Here we are at last. Let's bring an end to this fantastic joy ride. I promise that this isn't an April fools prank. This is actually the last chapter Lol.

Beta: CrowSkull

Destiny Fated Black

Chapter 36

Leaving the ghost-filled hallway, Marcus made his way into the lobby and quickly found his way to the exit of the building. Around him, people like huntsmen, Atlesian soldiers, students, and visitors were rushing around in a mixture of controlled and uncontrolled panic. On the bright side, they were all so busy and distracted with the apparent attack on Beacon that they either didn't recognize him at first glance or they didn't care enough about him at the moment to do anything about it. Marcus didn't hang around long, and quickly made his way to the nearest armory. It would be hidden so that students and other non-stable people would find it, but Marcus remembered where it was. He used to be a student there after all.

It was Beacon, a school meant for boys and girls who wanted to train and become huntsmen or huntresses. Not all of them had weapons with them right away, so sometimes they had to just use what was provided for them by the staff. Marcus had to hide so that some huntsmen wouldn't see him and assume that he was the enemy and waited a few moments before double and triple checking to see if he had time to quickly loot the armory. He rushed in and moved around as quickly as he could, it was practically ransacked already. Barely any ammo and mostly only guns and small weapons like swords were available to him. While he was good with nearly every weapon here, he didn't want to go out to the battlefield without his best choice of weapon. Unfortunately, it seemed that Ozpin was smart and hid knives, guns and armour pieces elsewhere. So like all the other huntsmen, Marcus had to improvise.

He took one of the pistols from the wall and set it on the table, then took the closest powerful sniper rifle that was left on the wall. Then went to work. With practiced ease, he took apart the pistol and laid out all the parts before him, then went to work on removing the barrel of the sniper rifle and then going deeper and being careful to take out the mechanism that fired and chambered the bullet and set that piece down on the ground. His hands were tools, and the gun pieces were the screws so to speak. Each of them was differently sized and had their own language and set of rules, but he made them blend together and combined their culture. Soon enough, he made a pistol that was less powerful than his previous Atlesian hand cannon, but stronger than most sniper rifles. He discarded the other pieces of the sniper and pistol and grabbed all the rounds that were compatible with his unorthodox combination of gun parts and loaded three magazines. That was all he had the time for.

With his new hand cannon back in the makeshift holster of his pants, Marcus didn't waste time to try and make himself a knife befitting of his style and grabbed the shortest sword that he could. Thankfully, it was serrated and in a similar shape as the knife he'd used to win most of his battles. Though slightly longer. It was slightly heavier and the balance was more forward and uneven, but it would do for now. Satisfied with his decisions, he thought on whether or not he should put on armour.

"No, not enough time…" He thought out loud as he made his way out of the armory. Marcus kept moving and made his way to the closest exit. It was a back exit that not many people would use in a situation like this, which was exactly why he took it. The most obvious route would get him caught up in unnecessary conflict and he didn't need to risk wasting time and energy fighting the ones he intended to work with in the first place.

The wind smacked him in the face the moment he pushed the door open and let himself out. It was night time, dark out, and Beacon was only lit by dim emergency lights. But it was loud, very loud, and Marcus cursed at what he saw. This was what Cinder planned, all-out chaos and anarchy. Students and huntsmen and Atlesian soldiers were fighting all over the place, and they were fighting members of the White Fang, Grimm, and the very people that Marcus had helped Cinder recruit months ago. Cursing under his breath, Marcus rushed into the field. Up above him, he could see more members of the White Fang in dozens of Bullheads rappel themselves down into Beacon, and to his shock, some of them were even full of Grimm. He had no idea how they were able to get the Grimm in there, or how the Grimm didn't try to break themselves out, but they somehow managed to do it.

Ursa, Beowolves, and other monstrosities that the creatures of darkness were able to manifest were invading Beacon. Ironic, given that the school was meant to destroy these monsters in the first place. Marcus charged forward and cut his way through the first Grimm that came his way, the unsuspecting Beowolf was decapitated before it even knew that he was on it. And Marcus kept on moving. Even past the soldiers and huntsmen that were desperately fighting. He was just one man, and he was best against people. And it wasn't like they'd willingly fight with him after they realized who he was anyway. So Marcus wasn't going to waste his time to try and help them. They were huntsmen and trained soldiers, if they couldn't handle the Grimm and terrorists, then they chose the wrong profession to get into.

It was a harsh and morbid way of thinking but it was truthful and one that he needed to keep to now more than ever. If he spent his time saving everyone that looked like they were in trouble then he'd never get to Cinder in time. He knew that Amber, the maiden that they'd almost killed months ago, was somewhere in the CCT. So that was where Cinder was going to be, and if he had to guess. Adam wouldn't be too far away. The only thing was that the CCT was on the other side of Beacon from where he was, and contrary to popular belief, Beacon was a lot bigger than one would think.

He'd get there faster than most. And he'd get through anyone and anything that got in his way. Unfortunately, the White Fang sought to test him on that.

"There he is!" A terrorist shouted when they saw his unmistakable head of white hair. "That's Marcus Black! Kill him like Adam ordered!"

"You'll try," Marcus sneered as he altered his path just slightly to the left so that he was charging their way. His metal feet dug into the dirt with every step he took, and now that he was fully energized on aura and ready to go, he was faster than ever. The White Fang didn't even have the time to raise their guns at him before he got to them in time, he stabbed once in the neck with his small sword and while the terrorist was gagging on his own blood he pulled him, still on the end of his blade, and used the dying man as a human shield to block the rest of the bullets that were fired on him from the rest of the terrorists.

The second closest terrorist screamed in fear once Marcus dropped the dead man and pulled his gun up. That terrorist died a quick death as a bullet blew her head open, her brains and blood spilling out onto the pavement and sending the other White Fang members into disarray. Marcus went on to dismantle them all, showing no mercy to the ones who would bring Grimm to a school for kids just wanting to learn how to become a huntsman or huntresses. They deserved deaths for this, and usually, he'd be happy to give them a more brutal death. But right now he was on a time limit, and he couldn't waste more time than he already had on these fucks.

His arms and hands were covered in blood and about a quarter of his first magazine was used in order to eliminate the first group of terrorists. He whipped his limbs and weapons to the side and got rid of some of it. He heard a step in his direction from behind and snapped his head and body around. Behind him, he could see a boy trying to muster up the courage to go up to him. A student he didn't recognize, nor really care about. But he was clearly afraid of him, and the other three students behind him, and for good reason. They just watched him brutally kill a whole squadron of terrorists in under a minute and whipped their blood off his body like it was nothing. Killing was a numb feeling for him, he couldn't care for it, but he could understand why these kids would be afraid of him for it.

"Don't do it, kid," Marcus said, not really willing to fight the kids. "It's not going to end well." He warned.

"Y-you're Marcus Black," the boy said stupidly. "A-a-aren't you the bad guy?"

"I was," Marcus lazily nodded his head. "Now I'm not, do you have a problem with that?" He took a step forward and they all stepped away from him. They might as well have given their answer to him with a reaction like that. "Good, now sit back and pretend you didn't see me and maybe this school won't go to shit-"

A deafening screech sounded above them again. Marcus cursed under his breath and ignored the cry of the students as he got close to the ground and grabbed the grass. The Grimm Wyvern flew overhead close to the ground, causing strong winds to blast into their bodies and knock them around. Due to him holding on to the ground, however, he was able to stop himself from being blown away like the inexperienced kids were.

Marcus looked to the skies and saw the thing up close for the first time. It was massive, strong, and powerful. Most likely it would be able to take a shot from an artillery cannon and just get pissed off. "I can't take that down," Marcus whispered to himself as the immediate thought came to his mind. His weapons were too small and weak to do any real damage. He might be able to do something if he was able to climb onto its head and damage its eyes and brain somehow, but that would take a lot of risk and a lot of luck. And a lot of time. He couldn't do anything about the Wyvern right now.

This was a school full of trained warriors. Beacon was the best school for training huntsmen for a reason. He'd have to trust them to actually get their shit together for once and take it down.

Marcus tore his eyes away from the beast and kept moving forward. There was a large group of White Fang ahead, and there was a large group of Grimm between them as well. The fastest way to the CCT was straight ahead, and so Marcus made his choice and charged straight into the Grimm. At first, it looked like the Grimm were confused, but quickly they started to snarl, snap, and charge right back at him. He didn't know what it was but it seemed like he inspired other huntsmen who started to charge in with him. Marcus went low and slid under the swipe of an Ursa and stabbed the beast in its hind leg. As he tore it out he slit the throat of a Beowolf and rolled forward with his momentum. Using his metal leg, he broke the ankles of another smaller Grimm and disabled it. Not even bothering to finish it off, Marcus roared a mighty roar and charged headfirst into another Ursa. He actually started to overpower it once his blade stabbed through the Ursas chest and pushed it back. The Grimm faded away quickly once it died, and Marcus kept pushing forward.

Now covered in faunus blood and the black blood of the Grimm, the White Fang that saw him charging forward immediately turned their attention on him in an attempt to take him down at range. But that left them completely open from another front. A horde of students charged at them from one side while Atlesian soldiers attacked from another. Split and flanked from three different directions, the next White Fang squadron was taken down before Marcus even had to get his hands too dirty.

He didn't even stop to others recognizing him, he just kept running. His thighs began to burn, but his aura and adrenaline had already started to keep his stamina in a decent check. Already, he was about halfway to the CCT in just about ten to fifteen minutes. He'd get there sooner, but there was a small problem. As he ran past a cafeteria, he heard the clashing of blades and the screams of young. Everything in Marcus' mind told him to rush forward and leave them behind, but the screams just kept getting louder in the back of his mind and he skidded into a halt. Once he heard the sound of a sword stabbing into a chest, he cursed and turned around. The cafeteria windows were clear, and he could clearly see through them, and the red-haired man that stood over the dead body of a student. All around him, an entire team of students were completely wiped out, with only one of them barely still alive.

"Please, stop," Cardin begged as he crawled away, one of his legs were so cut and damaged that it looked like it was only still there because of some thin strings of skin, tendons, and clothing. "You've done enough, let me go!"

"Have I done enough?" Adam asked as he walked toward the terrified student who had just watched his entire team get killed. "I don't think so, human. What was it you called me? An animal? Well, who looks like the animal now?" He stepped on Cardin's leg and stopped him, causing the boy to whimper and cry out in pain. "An animal that is so injured it can barely move. I suppose it's time to put it down."

"No, not this one." Adam stopped when he heard his voice. His blade refused to fall any farther and he held it tightly in his hand. So tightly that it began to shake in his rage. He turned around and snapped his coat to the side, staring daggers through his mask toward the white-haired man that had broken through the window behind him. "The only animal here is you, Adam. Look at you, killing kids and torturing them. You're not an animal because you're a faunus, you're an animal because you're a heartless killing machine without thought."

"Ha!" Adam sneered. "You're on to talk, Marcus Black. Though, I knew that I was going to run into you again sooner than later. Either today or in the events after, I knew that I was going to get the chance to kill you again."

"Like that went so good for you the last time," Marcus snarkily remarked. The two men began to circle each other. The boy that Adam stepped on started to crawl away, and Marcus made sure to put himself between him and the faunus before him to make sure that nothing else would happen to him. "And yeah, I'm not denying what I am or what I did. I'm just pointing out that you're not any better than I am. Worse, actually. At least I did what I did because I was paid for it. You just do it because you're a spiteful little brat who's pissy about getting his eye branded."

"How do you know that!?" Adam snarled, hand on the hilt of his weapon already.

"Heh," Marcus chuckled as Blake's memories shadowed his thoughts. Another side effect of his semblance, it carried some fragments of their memories with the part of the soul he'd steal. Coincidentally with that girl, this man was at the forefront of a lot of her memories. "Just a lucky guess." He lied.

"Damn you," Adam brought a hand up to his face and tore off his mask. It bounced off the ground and in a random direction. Adam's one blue eye glared at him, while the other was branded and damaged to the point of blindness. From this distance, Marcus could just make out what it said. SDC. The sight made him sigh mentally, but then again he already knew about how messed up that company could be sometimes. "I suppose there's no point in hiding it then. I will fight you with my own face, Marcus Black. And I will kill you."

"What's with everyone saying that to me lately?" Marcus asked as he got into a stance. "I'm going to kill you, I'm going to maim you, I'm going to poke your eyes out with my scorpion stinger that pokes out my ass. Always something with you angry fighting types. Always something." He taunted.

"I won't let you anger me any further," Adam said as he placed a hand on the hilt of his sword again and got into a stance. "I've heard worse and I already have the motivation to kill you. You killed Blake. How dare you take away what was mine? I'll make you pay for that, I'll make you pay…"

"Would you believe me if I said it was an accident?" Marcus prompted.

"SHE WAS MINE TO KILL!" Adam screamed as he charged forward angrily.

Hook, line, and sinker. Marcus thought as he leaned back from Adam's first attack and stepped into his now open body and struck his knee into his hip. Unlike Harriet, Adam had a very strong core and tanked it with all but a grunt before lashing out at him again. Marcus deflected the strike and stepped back. The real battle began quickly, and while Adam was young, he was experienced and Marcus recognized him to have exceptional skill behind his wild and reckless attacks.

However, he was a decade too early if he thought that he could beat Marcus on his own. Marcus played to his strengths and didn't let Adam control the battle like he knew he was most comfortable with after already fighting him and Tyrian once in the streets of Vale. He also knew his style. Adam was very fast, aggressive, and ruthless. He could tell that he was the kind of fighter that was so fast and strong that he could quickly overwhelm anyone who was not ready for it or someone who was less skilled than he was. He was a prodigy for sure, and he trained a lot. And while he had experience, it was still nothing in comparison to his own level of experience. Marcus spent his entire life brutally training, getting stronger, and fighting all kinds of people from all over the world. And he very rarely got put on the back foot.

One slip here, another deflect there. Marcus backpedaled but not because he was getting pushed back. But because he was making sure that Adam was using more energy than he was. He wanted a chance to reach out and grab Adam's arm or face so that he could steal his semblance and render him unable to fight. To a bystander, it might have looked like a battle for the ages. But for him, this was just another day in the office.

Their blades sparked against each other as both decided that they would refuse to give any ground. Sparks flew and struck their faces, but they both kept their eyes wide and open. Constantly moving them so that they could see what was coming and react accordingly. Adam pushed himself beyond his limits and made Marcus have to move just a little faster, but not so much so that he started to get worried. Marcus found his opening and he dove in, striking his shoulder into Adam's sword wrist when he swung a little too wide and knocking it aside and throwing his knee directly into Adam's groin. Adam's eyes bulged out and all the wind was knocked out of his lungs and he folded forward, giving Marcus the chance to put the barrel of his gun underneath his chin and pull the trigger.

Adam's brain shook in his skull as his aura tanked the entire force of a sniper caliber bullet directly up into his chin. The force was so strong that it sent him flying into the air a few feet and for him to land on his back. Marcus lunged forward and kicked him in the face right as Adam tried to get back up against his own body's wishes, and saw stars in his vision. Despite being stunned as he was, he was still able to react fast enough to grab Marcus' wrist with his hands and stop the offending hand from grabbing his face. Fearful of losing the semblance that had carried him this far and angered by not even getting the chance to use it yet, Adam desperately pushed back Marcus' hand, and diverted one of them to stop Marcus from using his other hand to grab him.

From there it became a desperate battle of strength. Adam had the advantage of the ground beneath to brace his body, but he was in an uncomfortable position and his elbow was bent in a way that was forcing him to use his tricep instead of his stronger bicep muscles. Marcus had the bigger advantage of having his own body weight to support his pushing down along with his strength and slowly began to overpower Adam.

"No," Adam snarled through grit teeth as Marcus slowly inched his hand toward his face. "Not like this, my story hasn't ended yet! I will, save, the faunus!"

"No," Marcus growled as he forced his hand down even further, grasping Adam by the cheek. "You've done nothing but make it worse for them."

Adam screamed and kicked at Marcus' back as he felt his semblance being taken away from him, along with a part of his aura and unbeknownst to him a part of his soul. Adam's hand went limp and Marcus slapped his face to the side and kicked his sword away. He stood up and took in a deep breath and internally cursed himself. He was getting old, his body wasn't in its prime anymore. That took more stamina than he really intended to.

"You've lost," Marcus pointed out needlessly as he aimed his pistol at him. "Your semblance is gone and your aura is down." He was about to pull the trigger to end Adam's life, but something stopped him. Closing his eyes, he heard Blake's voice. He already kept his promise, she pointed out. He didn't need to kill him, he was beaten she begged. He could leave him here to be arrested later so he could be tried for his crimes, she pleaded.

Marcus sighed explosively and turned away from the defeated Adam Taurus.

"Coward!" Adam cried out to him. "Finish me off! Don't leave me here in this pathetic state!"

"You shouldn't have lost then," Marcus replied simply as he began to walk away.

"Damn you…" Adam growled under his breath. "Damn you… Marcus Black… you've ruined everything… Everything…" He reached for his hilt, and the gun part that was secretly installed into it. A new upgrade he didn't get to try out in this battle against Marcus. He slowly slid it out and aimed at-

Adam's head whipped back as a bullet entered through his forehead and exited out the back, killing him instantly.

"No," Marcus said, looking back at the now-dead Adam Taurus. "I'm not falling for that one again," He whispered sadly to himself. "I'm sorry, Blake. He wasn't going to give up, just like you." He couldn't take a shot to the back like that and waste aura, he already lost more than he wanted before he went on to stand against Cinder. As far as he knew, she already had the full power of the fall maiden and was killing Ozpin slowly. He'd need every drop of aura that he could get and couldn't take any more surprise attacks.

Marcus sighed to himself as Blake resigned herself to the back of his mind, now occupied by Adam as well, he quickly buried himself back there as well. Marcus just kept moving forward. Adam was just one enemy he had to get through that night, now, he just had a few more obstacles and hurdles to get through before he got to Cinder.

That was one promise down, and there was yet more to go…

The Nevermore broke through the protective forcefield and began to fall down into the arena below. As it was falling down, rocket lockers zoomed past it and some of them even struck the beast itself, causing it to screech out in pain as it forced one part of their body to fall faster and to destroy its balance in the air. One by one the lockers embedded themselves into the ground as they landed. And as soon as they did, the doors on the front of them exploded out and away. Quickly, Ruby, Weiss, Yang, and the rest of the students and their friends in Team JNPR went on to grab their weapons. By the time the Nevermore actually hit the ground, all of the students were already armed.

They still needed time to calibrate and adjust their weapons to the according situation. Which gave Penny the opportunity to defend them and give them more time by rushing straight ahead into combat. Her swords flew out of her back and she locked on to her target, a big and slow Nevermore was much better in the air than it was on the ground where it was vulnerable and slow. So Penny already knew what to target. As the Nevermore spread its wings to try and fly up into the air, Penny shot her swords forward and slashed at the tendons and thick black muscles with her flying swords. She missed one wing, but the other was completely disabled. Which stopped the Nevermore before it could get too far up into the air.

That couple of seconds of recovery was exactly what was needed for Yang and Weiss to rush in next. Yelling out some kind of team attack name as Weiss stabbed her new sword into the ground and layered the arena floor around and under the Nevermore with ice. Next, Yang smashed her fists together and punched at the floor, shooting Ember Celica at the same time and sending herself flying into the air. She shot in the air one more time to correct herself, and then once more to send herself flying back into the ground right beside the creature. With a mighty roar, Yang smashed her fist into the icy floor to cause an explosion of steam that made the Nevermore screech and try to get away instinctively.

And right into the dozens of other students, including Ruby, that had shifted their weapons into their ranged forms and started unloading every round of dust that they had into the massive creature. It was impossible to miss, and with almost every single student they fired a different element of dust. The Nevermore screamed out in pain as its thick feathery hide was torn apart and its once healthy wing was destroyed. One might have thought it was dead already, but it hadn't started to dissipate yet. So there was more yet to be done.

"Yah!" Nora squealed as she jumped into the air enhanced by her grenade launcher. Her weapon shifted into its hammer form mid-air and she spun as she fell back down to give herself even more striking power. Watching this, Jaune took this opportunity to slip into the Nevermores guard as it craned its neck up to look up at the falling Nora and opened its mouth as if it intended to swallow her whole. Jaune didn't let that happen, and as he got under the beast he stabbed Crocea Mors up into its neck and twisted, then pulled down as hard as he could.

The Nevermore's head came with his sword and he was nearly crushed by the creature as its head slammed against the ground. He had Ren to thank for it, since he charged in right with him just for that purpose. Now that the Nevermore was disabled and now stunned and vulnerable, Nora's hammer was just the icing on the cake. And icing it was as Nora's hammer smashed the Nevermore's head inward and sent a massive spray of black blood in every direction. Now it was truly dead, and it wasn't getting back up anytime soon. The Nevermore began to dissipate and Nora let herself roll backward and onto her feet, marveling at her magnificent work with a smile full of absolute glee.

"That was a lot easier than before," Weiss commented as Team RYS reunited.

"It had to be, there were dozens of us instead of just four." Yang scoffed. "I would have been surprised if this thing lasted longer than the other."

"Good job team!" Ruby cheered for their benefit. "And good job Nora!"

"Thank you!" Nora could be heard from about a hundred feet away and through the haze of black steam mixed with the light gray from Yang and Weiss' team attack.

"This is not over yet, Friend Ruby," Penny said as she stepped up to them through the steam. Her words were still hovering around her shoulders, giving her an intimidating silhouette. It failed to scare Ruby and her team, but the other students around them were giving the android a sideways glare. Some made their disdain for her more known, others tried to pretend like she never existed. But the majority of them all wanted her gone. "The Grimm and White Fang are invading Beacon and Vale. We must evacuate all the civilians in amity and be quick to return to Beacon in its defense."

"Hmph, you got that just by looking up at the sky?" One student sneered loudly. "I wouldn't think you'd care about human life after you tortured Coco to death on live television."

Penny visibly flinched. Ruby, Weiss, and Yang looked around nervously as a dozen or so of their peers started to slowly encircle them and Penny. Slowly, they turned around and mutually accepted to help defend Penny if the worst happened and they attacked. Penny gulped and silently counted to five before stepping forward to explain herself.

"I did not want nor did I intend for any of this to happen. If you paid attention to the announcement, I was manipulated. Hacked, if you insist. I did not know what I was doing and before I realized it and got myself under control it was already done. I am sorry if I am emplacing doubt about me upon your mind. If I could, I would reverse the events that already happened."

"Your apology doesn't bring Coco back!" An older student barked. "Coco is dead, you killed her! Stabbed who knows how many times and then discarded her like she was nothing, and now all of a sudden you're remorseful and apologetic? Fuck that! You're not even a real girl!"

"Hey, calm down." Yang sternly demanded. "There's no reason to be fighting with our allies."

The older student scoffed. "Coming from the girl with brain damage, I'm not too sure you are our ally."

"Hey! We've gone to class together, all of us!" Ruby exclaimed as Yang widened her eyes as if she'd been slapped. "The Grimm are attacking and people are in danger! Just look around you, there are terrified people still trying to leave the stands right now! We're just wasting time arguing, don't do this, please!"

"I'm not fighting with that thing," Another student said, pointing to Penny. "How can I trust someone who can get manipulated or hacked so easily and on the spot? I'm not turning my back to her just so she can stab it and kill me. I just can't trust it."

"Move away little girls," The older student, who seemed to have become the leader of the little rebellion, threatened them by flourishing his weapon. "You're young and I doubt any of you have been on missions yet, so I can understand where you are coming from. But trust me, destroying her now is the better option than to wait and let her attack us from behind. Just step back, and let us handle it."

"No!" Ruby stamped one foot. "I-"

"If that is what you desire, then so be it," Penny said as she let her swords fall and return into her back.

"Penny!?" Ruby, Weiss, and Yang all exclaimed in their shock. "No!"

"There is no use arguing, friend Ruby," Penny said, looking at them with a smile. "I am forbidden to kill humans, as is one of my primary objectives of my design. That I have taken a life is inexcusable, and I understand why they would desire to destroy me. If it means that the innocent civilians can get evacuated at a quicker pace and for reinforcements to return to Beacon, then I will gladly give my life for a better outcome."

"Hmph, looks like someone understands." Slowly, the other students began to close in. "You heard her girls, get out of the way."

"No," Shockingly, it wasn't any of the members of Team RYS that said that, and the voice was much deeper and much more tranquil, yet it came with such an authority that instinctively, the students that we're closing in on Penny and RYS all stopped and backed away. From behind them a very tall dark-skinned man who could be mistaken for a fully trained huntsmen with how large he was, and the large bronze sword that was longer than some people were added to his intimidation factor. Yatsuhashi stepped up and in the defense of Penny. "I will not let you destroy this girl"

"Yatsu," The older student from before called out to him. "Coco was your leader, your friend! And yet you stand in the defense of her murdered?"

"I do," Yatsuhashi said. "As would my other teammates if they were here. Penny here was not in her right mind when she did what she did, she said so herself. Isn't that right?"

"Y-yes," Penny nodded her head. "I wasn't in control of myself or my actions."

"Then I will not hold it against you," Yatsuhasi glanced at Coco's body. "Vengeance is something that my leader told me to never fall into. The feeling would never leave me even if I let you destroy this miracle of a creation. Although I cannot forgive you or forget what happened right now, my ideals demand for me to not let this happen."

"Thank you, Yatsuhashi," Penny said, bowing her head in deep gratitude. "I will not let your deed go wasted.

"Good. Now go before my patience runs thin." The tall man demanded. "All of you as well. Grimm and terrorists are attacking our home, and yet you stand here bickering and arguing and letting people die by the second." The harsh way he stated that had them all wincing. "Correct yourselves and help with the evacuation, at the very least, you may all save a life today."

Not willing to argue or fight any longer. The students all dispersed and ceased their encirclement. Almost thankfully, the Grimm started to flood into the arena once again from the now destroyed force field. Putting them all on guard once again. However, not all of them could fight at the same time here. People needed to be saved like Yatsuhashi implied, and they couldn't all waste their time here with Grimm that was threatening nobody that couldn't already defend themselves.

Ruby grabbed Penny's hand and pulled her along with her team. Penny let it happen. They made their way through the retreating and charging students and connected with Jaune, Ren, and Nora, who looked at Penny and immediately understood what was happening.

"I'm sorry I couldn't help," Jaune told Ruby as they ran together. "We got a call from Pyrrha and we're all worried about her. We have to get back to Beacon."

"Don't worry about it," Ruby replied immediately and without hesitation. "We'll get to Beacon and we'll protect it from the attackers. First, we should-"

"Attention all remaining students, civilians, and trained personnel," General Ironwood's voice boomed throughout the intercom. From overhead, one of Ironwood's ships from his army flew. "Go to the nearest docking station for evacuation or to help with evacuation efforts. If you can, work together, and move as fast as you can. I have my soldiers and defense droids going throughout the stadium to collect any stragglers and they will defend you with their lives. I will be here as well to help, please, make your way to the nearest docking station as quickly as possible."

The intercom cut out. "Well, we know where to go now," Yang remarked as they slightly adjusted their path to the nearest docking station. "We can take one of those Bullheads to Beacon, right?"

"We'll have too," Jaune said. "I'm sure not all of them are meant for the civilians, they'll need reinforcements at Beacon, they have to."

"We'll all go together," Ruby promised. "Right?" She asked as she looked over her shoulder at Penny.

Penny hesitated, by ultimately nodding her head in agreement.

"Good, let's go!"

"I might have an idea about where Pyrrha is," Jaune said to his team as they rushed forward.

"Where?" Nora inquired.

"The CCT. I had a talk with her earlier today, said that she had to do something important and that it had something to do with Ozpin and some fairy tale." Jaune shook his head. "We'll have to get there and get her out of there if we can. Who knows what is happening to Beacon right now."

"We'll get to her, Jaune," Ren assured his friend. "And she can take care of herself, she isn't the strongest amongst our year for no reason."

"Heh, you're right…"

For some reason, being reminded of that fact didn't fill him with any more confidence. There was already someone out there who could easily defeat her, who's to say that there wasn't another?

Ozpin and Glynda rushed Pyrrha out of the elevator the moment they made it down into the secret basement of Beacon. Glynda kept Pyrrha close to her as Ozpin moved faster than either of the women have ever seen him move. He rushed forward and planted his hands onto Amber's monitor and began to type away at commands. Sweat started to pool on his brow, and before Pyrrha had the chance to ask what he was doing the second tube beside Ambers opened up. Ozpin turned around to finally address the girl.

"I am happy that you came to me when you did, Miss Nikos," Ozpin said as he gestured to the tube. "Forgive me, but it is now or I am going to ask Miss Goodwitch to enter this tube despite the risks. Please, make your choice now."

Pyrrha looked down and hesitated for all but two seconds. "My choice has already been made headmaster. I will become the next fall maiden."

Ozpin sighed lightly and nodded his head, then gestured for the girl to go into the tube. After another moment of hesitation, Glynda helped the girl move forward and step into the tube, turn around so that she could rest on her back, and then gently let her fall back into the tube. Before she could have second thoughts, Ozpin pushed a few more buttons and the tube door started to close in on her. Before she knew it she was locked in, and after doing a few mock pushes against the inside of the tube, she found that it was completely hard and dense and locked in. She was not going to get out unless she used her semblance, and even using it on a handful of screws have started to become all too much for her after her recent encounter with Marcus Black in Mountain Glenn. So she took a deep breath and let the back of her had fall backward onto the cushion behind her head. She proceeded to take many deep breaths to help calm herself so that she wouldn't panic no matter what happened.

"After I start some subroutines and do a final calibration check, I need you to give me a voice confirmation," Ozpin said as he got the machine whirring to life. "Just answer honestly when I ask you this next question; Are you ready?"

Pyrrha nodded her head.

Ozpin sighed. "I need you to say the words, please."

"Yes, I am ready headmaster," Pyrrha said before gulping nervously.

Ozpin closed his eyes and nodded his head gently as he slowly pressed his hand against the final function of the monitor before him and took a step back. Immediately, Amber's heart rate began to stutter and her body started to glow yellow. After a few seconds, Pyrrha's body began to glow as well. The machines that Ironwood had designed that was able to detect aura levels and the magic within Amber's soul slowly began to decline, and the headmaster shut his eyes tight and pretended that he didn't hear Pyrrha slowly begin to scream in pain as Amber's aura and the magic that was imbued within it started to merge with her own aura. Now, all that they had to do was wait, and hopefully, in the next few minutes, Pyrrha would be the new fall maiden.

If only it could be that easy. If only anything could ever be easy...

Being so distracted as he was, Ozpin didn't hear the elevator doors behind him open up a second time. Nor did he hear the woman carefully and quietly knot her arrow into her glass bow and pull the string until there was enough force for the arrow to easily pierce through the military-grade bulletproof glass that separated Amber's body from the rest of the world. It happened almost in slow motion. In just a second, his plan failed and Amber in her instinctive panic opened her eyes with a gurgled scream as the arrow pierced into her heart. Already as damaged as she was, all she could think about was her killer, her assailant. The very woman and the last Ozpin would ever want the power to go to.

"No!" He screamed when he saw Amber die. He wanted to tell her to at least not think about Cinder, but it was too late. Amber died just as quickly as she woke up, and a burst of heat exploded from behind him.

Snapping his head around, he met Cinder eye to eye for the second time ever. The magic within her was bubbling, both of her eyes were flaming a bright orange, and she smirked at him a smug smirk as she let her glass bow break apart into shards of glass and turn red with magic, transforming the weapon into two equally sized swords. Cinder's power exploded again, the full power of a season maiden set the room around her on fire. Ozpin narrowed his eyes and drew up his cane, the remaining magic bursting out from within in the form of a smaller and more controlled green flow of aura.

"Ozpin!" Glynda cried out as the man entered a stance.

"Get Miss Nikos out of that tube NOW!" Ozpin shouted to his deputy headmistress.

Glynda wasted no time and used her semblance to tear the front half of the tube off and throw it at Cinder. The fall maiden simply smacked it aside with the back of her hand effortlessly and chuckled.

Pyrrha slipped out on shaky legs. Her aura was flickering with a mixture of yellow and red. Glynda gasped when she saw it, and realized that although Cinder now had the vast majority of the fall maidens power, she was still not complete. Pyrrha had gained just a small fragment of the power herself, so tiny that she probably wouldn't have even been able to bring out any of its abilities. But it was still there. As long as Pyrrha lived, Cinder would never be whole.

"Pyrrha, listen to me." Frantic like she has never been before, Glynda put her hands on Pyrrha's shoulders and shook her until she was attentive. "You need to run, run as far away as you can. Try to get to Atlas if you can. James will protect you, I promise you that."

"I… can help…" Pyrrha said through her dizziness.

"No," Glynda said sternly, gripping her shoulders even more tightly. "You can't. You'd only get in the way and if you die, we are all dead. Run, Pyrrha. Run!"

The combat professor shoved Pyrrha and instinctively the girl began to run. She tried to stop but Glynda used her semblance and picked her up off the ground and threw her away. She went soaring past Cinder and slid against the ground and rolled into the wall, slamming against it. Pyrrha picked herself up and looked frantically toward the headmaster and her combat professor, both of them looked back at her and nodded their heads. Run, their eyes begged of her.

Pyrrha shut her eyes and pulled herself into the elevator, shooting herself up back to the surface.

"I hope you know that I won't be letting you get away, Glynda." Cinder mocked as she slowly hovered in the air, fire burning all around her and her now amber aura flaring violently. "Nor you or Ozpin. Salem has specifically ordered me to kill you in this attack, and kill you I shall."

"Killing me won't change anything," Ozpin replied. "I always come back, sometimes soon, sometimes later. But I always come back. It is a waste of resources and time to continue your efforts in killing me."

"Perhaps," Cinder accepted. "But that doesn't mean I still won't enjoy it."

"Glynda, move fast and do not stop, not even if you are injured," Ozpin said as Cinder began to move toward them. "The key to defeating a maiden is to let her tire herself out and attack key vital points. I will attack those points, you simply play the role of support. Together, we might just beat her."

"Of course, Ozpin," Glynda said. "We will beat her, we have to. The power of a maiden cannot fall into Salem's hands."

Ozpin couldn't agree more. Cinder dashed forward and he met her in turn, smashing his cane against her swords as their great battle began.

Marcus dragged his sword out of another terrorist's body and kicked it away. Whipping it to the side, he took a moment to go down on one knee and rest for a few moments. The CCT was in his sights now, though it was still a distance away, after another few minutes of running and fighting he should be able to get there quickly enough. He just started to get tired after minutes of fighting and still recovering his stamina after fighting and defeating Adam Taurus.

"Almost there," He said to himself between deep breaths. "Almost there…" He kept muttering. His mind was numb to the bodies he started to move past. The bodies of the White Fang terrorists didn't really bother him all too much, neither did the bodies of the Atlesian soldiers that had given their lives to protect the innocent. It was the bodies of the teenagers and huntsmen that bothered him ever so slightly. Teenagers, children, who wanted to train to become a huntsman and most wanted to become a hero one way or the other. It was a sad and pitiful life, and one that he almost fell into if it weren't for the tragedy of Glenn. No, instead he was trained to become an assassin, a murdered, a killer, and a warrior. Yet these bodies made him remember better times. Some of those huntsmen were people he remembered going to class with decades ago, the bodies of teenagers made him remember Mercury, who's life was dictated by his father's past actions, and Blake, the faunus girl that was now part of his mind and memories. Along with Summer's sympathies and the empathy from all the others that he had killed, it made him feel bad for them.

He couldn't slow down though, he could cut through a building and take a shortcut to get to Glenn. The building was a dormitory that was mixed with staff and older students if he remembered correctly. Marcus started running toward the door, pulling out his pistol and firing off the rest of the rounds toward the Grimm that noticed him and started charging. He dove over a hedge in the courtyard and slid along the grass, letting the charging Ursa Major lose its footing in the slippery mud and sliding away uncontrollably a good distance. Nothing else was able to get in his way, and Marcus slammed the doors shut behind him and knocked over a nearby vending machine and blocked the door behind him with it. It may have just doomed some people that were running away from the Grimm and the combat, but he doubted anyone would try and get through the Grimm just so that they could get into a building that was riddled with combat anyway.

He wasn't given any break as he heard the sound of a gunfight echoing throughout the halls. He started running, the eerie silence eating away at him as the bullets stopped flying through the air. Nothing happening during a battle like this either meant a higher intelligent lifeform of Grimm, or an ambush waiting to happen. Marcus began to slow as he began to hear the sound of sobbing, and gingerly crept his way to a corner and peeked around it quietly. What he saw was the ending of a battle. An injured Atlesian soldier was behind cover and two civilians did their best to try and heal him. All around them was a massacre of bodies, though none of them looked like they were killed by Grimm. They were mostly all killed by gunshot wounds or by melee attacks. But what caught Marcus' eye the most was that the Atlesian soldiers weren't just fighting White Fang members, but also people that didn't bear the Grimm mask, but instead a green handkerchief that wrapped around their arms or face. It was one of the gangs that Marcus had recruited. A mixture of them actually. Some of Junior's old men laid dead, Rox was actually dead in the corner of the room, and as he continued to scan the area, he found Tenne. Also hiding behind cover, barely injured, but desperately trying to save the life of one of her colleagues.

Marcus raised his eyebrow at the sight, it didn't look like either side was going to be fighting right now, so he just walked straight through the center and toward Tenne. Drawing his sword out slowly as he stepped onto her cover and knocked it down, terrifying the snake faunus as she jumped away with her double-ended spear at the ready.

"You know he's already dead, right?" Marcus asked as he gestured to the dead body underneath him.

"Marcus," Tenne hissed as she narrowed her eyes at him. "I should have known that my life would end by your hands…"

"Well…" Marcus turned his chin up and looked down at the snake faunus. She was trembling, scared, only standing on her two shaky feet purely out of will and determination. She obviously didn't want to fight him, and only felt like she had to. She wasn't even holding her spear with proper form. If he really wanted to, he could just twist her spear out of her hands and stab her with it. If they fought, he'd win immediately. There was no doubt in his mind about that. "It doesn't have to, per say. I can tell that you don't want to fight."

"Hah!" Tenne forced out a barked laugh. "As if you think I'd have a choice. Lady Cinder expects me to fight for her, and so I will."

"Did she also say that she was going to use you and your men to kill innocent people?" Marcus gestured to the dead bodies around him, Tenne winced visibly. "Did you know that she was going to bring Grimm into Vale and Beacon and try to destroy the entire kingdom? Tell me that you honestly think that you would have agreed to such a thing, and I'll just kill you where you stand and stop wasting time trying out this whole mercy thing again."

"I…" Tenne shook her head and stepped back. "No, I wouldn't have agreed to this… this is not what I had in mind. This is senseless violence, and little else."

"So are you going to fight for that?" Marcus asked.

Tenne laughed bitterly. "You are a smart man, Marcus Black. So you can see what little choice I have in this situation. If I don't fight, I will be punished and most likely killed. If not by Cinder than by my own men. If I fight, then you will kill me. And I'd rather-"

Marcus shot forward and grabbed Tenne's spear and twisted it out of her hands by the time she even realized he was in front of her. Disarmed in seconds, Marcus threw his fist into her stomach and landed a devastating blow. Tenne's eyes bulged from her skull and she fell down to her knees, her aura flickering and showing Marcus that she was low on it from the very start. Marcus raised the spear in his hands and looked at it, before shrugging and throwing it away. Discarding the weapon.

"And now you can't fight anymore," Marcus stated the obvious. "I guess that means you lose."

"J-Just get it over with, Black…"

"Now, now…" Marcus went down to one knee and flipped Tenne over on her back. "I don't have to kill every idiot who tries to pick a fight with someone they can't hope to beat. You have the opportunity to make this easy for everyone, call back your men and get out of the city. Together, you'll probably be able to escape into the outskirts and find a village. From there, make your way to Mistral or something. Maybe Vacuo."

"I… I can't just… Cinder." Tenne reminded him.

"Don't worry about her." Marcus stood up and turned his back on the defeated snake faunus. "I'll take care of her myself."

Tenne let out a bark of laughter at that, then raised a hand up to her ear and pushed down on a device. "Calling all members," She began. "Retreat into Vale, this battle is not worth fighting. Rendezvous with me if you can, I will be retreating as well. We're done with this."

Marcus stopped in place and nodded his head to himself. He didn't really think that he'd be able to get to Tenne like he did, but it wasn't like he gave her much of a choice and he caught her in a vulnerable time. Good timing, he supposed. This way he saves lives and eliminates yet another of Cinder's lieutenants. Now she was alone, and once the White Fang spread the news of Adam's death, they'd quickly begin to disperse as well. He wasn't one to boast often, but he was a little proud of himself here.

"You better beat her, Marcus Black." Tenne hissed as she pushed herself onto her hands and knees, still coughing from the strike done to her by the man. "End this, or none of us will ever be safe."

Marcus just gave her a thumbs-up as her only reply as he walked away. There was little resistance to him as he made his way through the building and out an exit. The CCT was close now, he could look up and see its tip in the clouds. Almost there…

When the Bullhead landed, Ruby, her two teammates, and Jaunes team stepped out and immediately went to work. It turned out that Ironwood had a specific set of Bullheads that would take some of the students back to Beacon who were healthy enough to continue fighting and reinforce the other huntsmen and soldiers that Beacon and Atlas had at their disposal. Ruby and Jaune decided that they would go to Beacon for Pyrrha and to help their friends, while some other groups made the harder decision to go down into Vale to protect the citizens that were now being threatened by Grimm and terrorism.

If Ruby still had her semblance, she would have sped across and killed some of the Grimm by now. But instead, she allowed Weiss and Yang to take the front while she shifted Crescent Rose into its sniper form and took position alongside Ren, whom they agreed would stay behind to help her just in case any Grimm or members of the White Fang got close enough to render her sniper useless. Ruby still had aura and she was still a huntress in training, but they didn't want to take the risk of her getting overwhelmed. They sent Weiss, Yang, Jaune, and Nora forward to help the Atlesian soldiers who looked like they were in the most trouble as they clashed against the opposition. The White Fang were unprepared to fight aura wielders and it showed in the way they were quickly dismantled and separated from each other. Yang knocked out two and Jaune took down a third and pinned them to the ground while Weiss and Nora took care of the rest. After rendering them all unconscious or disarmed to the point of surrender, they handed them off to the soldiers who then proceeded to start tying them up to make sure that they wouldn't get up again to attack them from behind.

They shared a few words and they pointed them in the direction of a horde of Grimm that had pinned down a team of students in trouble, Ruby shifted Crescent Rose back into its scythe state and lead the charge, the rest of her friends at her back as they made their way to the unmistakable tide of black that relentlessly pushed itself at a team of students they recognized to have once been a part of the Vytal Festival tournament. Ruby used her training given by Qrow and Harriet and went low to the ground and fired Crescent Rose. Thankfully, Qrow used the same style and didn't have a speed semblance, so she always knew that it was possible to fight with her style without immense speed. After a few altercations, ruthless training both physical and mental, Ruby was able to find a way to fight without relying solely on her speed like she once did before. The first Grimm found a curved silver blade slicing through its shoulder and it roared in pain. Ruby let the blade cut all the way through until the tip of the blade stabbed into the ground, the barrel of Crescent Rose in front of the Grimm's face. She pulled the trigger and she flipped backward through the air to bleed off the momentum and landed on her feet. It left her open, but Yang and Weiss were quick to come to her aid. Yang slammed her fist into the jaw of an Ursa and punched it straight off its skull while Weiss poked holes in its body with her saber. Jaune and Nora followed and worked together to disperse a pack of Beowolves that tried to flank them from behind and Ren used his submachine guns to take down a Creep that tried to flank them from the other side.

The advantage was quickly won over to their side, and Penny hadn't even gotten involved yet. She was making sure that no Grimm would catch them off guard while they were dealing with the more immediate threats. By the time the pack was destroyed, Penny had landed behind them, revealing herself to have some kind of thrusters in her feet that allowed her to fly into the sky like some kind of superhero. Any other day of the week or at any other time, and Ruby might have fawned over it. Not now though, she had to make sure that the team she had just saved were okay.

"Neon!" Ruby called out once she saw the rainbow-haired girl. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah," Neon sighed explosively as she wiped a trickle of blood from the corner of her lips and rolled up to her. "A little beat up, but we're fine, right guys?"

"Yeah," Flynt gave them all a thumbs up.

"Eh," The other two said, too tired to give a more straightforward answer.

"Alright, that's good. Go get yourselves back to the docking stations over there," Ruby said, gesturing to the direction they had just come from. "There are more people over there, and soldiers, they can help protect you and can take care of anyone who needs help. Maybe even get you back in the fight."

"Heh, thanks Little Red!" Neon gestured wildly for her teammates. "Let's go boys!"

Ruby watched them all go with a nod, then looked around to make sure that her own friends were okay. They all nodded back at her in turn, they were fine. She had to tell herself. They could take care of themselves and she is probably at the most risk out of all of them. She was the one with reduced aura and no semblance.

A screech and a blast of wind came out of nowhere and knocked them all down. Instinctively, Ruby reached up to cup her ears and protect her head, and thankfully nothing else came. She opened her silver eyes and looked up at the massive Grimm Wyvern that had clawed its way out of a mountain. It was bigger and more powerful than she ever thought a Grimm creature could get. It must have been centuries of years old, maybe even older than that. All this negativity in Vale and Beacon must have been enough to wake it up, and it was so evil and full of darkness that the drops of blood that the Atlesian battleships were able to incite were creating pools of darkness that spawned even more Grimm. Dozens of freshly spawned Grimm of all types came out of each pool before it dried out and evaporated away. Ruby already knew what she had to do before she even got herself back up to her feet. Looking up at the Grimm Wyvern, her silver eyes narrowed.

"Are you guys thinking what I am thinking?" She asked as she cocked in an armour piercing dust round into Crescent Rose.

"We're going to have to take that thing down," Jaune said, agreeing with her. "Can we do it?"

"We're not going to know until we try!" Nora exclaimed excitedly. "I always wanted to slay the dragon, does this mean I am going to be the start of a new fairy tale?"

"If we survive, yes," Ren answered.

"We will survive," Weiss added, determined.

"And we'll be remembered around the whole world as the slayers of the dragon!" Yang exclaimed as she slammed her fists together and activated her semblance.

Ruby agreed with all of them, but they had other things to worry about at the moment. Penny stood away from them, being oddly silent as she looked up at the massive flying Grimm and just… thinking? She didn't know. Penny could fly up there and fight the creature herself, but despite how powerful she was down there, she doubted that she could take the thing on all by herself unless she was hiding even more from her than she originally thought. That thought burned away quickly as the freshly spawned Grimm started to growl and snarl at them, noticing and sensing their presence. The students got ready to do battle, suddenly surrounded by Grimm, Penny activated her swords and hovered into the air once more, her green eyes glowing brightly as she began to exert more of her auxiliary power. Ruby fired her first shot but instead of just a normal armour piercing bullet a blur of yellow lightning burst out and slew a fifth of the Grimm in the blink of an eye. Ruby cheered at the familiar gust of wind as Harriet slid to a stop, her usual smug expression on her face as her own speed semblance crackled all around her.

"STAY!" Another member of the Ace Ops called outright as a large crowd of Grimm began to pounce on Jaune. While they were suspended in the air in some kind of slow time dilation semblance, a large hand made of pure aura came down and crushed them all into paste on the pavement. Two more huntsmen poured out and landed around them, a dark-skinned man and a man with strange markings on his forehead. Both of them still had bandages on them for their agitated injuries. Marrow and Vine, Ruby remembered them.

"Hah!" A tall and buff dark-skinned woman landed beside them next. One of her arms was injured and the other was replaced by a bionic one, she smiled smugly and stomped her feet on the ground. Encasing them with aura as her semblance activated. "Found the dragon, Clover!"

"It's a Wyvern, or whatever." The leader of the Ace Ops said as he stepped up and stood beside his team. "No one really cares. What are you kids doing out here?"

"We're here to help!" Ruby exclaimed right away. "Beacon is our home too, we want to-"

"Okay, good. You lot will support us." Clover looked to Penny. "Just don't get in our way, and Penny, everything okay up here?" He asked, pointing to his head and implying a deeper question.

Penny looked at him with the same blank expression. "The virus has been eliminated from my system and I went further to put up multiple firewalls to stop it from affecting me or the mechs and attack droids."

"Good to hear," Clover said with a gentle nod. Then looked back to the others. "We'll work together, for now, that thing needs to be taken down - it's causing way too much damage to the school and the battleships aren't enough to take it down. It's just too fast. We have to disable it somehow. You," He pointed to Ruby. "Don't you have a powerful sniper rifle?"

"I do," Ruby confirmed.

"Wait for our signal, and you'll know when to shoot and where," Clover said. "Everyone else, when the dragon collides with the ground, that will be your signal to attack. Use everything at your disposal, and aim for the wings, neck, eyes, inside of the mouth, whatever. Just make sure it doesn't get back up."

Ruby and Jaune's team felt the sudden urge to salute the man, they didn't, but the urge was there.

"Yes, sir!"

Marcus heaved and let out a long exhale of air. Finally, he made it to the CCT. It took a lot of fighting, killing, and quickly sneaking in order for him to just get in the general vicinity of the building. But he'd finally made it. He was getting tired after all that fighting. Scratch that, he was already tired after all of that fighting and killing. He hardly had any time to catch a breath. Being strapped to the chair for so long barely moving must have caused his muscles to atrophy some amount. It wasn't that much, but it was noticeable. If he hadn't been stuck in that chair and was able to keep himself in shape, he probably wouldn't be nearly as tuckered out as he was now.

Oh well, that's what he gets for trying to be the good guy all of a sudden. He'd need to beat Cinder and whatever else lied ahead with what he had. At the very worst, Cinder was a full-powered maiden, but at least she would be tired. At the very best, she has already been killed by Ozpin or something. It would have saved him a whole lot of trouble, though the likelihood of the latter being the case was beyond slim, it was at least an amusing thought as Marcus trekked through the final meters and touched the handles of the doors before him.

He swung them open and immediately regretted his decision. He was a fool to think that the CCT would be as empty as it was the first time he infiltrated the building all the way back during the dance. There were White Fang and Grimm already invading and actually fighting amongst themselves. It was a three-way battle, including the Atlesian soldiers and huntsmen that fought as well. Four-way if he included himself as well and since he doubted he'd be considered an ally by the hunters and soldiers.

"Why is it never easy?" Marcus asked out loud as he loaded his second to last clip. Now there was just one left. "It's never easy… it's always something." After taking a second to catch his breath, he prepared himself mentally and dashed in with enhanced speed. One of the advantages he had was that the Grimm would attack everything that breathed, and so they considered nothing other than their own kind to be an ally. So he wrapped around and covered himself and shot his pistol with one hand, aiming for the White Fang members and catching a few but not landing any fatal blows. He took cover briefly around a stone pillar and looked for the nearest elevator, then scratched the idea of an elevator in favor of not being pinned down in an enclosed space and looked for the stairwell instead. He found it all the way across the room, and of course, guarded by Atleisan soldiers. With a resigned sigh, Marcus dashed forward and weaved his way through the small horde of Grimm. Smashed his elbow into the face of a terrorist, broke his mask and then stabbed another quickly in a lightning-fast in-n-out maneuver. Now suddenly with two men down, the White Fang was forced to pull a tactical retreat. Which attracted the attention of the Grimm and gave the soldiers the confidence to push forward.

It served as a double-edged plan for him as the soldiers noticed him quickly, and recognized him instantly. Wasting no time and not hesitating for even a second, Marcus charged forward and shoulder-bashed the first soldier in the abdomen and carried him a few feet forward. The other soldiers cursed and didn't open fire as he ran past them when they made way as to not be barreled over and potentially knocked out as a result. Marcus, still holding the soldier, twisted around and held his gun to his head, making a clear threat to the other soldiers and huntsmen to back off or else he'd kill the man. They were spouting orders and demands in a sad attempt to try and negotiate with him, but Marcus was having none of it, barely paying attention to them as he inched his way closer to the entrance of the stairwell behind him.

As soon as his back hit the door he kicked the man forward with his bionic leg, sending the man tumbling forward and landing on his hands and knees. A hail fire of bullets followed immediately after, but not before Marcus could slam the door shut behind him and start rushing up the stairs.

His thighs burned and his muscles screamed at him as he jumped up three or four steps at a time. Not stopping for even a second. He would go up one flight of stairs in less than three seconds. Minutes passed, and he found himself glancing at the sign that told him he was on the fifty-second floor. Just about thirty away from the top into Ozpin's office. The thing is, he knew that Amber was somewhere in the building, but not where she was exactly. As much as he would have loved to be as smart as some of the media claimed him to be, he didn't know everything.

Marcus heaved and kept jumping up entire flights of stairs, and cursed when the stairwell stopped at Floor 70 and didn't go any higher. It was likely because of people like him who had ill-intent and wanted to do something malicious in or to the CCT. That was the reason Cinder insisted on him taking the elevator up despite the risk of him getting pinned down and trapped. With no other option, he refused to waste time going all the way back down to take the elevator. He checked how many rounds he had in his clip and made sure a bullet was in the chamber, then gripped his knife in a reverse grip, and pushed through the last door to the seventieth floor.

It wasn't nearly as destroyed as the earlier floors he'd seen on the way up, but it was still a mess. He didn't know how, but it seemed that the White Fang had fought their way all the way up to even this floor. No Grimm were up here, but this was where the strongest of the White Fang were. Which meant that the strongest huntsmen were up there fighting against them as well. It didn't take a lot of thought on who those huntsmen may be. There were only a scarce few that could be considered the very best huntsmen in Vale. Qrow was one of them, and despite being a little out of practice, Taiyang was still up there as well. And given that this was the CCT, the very building in which the disabled fall maiden may be hiding, they would be fighting tooth and nail to protect her.

He could already hear them fighting, Marcus wiped the sweat from his brow and slowly pushed the door open and slipped into one of the computer rooms where people could contact others across Remnant thanks to the CCT connection. There wasn't much space to take cover usually, but now that there was a round of fighting and dust explosives going off in every which direction, there was enough rubble and debris that Marcus could use to hide and take cover if need be.

There hadn't been a need at all, he quickly realized as he saw the two men he suspected already to be just at the tail end of their battle. White Fang members, some of them being dressed differently from the others and assumed to be higher-ranking officers, lied on the ground either unconscious or dead. He watched and waited for Qrow to be done with the last two, who were both fox faunus of some kind, and it didn't take long for the older huntsman to ultimately take them both down and knock them out. The minute he did, he looked around to make sure there weren't any more enemies, missing Marcus as he hid in the darkest part of the room behind cover, and went down to one knee.

"Is that round six down?" Taiyang asked, sitting down on the floor and against the wall, holding his abdomen which was bleeding from a wound. It wasn't deep and it didn't look fatal, but most likely he was out of the fight for now. Considering there were about a dozen of the opposition. Most likely, the blonde hunter was overwhelmed and got hurt because of it. Numbers did sometimes triumph over quality. Sometimes there just wasn't enough you could do.

"If there's going to be a seven, I'd rather it happen in a few minutes so I have time to catch my breath," Qrow said with a heave. He was much less injured than his partner, with only a few bruises and a reduced aura count. But he was still able to fight, which spoke much of his skill. "Damn, I really regret sending the girl away, she would have been helpful here."

"A tenth of a tenth of the fall maidens power wouldn't have been enough to do anything," Taiyang pointed out.

"I know, but at least she would have been here." Qrow barked back. "Maybe then you wouldn't be on your ass with a hole in your stomach. Seriously, you really let yourself go."

"The hole isn't that big…" Taiyang grumbled under his breath before a pained chuckle escaped from his lips. "I'll live, I… I just need to sit out for a bit."

"I'll handle things from here," Qrow narrowed his eyes as he scanned the room a second time. Getting serious once again. "You just sit tight, let me show you why I'm the strongest huntsman in all of Vale."

"Sure, go for it," Taiyang muttered.

Marcus sat behind his cover contemplating on what he should do. The elevator was near to where he was sitting, but in order to get there, he needed to cross open space. Where Qrow would undoubtedly spot him and attack. If he wasn't on a time limit, he would have taken his time. Watching from the darkness until Qrow blinked, turned his head away, yawned, anything that would blur or darken his vision for even a second. Maybe he would have even tried to scale the building from the outside. Unfortunately, he still didn't have the luxury of time on his side. He went through every other way he could think of to get past Qrow and Taiyang without a fight, but in the end, he always knew what he had to do. They weren't going to just let him pass, and Qrow despite his boasts really was as strong and smart as he said. At least when it came to fighting.

Stopping himself from hesitating any longer, Marcus stood up from his hiding spot shrouded in darkness and stepped out into the light, his red shirt shined in the moonlight as it glowed behind Qrow's back. Immediately, two pairs of red and blue respectively locked onto his figure, and Qrow scowled at him. He stood up and drew his weapon, the thick heavy sword shimmering in the light as he aimed it at him.

"You," Qrow sneered. "I should have known you would have taken this chance to escape. Damn it, I told Oz that he should have left someone to watch you!"

"You and I both know that still wouldn't have stopped me." Marcus pointed out. "And where did all this animosity come from? I haven't told a lie since I got here, you know I'm here for a reason and that isn't so I can fuck with you two."

"You're still a murderer," Taiyang said as he tried to force himself to stand up, only to cry out in pain and slide back down. Giving him, he settled for a glare. "You still hurt my daughters and killed their teammate. If you think we're going to trust you just because you weren't actually the one who killed Summer, you have another thing coming."

"Not from you, I'm sure," Marcus remarked. "Funny how every time something terrible is happening you're stuck somewhere on your ass. Let me see… Mountain Glenn you were all but useless, you let Summer go try and find me by herself, and before that, I'm guessing Raven left you? I'm going to go with that since she isn't here and you look like you want to pull my spine out through my balls all of a sudden."

"Don't let him get in your head Tai," Qrow warned. "That's how he wins. By manipulation and dirty tactics. I would know, I do the same thing."

"You can't beat me Qrow," Marcus warned, forcing down his own fatigue and taking an open stance. "You couldn't beat me even with help from that Schnee woman. What makes you think you can beat me all by yourself as exhausted as you are already?"

"Heh, I never needed that woman anyway. She just got in the way. Luckily she won't be doing that again while she's happily sitting up in Jimmy's flagship right now." Qrow smirked and held his sword with both hands. Marcus narrowed his eyes at the man. "Let's see how you do when you don't have explosives set up in trains to give you an edge. This is just you and me now, no tricks lying in wait, no back up for either of us."

"This is going to be the last time we fight, Qrow," Marcus warned. "Just let me go in this elevator, and you can forget that I was even here."

"Not a chance, old friend." Qrow shook his head.

Marcus snickered and shook his head. It always ended like this, with the exception of Tenne, everyone always had something to fight for. They always wanted to do the impossible. He guessed that was just a part of being human. The inner desire to prove fate wrong and get the ending that you desired instead of what was laid out for you. Marcus himself was an example of that. If he didn't desire change, he would still be on Cinder's side and helping her get the maiden's powers right now. The hardest part about it was that he understood it.

However, that didn't change anything.

He had to stop Cinder, and right now whether he knew it or not, Qrow was in his way.

Which meant that he needed to be dealt with.

In a flash of white Marcus shot forward like a bullet and across the room Qrow did the same. They met in the middle and their weapons clashed. Despite the size, Qrow wielded Harbinger like it was any normal sword, and because of its size, Marcus' much smaller weapon in comparison wouldn't be able to survive a great number of strikes against it. Marcus pushed the sword up further against Qrow's blade, metal ground against metal and it was so loud that both men winced at the noise. As Marcus' sword reached the end of Qrow's, he used his other hand to grab the pommel of Qrow's weapon and twisted it. It was a simple trick, but a very old one. Qrow was forced to change his grip lest he lose his sword entirely, and with his open hand, he pushed Marcus away with a palm punch.

The white-haired man staggered but kept his balance. Flipping away when Qrow shifted his weapon into a scythe quickly and dashed forward him in a familiar yet much more enhanced maneuver to Ruby's. This was the man who taught her everything she knew, so of course he'd have some of her moves. Somehow, he did it even faster than she did. Marcus raised his metal leg and clashed it against Qrow's curved blade. If it was flesh and blood, the leg might have been torn off. But thanks to his bionics, he was able to perform a parry and kick the weapon away. Giving him the time to whip out his pistol and smash the barrel into Qrow's face. He was about to pull the trigger but felt a shotgun blast explode from his midsection. His eyes bulged out of his face as he was sent flying backward and toward the wall. Qrow slid to a stop, the barrel from the tip of his scythe smoking as a small trickle of blood leaked down his face from his forehead.

The barrel of Marcus' barrel smoked as well, and while he was shot in the chest by a shotgun he managed to just graze Qrow with a shot of his own. He stopped himself before he could slam into the wall, kicking off it with a display of athleticism and landing on his feet. The moment he made contact with the ground he charged forward, ignoring the stinging pain in his chest as the pellets from Qrow's shotgun fell off and rushed the man before he could catch his breath.

Qrow cursed and swung his scythe in a wide arc to gain some space. Marcus jumped over and twisted in the air, dodging the attack and landing on his feet to continue his charge. Qrow stepped back a few more times and half-shifted his scythe into a curved sword and slashed at Marcus from an angle.

Marcus snapped his head to the side and twisted his body along with it. Spinning on his heel, he faced Qrow again from his side. Instead of stabbing him in the side and bouncing off of aura, Marcus stabbed his blade into the exposed cogs in the hilt of his weapon. Qrow cursed as the cogs suddenly stopped turning and snapped, causing his weapon to now be permanently stuck in its half-transformed state. His weapon now losing many of its primary functions. Marcus went low as Qrow tried to throw a punch into his face. He tried to uppercut from his low position, but his legs crossed each other and he stumbled. Qrow kicked his leg out and Marcus barely crossed one arm across his chest in time to block it, but he was pushed back and tipped over because of it. He rolled backward and tumbled through, landing back on his feet.

Only to widen his eyes as he had to cross his arms again to stop Harbinger from clashing with his chest directly. Qrow had thrown his weapon at him and now they were both disarmed. Marcus still had his gun, but with how fast Qrow was running at him right now he dropped it in favor of preparing himself for hand to hand combat.

They were both just as good with their hands as they were with their weapons. The sound of knuckles smacking against skin and the clap of hits and blocks and the whips of air were all too audible as Qrow and Marcus brawled. Their hands were blurs in the air as they moved and fought. The blows that landed bruised and damaged the aura and skin. It came down to a battle of stamina and pain tolerance. Qrow lacking in the former substantially. While he proved himself to actually be better than Marcus at hand to hand, he was just too exhausted in his current state to actually defeat him.

Marcus ducked under a punch and slammed his fist into Qrow's abdomen. After hearing his grunt. He leaned back and slid under another, bringing his fist up to smash it into Qrow's chin. The man's head whipped back but he still lashed out and caught his cheek with a strike of his own. But Marcus pushed through the pain and tripped the man over, falling with him as he was grabbed. Qrow tried to choke him out by putting him in a guillotine submission hold, but Marcus didn't let his head get caught tight and slipped out of it. Now on top and straddling the older man, he threw his fists down to try and batter Qrow into unconsciousness. Qrow didn't let it happen for long, and grabbed Marcus' forearm and pushed him off of him after a quick jab to his throat. Marcus fell onto his side but rolled away just in time for Qrow to miss and slam his hand into the floor. Both men rolled away, but Qrow cursed when he saw Marcus continue his rolling until he grabbed the hilt of the blade he had stuck into Qrow's weapon to disable it. He couldn't be careful in it, and the sword was destroyed and broken into metal pieces as Marcus finally managed to get some of it out. Now it was just a hunk of sharpened metal at the end of a hilt, no longer than a finger. Marcus took that and used it however he could, pushing Qrow back by slashing through the air. The two of them circled one another, constant feints being thrown out by the other side as Qrow was careful to try and find a way to disarm or even steal Marcus' broken weapon.

After an exchange of a few back and forth probing attacks, Qrow lunged forward and grabbed Marcus sword wrist with his left hand as Marcus stopped Qrow's other hand from reaching for his neck. The two of them pushed against each other for a few moments, but Marcus proved to be the more physically stronger man and pushed Qrow back step by step.

Qrow cried out as Marcus threw his thigh up into the butt of the hilt of his broken weapon and stabbed Qrow in the hip, breaking his aura and drawing blood. Without the enhancement of aura, Qrow became significantly weaker, but not so much that he was any less dangerous. He still had his strength and his will. He pushed Marcus' wrist out and forced the shiv out of his body. Marcus pulled back and gripped the weapon with both hands, Qrow widened his eyes as his back struck a wall and all of a sudden the shiv was scratching against his chest where his heart was located. Marcus pushed and pushed, and Qrow fought to push him back. Even going as far as to spit in Marcus' face to try and stagger him. All it did was anger Marcus, and he slammed his palm into the butt of the hilt, forcing the blade to stab into Qrow's chest muscles.

"No!" Taiyang cried helplessly as Marcus stabbed the shiv into Qrow's chest. It didn't go deep enough, only about an inch or two, so Marcus took Qrow by the shoulder and in a gesture that looked almost like a hug, forcing the shiv all the way down to the hilt and stabbing Qrow in one of the major arteries of the heart.

Qrow slowly lost his fight and he was held there against the wall with a shiv in his chest as Marcus stared sadly into his eyes. What was strange to him was that he wasn't dying yet, instead, Marcus helped the man walk and lead him back to where Taiyang was sitting, and helped him fall down until his butt hit the floor.

"The blade is in one of the major arteries of your heart," Marcus told him. "If you pull it out you will bleed to death. If you want to see your nieces again and not leave them without an uncle, you'll leave that in there. I didn't steal your semblance so you should be able to recover your aura and heal on your own. I wouldn't want a shitty semblance like yours right now anyway."

Qrow looked down in disbelief, the amount of accuracy one would need to actually manage to stab a man in the heart and not kill them? He couldn't help but chuckle through the pain.

Marcus leaned back and let his fatigue show, heaving for breath and wiping the spittle off of his face from when Qrow spit at him. "Don't say I never did anything good for you."

"Heh…" Qrow sighed, somehow finding it easy to breathe with a knife in his heart. "Just when I finally thought I knew who you were, you pull this shit."

"I don't understand," Taiyang said. "Why are you doing this? What is your goal here?"

"Didn't I tell you the answer to that question already?" Marcus asked with a bitter chuckle. "I want to be free. I can't exactly be free with Cinder on the loose and I sure as hell can't be free if I kill you two. Besides, I have a promise to keep. I intend to keep it."

"You're doing all of this because of a promise you made over a decade ago?" Qrow asked.

Marcus shrugged his shoulders as if to say "What can you do?" As his reply.

"Just go," Taiyang said once his chuckles finally settled down. "Ozpin and the maiden are underneath the CCT. Cinder already got the maiden's powers." Marcus cursed silently after hearing that. "If you're quick, you might be able to get down there in time to help him. I'm not sure he'd ally with you, but if it meant taking her down, I'm sure he'd make an exception."

"Damn it," Marcus stood up and tossed his gun in Qrow's lap. "Use that just in case any more White Fang get up here. There's about three shots left and you have one more clip," He said as he tossed the magazine in his lap next. "Make your shots count."

"Sure." Qrow lazily replied. "Just go, don't make me regret not using this to shoot you in the back."

"Wouldn't be the first time…" Marcus muttered as he stepped away from the two men. They looked at him and told him to go a second time, and Marcus turned his back to them, almost expecting to be shot as he left, but for once, he didn't get that feeling that it was something that was going to happen.

The elevator dinged as it's doors opened up, and with one last two-finger wave, the doors shut in front of him. The buttons glowed, but he knew that there had to be some trick to it. Officially, Beacon's tower didn't have a basement. So there had to be some special function that got Ozpin and whoever he wanted down there. Marcus went down to one knee and connected his scroll to the elevator's system and went to work. There were dozens of floors beneath him, but nothing beneath ground level. After quickly going through the motions of hacking and delving deeper into the code, he found it. It was simply labeled as B. Marcus felt air rush out of his nose in relief as the elevator started to move down.

He had exactly ten seconds to catch his breath before something in the shape of a fireball punched through the elevator and came out through the other side. How the elevator didn't immediately explode or for the brakes on it to break, was a miracle. Marcus cursed and stomped on the little pools of fire that was left behind. Once he was sure that the fire wouldn't cause any more problems, he looked up through the hole that something had made.

Up above in the higher parts of the elevator shaft, a blast of fire was still visible, though it shortly began to wink out into a much smaller and more controlled heat and after another few moments, it completely went out. There was only one explanation.

Cinder wasn't in Beacon's basement anymore.

"Damn it!" Marcus rushed to the control panel on the elevator and pushed its buttons. Of course, nothing happened and by the time he'd be able to rig the elevator to go back up, he didn't if know if it could go up anymore.

If Cinder was up there at the top of the tower, then that meant that Ozpin lost. Which meant that he was dead and there was no real point in going down there. Cinder had the powers and that meant that she had to be stopped as soon as possible before she had time to master those powers and become even more dangerous than she already was. Cursing, Marcus resigned himself to going down into the basement, there was nothing he could do until it got to the bottom. Maybe there could be something he could salvage as a weapon of any kind of armour so he could use that against Cinder. Because right now, all he had was his fists and will. Which just simply wasn't going to be enough to stop her.

The elevator taunted him with one last ding as it made it to the bottom. The doors somehow still had power to slide open. Well, one of them did anyway, and Marcus stepped out to see the carnage that was left behind from Cinder and Ozpin's battle.

Ozpin wasn't alone, he quickly realized when he came across the burned and lacerated body of Glynda Goodwitch. He knelt down beside her to see if she was somehow still alive, but with a sigh, he found that she was certainly deceased, he closed her panicked wide green eyes and left her body there. He didn't know the woman at all other than by her name. But to be a professor of Beacon, she had to be a good woman at the very least.

Looking around the room again, it was torn up and destroyed. Fire was everywhere and nothing there could really be salvaged. In some vain sense of hope, he looked for Amber herself. Only to sigh at the sight of an arrow plunged deeper into her heart, dead. He continued to look around and came across shards of broken black glass. At least it looked like Ozpin and Glynda put up a decent fight, though Marcus wondered how Ozpin could have lost. If the story was right, then he was an ancient warrior with thousands of years under his belt and magical properties. By all means, he should have had the advantage here. Was it because he was old? Marcus didn't know how or what happened, but Ozpin lost. And he found the upper half of his body sticking out of a pile of rubble near the center of the room. Barely breathing.

"So, you're still alive eh?" Marcus said as he went down to one knee. Looking at Ozpin's current state, there was no saving him. It was a wonder how he was still alive now. "Resilient bastard, if only you weren't paralyzed from the waist down."

"Your crude sense of humor… ceases to amuse me…" Ozpin croaked out, not even able to look up at the man. "What… are you…"

"I'm here to kill Cinder," Marcus said with a sigh and took a second look around the room. "I hoped that you'd handle that for me, but it seems that even you have your limits."

"Off… guard…" The old man whispered. "Glynda… is… she…"

"She's dead," Marcus said quietly. "I'm sorry."

"Damn… it…" Ozpin barely balled his hand into a fist. "All… the time… I fail… every… time… Mistakes… Lives… Damn this… curse…"

Marcus let the man have his time to rave and rant. Even if it only came out as grumbles and curses about Gods and things that Marcus simply did not understand. It lasted for but a minute before Ozpin ran out of breath and coughed up a violent amount of blood. Marcus did the decent thing and wiped some of it off of Ozpin's lips, giving him the cleanest visage he could get in the last moments of this life.

"Mar… cus…" Ozpin croaked out his name.

"What is it?"

"Are you… friend… or foe…?"

"I can be either, depending on the circumstances." Marcus sighed. "But right now, we're allies."

Ozpin in spite of his pain, smirked and pointed to a part of the wall across the hallway. Marcus didn't know what he was supposed to be looking at, but he trusted that Ozpin was doing this for a reason.

"Your weapons and armour… in there." Ozpin said with a cough. "Take them… Use them… Kill Cinder… Please." He opened his hand.

"Hmph," Marcus nodded his head and clasped his hands with Ozpin's. "I will. I'm your only hope right now I'm guessing?"

Ozpin didn't reply, his head fell and the grip he had on Marcus' hand went limp. With a quiet sigh, Marcus looked down at the man's body. He felt… a certain degree of sadness as he looked at the man. He couldn't imagine what he has been through over the countless decades and centuries. There was a popular saying that right before someone dies, they show their true colors and face. Ozpin was a desperate man who wanted to save the world even if he had to do it with nothing but his bare hands. Over the course of his life - This life, anyway. Ozpin was a friend, a teacher, an enemy, and an unlikely ally all in the span of a few decades.

Marcus didn't particularly look up to the man, but he respected him.

"Good luck in the next life, old man." He said as he slipped his hand out of Ozpin's and stood. "I'll try to make it a little easier for you."

With that parting goodbye, Marcus went on to the panel on the wall that Ozpin pointed to before he finally died. When he made it, the panel was a slightly different shade of green from the rest of the scenery. Just slightly, but noticeable now that Marcus was so up close to it. He placed his hands around the wall to see if there was some mechanism to unlatch it from the wall, but he found it suspiciously easy when the panel came off with little resistance.

Inside the panel was like looking at the inside of a safe. His hand cannon and his knives were all there, along with his armour and his ammo. All neatly stacked, and with a note on the top of it. It was addressed to him. With a snort, Marcus reached forward and opened it.

"Marcus," It read. "I am on a time constraint so I shall write this in a quick, cohesive, and straightforward fashion. You are either an ally or an enemy. Either way, you somehow came across your weapons and armour. They are not trapped, nor are they rigged with a tracker of any kind. As suspicious as this may seem to you, I assure you that this is working as intended. Out of respect for your being my student some time ago, this is the final chance I am giving you to change your mind to stray from your current path. Out of respect for Summer's wishes, and for Ruby's as well, who has recently come to me in secret and requested that you be given this second chance. I don't know why, or how, but it seems that you have made friends. Use this chance wisely, because you will not be given another.

Lastly, beware of Salem. She is the true enemy, Cinder is but a pawn.

-Ozpin."

"Tch, a little late for this, don't ya think?" Marcus let the note fall and reached for his weapons. "I'm here, aren't I? That should be enough. Whatever happens, this is my last fight. I'm done fighting for people who just want to use me as a tool." He grumbled as he strapped his armour on easily and strapped his holsters back onto his body. "I'm my own boss now, we're just temporary allies until I can go fuck off in the outskirts." His knife that he has survived so long with made its way down into his sheathe. He loaded his pistol and holstered that as well. Now fully armored back up and armed, he felt more confident and comfortable.

With a shaky sigh, he went back to the elevator and stepped back into it. His mind was racing again, why leave him a note like that? He just felt it all pointless. It was clear that Ozpin intended to try and rope him into his little circle. It wasn't going to work, but he was going to try anyway. For some reason that bothered Marcus more than he cared to admit.

The elevator door slid shut again as he pushed a button. He went up a few floors, but he forced the doors open and jumped out when he felt the elevator start to shake and slow down. Behind him, he could see the elevator fall all the way down to the bottom, exploding once it hit the bottom of the shaft. With a sigh, Marcus thanked Ozpin for his smart design of the building. It didn't have just that one elevator, there were many more he could use to get to the top.

He didn't expect the elevator shaft to be completely empty and void an entire elevator when the second set of doors slid open. He heard a loud grinding sound, and watched as a flash of metal and red shot straight up the shaft. Marcus cursed and jumped into the shaft, grabbing on to the metal cables that lifted and brought down the elevator itself. It was moving upwards since the girl he just barely caught a glimpse of was using some kind of semblance to force it up, and it stopped suddenly and he threw himself onto the floor ahead of him.

He was on the seventy-sixth floor when he checked to see where he was at. Just about twenty from Ozpin's office. What he hated Ozpin for was this shitty design of a building. Or was it Atlas? Either way, whoever did it deserved to be stabbed. There's no reason the office of the headmaster of Beacon should be at the very top of a near one hundred floor building.

"Damn it," Marcus said as he looked toward the second stairwell in front of him. He already felt tired again. If he didn't have a promise to keep, he would have been gone already.

"Almost there…" Marcus whispered to himself as he started climbing the steps.

His muscles continued to scream at him as he forced his body to keep moving. As did his mind. Step by step, the end seemed to feel farther and farther. He didn't even realize how slow he was moving until his legs felt heavy again.

It turned out slaying the dragon wasn't at all how it was like in the movies.

Ruby loaded in her clip of armour piercing bullets and took aim again, wiping the sweat off of her brow before doing so and started opening fire on the massive Grimm once again. Three shots were fired, and three shots bounced off of the dragons boney outer skeleton. Three more misses on the eye that she was aiming for. It was just so small compared to the rest of its body. Yet it was the only thing that seemed to hurt the damned thing.

What the Ace Ops massively made up for with their strength and teamwork on the ground, they seemed to be lacking from ranged. Sure, there was Marrow and his assault rifle boomerang but it wasn't like he was shooting rockets out of that thing. It wasn't anything special and the dragon was just too far away for him to use his semblance on it properly and they didn't even know if he could use his semblance on it because of its massive size. Harriet was able to keep track of it and revealed to be able to throw the bolts of lightning that were created from her using her semblance to do some very minor damage to the carapace of the creature's armour while being careful not to make it bleed so more Grimm wouldn't spawn around them. Clover had a fishing rod for a weapon, and while unethical yet effective against smaller opponents, it was all but useless against the creature. Elm was just as useful, and Vine seemed to be the only one who was actually able to catch up to the creature because of his quiet versatile and mobile semblance.

Yet they were doing leagues more than they ever were. Ruby watched in awe as the members of the Ace Ops showed them why they were the best of the best in Atlas. Their teamwork was beyond trusting, and it was like they all shared the same mind with how clean and awesome maneuvers that they were able to pull off together.

In comparison, the only thing they could do was just as Clover said, play support. The ones that had effective ranged weapons or abilities like Ruby, Weiss, Penny, and Nora helped with focusing on the dragon while Yang, Jaune, and Ren took care of the Grimm that spawned out of the pools of darkness that bled from the dragon almost any time it was wounded. Other than that, the Ace Ops were the ones doing the most damage and getting closer and closer to bringing the dragon down.

Other students and soldiers that could still fight were inspired by their efforts. The bulk of the White Fang being defeated in Beacon, people were able to shift their focus to the arguably more worrisome Grimm. And since they were at a school that trained people to kill Grimm, it was only a matter of time before they started to get help. The other students followed their lead, the ones with guns, ranged semblances, or whatever other ability they had was focused on the dragon itself while all the melee oriented students and huntsmen were focused on the Grimm that still invaded Beacon either from the Emerald Forest or from the splashes of blood from the dragon.

It made it easier, but not so much so that they could say that this was an imminent victory. The Wyvern was agitated, but it wasn't attacking them directly. It mainly focused on the buildings and the infrastructure of Ironwood's fleet, and little else. But once it did start to focus on them? Fighting it while it wasn't even paying attention to them was difficult enough, but fighting it when it was thrashing around and snapping at them was another. It was going to be a different kind of battle entirely when that happened, but right now they needed to keep working on catching its attention.

Penny looked up at the creature with glowing green eyes as she hovered in the air, then proceeded to look around to the hundreds of students and huntsmen along with the Ace Ops doing whatever they could in the effort to slay the dragon and save Beacon. Her energy supply was constantly charging, so she didn't have to worry about that. And she was sure that in time she might have been able to find a way to destroy the dragon. That time was limited, however. And every second that passed another innocent life was taken as the creature bled and more Grimm was spawned or was attracted because of the overwhelming amount of negativity throughout the entire kingdom.

Everyone was fighting so hard, Clover, Harriet, Elm, Vine, and Marrow. Ruby, Weiss, Yang, Jaune, Ren, Nora, and all the other friends and students that were shooting at the dragon. Or fighting the Grimm on the ground in brutal and bloody combat. She did her part, but she didn't feel like she was doing enough.

She was the one partly responsible for this in the first place. If she didn't take so long regaining control over her body Coco would have still been alive. She wouldn't have betrayed her father's rules and design and perhaps Cinder Fall and Adam Taurus wouldn't have had such a great catalyst to start the invasion of Vale and Beacon using the Grimm and the White Fang. All because she was too slow to regain control, all because of some stupid virus that leaked confidential information and made her vulnerable to manipulation.

She remembered the first time she stepped off the platform in her first alpha stage successful experiment. She already knew so much, yet she still knew so little. Her father treated her as if she was his own daughter, despite only giving her a part of his own aura which technically made him an extension of himself. She loved him, and he loved her. But that didn't mean that they could ignore important contingencies or not create backup plans just in case the worst really did happen.

Such as the lines and lines of code that told her that it was forbidden for her to ever take a human life, but that it was okay to spar with them, fight them, talk to them, love them, be friends with them and so on and so forth. Underneath the lines and lines of code, there was a contingency. A backup plan in case somehow, something went wrong and she went on a rampage.

It was already eating away at her cybernetic mind. The code telling her to fulfill the order. She wasn't refusing it, but she was just trying to find the right time to go through with it and answer her own design.

The Grimm dragon provided her that opportunity. Her statistics told her that despite the damage, there was only a twenty-two percent chance that they would win the more traditional way of fighting, and that was including that good fortune semblance of Clover Ebi. Twenty-two percent. It was better than she originally thought it was, but it wasn't ideal. Far from it. Because there was a seventy-eight percent chance that they'd all be defeated and overran by Grimm and killed. That number was much too high. Much too high indeed.

"Contingency: Emergency K.S.D; Begin countdown sequence."

Within her cybernetic mind, she could hear the silent countdown begin. Penny put all of her body's power into the thrusters and fired herself through the air like a rocket. She could barely hear Clover and Ruby call out to her and ask what she was doing, but she wasn't going to reply. This was for them and everyone else that was fighting for their lives. If she did what Contingency: Emergency K.S.D entailed that there would be an eighty-six percent chance of success if she went through with her order as strategically as her computer mind calculated for her.

She flew through the air, weaving and dodging the flying Grimm that tried to stop her on her way to the dragon. The hail fire of bullets, grenades, and rockets all ceased in their assault as Penny got closer and closer to the dragon. Whether the thing spotted her or not was irrelevant information. Nothing was going to be able to survive what she was about to do, not even her.

"What is she doing!?" Ruby exclaimed as she watched the bright green light in the sky get closer and closer to the dragon. "She is going to get herself killed!"

Clover watched but remained silent. He uttered a silent thank you for the android and shut his eyes. This was all in her hands now.

Penny dodged the heavy beating wings and rolled underneath the dragon and latched onto its belly. The countdown in her mind broke under twenty seconds, and with the help of her thrusters. Penny slowly but swiftly climbed up the dragon's stomach and stopped when she was about in the center of its neck and chest.

"Contingency: Emergency Self Destruct, initiate," Penny said as she latched onto the neck of the dragon. Clutching tightly as her inner power core overflowed with power and became a literal ticking time bomb capable of destroying an entire city block.

5… 4… 3…

"Thank you, Friend Ruby."

2… 1…

"It was nice learning how to be human."

0… Self-Destruction, commencing!

"Goodbye."

Penny shut her eyes and smiled as her entire body exploded in a massive blast of green and white. All of the energy stored up within her body formed a giant orb in the sky which engulfed most of the dragon. The explosion was so bright that it looked like a new sun entered the solar system. The light slowly faded away within seconds, dimming down more and more until there was nothing but a mist of black and green falling from the sky.

Out of the mist came the fragmented remains of the dragon, dissipating away quickly as it plummeted toward the ground.

Everyone on the ground began to cheer frantically. Despite still being in battle against the Grimm. With the dragon now slain, there was a serious chance that Beacon would be able to put up a successful defense. Ruby watched the events unfold in front of her eyes, not being able to help the tears that rimmed her eyes as she realized that Penny wasn't coming back from that explosion. It took a few moments for her to realize exactly what the android girl did, and when she did she let out a few choked gasps. Another one of her friends, dead. Even though this was meant to be for a good cause and Penny might have just saved Beacon from destruction, that didn't make her sacrifice hurt any less.

She wanted to cry and bawl her eyes out and mourn for her friend. But after looking around and seeing just how exhausted people were, the Ace Ops, Yang and Weiss, Jaune and his team, she suddenly remembered the whole point of them going to Beacon. To stop the Grimm and the White Fang, and to save Pyrrha. Two out of three of those goals were completed, but there was still more to do.

Her eyes strayed toward Beacon's tower, that was where Jaune said Pyrrha was. Her friend was there, fighting, dying, she didn't know. But she was there, and she was in danger.

Voices cried out for her to stop as she rushed forward toward the tower before she knew what she was doing, but she didn't care. She couldn't consider this a victory if she lost any more friends.

"Ruby!" Yang cried out as she pushed herself up to her feet, but ran much too slow to ever catch up to her in time. "Wait!"

"Harriet," Clover snapped to the speedster. "Go catch up and help her. She must be going there for a good reason."

"Yes, sir!" Harriet sped off without hesitation.

"Why aren't you stopping her!?" Weiss yelled.

"Because if more people need help, I won't stop her from doing so," Clover said with a sigh as he looked around to all the injured. There was still a battle raging on, but it wasn't like he could send anyone else away to fight somewhere else when there was Grimm and terrorists still around. "We have wounded to tend to and people to protect. Believe in her and trust me. Please."

He really hoped he didn't make a mistake letting them go. But right now, he couldn't afford to begin regretting it anytime soon.

Marcus froze when he got to a room he recognized all too well. The bloodstain from the cat faunus he killed was still there and for him, it still looked fresh. He wondered why the door to this floor was locked up like it was. Now he understood why.

It seemed he wasn't the only person to get up this far either. Terrorists from the White Fang, some staff members, and students. All of them dead. Marcus didn't know why he decided to do what he was going to do, but when he saw that one of the computers was still on and operational, he just couldn't help himself. He was just… so tired. And he needed to get something off his chest.

An exhausted man, a head full of white hair, staggered his way through the ruined remains of what once was one of the most active rooms in the Beacon tower. He used a railing for support, the wound in his hip prevented him from moving any faster because of the pain and loss of stamina. His breathing felt as ragged and labored as he imagined his look. His eyes, already black, seemed even darker as he looked around the room. Bodies. Dead bodies. Students and staff members alike littered the floor. Sighing, he shook his head and kept moving. A man who has been through as much as he did couldn't allow his heart to care for those he knew nothing of, lest he be driven mad.

He only stopped when he sat down in front of the screen that he had seen earlier. The reflection of his face smiled back at him as he chuckled lightly. Without really thinking about it, he realized into the chair. Resting his tired muscles and mind.

The relaxing sensation of taking a seat after everything that has happened that day was euphoric. The pain in his legs and muscles faded somewhat, and he felt like he could fall asleep right then and there. He couldn't. There was still one more thing left to do.

Using skills taught to him by a certain organization, he reached both his hands forward and began typing away at the computer. A black admin screen came up, and after a few more commands he managed to get a video recording with the somehow still stable camera viewing him in the rectangular window in the middle of the screen. He saw himself, a man with a thousand wounds smiling a bloody smile as he looked into the camera. Man, he really looked more like shit than he previously thought he would.

"My name is Marcus Black," The ex-assassin man in the video began. Now that he could see himself he could see how his red and black sleeveless shirt was torn and burned in places, his gloved hands in a similar condition. Never did get the chance to repair them after everything that has happened in the past couple of months. "I don't really know why I've decided to do this while I'm on a time constraint, especially after everything that's happened, but I guess I never stopped being… well, me."

"Anyway, I'll skip the bullshit. 'Cause I got a story to tell, why? Because, well, why not?" Marcus laughed. "Take this as a sort of… explanation. Motives for why I am partly responsible for all this shit going down and whatnot. Why I killed the people I did… I'm not a good person, never have been and probably never will be. But hey, by the end of this story," He leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees after wiping blood off of his face.

"You just might understand me."

"Now, this all started the day I killed my son… I was betrayed by the organization that swore to give me a home for the rest of my life. They killed my wife and made my son believe that I was the one to do it. Once I was forced to go through that, that was when Cinder found me. That's right, I'm talking about the woman that started all of this. Cinder struck me as an interesting person at first, I never really was able to get a bead on her. But damn, did she expect a lot… I had my world turned upside down before I knew it, I'll have to refrain from saying why, of course. Try asking the General and see if he'll tell you the truth. After a few months of getting to know my new co-workers, they started to think of some plans. You can imagine what those plans were… All this for some stupid power. Heh. Some of them I even had a voice in. I worked with Emerald, the same girl that I helped lock away for the rest of her life. I feel a little bad for it, I'll admit. We had a pretty good dynamic. Cinder with us for a decent while, but of course, nothing good ever lasts…" Marcus sighed and smacked his lips together. He was dehydrated, but he had to keep going. "My old friends of the organization reminded me of what I left. Little did they know they made a mistake doing that. I hear they're all in the shithole now. Before I knew it a little birdy started becoming an issue, and soon after that, a certain cat girl started to get on my nerves. But nothing compared to the voices… I started to remember, they just kept coming back. It was torture…"

With a loud sigh, Marcus continued. "After that fiasco at the docks, I earned myself a meeting with… that. Again, ask James for the answer to what that is. I have a feeling I probably shouldn't mention its name just yet. After that, nothing ever got easier. Time and time again, it was the same routine. Fighting, killing, recruiting, talking, training, eating, shitting, then sleeping. I could go on and on into every little thing that I did, but none of them really matter right now. The voices kept coming, Cinder kept expecting more, Grass was an annoying piece of shit, and then I killed Blake Belladonna right in this very room." He made a show of gesturing to the area behind his back. "I can say I'm sorry a thousand times, it won't mean anything. But I did feel bad about it… Then the surprised ambush on that train, Roman Torchwick, who was my partner when I used to be a student at Beacon, died a pretty painful death. But of course, that wasn't before finally convincing me that It was time to get my head back in the game."

"I don't have much time left," Marcus said as he started to feel antsy. He'd already spent two minutes down here speaking to a camera while there was still a Cinder that needed killing. "So I am going to make the rest of this quick. I know what I did, I know that I am not a good person. I know I killed dozens of people, some of the people I cared about. But I wouldn't be sitting here in this chair telling you part of my story so I can be remembered as some asshat murderer with no conscience. By the time I am done with tonight, I swear, I better have a statue of me already in the works."

"That's about it, I guess," Marcus said. "There's nothing much else to say. At least not when I have a few seconds before I live this here for some lucky fuck to find. I guess the moral of my little explanation here is that I'm done fighting for survival. I have something to fight for now, and lucky you, it's all about this damn kingdom and the people that lived in it."

Before he continued, he shut off the monitor after ending the recording and saving it in a video file. Someone would find it, he was sure of it. But even with how shitty he was at giving speeches, he was sure that would rile some people up.

He stood up and took in a few more deep breaths and went out to scale the final few steps. He wasted time doing that, he knew, but he felt like he needed to do it. As he got closer to Ozpin's office, he could begin to hear the sounds of fighting. Quickening his pace, he ignored the pain and sores in his body once again and pushed on.

He was there, and now it was time to finish this.

Pyrrha was forced onto her knees. The arrow in her heel stopped her from putting up any more resistance. Her lungs burned, both from the lack of air she was breathing and from the soot and ash that she breathed in as she fought the new fall maiden, Cinder. She thought that she'd have a chance, she couldn't just run away after the headmaster and professor Goodwitch sacrificed their lives trying to stop her.

She had to try. She had to at least try.

"You are better than most," Cinder said as she walked toward her. Her heels clicking with each step. Despite all the fighting she has been through, she hardly looked fatigued at all. "You made me have to try a few times there. That speaks volumes since there were two others that made me have to try to beat them. You should be proud of yourself, Invincible Girl." Her bow formed in her hands once again. Pyrrha shut her eyes and looked up at her would-be murdered. At the very least, she would die with her chin up.

"It is such a shame that you were promised a power that was never yours, to begin with. That is what happens when humans such as you and I try to change destiny. If anything, I shall at least allow you to speak your final words before you die."

Pyrrha looked up at the woman, her green eyes scowling defiantly into the maiden's burning amber. She stood up on her knees, presenting her chest challengingly. "Do you believe in destiny?" Pyrrha asked.

Cinder scoffed and knotted a magical arrow into her bow. Pyrrha closed her eyes and waited for the release of death.

"Yes."

She heard the bow snap and she gasped. But not because an arrow impaled her through the chest like she thought it would, but because she felt something very hard slam into her hip and launch her across the ruined office of headmaster Ozpin. Pyrrha rolled and rolled until her back slammed against a wall with a mighty smack. With no aura, she felt something snap in her back. She could still move her neck and legs, so it wasn't her spine. But she landed awkwardly and she could feel that something was broken in her back.

Her eyes blinked open, and her vision was blurry, but she knew what she was seeing. That man, the same man that had easily defeated her on the train in mountain Glenn. Marcus Black, was attacking Cinder Fall relentlessly. The woman obviously expected this just as much as she did if her wide panicked eyes were of any indication. She could hardly believe what she was seeing, an enemy fighting against another enemy, and the man she has grown to fear had become the reason that she was still breathing now.

She would have asked questions, but her mind failed her and she felt lightheaded. Her eyes rolled to the back of her head, and passed out. All the fatigue and aura loss finally got to her.

Marcus smashed through Cinder's glass weapons with his knife, which he knew was more than strong and hard enough to break through such dense glass. Cinder was caught off guard and quickly put on the back foot and Marcus didn't stop his assault. He even managed to land quite a few strikes on her before Cinder snapped herself out of her initial shock and surprise and activated the powers of the fall maiden in the form of an area of effect attack. Wind crashed against Marcus' body, and in order to stop himself from smashing through the windows behind him, he dug his metal heels into the ground. He managed to stop himself, but the glass windows behind him were shattered by the force of Cinder's wind. Black eyes glared through his guard, and he stood against Cinder just as he promised he would. The maiden looking at him with such hatred and anger that in itself would have been enough to scare a Grimm.

"You," Cinder growled through her teeth. "I knew you were slithering around here somewhere. As much as I had hoped that you weren't going to get in my way anytime soon, it seems I was a fool to think that by gaining the full power of the fall maiden. Why oh why did you think it was a good idea to betray me, Marcus?"

"I had a change of heart," Marcus replied darkly. "You're a different kind of monster Cinder, I thought that this was going to bring a lot less heat than this. Do you really think I wasn't smart enough to figure it out? I'm not Emerald, I wasn't just going to blindly follow you and do whatever you say like a good puppy. Especially when you laid it on pretty thick with the constant threats and empty promises."

"You are too intelligent for your own good, Marcus." Cinder said as her eyes flamed even brighter. "I took risks to bring you into the fold, I convinced my Queen that you would be useful. Now I can't imagine how disappointed and angry she must be. First Roman, then Emerald, then Tyrian, and now I am guessing the White Fang as well?"

"I did kill Adam on my way here," Marcus taunted, enjoying the way Cinder's eyes widened with shock and anger. "Tenne betrayed you too, so she's out. And have you noticed a distinct lack of screeching lately? I'm guessing that the grunts of Beacon actually managed to do something for once. Good for them."

"You…"

"You're running out of allies, Cinder. No, you're already out of them. Now it's just you and me and no one is here to get in my way." Marcus flourished his knife and gripped it tightly. His white hair shimmered in the moonlight as he took his Atlesian black hand cannon out of its holster and aimed it and used his forearm as support. His trademark stance, and there was the bloodlust behind it to make it all the more dangerous.

Cinder looked at him for a good long moment. She eyed him up and down and was careful to spot every little detail. Once satisfied, she smirked and slowly hovered back down to the floor. Giving him a smug look the entire time.

"You're not the only smart one, Marcus. You are tired." She stated, Marcus kept his facade up and made it look as convincing as possible, but to Cinder, she was able to tell the difference. "You're shaking lightly, you are already sweating, and if I am seeing that correctly, you are injured as well." With every point, it became harder and harder for Marcus to keep up the act. His smug smirk slowly transformed into a pained glare. Cinder figured him out already. "Your bluff nearly got through to me, I must admit. But surely you don't believe that you are the only one that can read people. You really don't think you can beat me in your current state, do you? I am the fall maiden, and I can assure you that I am already stronger than Amber ever was. You will not win this battle, do not make the same mistake that the little Nikos made."

Marcus grit his teeth and held his ground, refusing to say anything.

"I might even find it within myself if you surrender and kneel to me right now. I am sure Salem would forgive you. Tyrian was a useful pawn but his mental state made him unreliable even at the best of times. You would make for a fine replacement, and if you play your cards right, you might even be able to live out the rest of your days."

"Yeah, that'd end with you stabbing me in the back the first chance you get."

Cinder simply shrugged, neither confirming nor denying Marcus' claim.

Marcus sighed and shook his head. "Sorry Cindy, but I've made my choices. And so have you. One of us is dying tonight."

"Yes," Cinder raised a palm and aimed it at the white-haired man. "One of us is going to have to die tonight. On that, I cannot help but agree."

The start of their battle in the form of a fireball coming out of Cinder's palm looked like it was in slow motion. Marcus felt his hearing become focused and all he could hear was the crackling of fire and his own breathing. His muscles cracked as he began to move, his lungs burned as he breathed in more air than his body was naturally capable of, his bionic legs felt heavy and the tips of his fingers were so numb and sore it felt like they were about to start falling off.

The sound returned to him as he ducked under the fireball and dodged to the left. The fireball destroyed the space he once occupied and then continued forward, falling from the sky to either dissipate in the air or continue traveling until it hit something. Marcus dove forward again to dodge the second one that came his way, but when the third came, he leaned to the side and aimed his pistol forward, desperate to shoot back some kind of counter-attack.

Cinder blocked the bullets with the palm of her hand and conjured up a red-yellow sword in her left hand as she watched Marcus charge at her with his knife while also shooting at her at the same time. Cinder backstepped and parried the first strike, feeling the crack of her glass sword begin to shatter as Marcus' strength proved once again to be too much for her weapons to handle. She paid it no mind and restored the damage with her newfound magic. She let the man gain ground as she opted to not get too caught up in close combat with the assassin that had technically defeated her once already when she didn't use her powers. Seconds passed as Marcus attacked her with no mercy or rest, Cinder actually began to sweat already as her former ally continuously attacked her. Much more so than when she was fightingOzpin, Glynda and Pyrrha just minutes before.

She watched his hands as they fought. It wouldn't do her any good to get grabbed and lose her semblance. While it wouldn't take away her maiden status, she has seen what losing a semblance does to a person. If she had that seizure-like episode in the middle of this fight then Marcus might just have a chance to defeat her. And he tried, oh did he try.

His knife twisted into a reverse grip as he deflected Cinder's attack and he pushed forward to strike Cinder in the face. Cinder bent over backward in an extreme show of flexibility and kicked at Marcus' chest, stopping him from touching her skin with his knuckles. He wasn't wearing gloves like he was before, and Cinder didn't want to take the risk of letting him get too close. Marcus slid back across the floor as distance was created between the two, and Cinder rose up into the air and dropped her magical sword. Flames burst forth from her palms and forearms, and she threw everything she had at the assassin.

Marcus flipped and dodged through the assault, but there was no cover and he was not a perfect man. Whatever he couldn't dodge he raised his bionic legs to try to absorb or disperse the blast. Eventually, he gave up on dodging them all together and found it easier to kick them out of the air. Cinder narrowed her eyes at him, but she didn't stop. She pumped her arms and with each offensive motion and ball of fire shot out of her limb. Marcus kicked at them all, deflecting them, destroying them, or even somehow managing to throw them back at her.

When Cinder took a short break to see the damage she's done so far, Marcus still stood before her defiantly. His metal legs were so hot that they were a white-orange color. The damage that they were doing to the parts of his actual legs must have been painful, but not so much so that he was going to give up. Roaring in her anger, Cinder balled up another fireball between her hands and threw it down in front of Marcus. A great plume of fire and smoke burst in every which direction, but caused little to no damage to its intended target. Marcus was smart enough to know that this wasn't just a pissy attack, however, when Cinder's flaming eyes became visible through the thick black smoke, he had little time to defend himself as her dual magical swords struck down at him from above.

He used his knife and the side of his hand cannon together to help block the powerful strike, which forced him down to one knee and brace against the floor while Cinder pushed down on him. Her swords became so hot that it matched her rage, which began to make his own weapons hot as well. So much so that he was starting to feel it in his hands. His weapons were made out of a special material that prevented it from melting, but that just meant that they could get so hot that it could feel like it was melting. With burning hands, Marcus twisted to the side and let Cinder strike the ground. She recovered quickly and crossed her arms to her side to mitigate the damage from Marcu's still red bionic leg from kicking into her side. She flipped with the momentum and gently hovered in the air until she came to a stop on top of Ozpin's destroyed desk.

She threw her swords away and made two hand formations with her fingers and snapped them up toward the sky. Instantly, the ground beneath her became melted and instantly froze back down to become glass shards. Marcus crossed his arms and ran as the shards started to rise up from the ground and fire at him like they were bullets shot from the barrel of a gun. Thankfully, Cinder's resources were finite and didn't last more than a few seconds. Marcus shot back and hit Cinder in the hand, knocking her off her concentration and making her cry out in pain as an ugly black-purple bruise began to form on the top of her hand.

Marcus kicked up onto the wall beside him and flipped over the wild line of fire that whipped at him with the physical heat of CInder's raw anger. But tripped and stumbled when he landed on the floor. Cinder whipped the fire back toward him and it slammed into his back. The fire dispersed around his aura and caused him to scream in a mixture of rage and adrenaline as he felt the freezing sensation of scalding heat burn through his shirt and lick at his skin. He refused to fall over, and had enough sense to duck down as the fire whip zoomed past over his head. Almost blind, Marcus took aim from his position and three bullets pushed and pelted off of Cinder's aura. She staggered back from the initial force of the rounds which dispelled her fire whip and whipped her head back as a bullet bounced off of her forehead.

She felt pain where she was attacked, her aura went to work to heal the damage, but the pain was there. It angered her, fueled her with rage. How dare a normal human make her feel such things!? With a roar, she proclaimed that she had enough as she hovered up into the sky, her entire body erupting into flames. Marcus looked up at her with shocked wide eyes, clearly, he didn't know that the fall maiden could be this powerful. Knowing that, Cinder smirked as the familiar sensation of flames balled up in the center of her palms.

"With this, you'll be rendered no more than a pile of ash!" Cinder screamed as the fire bellowed up more and more.

"Shit!" Marcus cursed as he looked for anywhere to take cover. It was no use, the ceiling wasn't even there and he doubted that hiding underneath Ozpin's desk would do anything. Which meant that there was only one option. He took aim and unloaded the rest of his bullets into the maidens chest, but each of them either melted before they could get to her or fell uselessly as Cinder batted them aside like they were nothing.

Feeling that he was going to die, Marcus roared back at the flames as it crackled in the sky. From afar, it must have looked like the sun itself has had enough of humanity.

Cinder blasted the fire blast forward, a short column of fire engulfed the entirety of Ozpin's office. Melting down the steel beams with its heat and burning straight through anything that came into contact with her flames. The explosion that followed after was a satisfying sound. She was confident in her resounding victory.

Only for her eyes to widen with anger and for an ugly scowl to form on her face as the smoke dissipated, and Marcus was still standing. Covered head to toe in soot and ash from Cinder's attack, but still standing. She quickly found out how when she saw the red-haired girl from before standing in front of him, her bronze shield a bright red in color as it cooled down from the blast of heat. Marcus was brazing her from behind, and both of them were burned, but still alive.

When Pyrrha fell forward, Marcus covered her. "Go," Pyrrha muttered as the pain in her heel came back to her. "She can't last forever, after that, she has to be getting tired."

"Thank you for that," Marcus said as he grabbed Pyrrha by the scruff of her neck and threw her away to the side and hopefully out of the rest of the fight. She fell down and laid on her side, losing the rest of her adrenalized energy. "I might have been toast if you didn't wake up just then."

Angered by the fact that he still lived, Cinder tried to form another blast of flames within her hands but something was wrong. The power was still there, but it wouldn't obey her demands. She could blast what she had built up right now, but she doubted that it would even break Marcus' aura.

"Surprised?" Marcus taunted her from the ground. "You shouldn't be. I bet you've been throwing out those powers ever since you got them. No breaks, no moments of rest. You may have beaten Ozpin, Glynda, and that girl over there. But there is just no way that you wouldn't at least be a little tired after that. Face it Cinder, you've reached your limit."

"Urgh," Cinder growled under her breath as she formed her dual blades once again. "I don't need my full power to kill you! I've bested you once with just half of this, I can do it again!"

She blasted down at him and Marcus got ready to fight. But when Cinder clashed with him, he was the one who gave way. His legs skidded back, his arms were slower, his vision was blurry and his mouth felt like it was layered with thorns because of how dehydrated he was. Despite his taunts, he was the one who was on his last legs. After fighting Adam, countless White Fang, Grimm, Qrow and now Cinder, his own body was going beyond its limits just staying conscious right now. It was a miracle his aura didn't break already, it was honestly just a matter of time until it did.

Cinder may have gotten tired, but she was just beginning to get tired. She was still fast and powerful, even without the powers of the maiden that she was refraining from using too much at the moment. His simple knife all of a sudden became too simple of a weapon, and he was out of ammo in his pistol. The tides turned quickly, and before he knew it he was getting taken down and he was slammed onto his back. Cinder straddled him and stabbed her sword down. It stabbed into Marcus' aura but stopped when it hit the armour on his forearm. Cinder's second blade stabbed down toward his eye, but Marcus stopped that with his bare hand. Catching it even if it did cause pain and slice away at his palms. At any other time, Marcus would have been able to overpower her. But now, it was a desperate battle to keep her from killing him right then and there.

"Hah!" Cinder laughed as her blade got closer and closer to Marcus' unprotected neck. "For all your strength and skill, the power of the fall maiden triumphs all! Die here Marcus Black, and you will be remembered. Die!"

Marcus gasped as Cinder let go of one sword and pushed all of her weight onto the one above his neck. It stabbed through and hit the ground beneath him. His eyes were wide and his expression shocked as if he couldn't believe what had just happened. Looking up at his murderer, he smiled.

Cinder's expression changed from excited to confused as no blood bubbled out of Marcus' mouth, but instead. He just smiled at her.

Then, his entire body flickered out in a flash of white, and a kick struck the side of Cinder's head and sent her flying into the wall.

When she cracked one eye open as her amber aura flickered. She shook at what she saw, Marcus Black, still alive and aura flashing as it regenerated quickly. His black eyes shined a dark light as well, and his white hair seemed to glow in the darkness as well.

"W-what?" She uttered out. "H-how? This… this is impossible! I just killed you! I won!"

"Did you really think that I ever showed you just how powerful I can become?" Marcus asked with a laugh. "Did you really think my semblance was just to lock away other semblances?" White rose petals burst into the wind and Cinder's eyes bulged out of her skull as suddenly, Marcus had jammed his fist deep into her abdomen. "I don't just lock them away, I steal them. And I never said I couldn't use the semblances that I stole."

"Ragh!" Cinder's body exploded in fire, Marcus used Ruby's semblance to dash away in a flurry of rose petals, and when a ball of fire struck him in the chest, he used Blake's semblance to create a clone to take the hit for him while he skipped away across the room. His aura regenerated constantly back to full strength thanks to Anon's semblance. Which meant that he'd always have a supply of aura to use the vast amount of semblances that he had in his arsenal.

"It does not matter how many semblances you have! I swear that I will kill you! This is my destiny! This is my fate!"

"Hehe," Marcus chuckled as multiple elements from all the dozens of semblances that he has stolen throughout his life crackled around him like an aura. Ice, lightning, fire, metal, along with enhanced strength, hardened skin, and every ability one could think of. "That's the thing about destiny and fate," Marcus added as he walked forward, slowly permeating into the ground using Cobi's semblance as he did so.

"Destiny always seemed to be fated Black to me…"

Cinder's eyes frantically scanned the floor around her. Her heartbeat hard in her chest and the fear that she had locked away for this fight suddenly smashed back into her mind as her breathing became frantic and labored. Her flames burst out wildly and in desperosity, she burned everything that she could look at. Of course, none of it actually hurt Marcus. But she knew what might just throw him off his game. Pyrrha was still lying down in the corner, assumingly unconscious or just too exhausted to move. She balled up flames in her palms and blasted fire at her.

Marcus shot out of the ground and blocked the flames with his bare hands. Cinder dared to hope, but the flames did nothing to him as his skin suddenly hardened into some kind of metal. And before Cinder could expect it, a bolt of lightning shot out of his hand and struck her in the chest. She didn't even have time to fall down before Marcus used Ruby's speed semblance and kicked her across the face, sending her flying over the edge. Knowing that she could fly, however, Marcus shot forward and off the ledge as well, kicked Cinder back up while also dragging her into the floor in the same unnatural motion. He grabbed her by the hair and slammed her face into the floor, and dashed away in a flurry of white rose petals when Cinder roared in an explosion of fire and wind.

She heaved as smoke floated up into the sky and atmosphere, her eyes now bloodshot with rage as she glared down her enemy. Marcus looked around at the smoke and smirked, spreading his hands out as if to catch the gas.

"Ever wondered what my son's semblance was?" Marcus asked as he began to absorb the smoke into his body. "Guess not, but it had something to do with smoke. Here, let me show you…"

Above her head, a hurricane of smoke started to form quickly. Cinder stared up at it in disbelief, she tried to shoot flames out of her hands to disperse the formation. But instead, her flames were rendered completely useless. The flames were just picked up and dispersed in the wind.

"It was a pretty strong semblance," Marcus said obviously as the hurricane of smoke began to get closer. "If I let him keep it, it probably would have been even stronger than this."

He raised his leg and kicked it down through the air, all of the smoke turned into some form of projectile, and all of them converged on her like heat-seeking missiles. All Cinder could do was protect herself the best that she could as they pelted at her aura like a missile barrage, by the time it was done, she was on her knees. Bleeding from a thousand wounds and her aura just barely flickering, implying that she did have some of it left.

"I'm not falling for that," Marcus said as he looked down at Cinder. "I have the sense to know that magic and aura are two different sources of power. You still have enough to kill me and I am not letting my guard down for a second."

Cinder looked up at him and scowled, her wounds very slowly healing as her aura flickered and a small amount of flames burned around her body.

"There you go," Marcus got into a stance and prepared to go all out again. "Just like that…" His heart was beating faster than his body could keep up with, his lungs burned, and his brain felt fried. Not to mention the immense strain his muscles were enduring. This was why he never used all of the semblances he stole, he knew that he could, but he didn't know what it would do to his body. He already felt the beginning stages of a heart attack coming. Going from a normal athlete of a man to moving at the speed of sound, conducting lightning, absorbing fire, smoke, and every other kind of element out there was bound to have some kind of drawback.

These weren't his semblances. It was ones that he stole. His body wasn't accustomed to this strain, and he knew that he wasn't going to last much longer.

Cinder smirked back at him and extended one of her hands forward. Marcus wondered what it was, but he quickly realized and panicked when he saw the flash of red from Cinder's eyes. Immediately, he cried out in pain as the parasite that has been in his body from the very beginning started thrashing around and hurting him on the inside. One of his semblances was to heal his internal organs, and that was the only thing that stopped him from dying a horrible death. Cinder glared at him from across the room, suddenly the odds getting a lot more even after Marcus overwhelmed her completely with his arsenal of semblances.

"This power will corrupt me, but I have no other choice." The black mist coming out of the strange tattoo on her arm grew more and more black. As she said, corrupting her. "I will not fall here. You are much too powerful to be left alive, you will die here."

"Not… before you." Marcus said through gritted teeth. His skin turned pale and his veins

Were bulging as he continued to force his body beyond the limits of its limits.

Cinder narrowed her eyes at him and stumbled into a stance, she was hurt. Marcus remembered that. She was hurt and her powers were getting exhausted. The same went for him, burnt and cut himself. They were both near the brink of death. Their next engagement would come down to a battle of will, and both of them had very strong wills.

Before they could clash again, a red color came into their peripheral vision. Marcus and Cinder dared to take their eyes off each other to gauge who the newcomer was, and they both widened their eyes at what they saw.

Silver stared back at both of them, as did a pair of pink from behind her. Marcus recognized the dark-skinned as the member of the Ace Ops that he defeated. She scowled at him, but she looked exhausted and was sweating. He put two and two together and figured that she'd carried Ruby all the way here.

Ruby looked at them, but what really caught her attention was Pyrrha, lying in the corner unconscious and with so many injuries. Tears immediately brimmed the edges of her mind.

It was like the world was going in slow motion again when Marcus realized what was happening. Pyrrha looked dead, and the only ones in that room that could have done it was him and Cinder. But then a memory from very far back reminded him of something very crucial.

Silver eyes. Silver eyes were the bane of Grimm, or so the tale told. And Cinder right now, was using the powers of a Grimm.

"Cinder killed Pyrrha!" He cried out loudly in the most justified lie he has ever told. Pyrrha was still alive, but Ruby didn't know that. "She killed her and discarded in the corner like trash!"

"SILENCE!" Cinder screamed as she realized what she was trying to do. But it was too late, Ruby's eyes already began to glow white as the emotions started to get to her.

Cinder gave up on trying to kill him and made way to try and escape, but Marcus used the speed semblance he acquired and easily caught up to her. Before Cinder could blast off into the sky and escape, Marcus caught her and wrapped his arms around her body. Hugging her tightly to his chest as he forced her to sit still as Ruby activated her silver eyes. Cinder was still trying to wiggle out of his grip, but Marcus held strong. Using a semblance that he stole from a faunus to turn his skin into metal. Which made him much, much heavier. Cinder couldn't move, and she took the full brunt of a silver-eyed activation almost point-blank.

Cinder screamed in agony as the light of the silver eyes burned away at her skin and arm. Marcus screamed as well, it was so bright, so hot, so cold. He didn't know how to describe it, but he knew he was being affected by it as well. He may have not been part Grimm like Cinder was, but there was a Grimm parasite within his body. He ignored his initial instincts to just let go of Cinder and get out of the light. But he stood strong. Cinder started to become heavier and heavier in his arms as the seconds ticked by. He only realized that she was turning to stone when he cracked an eye open to see what was happening.

The white flash ended and Marcus' semblances all ceased to work, and he dropped Cinder, who was now a mixture of stone and dust, and pushed her over. Her body cracked and shattered as it struck the ground, turning into a pile of dust. Cinder was dead, he'd done it.

Blood erupted out of his mouth as he dropped to his knees. Ruby dropped to hers as well, whining and crying over the loss of her friend. She also looked like she was having the worst headache of her life. All of that went away when Harriet sped up to Pyrrha, and rolled her over onto her back. Pyrrha was still unconscious, but it was very clear that she was alive by the way her chest slowly rose and sunk as she breathed.

"She's alive," Harriet said with a sigh of relief.

"W-what?" Ruby asked in disbelief. She slowly turned to Marcus, who all of a sudden looked a lot sicker than the last time she saw him.

"I lied," Marcus said with a cough, blood spilling out of his mouth and all of his wounds as he looked back at her. "It was worth it." He fell forward onto his side, causing the pile of dust that was once Cinder to blow away.

Ruby fought the urge to pass out and crawled her way toward him. She didn't understand anything that had just happened. Pyrrha was alive, Cinder was dead all of a sudden, and Marcus Black was on his side slowly dying.

"Stay away from him!" Harriet yelled out as she tried to wake Pyrrha.

"He can't even move!" Ruby barked back, wincing as a sharp pain stabbed through her head as she moved Marcus onto his back and looked down at him, wondering what she could do to help.

"Don't bother," Marcus weakly said. A tired smile on his face. "I'm done, I pushed my body too far," He looked like it too, his face was pale and he was still bleeding. And from the collar of his shirt, Ruby could see a sickening black blotch in his veins leading up to his neck.

"No, I-if you hold on just a little longer…"

"I don't want to hang on a little longer," Marcus said with a cough. Ruby didn't know what to say. "All my life, I've been fighting. Killing. Fighting. Killing. I'm done with it. I want it to stop. All I've ever done with my life is hurt others."

"That's not true… my mom…"

"Was just like you," Marcus grabbed her hand. "Way too fucking stubborn."

Ruby felt a jolt of energy flow through her mind and body. Her aura flashed red and suddenly the world sped up for her again. She felt it, her semblance. She couldn't believe it but it was back.

"Heh… I guess I can give back semblances… Look at that." Marcus said with a cough as his own aura flickered and shattered. Not even Anon's semblance was able to keep up.

"W-Why?" Ruby asked, the tears rimming her eyes again.

"I… made a promise." Marcus weakly replied. "I kept it… now I can rest… even if I did survive, I would just be used as a tool again. I'd never be able to be free. I'm done fighting for people. I'm done killing for people." He coughed violently, more blood spewed out of his mouth. "I-its a bit fitting, now that I think about it. Dying like this, in the arms of the daughter of a woman who never gave up on me."

"Thank you…" Ruby muttered as she held his hand, kneeling at his side. "I-I forgive you…" She said next. "For everything…"

"Heh…" Marcus smiled through the pain. Somehow, that filled him up with the most happiness he has ever felt in a long time. "You… are going to be… a great huntress."

He let his eyes flutter shut and he smiled. He felt the cool air of the sky brushing against his skin, the shattered moon shined above him. He passed away more peaceful than the other thought he would have deserved too. At least, in the end, there was someone that cared for him. Even if it was for less than a minute.

"C'mon," Harriet said carefully after helping Pyrrha back up to her feet and giving a moment for Ruby. "We have to go." She said sympathetically.

Ruby squeezed Marcus's now limp hand one more time before setting it down on his chest. Wordlessly, she slowly stood back up on her feet. Harriet didn't say anything as the girl picked up her weapon and moved past her, but she cried out and used her speed to catch her when she fell over, passing out suddenly.

Sighing, Harriet picked Ruby up on her shoulder as well. She spared one last look for Marcus Black, the man that she was once ordered to hunt down and take in. Little did she know that he'd played a major part in the successful defense of Beacon. Despite everything he had done, Harriet had to pay her respects to the man that had defeated her so easily the first time they fought.

Marcus saved Beacon Academy, all of Vale and the world have him to thank for what has happened here.

Epilogue…

The Queen of the Grimm sat in her throne with a very disappointed look on her face as she looked down at her final two underlings. Arthur Watts and Hazel Rainart, who on their own couldn't hope to do anything for her. Disappointing. Very disappointing.

"Cinder is dead," Salem began. "The powers of the fall maiden is lost and it will take years to train up another suitable candidate. Her underling Emerald has committed suicide in her prison cell, and her last underling brought on her destruction. But not before killing Tyrian, who was the most useful out of all of you."

"My Queen," Arthur tried. "Perhaps there is-"

"Silence," Salem demanded. Arthur shut his mouth and hung his head in submission. "By the time I can form any more plans, the two of you will be too old to enact them. Your generation has ceased to yield results. Ozpin may have been killed, but he will reincarnate as he always does. Go, go forth and leave my sight. I never want to see either of you again."

Watts and Hazel looked at her, and then to each other. They couldn't refuse her demand and it wasn't like they could even if they wanted too. At the very least, they would be able to keep their lives.

Salem sighed as she looked around the now empty war room. Again, she was bested. How annoying. And this time it wasn't even Ozma who did it. It was a single human man.

"Marcus Black," She tested the name out on her tongue. Just one man. One human man who lacked any of the magical properties that made humanity so powerful in the past. He was able to do so much.

If he wasn't already dead, she would have liked to shake his hand.

"Well played."

"Hey," Ruby said as she looked down at the gravestone, packed away deep in the woods of patch. The body of Marcus Black was put to rest here per her request. Nowhere else would it be safe from those who were affected by his actions. She almost put it beside her mothers, but then that would have been too obvious. Only here in this spot would it be safe, and only here would he be able to rest without interruption. "I'm back again, heh. Another spring break!" She cheered as she knelt down.

"I'm in my last year at Beacon now, it's crazy to think about it. Weiss is going crazy over our grades and all Yang wants to do is party, which is of course bothering her." She giggled. "Oh, I almost forgot. We got a new teammate. I know, it's crazy. After dad took over the headmaster spot because of what happened to Ozpin and Miss Goodwitch, the next year this kid named Oscar joined Beacon. He was even younger than I was when I joined!" She pouted. "Anyway, Dad put him on our team and it's weird. Sometimes he's this awkward boy and the next he talks like an old man. Yang teases him for it sometimes. It was hard at first since we felt like he was replacing Blake, but we welcomed him quickly. It was nice being able to see a body in the fourth bed in our dorm again. And hey, I also have some good-ish news, even though I am sure you wouldn't care, but Winter and Weiss publicly revealed what happened all those years ago with Nicholas Schnee and your ancestor. So you are now officially related to the Schnee family. It doesn't mean much now… but hey, at least you're not Black anymore? Ack, that sounded bad." Ruby slapped herself in the face.

"Ugh. I just wanted to see how you were doing. I visited Mom earlier, and I'd like to think she'd have asked me to check on her best friend as well. I think Uncle Qrow was here earlier," Ruby patted around on the grass, looking for something. She found it in the form of a black beaded necklace. "Yeah, he was definitely here… He won't admit it, but he feels bad that you two never got the chance to make up. Dad does too, but he actually admitted it. Yang came to visit a few times too, but right now she is too busy working with Dad on scroll calls to try and see if they can find Raven. And Weiss promises that she will but you know… she's Weiss." Laughing nervously, she continued.

"The White Fang officially disbanded this year too, Sienna Khan broke under pressure apparently when Blake's parents came back into the fold. And after what happened in Beacon, no one wanted to be part of the organization. Speaking of organizations. The one you were a part of is still on the run." She sighed. "I don't know how they're doing it, but I promise I'll put an end to them when I get out of Beacon. General Ironwood rooted out the ones in Atlas, but I hear they're pretty active still in Vacuo and Mistral… It's a lot, I know. But after your video, the world knows about them now. It's not a secret anymore."

She brushed away at the gravestone, cleaning it of moss and overgrown grass.

"I have to go now," Ruby said once she was done cleaning the grave. "Thank you again for giving me back my semblance. After training with Harriet every time she comes to visit, I've been getting faster and faster. We've been thinking about it and we're playing around with the idea that my semblance might not just be speed. It's just an idea right now, but I have been able to pull off some pretty neat tricks."

The gravestone didn't reply. Ruby smiled anyway, she felt like he knew she was there somehow. As did her mom, and the happy spirits that were released after he died.

"I'll be the greatest huntress ever when I graduate, and now that Dad finally told me about my eyes, I'll be the best." Ruby stood up and dusted herself down. Giving the grave one last look before she left for her final few months at Beacon.

"I hope you finally found your freedom," Ruby said with a warm smile. "I'll be back soon."

~The End~

And that is the end of that story. Wow, I felt really connected to this one for a long time. I am a little emotional over its end, but it had to happen sooner or later. Finally, my ultimate plan has come to fruition, it's going to make it a lot easier going forward from here now. All that I said in the last chapter remains here. This story will remain to be a fond memory for a very long time, and I am glad that I stuck through and finished it.

To wrap up some unexplained points. Pyrrha is the Fall maiden, it just didn't matter to me to point it out. Oscar is on the newly formed Team ROSY, which you can use your imagination as to what that abbreviation means. Salem is waiting for another generation to keep up her plans, but she was never going to be a main factor in this story. I could have included her more in this story, but after the ending, there was just no point. I wasn't going to make another thirty chapter arc dedicated to taking her down. And while one of my drafts said that Marcus might have secretly survived, I just wasn't going to do that. The story is over, and that is that. There is not going to be a Destiny Fated Black, Part 2.

About Jaune and his team, well, they're still a thing of course. Just not super important to the story.

Anyway, I have an idea for the next story after I focus on my other ones for a bit. Remember that role reversal story I talked about a while ago? Well, that might just be my next story. And my final one. As I said in the last chapter, I am planning to write a book, and in order to do that, I need time. A lot of it. And I can't spend it all writing fanfiction for a dying Internet show. All the offense to RT intended.

Thank you all for reading this story. It wasn't my best, but I was passionate about it. This is a LOOOONG chapter as well, so I am sorry if there are a few errors here and there. Me and CrowSkull are just two people, we can't find every error in a near 30k word document.

For the final time, please tell me what you think of this story.

Next story: YBWR

Release date? Whenever I get around to it. Maybe this year.

Oh boy this is going to be a long year isn't it, it already feels like it has been too long, stay safe everybody, know that we both here are working on ways to make your quarantine more tolerable, regards. -CrowSkull

T w itter . com (slash) genatools

P a treon . com (slash) Genatools