew off. There was something smug about the way that the deathstalker ignored her, as if it knew that Sunset and her sword could not do it harm and didn’t see the need to so much as do her the courtesy of a confrontation.

Jaune charged at it, his sword glowing golden as he concentrated his aura in the blade to lend it greater strength.

For Jaune, the deathstalker did turn, shifting its position a little and throwing out one pincer. Jaune’s strike was hasty and ill-aimed, made quickly as the grimm tried to bat him aside, and it only scored the white upper armour of the pincer before he was thrown backwards across the room and into the wall.

The deathstalker scuttled once again, until it was looming over Pyrrha.

“Catch!” Sunset shouted as she threw Pyrrha her rifle, with the bayonet extended all the way out into a kind of spear half again as long as Pyrrha’s Miló in spear form at least. Pyrrha caught the weapon, guiding it into her hands with her semblance, and held it raised upright in place as the stinger descended.

Straight onto the tip of Sunset’s bayonet.

The blow didn’t pop the stinger like she’s hoped, but it made more green ooze seep out of the bulbous weapon, and it made the deathstalker recoil, shaking its tail back and forth as though that would salve the pain.

“Did you know,” Merlot asked conversationally, “that certain porcupine faunus have the ability to fire spikes out of their hair. Isn’t that remarkable?”

He said this the very moment before the deathstalker fired a broad spread of white spikes that descended like a flight of arrows towards the ground and the huntsmen. Pyrrha ran, dodging out of the way of each white spike as it struck the ground behind and all around her. She glanced behind her to see Jaune taking cover behind his shield, Sunset raising a magical barrier, and Ruby running just as Pyrrha was, just much much faster. As the last quill fell, she reversed course and charged the deathstalker at full speed, her scythe slashing wildly as she scored its armour once, twice, three times before falling back.

The deathstalker began to turn her way.

Bursts of magic shot out of Sunset’s hand to slam, seemingly ineffectually, into the grimm’s armoured flank. “Pyrrha, help me get its attention,” Sunset shouted.

This would have been easier if I had any bullets left, Pyrrha thought as she charged for the deathstalker on the other side to Sunset, jabbing with Miló before twirling it, even as her whole body twirled to slash at one leg and barely mark it.

The deathstalker stopped, havering between which nuisance to round on first.

“Lancaster Spin, go for the stinger!” Sunset commanded.

A Lancaster spin? Does Jaune have enough aura for that?

“You got it,” Ruby said as she ran at Jaune, who barely separated his shield from his sword in time to catch Ruby on his shield as she touched it with both her legs, using it like a springboard as her legs began to glow with the light of Jaune’s stimulating semblance.

Ruby shot off like a rocket. She spun in mid-air, her scythe whirring around her.

She left a deep gash along the deathstalker’s stinger as she passed by it, but she did not sever it or destroy it. The grimm’s whole body trembled, it shook from side to side, and Pyrrha was absolutely and beyond all doubt certain that it would have been crying out in pain if it had the voice to do so.

Then it disappeared into the ground from whence it came, smashing the tiles beneath its weight and causing the earth above it to slough upwards as it moved, like a shark’s fin cutting through the water.

It was heading right to the point at which Ruby landed on the ground, and it didn’t give her time to catch her breath or bearings before it rose, pincers snapping. Ruby was fast enough to avoid the worst of it, dodging nimbly as ponderous claws tried to close around her, but she caught a glancing blow at the end which knocked her sideways.

Hordes of creeps rose up out of the hole in the ground the deathstalker had made, snapping and snarling as they came. Androids red and white stomped in through both entrances into the server room, directed by Merlot to back up his bleeding prize.

I have no choice, Pyrrha thought, as she used her semblance to rip the glaives out of the androids’ hands; yes, she was using it too much again, but in this situation, against these odds, how much choice did she really have?

She brought the glaives all slamming down into the deathstalker’s back, seeking out the gaps in its armour plates to drive the spears home. The grimm shuddered, clearly wounded, but it did not stop.

Nothing they did seemed to stop it. As Pyrrha was slashing and thrusting and kicking at the creeps come to its aid, the deathstalker simply trampled them down to try and get to her. Ruby grabbed the rotary cannon of a fallen white android that she had downed and emptied it onto the deathstalker, the rounds mostly bouncing off the armour but a few seeming to punch their way through with little expulsions of ooze along the way, but this didn’t stop it either. Jaune hacked off one of its legs, and its only response was to round on him with a blow that knocked him to the ground. Sunset threw herself over Jaune’s prone body, her back to the stinger as it descended, and as it descended, all the dust infused within the fabric of her jacket exploded in a monstrous inferno, and even that, though it clearly hurt the deathstalker, was not enough to stop it. Though it was bleeding, though its movements were becoming slower and more sluggish, though it was repeatedly getting its stinger stuck in the dirt and leaving itself vulnerable, it would not stop.

And in the meantime, their aura was running low. Ruby’s was the first to go, used up in so many bursts of speed that accomplished so much but left her so vulnerable in the end. Jaune stood guard over her, protecting her from any grimm or robot that ventured too far, but to be honest, if it hadn’t been for his monstrous aura reserves, he probably would have been out by now as well.

That left Pyrrha and Sunset trying to deal with the creeps coming out of the ground, trying to deal with the androids, and even when they had dealt with the creeps and the androids, still trying to deal with the deathstalker itself, with the beast which, though it might be wounded, did not bow. They were like ants trying to devour an elephant, and though such a thing might be possible with enough time, that time was something they did not possess. The stinger seemed to be its weakness — the stringer was its weakness — but it seemed as though however many times they injured it, it was never quite enough; it was bleeding so much by now, and yet, it refused to do so much as deflate.

And so Sunset and Pyrrha tried to keep it away from Jaune and Ruby, tried to keep doing damage, tried to keep nipping at it enough to wear it down … trying to keep weariness from making them slip up through sloppy tiredness.

That last was a struggle that Sunset was not quite equal to. Her breathing grew heavier, shallow gasping breaths leaping out of her mouth, her steps became stumbles, her limbs began to tremble, until she had practically fainted by the time the deathstalker grabbed her with one of its pincers, holding her fast, its stinger drawing back to strike her down.

And Pyrrha knew with absolute certainty that her aura would not be equal to the force about to descend upon it. And if her aura was not, then … then what chance had her armour or her bones?

Pyrrha leapt, a flying jump that carried the distance separating her from Sunset, that carried onto the giant deathstalker itself where she stood upon the bleached white pincer, balanced precariously, concentrating all of her remaining aura into her arms as she gripped Akoúo̱ in front of her in both hands.

The stinger slammed down into her shield with such force that it threatened to knock Pyrrha off the pincer and down onto the ground. Her arms shuddered; she felt her aura drop and wondered just how much she had left. Enough. Just enough. Just enough to take the stroke, then turn it aside before grabbing Soteria — she had discarded Miló for a moment as she leapt — out of Sunset’s unresisting hand and swinging it down upon the stinger with all the strength that remained to her.

Green goop spilled out to cover the black sword. For a moment, all else was stillness. Then the stinger began to shrivel like a popped balloon.

The deathstalker was motionless. Then it released Sunset from its grip; Pyrrha leapt off the quivering pincer as the grimm shuddered and writhed in silence, the only sound being the disturbance of the earth caused by its thrashing.

Sunset had hit the ground, but Pyrrha scooped her up in her arms and carried her away from the deathstalker as it settled onto its belly. It was clearly dead even before it started to dissolve.

Sunset, meanwhile, was unconscious, or nearly there; her eyes were half open, but they were listless and unresponsive. Pyrrha could feel her breath, but no other motion.

“And you thought I was overdoing it,” Pyrrha murmured. She bent down and kissed Sunset gently on the forehead. “It’s alright. Rest now. It’s all over; I’ve got you.”

“No!” Merlot yelled. “No, you … my precious? My one of a kind specimen? How? How could you?”

Pyrrha sighed. “Outstanding work, everyone.”

“It’s over, Merlot,” Ozpin said calmly. “You’ve got nothing left.”

Merlot growled. “That’s where you’re wrong, Oz! Your pathetic pupils might have won the battle, but I can still make sure that they don’t live to savour their victory! There is one last thing that I can do!”

Red lights began to blink in the room, and in the corridors on either side. Klaxons of alarm began to sound.

“Warning: self-destruct sequence initiated.”

“Team!” Ozpin shouted. “Merlot is going to blow up the lab!”

“We’d kinda noticed,” Jaune said.

“You need to get to the surface as quickly as you can. Move, now!”

“Yes, Professor,” Pyrrha said, even as she privately wondered if they could possibly get there in time.

Merlot’s image had disappeared from the monitors, but they could still hear his voice as he suddenly cried out, “You? No!”

---

The door slid open and brought Cinder face to face with Doctor Merlot.

“You?” he exclaimed. “No!”

“Doctor Merlot, I presume,” Cinder said, smirking as she strode forward, forcing the doctor to give ground before her through sheer force of her superior will. He cringed before her face like a petty thief before the constable. “Going somewhere?” she asked, casting a glance at the black case he was holding in his left hand. “To the submarine in the marina on the lowest level, perhaps? It beats going down with the ship, I suppose.” She’d suspected that a man like this would have an escape plan in case things went wrong — he’d escaped from Mountain Glenn, after all — and as it happened, she had been in need of an escape plan of her own, so she had made sure to scout for the route that Merlot planned to use so that she could use it herself when the time came.

All traces of Merlot’s smug, superior attitude had disappeared from his face. He was practically snivelling in fear. “I … I don’t—”

“Then you shouldn’t have meddled in affairs that were beyond your comprehension,” Cinder said flatly.

With one eye, she looked around. They stood in a vast control centre, dominated by screens showing almost every corridor and lab in the facility; all of those areas were now saturated in red from the warning lights, and the klaxons sounded the alert through the speakers as a sign of the imminent destruction of the facility.

Doubtless there was some means on the control panel that ran around the centre of the room, below the screens that took up the upper wall, to stop the detonation, but why would Cinder want to do a thing like that? She had no use for any of the research here, and she didn’t particularly want any of it falling into the hands of her enemies either. Destruction was the best thing for this place, provided that Merlot was destroyed along with it.

Merlot’s face twisted from a snivel to a snarl as he reached into his jacket with his free right hand and pulled out a silver hand cannon.

Cinder didn’t bother to restrain herself from rolling her eyes as she blocked the first two shots and then twisted the gun out of his hand and emptied the remainder of the magazine into his chest. It knocked him onto his back, but she had to admit that she was a little impressed that his aura didn’t break under the attack. Mind you, if he had much more to give after that, then she was very much mistaken.

“I’ve never really liked guns,” Cinder said as she examined the empty pistol theatrically. She wasn’t lying. Something about them just didn’t appeal to her and never had. Even when she was a little girl, she had preferred the sword and the bow to the more modern weapons that had partially replaced them. “So uncivilised.”

You have risen in my estimations, Pyrrha, but, all the same, you should really be ashamed of that rifle of yours.

After all this time and all that I’ve become, I’m still a romantic. “And yet,” Cinder continued, “there is a certain brutal efficiency about them, isn’t there?” She threw his gun away.

Merlot looked like a cornered fox as he picked himself up off the floor and crouched down before her, looking up with his red eye gleaming. Cinder, who wasn’t intimidated in the least bit by a mere antiquated cybernetic augment, stared straight back at him.

She briefly allowed the Fall Maiden’s corona to blaze around her orb.

Merlot’s organic eye widened. “What … what are you people?”

“I am Nemesis,” Cinder declared. “I am one who dwells in Haruiro no Mori. I am your Kindly One. I am sent to punish the whole world for its arrogant transgressions, and I’ve decided to start with you.”

Merlot stared at her, as though he wasn’t sure how serious she was. Then he rose to his feet with a growl and took a swing at her with his cybernetic arm.

Cinder caught the blow one-handed, holding it in place with no apparent effort. Apparently, Merlot had once trained as a huntsman, but his skills had obviously grown very rusty over his years of isolation because his punch was telegraphed, basic, and all the strength seemed to be coming from the cybernetics. Cinder held him by the wrist, gripping it like a vice as Merlot struggled to break free, and gradually, she turned up the heat.

She enjoyed the look of awed amazement on Merlot’s face as her hand began to glow red hot, then white hot, burning up his aura and torturing the metal beneath. He became desperate, frantic in his efforts to break free, but Cinder, stronger than him even without the strength of half a maiden at her command, would not let him go, not until his arm shattered and Cinder flung him back across the room with a gust of air, shattering his aura and several of the screens behind him.

Cinder left him there, his aura broken, his wind stolen, his forehead bleeding; she left him there moaning in pain as she walked over the screens directly above the control panel. She could see all the red lights flashing as the countdown to the destruction of the facility drew nearer, and she could see…

She could see Team SAPR trying to get out in time.

Would they make it? Ruby was moving a little slower than usual, and Sunset … Sunset was out of it, being carried in Pyrrha’s arms like a babe, her head thrown back and her hair drooping down towards the floor.

“How long?” Cinder demanded.

“What?”

“How long until the destruction begins?” Cinder yelled at him.

Merlot looked up from the floor, comprehending at once. “Not long enough for them. They’ve come too far, and the destruct sequence has disabled the elevators.”

Cinder stared at the screens, both eyes widening. Soon SAPR would realise that for themselves. Were there stairs? There were the air ducts she had used to sneak around, but could they carry Sunset that way?

No, there was no way they would have time for that.

You can’t save me, Sunset; but I’ll save you.

Cinder rounded on Merlot. “Stop it.”

“Stop what?”

Cinder strode over to him, grabbing him by the collar and hauling him upright. “Stop the self-destruct sequence, and I won’t kill you.”

Merlot stared at her. “Why should I believe you?”

A glass sword appeared in Cinder’s free hand. “You don’t have a lot of options, Doctor.”

“Alright, alright,” Doctor Merlot said, raising his organic hand in a gesture of surrender. “I’ll do it, I’ll do it right away, just please don’t kill me.”

Cinder released him, and took a step back.

Merlot let out a sigh of relief. “I only ever—”

“Just get on with it,” Cinder said, gesturing imperiously towards the control panel.

She had to admit that she didn’t know what he was doing as he scurried to the controls. He might have been doing something to betray her. But she doubted it. The man didn’t have the nerve with her standing right there.

And besides, if he did try anything, she was more than capable of responding in kind.

The klaxons ceased, the red lights all went off. Merlot turned to face her. “There, I—”

Cinder raised one hand to silence him. She looked at the monitors. Pyrrha’s face was very clearly visible to her, mouth open in an O of surprise.

Cinder smiled in spite of herself. “You didn’t think that I’d let you die in this place, did you, Pyrrha? You deserve better than to perish in this place, at this man’s hands.” She paused. “Get Sunset out of here. Take care of her.”

“Of course,” Pyrrha said. “And then?”

“And then…” Cinder trailed off briefly. “And then we will see each other again, some day, soon or late.”

“And on that day, I will show you that you are mistaken regarding the extent of your power,” Pyrrha declared.

“Oho!” Cinder laughed. “Will you now?”

“A child with that power could not defeat me,” Pyrrha said, “and neither will you.”

Cinder looked down at the controls before her for a moment, smiling for all that she knew Pyrrha couldn’t see it. “Focus on Sunset for now, get her out. All the grimm have been released from containment, and there are still androids active in the facility. Take care.”

“Thank you for the warning,” Pyrrha said. “And … for everything else.”

“Thank you,” Cinder said, “and thank Sunset for me; this has been … this has been more than I dreamed it could be. And so, in token of my gratitude, allow me to give you a piece of advice. There’s a tempest coming, Pyrrha, and when it breaks, much will fall or be swept aside. Be ready for that moment when it comes; this isn’t over yet.”

“No,” Pyrrha murmured. “No, I suppose it is not.”

“Farewell, both of you,” Cinder said. “Bon chance.”

She turned to face Merlot again, smiling. “Now.” She clicked her fingers. “Come on in, boys; thank you for your patience.”

Merlot’s one organic eye widened. “Who are you—?”

He was answered by a growl, and a snarl, and a low snuffling sound as a trio of beowolves — ordinary, unenhanced, unaltered beowolves — walked in, their bodies hunched, their clawed paws low to the ground.

“While you were distracted by Team Sapphire, I was able to free a few of the grimm whom you hadn’t gotten around to corrupting yet,” Cinder said. “As you can imagine, they aren’t too happy with you.” She reached out and stroked the black fur of the nearest beowolf, scratching it behind the ears, for all the oily sensation that it left against her skin. “I’m actually impressed that they held back for so long. He’s all yours.”

“Wait!” Merlot cried. “Wait, you promised that you’d let me live.”

“Actually, I said I wouldn’t kill you,” Cinder reminded him. “And I won’t. They will.”

Merlot whimpered.

Cinder chuckled. “We are such stuff as dreams are made on, Doctor, and our little lives are rounded with a sleep.”

She turned away, strutting out of the room without a backwards glance, leaving the beowolves to it.

“No!” Merlot cried. “No, please, you can’t j-aaaargh!”

The high table sits only two, Doctor, and they do not share power.

---

Neither grimm nor androids tried to hinder Team SAPR on their way out of the facility.

Unfortunately, that was because they were all waiting for them outside. SAPR emerged from out of the lab, running through the ruined doors that Pyrrha had smashed open with her semblance, to find a great host of Merlot’s creations, mutated grimm and androids both, standing in a horseshoe formation around the doors, filling up the valley that led to the laboratory mouth. They growled, they roared, they rose up on their hind legs and beat their chests where they had chests — or hind legs, for that matter. Beowolves, ursai, creeps, androids red and white alike, they all surrounded Team SAPR in numbers greater than they had seen in one place since arriving at Merlot’s island.

And Sunset was out of it, and the others were so drained.

Somehow, I doubt that Cinder is going to save us now.

Nevertheless, Pyrrha put down Sunset on the ground and stepped over her protectively like a mother bear as she held her shield before her and her spear ready to strike.

The three of them stood shoulder to shoulder, shields out where they had one and weapons pointing warily out towards the grimm. As they had all run out of dust and ammunition, all that they could do was wait for the grimm to make the first move.

Dawn began to break over the horizon, the soft light of the new day creeping into the valley.

A large mutated ursa, green and covered with bony protrusions that marked it as well on the way to becoming a major, took a lumbering step forward.

There was a buzzing sound as the ground all around the ursa exploded in a shower of bullets that tore it to shreds, along with the beowolves unlucky enough to be closest to it.

“Woohoo!” a familiar voice whooped with glee as an Atlesian airship with a custom blue paint job soared out of the rising sun and over the valley, banking hard to the left as it circled back around towards them.

“Is that … Rainbow Dash?” Ruby asked.

“Saving your butts since first semester, you’d better believe it,” Rainbow crowed as she flew overhead again, loosing missiles from beneath her wings to eviscerate a group of mutated boarbatusks. The rear hatch at the back of her aircraft was down, and from it leapt a pair of figures to land gracefully on their feet hard beside SAPR. One of them was Ciel Soleil, carrying her massive anti-armour rifle, who greeted the Beacon huntsmen with a professional nod before turning to face the grimm, immediately blowing the head off an alpha beowolf. The other was—

“Penny?” Ruby exclaimed as Penny landed beside her.

“It’s so great to see you again! I missed you so much! I’ve got so much to tell you all, I can’t wait—”

The grimm roared.

“But perhaps I should,” Penny added.

“That’s … probably a good idea,” Ruby said.

“Team Sapphire, Rosepetal elements, this is the Atlesian warship Resolution. We are commencing close air support now; do not move from your current position.”

An Atlesian warship hoved into view moments after their message passed through the earpieces of the huntsmen, the long, arrow-like prow of the sky cruiser momentarily blocking out the sun as it rose above the rocks, cannons blazing and missiles streaking from their ports up and down the hull to rain down death upon the grimm and Merlot’s androids both alike. The cruiser was accompanied and escorted by several bullheads bearing the double-headed axe of Beacon academy, and as the main compartments of the bullheads opened more, Teams YRBN — including Blake — WWSR, and TTSS leapt down to join them.

“‘Sup, Rubes,” Yang said.

“Yang?” Ruby said. “Blake?”

“I was there when this started,” Blake said. “I didn’t want to miss the ending.”

“And it’s never boring when you’re around,” Yang said. “So what’s going on?”

“The experiments and stuff, Merlot,” Ruby said. “That’s all over. It’s done … these guys just don’t realise it yet.”

“So we just have to beat it into them?”

“Something like that.”

“Cool,” Yang said. She grinned, and pounded her fists together. “So what are we waiting for? Let’s kick some ass.”

Needless to say, the grimm didn’t stand a chance.

---

In the library of Portchester Manor, Cinder knelt on one knee.

The Seer hovered above her head, its tentacles raised, not to strike, but in such a manner that they could strike, at any point, if the mood should strike Salem first.

Her mistress’ face was framed within the glass-like sphere, staring down at her with those eyes of blood and darkness.

“So,” Salem said, her voice issuing out of the Seer, “you disobeyed your instructions.”

“No, Mistress,” Cinder said, keeping her voice calm.

There was a moment of silence. “'No'?” Salem asked. “That is not how Tempest tells it, is it, Tempest?”

Tempest was not standing this time; she was knelt at Cinder’s side. That was already too much for Cinder’s liking, but at least she wasn’t standing on this occasion.

“Indeed, Mistress,” Tempest murmured. “I instructed—”

“Mistress, after I so foolishly disappointed you, you instructed me to work with Tempest Shadow, not for Tempest Shadow. If you intended to subordinate me wholly to … her, then you should have been clearer in your instructions.”

“So this is my fault?” Salem asked, her voice growing talons.

“Of course not, Mistress,” Cinder said. “I don’t see that this is anyone’s fault at all.”

“I gave you explicit instructions—”

“Which we have not yet established you have the authority to give me,” Cinder snapped.

“You agreed to carry out my instructions!” Tempest squawked indignantly.

“Enough,” Salem said, softly, yet sharply enough to silence the both of them. “Both of you will explain to me exactly what happened.”

Cinder glanced at Tempest. “After you.”

Tempest was silent for a second. “I … following your instructions to investigate the disappearances of the grimm; I instructed Emerald to undertake the investigation. Cinder decided to disobey me and undertake the task herself.”

“Because your instructions were idiotic and would have served only to get Emerald killed,” Cinder said. “You sought to weaken me by depriving me of a loyal and valuable servant.”

“Is that true, Tempest?” Salem asked.

Tempest said nothing.

“Tempest?” Salem repeated. “I await your answer.”

“That was … not my intent,” Tempest murmured.

“Then why did you propose to send Emerald alone?” Cinder demanded.

Tempest licked her lips. “The preservation of our forces for our main effort, here in Vale,” she said. “Is not our priority to obtain the Relic?”

“Of course,” Salem said. “But what was the point in sending someone who might die without accomplishing anything?”

“So Cinder was right to go instead?” Tempest asked.

“I did not say that,” Salem replied softly. “But the next time I give you instructions, I expect them to be carried out efficiently; I will not tolerate my desires to be put at risk by your ambition, any more than by Cinder’s vanity. Do I make myself clear?”

“Perfectly clear, Mistress,” Tempest muttered.

“Good,” Salem said. “Then lower your aura.”

“Mistress—”

“Lower your aura,” Salem said.

Tempest closed her eyes, and an opal light rippled across her body.

One of the Seer’s tentacles lashed out, driving its bony tip into Tempest’s shoulder, making her cry out in pain. The tentacle twisted, digging this way and that, making Tempest wince in agony, falling to both knees, her fists slamming onto the ground.

“You’ve done very well up until now,” Salem said. “Don’t disappoint me again.”

The Seer’s tentacle came away with blood upon the tip, but Tempest affected not to notice. “Never, Majesty.”

“Now, Cinder,” Salem went on. “Explain to me why you felt it was necessary to risk yourself and your precious burden by investigating the interference with the grimm alone?”

Cinder said nothing for a moment, collecting her thoughts. “I judged that my precious burden made me the most suitable to carry out this task. Events proved me right in that regard. No one who did not have the Fall Maiden’s power could have possibly withstood the grimm under Mountain Glenn.”

“I see,” Salem said, her tone even and hard to read. “And in the course of your investigation, you joined forces with Ozpin’s agents?”

“I did,” Cinder said, keeping her own voice even in turn. “It seemed preferable to opposing one another or tripping over one another in the pursuit of similar goals.”

“You didn’t think that dealing with them might be more important than dealing with the grimm problem?” Tempest asked, grunting through the pain.

“I thought that Ozpin’s agents were of no consequence?” Cinder responded.

“I’m beginning to suspect that you’re being deliberately insolent, Cinder,” Salem said.

Cinder inhaled deeply through her nostrils. “Mistress, you spurned me but a brief while ago. You demeaned me, you humiliated me, cast scorn upon my pride and made mock of my native dignity, you lowered me to the level of this … this.” She gestured towards Tempest. “If you expect, after that, that I should bend low and, in a bondsman’s key, ask Tempest Shadow how I might serve her best, then you have forgotten who I am. Tempest is fortunate that disobedience is all that she has suffered; the last woman who tried to give me commands burnt alive.”

That, at least, is what I would like to say.

“I … did what I thought was best,” Cinder said. “I meant no insolence to you by it. My only thought was how I might best serve your interests. I was confident that—”

“You have been confident before,” Tempest pointed out.

“Well, this time, my confidence was proven right,” Cinder snapped.

“So it would seem,” Salem said. “However, I am not convinced that your actions were motivated by nothing more than the selfless desire to serve me best.”

“What other motive could I have, Mistress?” Cinder asked.

Salem’s eyes narrowed, and pain spasmed up and down Cinder’s back, pain making her convulse, pain making her collapse onto her side on the floor, pain like a thousand needles stabbing into her spine.

“I should rack you with cramps,” Salem said. “Do you think I do not see through you? Do you think I do not understand what you are? I made you. I have given you everything; do you think I do not understand why you act as you do? You have both behaved selfishly and shortsightedly, with more regard for your wants and desires than for my goals. Tempest, in this instance, I am particularly disappointed in you, since you had seemed to be more … reliable in that regard.”

“My most humble apologies, Mistress.”

“But you, Cinder … it must be admitted that you got the job done. This impudent scientist is dead, and his experiments with him. However, the means by which you accomplished this: allying with Ozpin’s agents, revealing your powers to them … some would have killed you once they found out what you were.”

“Pyrrha Nikos is too noble for that,” Cinder said. And Sunset is much too kind. She did not mention that Ruby Rose had wanted to do exactly as Salem feared.

“So it would seem, since you are still alive,” Salem said. “They are weak reeds that Ozpin relies on.”

Compassion is weakness? Yes, it was, of course it was; it doomed one to be taken advantage of by the unscrupulous, the wicked; her father had been compassionate, and look what happened to him.

But, at the same time, there was something … something about it that was … beautiful.

“You performed well, Cinder,” Salem said, and the Seer reached out a tentacle to stroke her cheek softly, in a manner that was almost tender. “This time. And you are correct, I set you to work with Tempest Shadow, not for her. But, in future, I will not look so kindly upon future displays of recklessness. You carry a great gift, a gift upon which hinges all of my plans for Beacon. You must, you must, look after it.

“After all, you are indispensable to me.”

---

The night was dark, and it seemed darker still in Professor Ozpin’s office as Pyrrha and Sunset stood before the headmaster’s desk, if that was truly possible. Above their heads, the gears of the great clock ground away, grumbling and clanking as the enormous cogs ground against one another; the windows were opaque and emerald now, casting the large tower room in a soft and slightly forbidding green glow. There was little light even from the headmaster’s own desk; Professor Ozpin was half invisible to them, even as he leaned forward with his hands clasped together in front of him, so that they obscured the lower half of his face.

“As glad as I am to see you safely returned and your mission complete,” Professor Ozpin said, “I hope you understand why I say that I wish you had not decided to make a temporary alliance with Miss Fall, especially once she turned out to be … the Fall Maiden.”

“I understand, Professor,” Sunset said, although her tone was not particularly understanding — to Pyrrha’s ears, at least — as she said it, “but if I’d brought any of my team home in a body bag, then I think your disapproval might be a little more muted. We only made it out of Mountain Glenn in one piece because of her. Not to mention Merlot’s headquarters.”

“That is as much your interpretation, Miss Shimmer, as it is mine that a confrontation with Miss Fall there and then might have yielded results most beneficial,” Professor Ozpin replied. “As things stand, you have allowed an enemy far more dangerous than Merlot go free to continue to work mischief. And I cannot help but wonder how many will suffer because of it.”

Sunset scowled. “I made the best decision that I could for the team at the time that I made it,” she said firmly. “In the same circumstances, I’d make the same decision again.”

Professor Ozpin looked at her. The light glinted off his glasses. “Best for the team?”

“My highest priority, Professor,” Sunset said.

“And that is all there is to it?” Professor Ozpin asked.

Sunset shuffled uncomfortably in place. She had her hands clasped behind her back, but her shoulders wriggled up and down a little. “I … I feel as though I almost got through to her, Professor. I’m not sure, but I think she might—”

“Might what?” Professor Ozpin asked. “Turn? Renounce her past misdeeds? Step into the light?”

Sunset pursed her lips together. “Something like that.”

“An admirable sentiment, in some ways, but rather naïve, I fear,” Professor Ozpin said. “Miss Fall has made her choice, and all that we can do now is … seek to limit the damage that she may do.”

“Yes, Professor,” Sunset said, but if she actually believed that, then Pyrrha would be surprised. “Is there anything else?”

“No, Miss Shimmer, that will be all,” Professor Ozpin said. He paused. “I am glad to see that you all made it back in one piece.”

“Thank you, Professor.”

“Professor Ozpin,” Pyrrha said, “if I may?”

“Something on your mind, Miss Nikos?”

Pyrrha looked down at her hands, clasped together in front of her. “The power of the Maidens … it’s incredible.”

Even in the dim light, Professor Ozpin looked very weary. “It is indeed, Miss Nikos, a great and terrible power to witness, and even more so, I would imagine, to possess.”

“But they were defeated, in the past?” Pyrrha asked. “Our forerunners, our predecessors in this organisation, they brought them down in the days of old.”

“Yes, Miss Nikos, they did,” Professor Ozpin said. “They brought down those called the Red Queens and enabled the powers of the Maidens to be hidden away, kept safe and secret, for generations to come.”

“Then how did the Fall Maiden come to die?” Pyrrha asked, before she could stop herself.

Professor Ozpin did not reply. He looked down, the light glinted off his glasses, hiding his eyes from her view.

“Mistakes were made,” he said softly. “You will forgive me if I do not wish to share details.”

“Of course, Professor,” Pyrrha said. “I’m sorry to pry, I apologise for the intrusion. I simply … I’m sorry.”

“Quite understandable, Miss Nikos,” Professor Ozpin replied. “Is that all?”

Pyrrha hesitated for a moment. “If the Maidens could be beaten before, then they can be beaten again. I admit that Cinder’s power was frightening to behold, but we are not less valiant than our predecessors were, or at least I hope that it is so, and we are, again, I hope and I believe, no less skilled. Again, I say that what was accomplished once can be so again. Please, Professor, rely on us.”

Professor Ozpin looked at her. “You are much changed, Miss Nikos.”

“For the better, I hope, Professor,” Pyrrha said. “I would rather find reason to hope than to wallow in hopeless despair.”

Professor Ozpin smiled for a moment, but then his mouth drooped downwards, as though his words displeased her. “Indeed, Miss Nikos,” he said, despite his look. “As you say, there is cause for hope.” He paused. “Not least in the example that you both set, having faced despair and overcome it. Though I may not have always approved of the methods that you used to do so, nevertheless, I am glad, very glad, to see you both renewed. Especially since…”

“Professor?” Sunset asked.

“I am afraid that I must ask more of you,” Professor Ozpin said. “The hour grows late, so we will not discuss it further, but I ask that you return here, tomorrow, at … shall we say two o’clock? There are some important matters to discuss with you.”

“Of course, Professor,” Pyrrha said. “But—”

“Tomorrow,” Professor Ozpin told her. “Get some rest, Miss Nikos, Miss Shimmer. It is the least that you deserve after such exertions. Tomorrow … tomorrow will come soon enough.”

They turned to go, walking into the elevator and turning to face the door.

As it closed, but before it did so, Pyrrha got one last glimpse of Professor Ozpin, his face grave, turning away from them and getting up to walk to the great windows from which he could see out across all of Vale.

All of Vale that was his charge to defend.

“What do you think he wishes to discuss tomorrow?” Pyrrha asked as the elevator began its descent.

“I have no idea,” Sunset admitted. “Can I ask you something?”

“Anything.”

“Do you believe what you said?” asked Sunset. “That we can beat Cinder, in spite of her powers?”

“I would not have said it if I did not believe it so,” Pyrrha said. “It has been done before.”

“Yes,” Sunset admitted. “Yes, it has. I…”

“Sunset?”

“I would rather we did not have to fight her.”

Pyrrha said nothing. What would be the point of saying anything; Sunset knew well enough how unlikely that was, what good in reiterating the point?

“Professor Ozpin was right, you know,” Sunset said. “You have gotten your confidence back.”

“And you have come some distance from … where you were after the Breach,” Pyrrha pointed out. “These weeks have been good for both of us.”

“Running away with Trixie and Starlight and seeking out Cinder, respectively, have been good for both of us,” Sunset replied, a slight smile upon her face. “We’re going to be alright, aren’t we? Whatever Professor Ozpin has to say to us tomorrow, whatever comes next, we’ll be alright.”

“Indeed,” Pyrrha said. “Indeed. It may be, as Cinder said, that there is a storm coming, and it may be a fierce one, but whatever the obstacles arrayed against us, we will overcome them.

“As we always have.”

Author's Note:

Rewrite Notes: The biggest change that sticks out to me is the scene between Salem and Cinder at the end; whereas in the original, Salem punished Cinder for failing to eliminate Team SAPR, here Cinder manages to palm off at least some of the blame for the situation onto Tempest and her orders, and ends up gaining some ground back on her rival in the process.

With this arc concluded I'll be taking a couple of weeks break before resuming on Monday 6th March.

Comments

[JMP]

Marathon chapter here, wow. The cavalry arriving is always a fun scene, and I really liked both Salem and Ozpin disapproving of the temporary alliance and Cinder and Sunset's attempts to get through to each other. Made for a very nice comparison.

[Mastermind4892]

Long ago, the King of the Vale foresaw humanity's need for warriors unlike any others. Heroes who could face the otherwise unbearable horrors clawing at our walls. Who, on the day of certain defeat, would be victorious. You Sunset, and all of Team SAPR, are those heroes.

And while Cinder (now touched by uncertainty) may have escaped for when we will face her again, it is as Ozpin said: Tomorrow. But tonight, we celebrate! Celebrate and meditate over what we have accomplished! Dr. Merlot, the architect of the tragedy of Mt. Glenn, sought one perfect end, where he would be the master of the world. But now his schemes are no more, never to plague Remnant again. His machines in ruins, his mutants destroyed and his life ended in a manner far more merciful than any of his test subjects. No more kidnappings, no more experiments and above all, no more intelligent mutant Grimm. The tortured souls of hundreds of Faunus may now finally rest.

Huntresses and Equestrians are paracausal. Huntresses and Equestrians can make their own fate. Team SAPR, your actions of tonight will never be forgotten. Powers that the people of both Remnant and Equestria never knew existed but would think unconquerable have fallen before the strength and magic of Friendship like yours. Why? Because we have faced such great odds, we have faced such great foes and we KNOW we will face them again. And when they do, we will, as always, stand shoulder-to-shoulder. Strong united, wielding the power of Silver Eyes, weapons of Dust and great magic beyond imagination, and we will be triumphant!

The black edge approaches. But we will stand immovable as night falls. We will be the light at the end of the universe, shining like a Beacon of hope, and this light will Never. Go. Out.

[DarthRevan]

Confirmation that what Cinder is feeling is love. That's quite the bittersweet reveal.

[lordelliott]

I think Oz ought to know what Sunset is about by now, and that trying to sway her opinion on the matter is a fool's errand.

9748401
You remind me of Churchill or something. Nice speech.

9748764
I think in this context Salem means all affection and kindness, including the love of friendship.

[Mastermind4892]

9749017
That's quite a praising compliment to be compared to such a famous speaker, thank you very much!

9749527
Ozpin cares very deeply for all those who both serve and fight alongside him. So after what she did to Amber, ripping out half of her magic and leaving her on life support, Ozpin will find it extremely difficult to trust Cinder.

And after what she almost did to Twilight, both General Ironwood and the Humane 6 will agree.

[211]

Ah, poor, deluded Merlot. Ultimately, he's wrong. His Grimm are not perfect, by any definition. They require him to create them, since they do not reproduce and thus can't pass on the traits he imbues them with. And he's not immortal, meaning that when he dies, the mutant line dies with him. And no "perfect" species relies so heavily on another for its continued existence.

And as for Cinder, do I want to see her redeemed? Maybe. She has done and will do terrible things, but perhaps a change of heart and atonement are possible. Do I think she will? Maybe in a Darth Vader, redemption equals death, Maiden powers get bestowed on Sunset kind of way. After all, this is a MLP crossover, and friendship is magic.

[Pinklestia]

Ozpin is a hypocrite, he doesn't want to give second chances yet didn't sent people after Raven when she ran away. How hard is to set a reward for someone head with all the power he has?

[ForSpite]

9736679
I'd think robots supplementing Hunters could do a lot of good. Merlot just got too ambitious.

[Garuda IV]

One of them was Ciel Soleil, carrying her massive anti-tank rifle

i.imgur.com/WtE6rv6.png

[Fregith]

9749062

Yeah, after this chapter I think it's pretty likely either Sunset's going to flip Cinder, or else Cinder will sacrifice herself to save Sunset and in so doing, pass on the mantle of Autumn to her.

[Secundum]

Sunset x Cinder confirmed! =D

Or it's just platonic love. But meh.

Also Ozpin, you might want to be rethinking your Fall Maiden choice right about now...

[jardex22]

9751157
If it's the same as canon, then Cinder doesn't possess the full Fall Maiden power yet. If she died at this point, the power probably wouldn't follow the usual pattern.

Didn't a previous chapter also mention that that the Maiden's power was split between the 4 regions, with each one getting a maiden. Since Sunset isn't from Remnant, is she even eligible for that kind of power?

[LegionCenturionMaster]

9751625

To who, Sunset? Agreed.

[The Scarlett Mare]

Cinder ran him through the gut with his glass sword.

Thank you darling, much love

[LIl]

The famous knife that no longer exists in the rewrite.
I don't know if I should stop waiting for all the rewriting or continue as if nothing happened.
Will the rewrites make a massive change in history? Because I don't really want to read it all again after all.

[Scipio Smith]

10843654
You should stop. You should have stopped some time ago, but you should definitely stop now or you'll be even more confused than you are at the moment.

[Mastermind4892]

Another marvelous rewrite, Scipio! A lovely refinement of the culmination of the Merlot arc, and now it Carrie’s more meaning than ever!

I don’t think that Ruby is blind enough to not notice how their sworn enemy deliberately acted to save their lives. It will not change the mission one bit, but I bet it still surprised Ruby and made her think.

Nevertheless, Team SAPR’s legend multiples once again! They will be the talk of Beacon and all the other academies, and even the Council! Facing down Mt. Glenn again, tracking down Merlot, putting a stop to his mad creations, and finally bringing Justice to all those kidnapped Faunus and those who died at Mt. Glenn. A clean and sound victory of SAPR, one where credit and accolades are well deserved!

Till next time, my friends!

[Lancerguy]

11508991
Well, "classified" is a thing and I doubt most of SAPR will wish to be running around telling everyone how they won with the help of Cinder, as that won't raise any questions they won't be able to answer

Also, given Oz's popularity with the council, the only noise they will be raising is over the international incident he caused by almost getting four freshmen killed

[Kiue Jin]

11509213
'Classified' also can be limited to certain parts of the report. All the official public side of things needs to hear is that Merlot was a mad man who was performing abhorrent genetic experiment on Faunus that had been abducted over a period of decades and a history of monstrous experiments with Grimm that dated back to (and assisted in the destruction of) Mt. Glenn. The fact that Merlot's corpse is going to be located torn apart by beowolves adds to the story in that some of his grimm test subjects broke containment and ended the bastard's life.

The details of said experimentation will certainly be kept classified. While the official reason would of cause be security reasons, I feel like a great way to get the public not to ask further would be to have someone popular (Either Sunset or Pyrrha) do an interview and when the question of what exactly the experiments were comes up, allowing a harrowing look to appear on their face and answering completely honestly "You don't want to know the details. What Merlot was doing was monstrous in how sick and twisted it was and the memory of what we witnessed there will stay with me until the day I die. The only value in what documents and records the bastard kept is to try and piece together his list of victims over the years so that any remaining friends and relatives might have the peace of mind of knowing that their loved one are dead for certain."

[Mindscape]

“Indeed,” Pyrrha said. “Indeed. It may be, as Cinder said, that there is a storm coming, and it may be a fierce one, but whatever the obstacles arrayed against us, we will overcome them.

Oh Pyrrha, Cinder didn't say a storm was coming, she said a Tempest was coming
Gotta pay better attention to the wording there for extra hints.

[Snowdrifter]

9794281
Sunset is likely as eligible as anyone for a Maidens power.

Region doesn't seem to be a factor, and we have no evidence that it ever was.

Then again, travel in Remnant has always been dangerous. Maidens in one region likely didn't travel far, and their successor needs to be known to them in some manner.

On the other hoof, canon RWBY shows us that when the moment comes, there's no such thing as distance when the transfer is voluntary.

[AdverseFlower95]

I liked how you made Merlot’s death more ironic. Him being ripped apart by Grimm is great and the fact that they did so at Cinder’s discretion was icing on the cake.

[Stet709]

I love the parallel of the two sides. Both sides get lauded for their successes, but with some disapproval on execution; with Sunset it's agreeing to work with Cinder, and with Cinder it's revealing her powers.