9

"Reduction of Mass or application of thrust?" He stares at me. I huff. "Do you get lighter, or do you get pushed upwards?"

"I get lighter, I think?" You think? Is it your Semblance or not?

"Well, activate it while your on the ground, that will boost your manoeuvrability."

"I can't. I have to be in the air." I sigh.

"We are in the air right now, and rising. You are half in the air every step you take. Almost none of your body is touching the ground in any given moment. Change the way you think about things. It's all in your head. Ruby, he's your partner, feel free to smack him." Ruby looks a bit insulted, as if she would ever smack someone. "He's being an idiot."

"Not everyone can just change how they look at the world, Yuki." Yang defends her sister.

"We are on mission, it's Tenno. And... Yeah, I suppose your right." I lose a bit of steam. She is right, I'm being demanding. Still, I look at my next victim.

"Sage, and no Semblance." Ah. Oh well.

"I'm not actually sure that's a thing." No Semblance? Nah, need to test that. "It just might be subtle or hidden behind certain triggers. Either way, go stand by Yang. Maybe sudden threat of death will help." I smirk at her and she gets the message. Yang cracks her knuckles with a grin and Sage swallows.

I sigh and look to Neptune. "I'm not sure I trust your team with something as important as Team RWBY. Sun is fine, well." I look over my shoulder at him. "more than fine, pretty good actually, but you?" I snap back to him. "You're an idiot."

"Yes Ma'am." I sigh again.

"Right, aquakinesis, and a fear of water, correct?" He nods. "Weiss, prepare to administer physical abuse please." She steps up and frowns at me. "Training." I look at Neptune. "The human body is about 70% water. You are going to grab the water in Weiss' arm and stop it from hitting you."

"Wait, I can't do that. Ow." Thank you, Weiss.

"You are an idiot. Water-" He yelps again as Weiss and I 'teach him' "is one of the most common substances on the planet, and a necessity for life. It's damm everywhere. In the air, in everything's blood, in-"

"I can't! Ow! I need to be in contact with it!" Weiss stops hitting him. I stop lecturing him. Really?

"Oops. Well... Still! You should be able to manipulate your own blood to accelerate your movements and move in unexpected ways. Like flying. You can fly, Neptune." I look at Weiss. "Sorry."

"Apology accepted." She might be a little smug now. Did the dance not go well for her? Or something else? She did hit him with a lot more eagerness than I was expecting.

"Don't I get an apology?" He whines.

I stare at him. "Are you hovering off the ground right now?"

"Yes? We are high above the ground?" Smartass, throwing my words back at me.

"So, you won't mind taking a little trip out the side of the bullhead then?" I give an evil smile and reach for the door.

"No Ma'am. I'll. Try." You'll try? Oh. Shit. I'm an idiot. He's panicking a bit. I'm pushing him too hard, too fast.

"Your hydrophobia?" I sigh, again again. "I'm sorry." I do apologise. "I'm not sure what I can do to help with that, short of going in and rewiring your head a bit. But you do need to confront it, it's literally in your body. I assume you have drunk liquids in your life?"

I walk up and soften my voice. "It's okay. I can't force you, well, I won't force you." I can force him, I have the power. No wonder Qrow beat rules into me. My Semblance could be use for pure evil. "But please try. You are greatly limited by this. Don't force it, don't belittle it. Instead accept it, understand it. Work through it one step at a time."

"You don't think it's stupid? Afraid of water?" There's a note of vulnerability to his voice.

"I do think it's stupid." I admit. "But I don't think you are." Because that's not how phobias work.

"Phobias aren't rational things, you can't just say 'that's silly' and it goes away. You probably already know how it's chained you. But that doesn't mean it's not real or somehow makes you weak. An irrational fear of water might seem silly, but the exact same thing applied to say, Grimm? Most people would call that common sense."

I stare directly into his eyes and try to push the message across with my expression. "But that's not how Phobias work. They are irrational, they don't take arguments or logic or fancy speeches. The phobia might be silly, but you aren't for having it."

I straighten up a bit. "That said, if you want to overcome it, well, water in particular is needed for life. The fact that you are alive means you have already taken the first step. So work on that, expose yourself a little bit more by little bit more. Widen the crack until you are overcoming it. Stop letting it define you, instead work your way up until you define it. A little bit at a time."

Not my best inspiring speech. I'm no where near my best, not with my own instability scratching at the back of my mind. "When you are ready to start using your Semblance, I'll be around somewhere and will gladly give you a hand."

I hope I got through to him, his nod still seems unsure. "Now off, I need to talk to Weiss."

He strides to the other side of the bullhead with Sage and I turn back to Weiss in my corner. She's worried, that is why she hit Neptune. Trying to alleviate the stress that is mounting. Oh, she's hiding it well, but the hitting tipped me off.

What would be bad writing for a show is actually a fundamental part of Remnant's culture, at least for those who regularly deal with Grimm. The flip flopping and tonal whiplash from sombre to cheerful is a survival tactic to ward off the Grimm, never lingering on bad thoughts for too long lest they get attracted to your distress.

Weiss is distressed. She's... Shit. I shouldn't be so perceptive. Another thing of my own stirring breakdown to think about. Am I using Amber's neurotypical brain to assess and bolster my own hyper-logical social analysis capabilities?

Later. Weiss now.

"Hey." Soft, soothing, letting her know what I want to talk about. "You're not alright." Amber was kind, very kind, from what I can tell. She in particular looks for and helps people with problems, big and small. It's why she wouldn't be constrained in the city, hiding behind the walls as people outside suffered.

She was broken by Cinder. No, focus on Weiss.

"I'm..." Fine? No. "There is a lot riding on this performance." She feels like she has the whole city on her shoulders. She doesn't.

"First, it's not a performance, it's an Expression. There is a difference." I'll get to that soon. "Second, not as much as you think. If you fail to inspire, or even inspire dread, the city won't fall. It will just make things a bit harder for everyone else. You don't hold up a city alone, we all lift together." Huh, I could use those lyrics, if needed. Bit of adaptation and they would work fine.

She looks at me disbelievingly. "How can you say that?" And now she frets. "If I mess up, this isn't like my Father losing face or I losing privileges, these are people's lives."

The difference in stakes. "Does Remnant have tightrope walkers?" That takes her off guard a little, but I get a nod. "Where I'm form, they train using a low rope, only a couple of feet off the ground. Yet, when the preform, they are up much higher. But they don't fall. Because the action is the same. It's the perception of stakes that is the only difference."

"It's not that easy." She mutters even as she steels herself.

"No, it's not. That said, I know you can do it, not because of skill, but because what needs to be sung isn't some performance, it's an Expression. It's the emotions and genuine feeling in you, that defiance that is part of you. Show that: Who you are. Don't sing with your voice, sing with your heart."

I give a vague subdued wave around the bullhead cabin. "I could have picked anyone to sing, skill doesn't matter. But I picked you because of your heart, Weiss. The woman who will redefine the Schnee name, who loves her friends and stands against a world that would break her, shape her into a perfect doll."

I lean a tad closer and look at it. "I chose you because you have a scar across your eye that refuses to heal."

Her eyes widen and her hand reflexively comes up to her face, to the cut across her eye. The proof that she can stand on her own, that she isn't some perfect puppet for her father, not the daughter he wants. That she is not her Father's definition of 'perfect'. "You..."

"I understand. Maybe not completely, but I do. And that's why I picked you. Not for the long term gains, though they are nice. Not for your history in singing, though that too is nice. But because you are the right person to inspire this Vytal to stand and fight back." And there is that real steel in her, my words working their beautiful magic on her.

"If, by some terrible miracle you fail, that the line breaks despite Huntsmen and coordination, that the population is forced into the tunnels? I have three possible miracles of my own to use." I see the question. "I don't want Black to realise there is a new deck of cards in the mix, and each on might solve this crisis, but at long term cost. And possibly short term cost."

"Ruby." She realises. "Silver eyes."

I nod, glad that she isn't listening, even as she glances over every once in a while to check on Weiss. "Mass deployment of Silverlight will put her in the line of fire. So, I did this. I don't think these will work, but if we need to use them, the distraction of someone suddenly acquiring 'working Silver Eyes' will draw attention form her."

Her eyes widen as she realises what I've really done. Not 'gained a new superpower', but moved myself in the way to protect Ruby. I think she is tearing up a bit. "Sing on that, Weiss. Of defiance, and protection."

I hold out my hand close to my chest and palm up. "And if you need a voice in your head, a solid emotional state of absolute confidence in you to draw from, I'm happy to help." I frown a little and pass of my next word as a weak joke. "Oh, and maybe some lyrics, I think I can do that."

She snorts very unladylike, and yes, her eyes are wet. "I think I can come up with my own lyrics."

"Pfft. I try to help and people shut me down." I put my hand, and offer, down. "Are you ready?"

Weiss Schnee takes a deep breath, holds it, and then exhales. "I'm ready."

"Good, because I think we are going to land. Oh, one more thing." I smirk. "You don't have to get it right the first time, we will be recording and then edit it slightly before it goes live."

"Obviously." She rolls her eyes.

Right. Of course she knows that. I'm an idiot sometimes.

The bullhead hits the Amity landing pad and we pile out. James has sent a pair of people to pick us up and get us into position. I look to Weiss, hand returning to it's offering state, and she shakes. She has this.

We split up.

I head to James in the barely started command center, terminals and chairs being unpacked from bullheads as other's open up Amity's systems and try to wire them in.

"General." I stand at Atlas attention, or my best approximation of it. Oh, that is surprisingly comfortable actually.

"Tenno, good." It's not good, his voice tells me. "You have an idea?"

"Several. The first is half risky, but if we co-opt Atlas command from Atlas over the CCTS, we can bolster the local defence coordination network until Amity is online." He nods and immediately sends some of his team to set that up.

Watts might hack the communication lines and send bad commands, or fail it completely, but we are running out of time. A large display is showing a clock counting down. Time until the wall of Grimm hits our stone wall. 18 minutes and 29 seconds.

"Second, we need as many knights up and running on the walls, configured to be turrets. The science teams in Atlas, again over CCTS, can help with fixing that. Their main advantage will be their tirelessness rather than expandability." A message gets sent.

"Third, we need to form Huntsmen strike teams to take out command Grimm, as well as draw spikes of enemy forces ahead and into our defences. The more broken their attack, the better." Scouts get reorganised. "We can't take them all head on."

"Agreed." Not just physically, but the image of a wall of Grimm hurtling towards the defenders will do more damage moral wise than the Grimm themselves. We need to prove we can win as well as disrupt the enemy formation.

I move up and look at the holotable of Vale and it's defences. Defences, not great. Grimm, many. Aircraft... "Like I said, air superiority is required. A 2D battlefield is a necessity, 3D will complicate and cost moral as well as energy as the defenders constantly look up." He knows that, but I'm more talking to myself, working through our air forces and trying to see if we can survive. I hope we can, I can't hold the sky alone. "How goes the Total War footing for the civilian population?"

Ah, there is the battleship. I make note of it for Operation Nora Storm, if I have to use it. The general replies. "Not well. The standard Grimm attack procedure is to get to the shelters and wait for the defenders to repel it." I shake my head. Hide and fear, leading to more Grimm attacks. "People are confused and progress is slow."

Such a fundamental change in the way they normally fight. As bad as the Great War was, Remnant has not had a proper World War. Ideas like Total War, like what I explained to him on the way from the dorms to the courtyard, are foreign and opposed to what they are used to.

Memories of Atlas' falling, of lines of soldiers standing outside firing at a wave of Grimm charging, flicker to mind. Wasted. Mismanaged. Dead. Maybe it was an emergency response, no time to coordinate, but they were just standing there, in formation. Like idiots.

Ah, the Paladins are on the wall, set up as primarily anti air defences. "Virus status?"

"Neutralised for Atlas technology. We sent a copy back to Atlas and they have had days to crack it." Good, for now. Watts will adapt, but not in time for this fight. I hope.

"Can it jump across the local network?" The local network is something that Terra doesn't really have, not with it's stable infrastructure.

It consists of scrolls communicating directly with eachother, and those scrolls communicating with with ones close to them, so that every scroll, every wireless device, acts as a relay. Very important for isolated places or places like Menagerie with unstable CCTS relay towers.

Unfortunately, it's slow. Sending a message from one scroll to another isn't like Sender-Tower-Receiver, but more a daisy chain of Sender-Relay-Relay-ect...-Receiver. Each message takes far longer and cost more data to get across, and that is if it's known where the Receiver is. Finding the Receiver might take a few messages around the local network, making things even slower.

Oh, and the local network moves. People walk around or drive, so it has to update constantly to remain functional. To code a system like that is a massive undertaking, and to have one that can support city scale stuff? Very impressive. Canon CCTS was down, but everyone's local networks were still up, to the point where cities still worked fine.

That fundamental difference in Remnant Engineering and Terran Science at play again.

During Vytal, with the massive population increase, the Beacon CCTS Tower was a bit overloaded, so people used the local network to supplement traffic. Though it was still dependant on the Tower, it didn't take long before people switched fully over to the local network.

My biggest concern is that the Black Queen Virus acts like a virus, and has spread across everything. Remnant doesn't have the same kind of cybersecurity Terra does.

"No. My scroll was using military software and hardware, making it particularly vulnerable." Ah, so that is why only his personal scroll got infected. Relief works through me as I run though some possibilities. Our odds just went way up.

"The news stations and power stations, probably all major infrastructure-" James cuts me off.

"I've already sent teams to clean them out." Good, except...

"They might be rigged to blow." He looks up at me. "Erratic behaviour creates more fear than a consistent blackout, but if the Virus is going to lose them anyway..." Flickering lights are more scary that a blackout, you can get used to a blackout and use your torches. But the goal is fear.

"We need to shut them down then." The General solves the problem and is issuing commands. Can't blow up a station if it's offline. Well, you can, Dust is unstable, but this is a better alternative than-

The holotable shows another explosion. Dust caches all over the city going up. Only two people would know where they are, Cinder and Roman. Well, Adam might. Come on, Qrow.

"How operational is the battleship?" I ask, in case I have to use it.

"The 'In the People's Service' is still grounded. We can get it airborne, but not much else." That's fine, that's all I need for one of my instant wins. Ha, if by 'Instant Win' I mean, 'Crazy idea that hopefully will work.'

It would also kill Nora.

Even with Jaune boosting, myself riding shotgun, Pyrrha helping in control... Nora can't take a full battleship's worth of power and direct it at the Grimm for more than a few seconds before She Burns Out. The hardlight barrier of Canon didn't have nearly as much power going into it than a battleship with multiple laser cannon's worth of main power pumping into her.

And the less said about my idea to use magic to create antimatter, or trigger a fission/fusion event, the better. I don't even know if I can create the correct matter required to do them, magic and it's stupid limitations.

Three 'victory' cards. Silver Eyes, Nora Storm, and Radiation Disaster. None of them looking good.

"Sir!" An assistant runs up to James and starts speaking rapid military jargon, half of which I understand. Enough to know that the local defence network is now being coordinated by Atlas with far greater precision and speed now. Far better everyone linked to the CCTS Tower (so long as it doesn't go down.) than through the slow and laggy local network.

Good. I check the display and make note of Specialist Schnee, Winter, in the tunnels below with a team. She's clearing out our escape route with Glynda joining her soon to patch the holes. If it gets that far, we are probably already done.

What more can I do?

Win.

Yes, but how? Start at the end and work backwards.

I close my eyes and think. Imagine the day saved. Grimm gone or running, help arriving from Mistral, and people alive. They need hope (Warbeat, Team JNPR footage, stabilised city infrastructure), supplies (we are running out of Dust, Food is fine, water is fine for now unless they get targeted too, weapons fine...)

"The confiscated weapons from the Red Fang attack?" I ask.

"Already in use." The General replies. He's on top of his game here.

"We do need to look out for remaining Red Fang pockets." He nods, already being done. I'm being useless.

No. Keep going. "Secure the water control systems, if they get cut off like power-" The General flickers orders off, a few teams will be organised and sent.

What else. Think. I am Cinder Fall, bitch who wants to burn the city down. She's in here, somewhere. Her goal is me, and the relic, but mostly me.

I need to be out there, for hope and to draw her out.

What assets can she bring to bear? Mercury and Emerald, sure. Watts? Maybe. Hazel? Unless he is already in the ci- Here. "How secure is Amity?" She will attack here.

Again he looks up and that bit of panic flickers in his eyes. James is... OH, I'm an idiot! Orders get sent. "James. Look at me."

He forces his head away from the table, and I look at him, really look at him. He's pushing himself, too hard. Punishing himself. What was that quote? Oh, it doesn't matter. "James. I trust you."

"This isn't the time-"

"Yes, it is. James. I trust you with this city, not because it's necessary, I could run this operation myself, if with lesser skill than you, but I don't. Because. I. Trust. You." Doubt in him.

My retelling of the Canon has shaken him. The attack using his robots has shaken him. The end of Atlas at his hands has shaken him. "You are not Mettle. Understand that. He made all the best choices he could, but he was attacked from an angle he didn't expect or defend himself from." He is also still shaken from his people who died during the attack, as the Knights and Paladins shot his men, and him, in the back. "Just like Vale. Not your fault."

"I should have seen it coming." Self blame like that? Not when I'm here.

"Hindsight like that is unhelpful, put it aside. James. I trust you. More than hearing a story, I lived through the attack and witnessed first hand Mettle's actions, and I. Trust. You." A little less doubt. "Do not blame yourself for your enemies actions, James Ironwood. Learn from them, understand them, but do not blame yourself. When your king is taken, you do not put away the board and never play again."

I put my hand on his shoulder and speak with all my confidence all my absolute unshakable faith in James Ironwood.

"I Trust You. Trust in yourself and the people around you. Nobody stands alone." Is that enough?

An officer comes up with another report and my scroll rings. He nods for me to take it, but there is a little more fire in him now. I hope it's enough.

I pull it out and think. I might be a useless fighter, even with my scraps of magic and stolen skills. I might be a fake whose confidence comes from an unreality kind of viewpoint. I might even be just a broken boy who so desperately wants to be loved, even at terrible personal cost.

"Qrow, tell me the bad news."

"They're all gone." All. Shit, all of them. "Not a hint of them around. Maybe they are already on the defence?" The members of Hei Xiong Junior's gang are gone, possibly into hiding.

"I wouldn't put it past them, but assumptions will cost us. Keep looking, and keep an eye out for the Gentleman and the Lady." Roman and Neo.

"How long?" I check the clock. 14:02.

"14 minutes." I should go to the defence myself. "Ruby and Yang are safe on Amity, for now. If we break under the first wave, they will have all the time they need."

"Thank you." It's a terrible thing to thank me for, Qrow. Nor is it some greater plan, that is just how things are right now.

"Stay safe, and tell Tai." Who was helping Glynda, being a well known face for everyone who went to Signal. He's rusty though, so I've asked him to stay in the city and help with the coordination of civilians. I hang up and turn back to James. "You can tell Winter that too." He nods as I take a breath.

"Are your ready to fight?" He asks. Hmm, I put my hand on his shoulder again for a moment and wash away his tiredness, not that there is much physical tiredness. "That's... Useful."

"And more. I should be able to fight for as long as I have Aura, which considering my usage rate might be all night." Going full magic, unfortunately. I don't know how to fight otherwise.

A step away from the table, and this room is looking much better even if it isn't fully operational yet, and I wave my scroll. "Assign someone to boss me around." He smiles a tad at that, both in the joke and my trust in him. I turn to walk away before stopping and looking back. "And James? Grow a beard."

That gets a full if short laugh.

I might be useless, but I can help other people up.

Weiss has started singing, her voice from every speaker beam singing what I think is a lullaby at first, before it starts picking up. Jets of fire flow out of my hands and feet as I fly to the heaviest of the oncoming wave, the black spike, where moral will be lowest and the impact heaviest. The biggest advantage I have right now is that I am an icon, not that I can spit fire.

Ha, spit fire. Maybe I should rap at the Grimm.

The headset linked to the scroll in my pocket has a sexy voice on the other end, something I nabbed off one of the comms officers. Not going to wave around a scroll, thank you, that will get it lost. I only just got the thing.

Weiss' song is changing, becoming angry and defiant as she does exactly what I knew she would, the notes of the rest of Team RWBY and all of Team SSSN joining in as I fly over the wall.

As I do, I notice that some people have already started to join in. I smile and I hum along. It's working. Seems like she picked a lullaby as a base, something that everyone already knew, before altering the lyrics. Not what I would have done, but then I'm not native to this reality.

The wall, despite Vale being protected by natural defences, shallow ocean and mountains, all Remnant cities have a wall. In case the Grimm get through.

South I fly, towards the gap between the mountains and the ocean. Not to take it back, it is already lost, but putting enough distance between myself and the wall. The first and most major of spikes of Grimm is coming at me, the command Grimm survived the attack and even as they took the bait.

I slow my flight, land, and work my magic.

Silicon spikes grow out of the ground, as sharp as broken glass. No, too few, too slow. I'm not a full Maiden, I can't fight like this. The first wave is a minute from me, two minutes from the wall. The four Huntsmen rush past me to get to the wall, Grimm in a V formation coming at me.

I need... To get clever.

Focus.

Eyes close and I more feel than think through the possibilities. I can't make Napalm. I can't make white phosphorus, I can't... What can I do?

Water. Ice. Fire. Oxygen. Electrolysis. Or... I hold up a hand and focus on creating air. Specifically, Oxygen and Hydrogen.

A suddenly invigorating scent blows out of it, one I recognise as pure Oxygen, before I stop. Breathing that will knock me out. Also, importantly, no Hydrogen. I can summon one pure gas, but not the other? What are the rules that- Later. This isn't going to work.

How about terra-kinesis. That will work.

I rip up gashes in the ground, rocks float and form a second wall, but more importantly create hazardous terrain that will slow the advance. I am in range of the weapons from the wall, that will-

No, let's do this. Far more effective, if it works. I sweep back and forth with an oversized hoe and dig ditches moving back, filling them with water coated in ice. Not too deep, nor too much, I'm far too weak.

But not weak enough to stop me. A winding S shaped path of hollow ice holding slowly freezing water grows along the ground. S shaped is the wrong term, for two reasons. One, it's far too dense, far too many layers to be a proper S shape. And two, the far end of the S has a path that leads back to the start. It looks far closer to a heating element than an S.

By the time I'm done, the first of the Grimm has arrived at the edge of my defences, shots firing already at the wave. A thick black spear hurtles towards the wall, pointed directly at me and my Aura unlocked bright soul. Not many Huntsmen, only the tired 4 who pulled the wave. They are spread thin across the line around the city.

"What's that going to do?" A defender shouts down at me. "This isn't the time for gardening!"

I grin. "Weapons up, keep firing. And watch!"

Pool my hand full of lightning, separate the electrons from the nuclei, wait. Concentrate on the effect that I want, push the magic to do exactly what I want. Wait. Here they come, rushing up to kill me, shots and panic spreading among the militia...

now

Release.

Immediately I grab a wide wall of air as my device goes off.

Magic guided lightning flows down the path of least resistance, also magic created water, and suddenly superheats the water inside the tube. Magic bends physics to my will over the more common reactions, not denying physics outright, but merely pushing it aside a little.

The grid underneath the first wave of Grimm explodes with ice and stone shrapnel. My air wall serves to keep it directed at the enemy, the city wall behind untouched.

Someone screams "Holy Shit!" as I eradicate the black tip of the spear. It sounds strange, my air wall dampening the sound enough to not hurt anyone.

But I'm not done. Magic followed my command and suppressed a second reaction from occurring. I Look. I Feel. The black smoke from Grimm dissolving serves as my guide as I watch the air, and as I shove the air wall forwards and down. All of the gas there is magic created, and far easier to manipulate.

My left hand comes up into a point, middle and thumb cocked beneath it.

I snap my fingers.

A spark is created in the separated Hydrogen and Oxygen atoms.

The world in front of me explodes a second time, so much so I lose control of the air wall. But it serves it's purpose and a massive blasts outwards.

The shaft of the Grimm spike dies in a bright pulse of white fire, the black smoke overshadowed by the deafening boom and blinding light.

The world is silent for a moment. Or maybe our eardrums are ruptured.

Well, let's Inspire. "REMNANT UNBROKEN!" I scream.

"REMNANT UNBROKEN!" The crowd behind me screams in response, fear exploded away. No. Our eardrums are not broken.

Suddenly, Weiss' song is now being chanted loud by everyone as moral rises. I see the edges of the Grimm spike suddenly confused at the change in mood. Oh, and the missing chunk of their forces, maybe.

First blood goes to Vale. Now we have a chance.

I leap from spike to spike as they come, fed locations by the officer on my headset. Picket Fence her name is, symbolic of a white picket fence by Monty's colour rules. I have to keep myself from laughing, it's a stupid name by Terran standards.

Five spikes in five minutes and I put in my best efforts. But I can't be everywhere at once. Spikes hit the walls, and the main mass is coming soon, even though the first wave of it has been severely weakened. I need something more.

So I do what I do best. Get clever. Ask questions.

Questions like, why was the explosion from the first spike white? Oxygen-Hydrogen burns orange.

Aura? Magic? Something else? I don't know. I do get clever again though and realise that I can create hollow ice spheres with separated hydrogen and oxygen trapped inside, scattering them across the incoming terrain and leaving them to be shot by the defenders.

Bombs. Each one about the size of a basketball but filled with compressed mixed gasses, enough to make them very dangerous to any, say Deathstalkers, that crawl over them. I switch to glass from ice quickly, the cold of the water not helping to contain the hydrogen nearly as long as I would like, and the shrapnel from glass much more dangerous. So long as it's far enough away from the wall, it's fine.

Which leads me to a discovery, one that frustrates me a lot.

I can create water, then lightning, and get more energy per second out of the triggered reaction than just creating fire. Like, what? I have to hit myself mentally as I spray out a cone of fire as I fly over the Grimm. It's also white.

Fly back, tell the defenders to shoot the glass bubbles when there are Grimm around them, and then fly off at enhanced speed thanks to my white fire to the next spike. Yet as I do so, I am still trying to work out what the hell is going on with magic.

I can create matter, which implies a fuckton of energy. I can also create lightning and fire, but no where near the energy levels matter would give me. E=MC^2, that's a lot of energy. Like, two Hiroshima nukes per gram worth of energy. (I did the math a long time ago, I wanted to know how big a gram of antimatter would explode.)

Grimm spike. Land. Bring both hands up and concentrate.

Spikes of stone form up my legs and dig into the ground as I cast my fire.

Water flows freely, cheaply. Lightning is more expensive, but as I am using 'weak' lightning, it too is cheap. Without magical commands to prevent the gasses from recombining, instead one to direct the magically created stream of matter, a cone of white fire blasts out and shoves me back into the stone support structure.

It also eradicates swaths of Grimm as I wave the stream of super-hot fire from side to side.

Right, done here. Not enough to wipe out the spike entirely, but enough to break it's spear point and give the defenders on the wall a chance.

"Spear tip broken. Requesting next location." Command replies and points me at the next problem as I lift off. A part of the wall is broken.

We aren't losing, but I can't be everywhere at once. I can't save everyone.

White jets of fire thrust me across the sky, lightning lancing out and dropping Nevermore and Griffon as I follow the wall. A curved path, not the most efficient, but far better for moral.

And I don't run out of magic, so every moment I am spending helps.

The fire is white. Penny's was green, her swords were anyway. Green and black. It took about a second for her to form them, but it took Cinder less time to form hers. And her main blades seem to appear much faster, though there is less mass.

Water is cheaper to produce than the same mass of ice. Lightning is very cheap, energy wise, compared to fire. The energy in a bolt of lightning for a given amount of magic is far greater than that of the same spent on fire.

Is it because the lightning has to cross such a large distance? Natural lighting, -the hole in the wall is there, terra-kinesis on the stones- wouldn't naturally cross such a distance, it would -white fire on the Grimm, call a rallying cry "REMNANT UNBROKEN!"- follow the path of least resistance and ground easily. The longer the path, the more air needs to be ionised, the more energy required. Is it a square ratio? I can't remember.

Ice spike grow out of the ground under that set of lesser Beowolves before I break them off and throw them at the Ursa. Deathstalker incoming, use bomb. Separate, move the gases underneath, detonate.

Put that rock there, that stone there, create that rock and use it to crush the small Snake Grimm's head before placing it into the wall. A wall that is almost rebuilt now. The people around me are rallying, picking themselves up. Kill that Grimm and save that man desperately stuck under that rock, by suddenly lifting the rock pinning his legs and smashing the underside of it's skull. Now back into the wall.

"Thank you!" Someone calls. I nod at them and keep going, the simple act of acknowledgement helps with moral more than the split second saved by not looking and nodding.

Jump over the wall and bathe the place in white fire, make sure it goes around the friendly pair of Huntsmen and the five militiamen who were trying to hold the line. Land and spray.

They rally beside me. "Stand back from the wall!" I call and point one hand forward, and the other backwards to the cracked and half assembled wall.

Again white fire flows out, burning Grimm and heating stone. Heating, heating, melting. There we go. Now grab the bits of magical stone I seeded through all of it and reform the wall into a single solid piece.

Now cool it. I generate small platforms under the outer line and lift us all up before placing them on the wall. "Call for a rotation, you're spent." So soon, it's only been a few minutes. Are all the Huntsmen like this? Is the wall going to break in... Shit.

"Yes. Thank you. I didn't thin-" Shit. I put my hands on him and the other Huntsman and pump Growth into them. "Whoa, what was that?"

"Courage." I take off and sweep over the last of the spike with white fire before calling for another job.

"We need you on air support." The main wall has arrived.

"Understood. Point me." White fire streams behind me, inspiring the people below me. I think I'm faster than Cinder right now, under rocket power. Hmm, a bit of shape manipulation to create rocket nozzle cones and WHOA! There we go! Now we are flying!

G-Forces! I can feel them rippling across my skin! Unrestricted but directed flames are one thing, but these are literal rocket hands and feet. Even as I listen to the words feeding into my head through the headset telling me to go north, I start laughing.

My memories start feeding me bits of a song as I fly. Now playing: 'Iron Man 1 OST: First Flight'

"Ah, Tenno?" Picket asks a bit concerned before checking the scroll tracking systems and reports. "You're faster!"

"HANDLES LIKE A DREAM!" I whoop in joy.

Right, back on track. Grimm there, air force massing. Check the clouds, yes there are clouds. Looks like it's going to rain. "Well, let's give them an icing problem."

I rise into the coming cloud bank and sweep out my magic, pulling water from the world and compressing it, pulling heat out of it, shaping and freezing it. No need to waste magic making making ice when I can do it manually. Even if it is more expensive than controlling magic made water, it's still cheaper than whatever rules magic runs off.

Hollow, separate into component gasses, turn the sharp hailstorm into something else. I am above about two thirds of the Grimm, and ahead of the air force who are hanging back near the wall, I have to duck and dodge as I call up on the water moving from the west coast turning into clouds as they hit the eastern mountain range.

Around and around I go, the Grimm are being drawn to me. Sheets of stone form over my skin in a fake kind of armor to deflect the lighter Nevermore feathers while I dodge the larger and stronger ones.

Come on, 40 seconds till wall contact. Draw them to look at me. Right, now for Rise and Fall.

I toss all my shards upwards with all my magic and then thrust downwards.

Grimm are attracted to negative emotion, something I don't have much of right now, but I can call them up. 'Do you believe in dest' 'WEISS!' 'Trust me, this one' 'Whatever you wa'

My good mood vanishes. My Unlocked Aura and the death of people I care about draw them downwards. Draw the main wall of ground based Grimm to look upwards. Spikes and spit criss cross mid air as I cover myself in- Jaune screams as he kills Penny 'All with that Dammsmile on your fa' 'I'll always be here for you, Jaune.' -anger and sadness, stone and wind.

Now.

I suppress the emotions and swoop upwards, redirecting my flight and slamming on my new thrust. Four jets of white fire blast me upwards as I swerve and dodge through the attacks. Here comes the hail.

Grimm, with lower thrust to mass ratio, flail as they try to redirect themselves to chase me, others lose 'sight' of my emotions and ram into the ground. I remain silent. Still. Even as I cross the cloud of airborne Grimm and enter the gap between white shards and black monsters.

Higher, cross the line of white, making sure to accelerate them downwards. The Grimm are firing upwards now, Picket is yelling in my ear.

I enter the cloud and begin circling inside of it, forming currents of air rubbing against air, of charges forming.

The hail of ice spikes impact Grimm, but don't shatter, not immediately. Their shape carefully considered and their gaseous payloads compressed. Some lesser Grimm die from the hail, their bodies dissolving and dropping the cold chunks onto the ground based Grimm below them.

The greater ones instead have spikes sticking out of them as they rise to kill me, sticking out of gaps in bone armor of the slower species. Feather flick upwards. It's time.

I grab the charges I have created. I pour in magic. I generate lightning. And like before, I shout. "STRUN! BAH! QO!"

White lightning, coloured by my Aura I think, enhanced by science, find the paths of least resistance downwards. Every ice spike serves as a conductive node that the dozens of relatively weak bolts jump downwards and between.

Each node explodes.

The air between cloud and ground explodes in hundreds of small but powerful explosions, shards of still magically cooled ice resisting immediately melting and ripping apart everything between me and the ground.

The much of the ground Grimm survive. The airborne ones though? They are trapped in the sudden chaotic hailstorm of explosions and icy shrapnel as the mass of them get ripped apart under my combination of Science and Magic.

I start laughing, I'm pretty sure Picket is laughing with me, and I sweep white fire over the Grimm on the ground as I head back, making sure to bathe the ground in fire too. It won't burn long, but it will slow them, and that will disrupt their formation even more. I make sure to hit the larger command Grimm harder, further disrupting their forces as I return to the wall.

There are cheers as I swoop around the wall, and Weiss' Warbeat is in full effect for those not cheering. I pull my hands up, jets of white fire flaring out of my shoulders to keep me horizontal, and lightning-water-fire flows. One jet up, the other down, and around the wall sky and ground Grimm start to burn as they try to hit or pass over it.

'I Burn! Hotter than the sun in the middle of July!'

"Seven Icons be dammed, what are you?" Picket mutters over my headset. Hmm, must be one of those old religions.

Oh, look at the big boy ahead, trying to rip through the wall. I redirect a flow of separated gasses into a secondary ball and generate a glass containment sphere around it. Keep going, keep going, dodge the acid spit, keep going.

Now. Drop and roll it under it, near the back, dig a hole and use the earth to shape the charge. Now toss a cheap bolt of-

BOOM

That's more like it. The Grimm goes up behind me, but even as it does a black pillar of smoke is forming from it's path as it dissolves. Wall is fine too, got that just right. Flush myself with Growth to wash away the tiredness and keep fighting.

Partial Maiden Cinder Fall

The in-flight entertainment is mediocre and boring. Fortunately I brought my own. A few taps on my scroll as I lounge back in first class and a smirk as the captain is forced to put on the show I have prepared. Despite being overly crowded (first class only goes so far in a crisis), everyone can get a good look as every screen on the airship now showing Vale in it's soon to be gory glory.

Grimm. Panic. Fear. A few flickering lights and a few explosions and the false peace of the city breaks. I hit a button, and a flash is shown on the screens, another Dust cache goes up. Perhaps Watts has a point, lounging back in comfort while your enemies destroy themselves certainly has an appeal to it.

Minutes pass as they try to rally a defence, spikes of Grimm being lured ahead of the others. Odd, but if they want to die first, then-

The glow of the Scroll to show the impossible.

Again.

"REMNANT UNBROKEN!" Again? The cabin cheers in response to the Alicorn's cry.

It darts from place to place, as magic beyond what it should be capable of again and again spills from it. The Alicorn's speed doubles, no, triples as it's fire turns white (It is faster than me now.). With every Grimm Lance defeated, the younger Schnee's song is beginning to catch on.

I have 71.2% of the maiden's power. I saw it in the- Again, shards of glass too many to count get thrown by the Alicorn's power...

Salem. She said that it will take time for me to fully master the powers. I have had half a year with them. A shiver runs up my spine. The Alicorn, it has had days and it has far less power than I, yet it it's somehow more skilled.

Again I run though that happened in that inbetween place. Res. Kindness. Hatred in me. It knew me, it knew everyone there. It, wasn't surprised to be there... It knew Amber was dying...The corpse of Amber. That is that thing that was waiting there for her.

Look at the interactions from a different angle. Assume I am the one in it's position. Bodiless, waiting, knowing. Ozpin and the Nikos, Amber's dying state. I would...

I would pretend to be their friend. To 'Res' even as I poisoned the Maiden to take it's place. If I couldn't assume her identity, I would...

Fight me. Fight the common enemy and 'prove' that I was on their side. The Alicorn, or whatever it is, it has infiltrated...

It knew me. It didn't hate me, it merely pretended to in order to subvert Ozpin. Now it does the same to earn the trust of the people of-

The screens show it calling down a lightning storm using it's stolen magic, white colouring marking it under it's control. That is even more power than before, the lightning is exploding everything it touches.

"Cinder?" Emerald distracts me from my thoughts, from my panting, only for me to realise I was burning the seat.

And drawing attention.

"I'm fine, Emerald." The screens show it setting Grimm alight as it circles the wall, even faster than before. I must remain in control.

Control. It's not omnipotent, I can still fight it. Let us see how she likes this then. A few taps of my scroll, and my next trap is sprung.

...

Only to fail. They have people in the Mountain Glenn Tunnels already, clearing them out. No sudden Grimm surge in the middle of the city.

Calm. Remain in control. I can use that.

Camera feeds tell me what I need to know. They are planning on evacuating the people out through them. A smirk forms on my face. They don't know I am in control of the systems down there, if they try to retreat, they will find that way closed.

In fact, the elder Schnee is down there, and the current Headmistress. Let us see how they fare against blast doors designed to hold out against an endless tide of Grimm while said tide drowns them.

...

She cut through them.

What?

Since when could the Schnee Semblance do that?

And she is reporting the system is compromised. I will need to cut contact with the tunnel scrolls or risk being traced.

When could the Schnee Semblance do that? Where... New feeds are popping up, this one showing the Nikos girl... throwing lightning. And one of her team mates doing the same. The pet that the Nikos girl is training, the little boy, he has suddenly got a Semblance.

My breathing picks up again, and I have to force myself to stay in control. They can't do that. That's not their Semblance. The pink one had lightning to empower herself, not, did that lightning just bend and stab through multiple Grimm?

And the Nikos girl. That is not Polarity.

"Mercury?" I ask, his gaze on the same video I am seeing.

"I have no idea." He sounds confused, genuine. This is a new development or a well hidden ability. No, the pink one, Nora Valkyrie, she would not hide something like this. And while it is possible for Semblances to Evolve or be discovered, as with the boy, the odd of three, no, four events happening at once?

Stress from the first attack? No, if the attack could push them, it would push a lot more people to discover and Evolve. Many have been, but the concentration of people around the Alicorn... The Schnee is linked to Ozpin, linked to the Alicorn. Pyrrha Nikos is linked directly, her friends indirectly through her.

I switch my my scroll over and look through the video feeds, sweeping through them.

There. The Silver Eyed girl and th- she just phased through a claw. Her teammate, sister, just resisted a full charge by exploding somehow. The younger Schnee is using the same enhanced abilities as her elder sister.

Did that faunas girl just fly? And that one, he was in the tournament, his Semblance wasn't armor and power.

They all have second Semblances, or Evolutions.

They all are suddenly more powerful.

They all are linked back to the Alicorn.

My scroll's screen discolours in my hand as it cracks under my grip. At the edge of my other arm, the burning sensation of the cut-

"Cinder?" Emerald whispers worriedly. I force myself again to relax, looking over the damage to the scroll. Still usable.

One of the airship screens shifts, and I realise they have taken back control (temporarily) of the news stations.

A reporter is on the wall, pushing through despite the danger. She's shouting over the chant of the Schnee's song. "Lisa Lavender, on the scene of the Siege of Vale! Thing are looking strangely hopeful as-"

I tune her out and focus on the video feed as the corpse surges by, white fire melting Grimm above and below the wall.

A few more taps on my scroll, the exact footage brought up and slowed down. I zoom in and get a close look at the palms of it's corpse hands.

What.

Beams of white fire are forming from a stirring mass, a liquid like thing, glowing brightly.

That's not the elemental magic of Maidens.

Pan to the side, even the fire from it's eyes is wrong. Not fire, but sharp diagonal and square white lines.

In slow motion it passes, and I spot it looking directly into the camera. I know it's looking at me.

The Alicorn winks at me with Silver Eyes.

no

I send messages, I send commands, and I promise, threaten, give, do whatever I can to get that thing dead. It can't be allowed to survive, no matter what.

Author's Note:

Oh, look at me, watching RWBY episodes in detail and trying to work out how much mass per second a Maiden can generate, only to realise that, no, magic doesn't work like that.

Remnin-Penny calling up 8 blades was a good reference, until I needed to know what kind of stone that was. Then Cinder appearing a bunch of knives. Then I realised, based on the rules I am writing, that such hard numbers would only add more confusion.

So I ditched them. Which is a shame, I like hard numbers. I suppose it helps with how I write a story, far more as a simulation than just free form writing.

There was an alternative take on Cinder's POV this time, one I discarded. One where she works out that Yuki is from 'outside this reality'. Unfortunately, that would lead to her 1) having read the works of H. or the in universe equivalent, which would lead to 2) her freaking out a bit.

Cinder would then act in ways that limit the future of the story. Not going to say how, spoilers (Assuming my vague directions pan out, I am half assing and free form pantstering this story.) but it would either end the story in the next couple of chapters, or make it boring.

My biggest complaint right now is that I am feeling self conscious about other characters and how they react and talk. For OC's this is fine. For Canon character? Well, I'm only half assing this story, if I were to put my full effort into it, I would have written up a wiki and had that open on the side.

As you can probably tell, there isn't all that much dialogue going on. Most of the story is the internal thoughts of Yuki. This is both because I have a lot of catchup to do (explaining the world that CockBite neglected) and because of my previously mentioned concern on how to write the Canon character's accurately.

Fortunately, most of the story so far has been Yuki doing stuff and then retelling the Canon while everyone listens and half react. Unfortunately, that excuse is running out.

So, I'm going to need to get good at writing dialogue. Sorry in advance for butchering your characters. They probably are acting Out of Character, which right now I'm blaming on the whole 'I'm an alien who has seen you all die and fail! ~oooooohhhhh~' as well as the whole 'Immortal Game' going on.

That said, I do get some leeway. These aren't the characters from Canon, who have been through all the events of Canon. They are far closer to their 'early instalment weirdness' and prototype selves from the Monty era, back when the show was about girls who fought monsters.

Anyway, ultimately I have to remind myself that this story isn't for you, the readers, but for me. I've written fanfic before, but this is the first time I'm posting it. No, I won't post my other major RWBY fic, this one is borrowing some concepts from that and it's a lot more personal. There is a good reason I don't consider Yuki a proper Self Insert anymore.

She's not nearly crazy enough.

Anyway, read if you enjoy, don't if you don't.

#FreeRWBY from Cockbite's evil control.