AN: First off, I own absolutely none of these characters except for my OCs. All rights to RWBY belong to Rooster Teeth and Monty Oum.

Secondly, this story was written up out of a sudden burst of inspiration following the release of Volume 3, Episode 9 and is strictly non-canon. That being said, I will do what I can to work elements of canon RWBY into this fic where possible.

Now then, without further ado, I present chapter 1 of Fall, Rise, Fall. Enjoy.

"So I ask you: When the first shots are fired… who do you think you can trust?"

…

"Alert. Incoming Grimm attack. Threat Level: Nine. Please seek shelter in a calm and orderly manner"

…

"Get to the city!"

"But-"

"NOW!"

…

"Blue Two, what's your status? Blue Two, come in! Someone answer me, dammit!"

…

"We're hit! What's going-"

…

"Bring them to their knees!"

…

Cinder Fall

Chaos. Absolute chaos. That's what all this would look like to just about anyone with a half-decent head on their shoulders. To one Cinder Fall, however, this was a plan finally coming together. A plan that had been years in the making.

Preparation. The key to any good plan. And there was always so much to prepare for. Finding the location of the rest of the power, months of dust robberies, infiltrating a school that taught teenagers to kill monsters, gathering data on all the competitors and threats, all vital to ensuring the plan's success.

There were setbacks, and there were gains. Roman's… failure with the breach was most certainly a setback, but when you've been in the profession of lies and deceit for most of your life, you tend to see good even in the bad. Roman's imprisonment certainly didn't hamper the plan, and his new home away from home aboard an Atlesian ship's brig certainly provided a well of new opportunities. Send Neo to break Roman out, give him control of the ship, and leave him to do what he does best. A simple modification to an already flexible plan, yet simple had its benefits.

The discovery of a certain android was most certainly a gain, and one that made her plan even easier than she could have hoped for. Rig the matches, pit the girl that could manipulate metal against the android girl with floating swords held by razor wires, have Emerald use her semblance on the former to trick her into eviscerating the latter, deliver a well-practiced speech that would spark an invasion the likes of which had never been seen before.

Simple, simpler, yet still simpler. Honestly, it was as if some unseen god really wanted to see the world suffer.

'Well, he'll certainly get a show.', Cinder thought to herself as she made her way out of the bullhead and stepped onto Beacon's soil.

The ground had been littered with bodies. Most of them were Grimm that found themselves on the business end of the weapons of Beacon's finest. Most of those bodies were already decaying. Accompanying those were the unmoving forms of several White Fang and a handful of unlucky Beacon students.

She kept up her casual stroll as she walked through Beacon's central plaza, the sounds of gunfire and distant explosions being nothing but white noise to her. Emerald and Mercury were already waiting for her.

"Took you long enough." Mercury took on a small grin as he and Emerald began to fall into step with their leader.

"I could've sworn I'd killed at least twe-"His sentence was cut short when Emerald gave him a hard whack to the side of the head.

"Cut the crap. You were lounging around on a bench while I kept any strays off of us." Emerald's face took on an exasperated expression, though it became decidedly less so when she noticed Cinder looking in their direction.

"Oh come on, Em! You know that-"Mercury was cut short again as Cinder spoke up.

"Now isn't the time for your usual banter. Focus." Cinder's voice still had that sultry tone it always carried, though they both could detect the faintest hint of exasperation in her voice.

"Yes ma'am." Emerald replied dutifully.

"Alright, alright." Mercury replied with a sigh.

"Good. Now then, it's time for the last phase of our plan." Cinder couldn't wait for this part. The practiced patience she had developed over a long career was starting to wear thin. It had taken her months to find the location of the maiden after their encounter at the roadside. It had taken an even longer time to set the plan in motion. Preparation was key to any plan, but it was always the most tedious part.

In the meanwhile, her every waking moment was a struggle against the gnawing emptiness she felt from the power. She had called it a hunger, and she meant it in every sense of the word. She may have claimed she liked it to him, but there was no comfort in knowing that she was giving such a painfully obvious lie, even with her experience in giving the most blatant falsehoods with utmost sincerity. Perhaps it was the nature of the man himself, what he could do to her if she ever forgot her place. Maybe it was because she was almost certain that he could see right through it.

'Or maybe it was because that damn power would finally allow me to bring him down, and I only managed to gain a fraction of it.' She mused to herself. Whatever the case, there was no time for that. The plan had come to beautiful fruition, and the wait was finally over.

"Oh, how I've waited so long for this." Cinder said quietly to herself as the three of them stepped into the elevator, though Emerald and Mercury could faintly hear what she was saying. Neither of them said a word. They knew better.

"I love it when a plan comes together." Cinder said that one openly, and if Emerald and Mercury heard any of it, they weren't giving off any indications. Now they could tell she was testing them. Based off the lack of any harsh reprimands, they passed.

"G-going down." Emerald quickly stammered out as she pressed the button to take them down to the vault.

Cinder gave no reply. Her mind was already racing with thoughts. Some of the distant past, some of the far future, but, most importantly, of what was about to happen. She let her destiny slip away the moment she let him take her. She saw it in her grasp when she had the maiden dead to rights, the Grimm leech sucking the life, the power, the key to her freedom, out of her very soul. She saw it slip away again when that man cut her off. She would never forget his face. He would die next, right after she had taken care of him. Now she could see it in her grasp again. There would be no man to cut her off this time. All that could stand in her way was off fighting invading Grimm or White Fang; none would follow her down here. It was a very important detail of her plan that she made sure to emphasize to all of her pawns.

'My destiny will be my own again.' Cinder thought to herself as the elevator doors closed and they began to descend.

'Nothing will stop me this time. Nothing at all.'

_?_

The room was dark, save for the dim light of the monitors surrounding the front of a figure sitting on a very large, pitch black chair. His whole body was covered in shadows, the dim light only illuminating parts of his face. What little could be seen would've been characteristic of an old man, yet the lights shining over his eyes reflected a much different picture.

His eyes were as black as night, practically sucking in the few rays of light that could reach them. They were darting from screen to screen, taking in the videos they were broadcasting. They were showing camera feeds from all across Vale. The figure could see the fighting in the streets and in the air. Atlesian knights and brave huntsman and huntresses, both ones in training and fully qualified, facing off a never ending horde of Beowolves, Ursai, Boarbatusks, Death Stalkers, Goliaths, and countless other Grimm types. They were losing ground rapidly.

The figure's eyes turned to another screen, this one showing the skies above Vale. At least, they would have if the air wasn't absolutely teeming with Nevermores of varying sizes. They turned to another screen, this one showing slightly less masses of pitch-black feathers darting their way across Vale's sky. Framed in the center of the screen was an Atlesian ship, firing on two other ships. This act of betrayal caught them off guard, and the ships began to lose altitude, crashing and burning to the ground.

The eyes moved again, this time looking at a screen showing the courtyard of Beacon. There were decidedly less Grimm here than there were in Vale. Yet the fighting was just as intense, if not more so. A handful of Beacon students were squaring off against a masked man with red hair. One of them, the one with a very fiery mane of blonde hair, made to charge the man, only to be slammed against the wall in the blink of an eye, the masked man re-sheathing a sword no-one saw leaving the sheathe at all. Another one made to shoot the man, only for the bullets to be cut clean in half by the man's sword before he took aim with his sheathe-rifle and pulled the trigger.

The eyes moved again, already knowing the outcome of that battle. The screen overlooked Amity Colosseum, a group of Beacon students were firing their guns wildly into the sky at a massive flock of Nevermore. One was tearing through them with a minigun, another was firing shotgun shell after shotgun shell from his nun chucks, a third was unloading bullets from his two bladed submachine guns, and a fourth was unloading a grenade launcher into the skies above. The eyes also noticed two other men, one brandishing a blunderbuss with two axes attached to the end and the other a flamethrower. They were keeping the other Grimm on the ground off the students and civilians.

The eyes moved again, turning to a screen showing a different area of the colosseum. It was a maintenance hall, with a number of Beacon students holding off a large pack of Grimm to allow a group of civilians to flee. The eyes saw a girl flailing a scythe, cleaving three unlucky Beowolves in two. They saw a blonde man with a shield and sword blocking a strike from an Ursa that was about to hit a red-headed girl, also brandishing a sword and shield. The red-headed girl's eyes looked stunned, her body barely moving in time to block a strike from a Beowolf that got past the scythe wielding girl and the shield-bearing blonde. Her body moved too slowly for the next strike, breaking through her guard and flooring her. Just as the Beowolf went for another strike, it was cut in two by a sword, and the girl was quickly brought back to her feet by the blonde.

The eyes moved again, returning the view to one of the streets of Vale, this one looking remarkably well in hand compared to the others. At the center of the street was a tall blond woman brandishing a riding crop. Grimm were flying in all directions, powerless before this woman's quiet fury. Not far from her was a man wielding a great sword, gears present around the hilt. With a swing, he sent a wave of air that cleaved nearly an entire pack of charging Beowolves in two. Not far from him, there was another woman, this one white haired with a rather regal appearance. She was wielded two swords, yet the most remarkable thing about her was the horde of white colored Beowolves that were following her every command. These white Beowolves tore clean through the Grimm hordes, piles of severed limbs and decaying corpses left in their wake. The three looked quickly at each other before nodding and going off in separate directions.

The eyes moved again. They froze on what they saw. The screen showed a simple elevator exit. What was not so simple about it was that it had three decidedly unwelcome guests stepping out of it. The barest hint of a frown could be seen on the man's face in the dim light of the monitors. The eyes narrowed, the light getting even dimmer as the eyes darted between the three figures before fixating on the one in the red dress.

The figure began to move its arms. They were reaching for another monitor, this one showing no camera feed. Instead all it showed was a simple text communicator, not unlike the ones used for sending messages through scrolls. The figure's hands began to type. The message was very simple, as was the reply.

The Queen forgets her place. Remind her.

It will be done.

The figure then turned back to the monitor showing the elevator. They were gone. The eyes turned to another monitor, this one showing an empty hallway. The three guests were walking through the corridor with a casual, yet still attentive pace. The one in the red dress was keeping ahead of the others, a determined expression clear on her features.

In the dim light of the monitors, one could barely make out the expression on the man's face. Some would say it looked like apprehension, fear of what was coming. Others would say it looked like anger, directed squarely at the three uninvited guests.

None would have guessed that the man was smiling.

AN: If you would be so kind, please leave a review stating what you think about this fic. Thank you very much for reading this, as it is my first story on this site, and have a nice day.