Cinder dashed from rooftop to rooftop, noiselessly leaping away from Vale's CCT.

She smirked. Her pieces were in position; once they finally realized and their pawns began to gather, she would strike them down where they stood.

Who knew Roman would be such an excellent hacker? If his soldier order reassignment virus was also taken into consideration, he might even deserve a pay raise, for his loyalty to the cause.

Or she could dock his pay again. Cinder grinned wider, already picturing Roman's expression: a mixture of mostly acted outrage and poorly disguised confusion, with touches of deference - nobody wanted to get on her bad side, after all.

A short electrical whine could be heard from the announcer's booth before the image of a Queen appeared across screens broadcasting the event within the stadium, and all across Remnant.

"This is not a tragedy." From the rowdy bars to the crowded streets, listeners halted as the menacing voice echoed in their ears. "This was not an accident. This is what happens when you hand over your trust- your trust- your- y- y-"

The transmission cut out.

Cinder's eyes grew wide, navigating through the scroll as fast as she could. She was never great with electronics, though - she always left that up to Roman, and before him, Emerald or Mercury.

With a startup chime, the program started up again, a picture appearing once more on every display. Cinder's lips began to curl upwards, only to shoot down a moment later - the Queen was on its side. Before she could test the microphone, everyone in the Colosseum winced as a monotonic voice began to blare over the speakers.

"Your trial of 'Roman's Evil Voice Amplifier' has expired," it said. "Follow the instructions in the creator's subsequent message to purchase and support this program."

With a crackle and a pop, the audience was now assaulted by a very different voice, albeit at a much more manageable volume.

"-thing on? Neo, dear, can you check if- it is? Great!" The smugness radiating out of Roman was audible even in the clearing of his throat. "Let me start off by saying that I am filled with remorse for ruining your, uh, pro-Grimm anti-hunter propaganda or whatever, I never really cared for the details.

"And, uh, if this isn't the middle of the Vytal Festival and you spontaneously decided to hold a live practice, you should let that punk kid Mercury know, and immediately stop listening to the rest of this message. Say I promise him a new leg or two.

"Anyway!" he continued, the clap of his hands barely caught on the recording. "I have decided to hand in my resignation. Of course, if we're planning my visit to jail, my hand is also in jail and cannot submit the necessary papers, so I figured I'd do this instead. Much more fun."

Fun?! Cinder mentally screeched, seething as she smashed her scroll into the ground and blasted it with fire for good measure. To her continued displeasure, past-Roman continued on, oblivious to the rooftop figure .

"Again, sorry about your whole lie-filled, fear-gathering monologue, but hey! All you gullible idiots listening in! I, Roman Torchwick, Remnant-renowned criminal, savvy gentleman, interrupted that very speech! I am the antihero you deserve! I accept payments of money, Dust, or ice-cream, to be delivered anonymously to any and all Vacuan government officials."

Cinder glared at her scroll, trying to will it back together so she could 'inquire' of Mercury how he was involved.

"Toodles!" And with that jovial farewell, the feed cut out - although the tipped chess piece remained on display for everyone to see.
For the second time in Remnant's history, the Amity Colosseum was filled with silence.

But as quickly as it had arrived, so too did it leave. Several members of the audience began to scream and point at the barrier above, but as heads turned a large explosion impacted the source of their fear. A moment later, the dissolving corpse of a Nevermore flopped onto the shield, dealing a negligible amount of damage to it.

A roaring filled the air as an Atlesian airship's engines blasted over the stadium towards Vacuo. As it soared away, a final message began to play, a live delivery straight from the airship.

"Up yours, Cinder! Aaaaaaaahahahaha!" Roman cackled for about a minute before the program of his creation properly terminated - as did the last shred of Cinder's sanity.

The Colosseum was once again drenched in silence. Someone started to laugh; another joined in, and in moments the entire stadium was awash with laughter. Ironwood was laughing, Pyrrha was laughing - hell, even Penny was laughing, having come back to life purely to guffaw as she supported her torso with her one arm.

"You- Roman, you-" Cinder fell to her knees, clutching her head as the laughter grew louder and louder. She saw them all; giggles in Atlas, sniggers around Mistral, chuckles throughout Vacuo, chortles across Vale. She started muttering to herself, the words more unintelligible as they went on. "This- this can't be happening! No… No…"

"No!" Cinder shot up from her bed, breathing heavily. Her eyes darted around, aura flaring as she quickly took stock of her surroundings. A glance at the calendar affixed to the guest dorm's door affirmed that Penny's destined demise had yet to come about.

Cinder let go of her aura and collapsed. "Thank Grimmness, it was just a nightmare," she muttered, cold droplets of sweat clinging to her back. She was lucky Emerald and Mercury were out killing another White Fang agent for sport; it wouldn't do to show weakness at such a crucial stage in the plan.

Roman might be overdue for another pay dock.