Opinions are your state of feelings of a particular topic. They can't actually be wrong and I accept a lot of opinions.

However you can get out if you don't think the true Fate/Stay Night OTP, One True Pairing, isn't Assassin X Gate. I will fight you on this, except where you are using your fists I will bring a goddamn shotgun.

Like a true fucking american.

God, I'm a horrible person.

Also, I'm searching for a Beta. If you want to, then just PM me or review, which I always read, or whatever.

Something wasn't right. It was only obvious to him, but obvious all the same.

The sky had flooded with those golden motes of light, as it should have. Glory shone, as it should have.

But the brightness, the pure life it showed, the incomparable strength where even the stars and the moon above dulled in comparison, their soft light unable to graze the blade that dimmed the Sun…

Shirou stared at his projected Excalibur. Yes it took nearly killing himself to project the blade, like nearly everything these days nearly killed him in a one way or another, but it was still far too powerful to be a simple projection.

Projecting a Noble Phantasm took a full rank of power away from what it usually was. To put that into context, the weapon that killed him the first time, Gae Bolg, was usually a B rank Noble Phantasm. If he projected it, the noble spear of Ireland's Child of Light Cu Chulainn would fall to the same rank as Kanshou and Bakuya.

Excalibur, a sword so renowned that the Holy Grail had been forced to give Saber Invisible Air to hide the blade to prevent other Heroic Spirits from identifying it on sight, would be reduced to something that even a B rank Noble Phantasm would be able to compete against it. Hell, even C ranks could have successfully blocked and diverted the blade in the middle of combat a few times before shattering into pieces.

Shirou studied the blade before looking at the dark night sky and the glittering, broken moon and the stars that tried to outshine it. It was rather easy to look at it. After all, there wasn't a cloud in sight. That wasn't because destroying Angra Mainyu and the Grail had cleared up the crimson and deadly storm it made.

That was because he had accidentally cut the sky while using Excalibur. Let him repeat that. He, Shirou Emiya, had accidentally cut, no, vaporized the Root forsaken sky as, not a goal, but a byproduct of using the divine sword. Blowing the clouds away was understandable to him, but having not a single cloud in sight for even his reinforced eyes, which could see for miles? Something like that was only on the level of the original blade, or might have even surpassed it.

That shouldn't have been possible.

Shirou's eyes knit in frustration. To say he was curious would be a rather large understatement but he didn't have enough Prana to even analyze his blade, something that caused so little Prana that Rin could have done it a couple thousand times before even starting to sweat.

But that didn't matter. His bond with King Arthur, with Arturia and her past, and especially her weapon was nearly sacrosanct from the time when she was his Servant, for as short it was, along with the hundreds of times he had faced her in battle near the start of the Grail War. He had memorized every detail about her weapon but he didn't know what could cause such an effect, to cause a projected version of it be comparable to the original.

Excalibur was a God forged weapon, crafted within the World, guarded by the Fae who gave it to Vivan, the lady of the Lake, who later loaned it to King Arthur where it was returned before his death. It was Glory manifested and formed into a single blade. It was Mankind's wishes formed and…

Shirou's stomach dropped into his steel feet at his realization, and his face turned into an aghast expression of shock. It was as if God's divine knowledge had struck him in the form of a thunderbolt, searing his brain cells as it was overwhelmed with a kaleidoscope of fear, and rage.

Like many Noble Phantasms, Excalibur had a side effect. For Gae Bolg, it was that all damage dealt was unable to be healed which was why it required Rin to, not heal, but recreate and replace his heart fully in order to save him that fateful night. For Avalon, the divine sheath of Everdistant Utopia healed extensively whenever the user was or was near King Arthur, to the point where it could even replace organs like the heart even while its true purpose was to allow King Arthur to access and travel to the Land of the Fae.

It was said that Excalibur's power increased exponentially, no, that the blade only showed its true power when an enemy that threatens the entire planet emerges. So if he went by that conclusion, the reason that Excalibur was so powerful now compared to how it was supposed to be meant that…

The planet that he and the Grail had transported to was currently undergoing Armageddon, Ragnarok, the Apocalypse, and any other events that depict the end of the World. Something with the power to wreak havoc on the planet, or destroy it entirely, was present and, unlike Gilgamesh using his Ea, fully intended on razing the World to nothing more than stray ashes blowing in the wind.

And he was pretty sure he knew exactly what that something was.

A black and violent wave that dwarfed buildings started to emerge and churn from the forest in the distance, from the trees, from the sky, from the very ground itself. It rose in endless fury and seemed to swamp the heavens themselves, seemingly wanting to enact an encore of Genesis onto the world, to repeat the World Serpent Jörmungandr's feat of poisoning the oceans and the skies. Shirou's eyes dilated into tiny pricks at the sight. It actually took a couple of seconds for him to realize that, no, it wasn't an inky black wave that originated from Hell itself. It actually was individual masked monsters, which seemed to twist and contort onto themselves, in such great numbers that they blotted out everything beyond them.

They used wings, claws, hooves, paws, anything they had at their disposal to try to get at him. For every beast trampled by its comrades, seven more took its place and roared, their only goal was to destroy the wielder of Glory, no matter how many fell in order to do so. They bayed for the blood of Mankind.

In full health, Shirou could have dealt some damage to the horde with his Noble Phantasms. Maybe he could have even destroyed it fully if he deployed Caladbolg II against them, the broken Phantasm sure to have fully wiped the land clean of these monsters. Unfortunately he was so far away from perfect health that it could only be comparable to the distance in power between his old kitchen knife and Ea. One could cut cucumbers, the other could do the same with planets.

A strong scent, the smell of a raging forest fire, flooded his nose suddenly and replaced any other thoughts of self preservation. He flinched and moved his head to the side, his instincts the only warning he had to dodge the speeding arrow that tore a hole into where his head was a second ago. It impacted into the ground ten feet in front of him and exploded, a veritable three foot deep glittering, uneven, reverse glass dome forming from the sand in front of him superheating. The explosion itself was a miniature firestorm, trapped in a single speeding arrow that longed to be free and had snatched up the chance when it was presented. A mix of scents hit Shirou, making his face melancholy at the familiar smell of ash and the feeling of scorching heat. If it hit his head it wouldn't even be funny how dead he would have been, rather instead he was pretty sure he would have turned to ash.

Shirou smirked, a face that was not unfamiliar to whoever had seen the crimson garbed Archer of the Fifth Holy Grail War. He should thank the person who shot the arrow later. Whoever they were, they were helpful enough to let him know that his remaining nerves were working from the feeling of heat that had been exuded by the arrow, along with the smell of the Prana. Though whoever they were should try to learn how to manage their Prana better. He could smell that arrow and the Magus that had shot it from a mile away if he wasn't distracted and focused. Even if he was somehow more distracted than he already was, he could have easily dodged it.

Besides, whoever shot that arrow had both a clear vantage point and was a very good shot. A very good shot only meant one thing, that the person in question was accurate with their arrows. Accurate shots were predictable and can be easy to dodge if the one shooting doesn't account for moving and instead depends on the element of surprise. Even easier when the person being shot at only had one showing weak point while the rest was covered in 'armor.' All the person had to do was make sure their weak point wasn't hit and they were secured for life, a similar circumstance that existed for the Norse Hero Sigurd who had an armor that was nearly impenetrable save for a single weakness on his back.

He tilted his head slightly so he could see behind him and upwards. He couldn't see much more than the fact that the person in question was wearing scarlet red. He sneered. Another crimson clothed Archer trying to take his life? The last one was far more threatening and far more capable than the mediocre archer behind him, though he would admit that the broken arrow the individual had shot had a decent amount of power.

He turned back towards the masked monsters that were nearing him, their claws tearing up the ground and their wings slicing apart the air, and prepared himself. He was going to die here-like he did thousands, millions of times in the act of being Alaya's dog though he never was- but he could at least try to rid this world of a couple hundreds of these apocalypse catalyzing beasts. That way he could at least hel-

It felt like lightning had struck him when he realized what was happening, his expression of disgust and disappointment marring the face it stood upon, which soon twisted into a fractured smile that didn't reach his sunset eyes. Even so, he readied his blade. "It seems…" he said out loud, bitter as if even he was unsure why he was saying it. "It seems that even when I've forsaken that dream, I still can't help but try to save everyone." He really was just as bad as Archer. He might have placed Sakura above everyone else, but he still apparently placed everyone else above himself.

The flood of monsters reached him and Shirou tried to swing, but his good luck streak finally ended. Right before he tried to swing Excalibur, EMIYA apparently tried to assist the murderous, humanity ending beasts before him. His arm finally spread its influence to his right arm fully, transforming his joints into steel. His hand locked up and Excalibur stopped its swing halfway, the monster he was aiming for left free of injury while also being gifted the chance to attack.

One of them leaped towards his face, intent on mauling apart and bathing the ground below in his bright crimson blood.

The second to last thing Shirou heard before he fell unconscious was the sharp cry of "No!"

The second to last thing he saw was the flood of monsters about to kill him suddenly try to screech in pain, not given the chance as silver light bounded past him, enveloping the horde in its angelic light before dissolving them into black sparks.

The last thing he heard was the sharp, grinding noise of metal and steel breaking apart and falling away.

And the last thing he saw was Excalibur glowing a bright gold, even as it was surrounded by the silver light, trying to fight against it. Even Excalibur's immense power was no match, however, and the gold was swallowed up by the silver even as the blade broke apart in his hands into blue motes of light, somewhat akin to glittering stardust.

The last thing Shirou thought before fading into the sweet realms of unconscious was simple yet contradicting the reality that he was faced with. 'Excalibur… breaking? That's...not...possible…!'

After that the fatigue that came from the consecutive large number of impossible deeds that was performed wrapped around him like the loving embrace of a mother: soft with the feeling of guaranteed safety when he was greeted into the lands of the unconscious.

Ruby didn't know what to do.

The number of Grimm attacking that red haired hero was insane. It was even more than before, but the Grimm attacking her was… well, not patient but less desperate than how the monsters attacking the red haired hero was. For him, they seemed like a man who finally found water after living in Vacuo's desert for a month. They clawed their way to him with eyes bulging out like the mad and sanityless beings that they were, not caring if they killed their own comrades in their effort to reach him.

No, not him, Ruby realized. The Grimm were monsters that constantly try to kill and drive humanity to extinction with an almost ravenous hunger. And so, what was more appealing and necessary to kill than the person who somehow wielded a blade that seemed to be made out of the wishes of Mankind, a manifestation of the hope that tomorrow would be a day worth living for? Nothing was. They weren't going after the red haired hero because he killed a massive amount of them along with whatever was exuding that aura of madness and death. They were going after the sword which he just happens to wield.

She felt like screaming, and only belatedly realized that she was. She wasn't sure how he had that blade but in order for that sword to release that beam of golden light it must have consumed an insane amount of aura, more than anything she'd ever seen before. She doubted that Jaune, any of the Professors at Beacon, or even Headmaster Ozpin would have had enough aura to let loose that feeling of power.

The swarm started to approach the Hero and so Ruby stepped forward, intent on trying to save the same person that saved them from that… that thing releasing the aura of malice and demonic like energy, attracting hundreds to even thousands of more Grimm to Vale and Beacon than what was there previously.

White and red contrasting against the natural hues of the forest stopped her movement though. Pyrrha was still unconscious, her form splayed against the ground and crimson blood slowly soaking the grass beneath her, while Weiss herself seemed to be in between the realms of sweet unconscious and the nightmare which was reality.

Ruby's entire body was shaking, racked by indecision. Did she take Weiss and Pyrrha and flee, using the distraction of the Grimm seeking out the Hero to escape from Beacon and get her friends to a doctor? Or did she dare step forward into the horde of nightmarish beasts, trying to imprint Crescent Rose as a symbol of a Huntress: being a ray of light clashing against the everlasting army of darkness? To try to save all of them, not letting a 'small thing' like certain death deter her from fighting even when the odds were hopeless? A martyr who left to die on the bloody battlefield, leaving those waiting for her to return in misery?

Summer Rose's- mom's- watery smile flashed by in her mind, followed by her last message. "Don't try to save everybody at the cost of yourself. Don't die with an altruistic bloody smile on your face in the middle of the battlefield. Please Ruby, don't leave your family behind for a world that doesn't care. Don't leave your friends behind. Please don't repeat my mistakes. Please…"

Ruby bit her lip hard, hard enough to draw out blood. Should she help him and risk her friends dying or should she run, try to find a doctor in Vale and get her friends to safety but leaving the person who saved them all to die? An impossible choice, yet one she had to make.

Suddenly she saw the red haired person flinch and move his head. Why'd he do that, a flinch to try and avoid something behind him when the Grimm were in front?

She soon had her answer in a speeding arrow, so fast that space seemed to ripple and was strained around it, lancing through the space where the hero's head was just a moments ago. It seemed to twist and splinter apart right before impacting the ground, where an explosion larger than anything she had ever seen occurred.

She stared at the now glass pit spreading out before her, a shocked look at the sheer power being flung around nearly casually. Her stomach seemed to be six feet beneath the rest of her body, pooling down in dread.

It was weird. It was like her nerves had frozen up, sending chills throughout her entire body, but at the same time it felt like she herself was on fire. Two contradicting forces, a paradox only able to be formed through the fear she felt. She could feel her body locking up, her brain becoming unresponsive and slow like a hazy fog had settled around it.

No, she couldn't afford such things now. If she did freeze up, everybody would die. Everybody would die!

Slowly, ever so slowly, she felt her mind speeding up and returning to normal, being able to actually think and plan out what she could do. No, it seemed as if the fear previously working against her started to actually assist her in making her brain work far faster and more efficient than it normally would.

If there was a time to escape, right now would be optimal.

It was too fast to properly see, especially with the flames surrounding the weapon, but the projectile was definitely an arrow.

She might have been awkward at social conversations and making friends but Ruby Rose knew weapons. She knew their capabilities, she knew the damage that they could do, and, most importantly, she knew their general shape.

Admittedly, that explosive one was something far outside of what she would have ever expected for a simple arrow, even if it was made out of the highest quality of fire dust ever seen in Remnant, but still.

She turned around to confirm her suspicions and gazed at Pyrrha. Or, to be more specific, she analyzed Pyrrha's major wounds. If Pyrrha was hit with one of those arrows she would have been turned to ash and so she obviously wasn't. However the wounds were deep and spread out.

Almost as if she was hit by an arrow.

Since Pyrrha was fighting Cinder, she could assume that Cinder was the archer that shot that same fire arrow. Did she take it easy on Pyrrha, or was the fire arrow a last ditch effort at killing the red haired hero, Ruby didn't know. All she knew was that Cinder was now solely focused on the massive threat to her plan of destroying Vale, and so it left them an opening that could be exploited. One where she could take her friends, run to the lockers, and flee from the deathtrap known as Beacon.

Ruby shut her eyes and dug her nails into her palms so hard it bypassed her, admittedly, very low aura pool but in the end she gathered her friends together.

She spat out a curse as she gripped all of them together prepared to use her Semblance, for what more than likely would be the last time this week, to turn all of them into roses and rush to the locker.

A single tear slipped down her cheek as she realized that she was willingly leaving someone who just saved them to certain death. Her body was trembling in terror. Ruby was afraid.

She was afraid of the Grimm. She was afraid of the idea of her friends dying. She was afraid of the hero dying. Most of all though, she was terrified at the choice she had to make, at what she was becoming. A person who leaves a few people to certain death to protect someone else.

What would happen if this happened again? If they were protecting a village of some sort but her friends and allies got injured, how many would she abandon to save them? One? Ten? A hundred, a thousand, maybe even more? Or would she give in, and abandon her friends to try and save a couple hundred people she never met and would never meet again? Would she become someone who would kill the few for the many? One that would kill ten people to save a hundred, a hundred for a thousand, a thousand for a million? An emotionless machine that hardened its heart to continue trying to save people?

Despite knowing she shouldn't, that her will would falter if she would, Ruby cast one look back towards the red haired Hero.

The Grimm were upon him, looking nearly as unstoppable as a tsunami. He swung his sword and yet faltered, as if something was forcing him to give up the strike. One of the Grimm lunged for his face and Ruby knew, as well as she knew her own name, that the red haired Hero would die there. As beautiful and as powerful the blade was, a sword about ninety centimeters as it was wouldn't be able to defend its wielder at extremely close ranges like a dagger would be able to. Now that the Grimm was within the Hero's guard, he wouldn't be able to defend effectively or even defend at all. He was at the mercy of a being that had none.

Time seemed to slow down to an absolute crawl to her.

She could feel her hands move, even as she knew they moved far too slow to prevent him from being killed. She could see every gear shifting as Crescent Rose deployed itself all too slowly. She could feel her Semblance acting up and responding to her desperate call all too slowly.

Everything was far too slow.

Nothing she could do would help! All that she could do was stand there in shock as the Grimm closed in, about to kill him, about to kill him!

And that wasn't the extent of everything. Her throat itched. Her ears were sore from hearing that irritating ringing noise that seemed to last for hours yet was only for a second.

It took her longer than she thought it would to realize what the noise was, why her throat was burning. Why everything around her glowed a wavy silver, as if it was the reflection of the moon on the surface of the lake.

She was screaming.

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

The vortex of negative emotions within Ruby exploded outwards onto the world, shock, fear, horror, pain, and rage giving way to light.

Silver light exploded from Ruby and swamped the surrounding area in fury, like a river that finally broke through the dam that held its massive power back. The Grimm seemed to evaporate from a light touch of the silver glow while the few remaining hastily retreated in panic, what was once a horde of demons numbering in the hundreds cut down to a mere dozen.

Ruby herself was collapsing to the ground, her legs far too drained to support her. All of the exhaustion from escaping the Grimm, battling them, her injuries, and constant abuse of her Semblance was far too much for her body to handle. Even if it was not, whatever she had done to make everything white had not only added to her exhaustion but multiplied itself exponentially. Greater men would have fell before such exhaustion and her body seemed to agree with them as the ground rose up to meet her. Black spots danced across her vision as darkness invited her into the realms of the unconsciousness.

Whirrrr clank!

Crescent Rose's war scythe form burrowed itself into the ground as Ruby plunged it into the soil and used it as a pole to desperately keep herself propped up on.

'Not now.' She told herself. 'Not… yet.' All of them were still in massive amounts of danger. The perfect opportunity to escape from Beacon has been missed, since due to that silver show Cinder would no doubt focus on them. If she launched another one of those fire arrows… not even their ashes would remain. Nor the forest protecting them from sight currently.

Even with the massive horde of Grimm being destroyed, somehow, the Dragon could still summon another wave. She wasn't sure how finite the amount of Grimm were in the world, but if there were only a couple thousand of them humanity would have destroyed them all long before, especially with Atlas technology.

Speaking of the Dragon, the winged abomination in the sky somehow was able to retreat far enough to not be affected whatever the hell she just did. It was eyeing her warily, its crimson eyes shining with a cold intellect that would have made her shiver if she had enough energy too. Instead she settled for smiling wearily.

"Of course whatever I did didn't affect the Dragon. It would be too easy that way wouldn't it?" She whispered to herself in a strained manner.

As if hearing her, the Dragon relaxed its furiously beating wing and slammed into the ground, causing the earth to ripple around it and massive cobblestones jut out from the pathway to Beacon's entrance.

In the distance one of the buildings started to tip over, the pure force emitted by the Dragon landing proving too much for the expertly built architecture to withstand. A building whose entire purpose was to provide a beacon of hope for all those who gazed upon it, one which was never supposed to fall.

For the Dragon to cause so much damage just by landing…

Ruby gulped in fear. What kind of monster were they facing?! And now that she noticed it, how was the beast even supporting itself in the air with its lone, non-incinerated wing?! It must weigh over a ton, but it's able to at least hover in the air with the pure air force each wingbeat it was producing?! That's insane! This one Grimm… it probably could have soloed the entire army of Grimm pouring into Vale.

They couldn't have faced this monster even at their full might. The wing and tail not being there proved it could be injured, but it only received that damage from that blast the red haired person unleashed. And considering he was laying unconscious a bit away from where the Dragon touched down she doubted that he could unleash another one, even if the Dragon was kind enough to sit there and wait for him to charge up enough aura to repeat it.

No, they definitely couldn't have beaten it at full strength. And since the guy was exhausted, along with Ruby herself, Pyrrha was unconscious, Weiss was unconscious, along with no reinforcements it looked like their chances for surviving this dipped from zero into the negatives.

The Dragon still looked wary about her repeating the super blast she did and about the red haired guy getting up so that was a plus in their favor at least.

Then it opened its mouth while its eyes started glowing a whirlpool of crimson red with flecks of bright blue. Ruby could barely see into its mouth but she had a hunch of what was happening. A hunch proven to later be correct.

She wished she remained ignorant when she realized that it was starting to glow.

"Oh come on!" She complained tiredly. "It breathes fire as well as summoning Grimm?!"

The Dragon's throat lit up a brilliant orange as the night let up in the pure power of fire. No that wasn't quite right. This was no mere fire. It was more of a contained and more potent version of plasma, something more akin to a lightning bolt than something as little as fire.

Her skin was scorched and every last drop of moisture that was still on her evaporated.

And then all she saw was blood red.

"How's it going squirt? Drinking milk every day like I told you to? You'll only grow big and strong then you know."

A comforting red. The color that was the same as her own cape.

The same color as her Uncle's cape.

She let out a small hysterical laugh before sinking into his familiar grasp, a safe haven that let her remain ignorant of the pain of reality.

"Are you drunk again Uncle Qrow?" She asked, even while she soaked his clothes in tears of relief. After all, him being drunk would be a damn good reason to be willing to face down a Dragon. If supported by enough liquor, he was probably seeing the thing as an oversized bat Grimm than a Dragon.

"How many times do I have to tell you Ruby?" He said in an exasperated tone even as he wrapped his arms around her and buried his head into her hair, as if they were comforting each other with their presence. "I'm not as think as you drunk I am." He said, purposely misplacing and slurring the words.

Ruby tried, she tried so hard, but she couldn't resist and giggles started pouring out of her. Of course. Only her uncle could disregard the massive threat right in front of them to try and cheer her up even slightly.

Speaking of the massive threat, what happened to the breath attack coming their way?

She tilted her head ever so slightly upwards to try and see the Dragon. Said beast was flung back over a dozen meters and trying to cover its face and body from a barrage of missiles firing from an aircraft. The missiles, which she knew for a fact could easily annihilate Grimm due to the amount of fire dust crammed in there, seemed to be more annoying the beast than actually hurting it. It was similar to how an adult would react when hit with the fists of a child. Stinging a bit, yes. Actually hurting? Not quite.

Ruby paled when she turned her head ever so slightly more to gaze at the deep scar of glass covering nearly a hundred meters of ground.

There used to be stone and forestry before that attack hit, only missing them due to the extremely well timed intervention of the aircraft. Even then the attack only missed by the length of a meter at most. If that attack had hit then not even the remains of their ashes would have been left behind, much less any intact body part.

"Now Ruby," Her Uncle Qrow's voice hardened like cooling metal, one about to be made into a fine sword. It sounded just as deadly too. "Can you get up?"

Rather than waste her energy speaking, Ruby used Crescent Rose as a balance to pull herself up, only slightly staggering in the action. Qrow looked worriedly upon her, though his guard never dropped against the Grimm.

"I'm good Uncle Qrow. Even regained a bit of aura." Ruby declared determinedly. "But that Grimm is strong. Too strong. We can't beat it. It can breathe fire and summon Grimm."

"I know." Qrow said. "This thing had a literal mountain on it and shrugged it off like Ice Queen with compassion. Killing it is going to be next to impossible. We're going to have to be extremely lucky to even deal damage to it." Qrow grinned as he said the last part. After all, what was luckier than the opponent trying to kill you having massive turns of bad luck?

Ruby, seeing Qrow's grin, decided not to ask. She would trust her uncle with this, even after the ominous things he said.

"Also Blond one should be coming to you soon. He'll get you patched up, and then you have to leave. You can't help with something like this, and with your teammates unconscious and you exhausted you'll be more of a liability than anything." Though the words said were blunt, Qrow's words still cut deeply into Ruby. It was also completely true, however. They wouldn't be much help like this.

Apparently the Dragon was fed up with trying to block the missiles from the Bullhead, and turned its head towards it, ignoring the explosions peppering its skin. The same crimson glow radiated from its eye, though with not as much intensity as before.

The Bullhead hastily tried to pull back, succeeding somewhat, but not fast enough to avoid the Dragon. The beast leapt into the air and, without delay, spat out five enormous fireballs at the aircraft. No, not fireballs, but rather tightly compacted plasma more akin to miniature suns than actual fire.

The Bullhead managed to avoid three of the small suns, but the fourth one managed to clip one of the wings. Ruby watched with horror as the aircraft lost all semblance of control and spiraled into the fifth fireball, exploding as the steel evaporated once melting into the heat of the fireball.

"Psh. 4 out of 10." Qrow muttered. "As if anyone actually thought you idiots were actually dead."

"Hey I resent that." Complained a familiar voice. "The auto-flying for the Beacon aircrafts is insane good. It nearly looked like there was an actual pilot in there! Eight out of ten at the very least!"

Ruby whipped her head around in confusion and she saw yellow and blue standing in what remained of the forest. "Jaune!" She piped up ecstatically. "Sun! Neptune!"

"Ruby!" Jaune yelled as he slid down the slope and caught her arm tightly. "Ruby, are you okay? Where's Pyrrha?!"

"Um, Pyrrha is-" saying this Ruby's eyes widened in horror. "Pyrrha!" Her tiny body somehow regained the energy to run to Pyrrha's and Weiss's bodies flung a couple meters away from the Dragon's blast. "Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god." She stammered.

"Out of the way!" Sun ran ahead of Ruby while Jaune and Neptune weren't far behind him. He knelt by Pyrrha and Weiss, his eyes dancing over and analyzing every wound on the two. "Weiss is good, but Pyrrha… what the fuck? Arrow wounds?!"

"Pyrrha was heading up to the top of Beacon to fight some person who used arrows." Jaune remembered. "She used that to kill another person."

"Yeah." Ruby confirmed. "It's not a normal arrow either. Look at the jagged part of the wound. It was an arrow whose entire purpose was to deal a lot more damage when ripped out."

Sun scowled. "Dammit, I don't have the equipment for this. I can prevent her from bleeding out too much but with how much is already gone, she's going to need a blood transfusion. We don't even have that equipment at the shelter, so we need to take her to a hospital. And the Dragon shot our fucking Bullhead out of the sky! We don't have anything to allow us to get to the damn hospitals!"

"What about the Beacon medical center?" Asked Neptune. "That should have enough materials to help her right?"

Sun bit his lips. "It's not an ideal environment due to the attack and non-sterile environment, but this entire situation isn't exactly stellar in the first place. It should be good. We need something to carry her, the running would just jostle her even more and make the wounds worse."

"Can we use those vines?" Asked Jaune, pointing out the vines hanging on the trees. "I've seen them used like this on TV."

Sun nodded. "It's not that good but we can use those to form a small hammock. But that'll take time, even with the three of us so… Neptune! Use parts of your clothing to form a tourniquet! Jaune, help him for all the wounds and make sure to apply constant pressure! Huntsman, keep the Grimm of us anyway you can! I'll get the hammock made in twenty seconds!"

All of them rushed to follow his orders. Jaune and Neptune started ripping off parts of their clothing while Qrow started rushing the Dragon Grimm, his scythe out in its full glory.

"Can I help you with the hammock?" Asked Ruby. "You said it'll take time but we need every second we can get."

"Nah." Sun clapped his hands together, as if he was praying. "I got this."

Sun's soul hummed with life and energy as a dozen light clones formed into existence. They would be useless for fighting due to Sun not putting that much aura into them but for simply fixing something they would be worth more than an entire crew of people. After all, though they had different bodies all of their minds and actions were linked to his, forming something akin to a hive mind.

The clones worked together seamlessly, not a single wasted movement existing within their teamwork. After only forty seconds the vine hammock was made, not one that would last long but something that would help them for now at least.

Sun clicked his tongue. Forty seconds? He'd gotten rusty.

"Done!" Neptune called out to Sun. Pyrrha's body was wrapped in multiple tourniquets, and Jaune pressing down on the major wounds while whispering reassurances to Pyrrha's unconscious body.

"Same here." Sun nodded to him. "Put her on it gently. We've got to rush. Remember to reinforce the vines with your aura."

"Of course." Neptune affirmed.

Aura was a useful and rather versatile ability. As well as being able to be used as a defensive force field, aura could also be used for attacking if one's aura control was high enough. If Sun remembered right, Ren was supposed to be absolutely broken in his mastery of aura and could use it generate even shockwaves with a simple punch through aura, not with pure force like Yang.

In addition to being able to be used defensively and offensively, aura could also be used supplementarily to reinforce objects. Though it was difficult, every huntsman and huntress need to be able to use it instinctually by the time they even got into highschool. Only idiots didn't bother to rely on the rather useful ability.

For fuck's sakes, Blake shattered a watermelon with a piece of bread and sent Nora flying from a whip attack using sausage. If that wasn't useful, Sun didn't know what was.

He snapped back to attention as Jaune and Neptune placed Pyrrha on the hammock, Ruby assisting them with carrying it. Alright, that was good. Now all they had to do was avoid the Grimm and rush to Beacon and they should be able to help Pyr-?!

Sun dove out of the way. He didn't know what was coming, he didn't know why it lighted every single alarm bell in his body, he didn't know why his instincts screamed to run and not look back if he wanted to survive, but he didn't care either. He just knew that if he wanted to live, he had to dodge.

He wasn't sure why he was the only one to notice the frankly absurd amount of power coming his way either. Maybe it was because he was a faunus? Animals were able to sense natural disasters coming before humans simply due to the instincts they possess. A simple feeling is what allowed them to escape before disaster struck and killed them.

And as much as Blake denied it, in the end the Faunus were part animal. Nothing like some non-sentient beings or a beast who feasted on blood, but the Faunus were simply humans far more in touch with their animal side. Sun could smell more than what people could. Every touch was more, he could see more, hear more. Every single sense was cranked up to eleven and beyond.

He didn't know. He didn't really care either, as long as he could avoid what was certain to be a killing blow.

Something shot between the trees, a projectile speeding between Jaune and Neptune, who were on the sides of the hammock, and sped straight to Ruby.

Ruby's eyes widened just a tad at the projectile about to spear through her, not given enough time for anything else.

It plunged into her right eye and speared through her, vanishing somewhere into the distance.

Sun roared in grief and horror. He knew a killing blow when he saw one and that one eviscerated the entirety of Ruby's head, along with some of her body. There wasn't anything that could survive that.

He stared with tears in his eyes as the blood from her head slowly drifted down, even as Neptune and Jaune realized what happened and turned to Ruby's still standing corpse with shock.

Wait. Blood drifting down? Still standing corpse?

Sun blinked tears out of his eyes to see what actually happened, even as the remnants of Ruby's head filled out the night sky.

Roses. Roses were everywhere, as bright red as blood.

Sun stared in shock as the roses regathered, clumping together like some five year old tried to mash them together. It formed into a silhouette of a head until the red faded from the roses, crimson petals turning into pale skin and black hair.

"Ruby…?" Asked Jaune tentatively, his voice sounding as scared and shocked as Sun felt. Probably even more since Jaune was a closer friend of Ruby than Sun was, even if he liked the short girl.

Ruby didn't answer him, standing still as if she was a statue. Slowly, ever so slowly, Ruby brought a hand up to her right eye and patted it, as if she was unsure that her eye was still there. She patted it a few times to reassure that, yes, her head was still attached to her body and not speared into a tree somewhere.

"Tch. So your Semblance grants you a limited amount of intangibility by transforming you into roses? How annoying." A silky smooth yet condescending voice rang out, making Ruby feel like she was suffocating.

Cinder walked out of the trees slowly, as if she had nothing to fear from the group of teenagers on the ground. To be fair, if everything Ruby had heard about her was true, she probably didn't.

The second thing Ruby noticed about Cinder was her clothes. A beautiful dark red dress showing off every curve of hers, with embroidered gold designs lighting up as if molten lava flowed through it.

That part didn't matter that much to Ruby, she was never one for paying attention to clothing, but what did matter to her was the state of the clothing Cinder was wearing. Specifically, it's nearly untouched state.

Ruby paled in fright when she realized what that meant. Cinder was able to kill Ozpin and nearly kill Pyrrha without taking any damage to her clothes, much less any scratch or any sign of bruising?! That was… not possible.

Jaune, Sun, and Neptune apparently agreed if the half strangled whimper half shout ripping out of their throats was any sign of consension. Then again, maybe that was in reaction to what Ruby noticed first about Cinder. It was understandable.

After all, it wasn't usual nor comforting to see an eldritch glow emanating from the eyes of any person, let alone their enemy.

Neptune broke the eerie silence hovering around the battleground in a shaky tone. "You have got to be shitting me."

Ruby couldn't help but agree. A woman who was able to kill some of the strongest huntsmen in front of them and a Dragon to their back with their injured teammates surrounding them? She felt as if the day couldn't even get any more dangerous.

Oh well. Nowhere to go but up right? Or at least to a point where everything didn't seem so screwed up?

She wasn't even surprised when a thunderbolt ripped out of the clear skies to strike the Dragon and twisters started descending from the Heavens to surround it, nor when nearly two dozen Nevermores spawned out of nowhere and somehow broke apart the tornado swirling around the Dragon.

She shouldn't have tempted Fate.

"Agh! Watch the feathers asshole!"

The fight with the Dragon wasn't exactly going stellar, as proved by the, what, thirtieth time Qrow nearly got roasted by the fire breath? Something around that.

"Holy fu-!"

Thirty first.

As easy as it was to die in this form, Qrow had to love the sheer maneuverability of flying. It let him live far past what he should have in this fight, able to dodge every fireball.

Though strangely the fireballs started changing colors in the middle of the battle, and started coming far more frequently. At first it was the large attacks. Powerful and big, yes. But also slow and easy to avoid. Then later it started becoming more condensed, but far faster. He actually had to be extremely careful when dodging those.

Though it was strange, the Unlucky Reaper put it to the back of his mind. All the meant was that he had to be more cautious of the Grimm's mouth during the fight.

Qrow transformed back into his normal form, Harbinger deployed and lusting for blood, as he tried to drive the scythe into the Dragon. His eyes widened as the scythe barely managed to draw blood, leaving a large but mostly cosmetic scar, and hastily transformed back into his crow form to escape the attack from the Dragon's wing.

He had been lucky enough to dodge the attacks, even if it was from the Dragon being unlucky than any luck of his, but he knew that he couldn't keep it up. His Semblance tipped the scales of probability to his side, but sooner or later he would get hit, and with the strength of the Grimm, he couldn't be confident that he wouldn't become a bloody stain on the floor, Aura or not.

A few fireballs launched, them being dodged, him leaving a small scratch, and him barely dodging another attack. A never ending song and dance of near death and little damage dealt. Qrow might be damn good at his job, but even he couldn't kill this thing on his own.

So he didn't try to kill it. Instead he tried to the next best thing.

Qrow swerved and ducked under the miniature suns coming his way and flew upward, as if he was trying to aim towards the Dragon's eyes now. As with the last couple times he actually tried to destroy the eyes, the Dragon's eyelids shut with a skin too hard for Harbinger to pierce. Rather than try to futilely hurt the eyes once again, Qrow transformed back to normal and fell from the sky, using gravity to help him gain the necessary speed of what he wanted to do.

He twirled his scythe and cut deep into the back of the Dragon's achilles tendon, the acceleration of his fall helping him deal far more damage than he would usually. Even then though, it cut deeper than it should have in comparison to the rest of the beast's armor like skin.

Unless… the skin's durability is less at the areas of joints and ligaments.

Qrow grinned as he landed. He had found the beast's weak points, and it was only a matter of time before he managed to deal enough damage to the Grimm's tendon to completely disable its ability to even stand. After that, the only way it could move would be to use its lone wing which wouldn't be able to take it far. He just would have to call in some heavy duty artillery from Jimmy, from the way the man was Qrow suspected that he had at least three warehouses full of dust and other explosives as back up, and then they would be able to kill the creature. All he had to do was focus on the hit and run tactics and he should be in the clear.

Qrow would later agree that he deserved everything that happened then for even thinking such a thought.

At that point of time though, Qrow only swore profusely at the world when a random boarbatusk barreled into his back and launched him across the field.

Groaning at the pain in the back, even if his aura blocked all actual damage, Qrow stared confused. He knew that the Dragon could summon more Grimm, but from what he saw and heard it could only drop some portal to summon them from the wings. He had been paying attention towards the Grimm's head quite a bit, for the streams of fire and plasma being shot out, but he would have noticed if a portal of darkness had been dropped down from the beast. So where did the damn extra Grimm come from?

Qrow noticed the amount of Grimm swell around the Dragon's feet, almost as if they were… being…

No, there's no way.

Qrow shifted into his bird form and took to the skies, using his enhanced vision to see what was happening near the Dragon's foot. After confirming it, Qrow transformed back into his human state to casually chop off the head of an Ursa trying to creep up on him.

"This is bullshit! First summoning some Grimm with portals of darkness along with massive amounts of strength and flight. Alright, sure, I could beat that. Then fucking plasma breath attacks?! Yeah sure, alright, that's difficult as all hell but maybe. Then some skin harder than one of Jimmy's damn Paladins?! Sure, why the hell not?! But seriously, it's summoning Grimm to support it through it's blood?! Everytime I hurt the damn thing, I only have more enemies to deal with?! This! Is! Bullshit! Where is it even getting this fucking from?! It's whipping out more powers than women Tai gets lusting after him!" Qrow yelled out in frustration, stamping his foot like a tantrum throwing toddler.

He had to take a couple of deep breaths to get back to the point where he could keep his calm and analyze the situation. "Alright, so this thing has more powers than it's shown previously. Why? Is it that it's trying to keep his powers hidden to use it only when necessary? If that's true, then this thing not only has a crazy amount of intellect for a Grimm but a lack of arrogance to go along with it. No, there's no way that's true. This thing is nearly as strong as a Maiden, there is absolutely no way that it wouldn't be even a bit cocky. Is it because I'm actually able to do damage to it? No, the damage I've dealt is cosmetic as best and I doubt it actually figured out my plan to cripple its movement. Is it because whatever the hell that light beam was actually able to a damn lot of damage to it? No, it would have used its full power right after that, not just pulling out one gambit after another, especially as clunky as it's been... using..."

Qrow paused for a second and paled. "No, there's no way. But if it is… but it would go against nature as a whole, and there is no way Salem would implement such an ability. She's too cautious, she'd be too afraid of an outcome like that, too afraid that the thing would fly out of control… but that means-?!"

It was impossible. But so was the idea of Gods, Relics gifted by deities with powers beyond comprehension, a Queen of the Grimm, an undying man constantly reincarnating in an effort to fight against said Queen of Grimm, the Maidens… impossible was a word used by those too weak to comprehend that anything was possible.

"Shit!" Screw the movement disabling plan. If he was right, he had to end this now. Before Vale became an uninhabitable waste land. No, before Humanity as a whole became extinct.

He forced his Semblance to work at a far higher capability that it ever did before, his aura suffering for it. No matter. He needed probability and reality itself to work with him to prevent that Dragon from doing anything else. And hope beyond hope that the reinforcements he called before coming here would come soon.

Qrow charged into the army of Grimm starting to rush him, intent on killing the Dragon, paying no attention to the cannon fodder amongst him.

A Beowolf was the first to completely close the distance between it and Qrow.

The Dragon roared and stepped closer to him as if it was mimicking a war cry.

Multiple stones jutted out in the pathway of the Beowolf due to the pure power in the Dragon's single step. The Beowolf tripped across the stone, not anticipating the pavement to lift up. It tried to stabilize its footing but the multiple pebbles which just happened to be under it proved to be too slippery and the Grimm fell.

To be specific it fell onto Qrow's scythe, the beast's own weight severing it into two against the insanely sharp weapon.

Qrow ran forward, not even bothering to pay a single glance to the Grimm that essentially killed itself on his scythe due to pure bad luck.

The process repeated more than a dozen different times with only slight variations. Grimm leaping at him happened to collide with a neighbor doing the same thing, forcing them fall on either side of him and letting him pass. An Ursa swinging at him killed more than a dozen Grimm due to improperly aiming since its vision was covered by the feathers of a Nevermore, who was unable to attack since a Boarbatusk got one of the Nevermore's claw stuck between the two horns jutting out of its skull which then lead to etcetera etcetera.

What happened in the middle was different in each encounter Qrow had. However the ending was always the same.

Without even attacking once Qrow ran unharmed through the entire army of Grimm, which seemed to open before him as if he was Moses before the Red Sea.

The Dragon itself was watching in whiplashed confusion at its army falling apart before Qrow without even hitting him. The beast's blood still sprayed out of the wound, causing a number of Grimm to rise and charge Qrow but always falling before him.

Sick of this insult, the Dragon's eyes started to glow the same dark red as an ocean of fire came bursting through its mouth. Dozens of Grimm were killed in the crossfire but Qrow himself had already transformed into his bird form and let the heavens assist him as he soared away from the blast.

The fire waved over and incinerated the wrong targets even as the beast tried to correct its aim and target the crow overhead.

Qrow grit his teeth as he transformed back into his human form and lifted Harbinger above him. He could feel his limit rapidly approaching. His Semblance was to constantly force bad luck upon those near him, but that was it. Probability played massively in his favor by making his opponents always get that one out of a thousand chance of missing and allowing him to open a killing blow but... that was it.

He just ran through a literal army of Grimm in order to get here as fast as possible. A baby would have more of a chance of surviving an Ursa than he had of doing that without taking a single hit. His Semblance had forced that one out of a quadrillion chance of actually happening to actually occur, causing his aura to be rapidly drained from having to support his Semblance's influence on reality.

'Come on! Come on, don't fail me now!' Qrow grit his teeth as the dive that he was in along with gravity forced him to approach the beast beneath him even faster. The Dragon widened its eye before starting to reflexively close it in preparation for the hit.

'Come on! Come on! Come on damn it!' Even as Qrow repeated the words inside his head like a prayer, he knew it in his heart what would happen. He would miss his chance, because he wasn't fast enough.

It was always like this. He would never be fast enough. He wasn't quick enough to stop Raven from running away from the team and her married life. He wasn't fast enough to prevent Summer from being killed. He wasn't fast enough to stop Yang from getting her arm cut off. He wasn't fast enough to prevent the attack on Amber, leading to this whole mess in the first place.

He wasn't fast enough. He was never fast enough!

The weak point was vanishing, and vanishing fast. Barely anything of that dark red remained.

He had to be faster. Faster, faster, faster, faster!

Qrow roared out in desperation, praying for him to make it in time, for a miracle to happen, for his Semblance to act in his favor just one last time even as the red sparks came flying off his body, tell tale of his aura being next to nothing.

Images of Ruby, Yang, Tai, Raven, and Summer flashed by in his mind.

Ruby always hugging his leg and pleading for him to not go out, to play with her for a bit more. Her dazzling smile as he gave in and left to his mission for Ozpin late to play with her, as he always did for that smile.

Yang pumping out her fist, her wild grin always present even in the darkest of circumstances. Qrow felt the chill of a thousand winters pumping through his veins as the haunting image of her pale and unconscious body laying on the bed, only one arm showing, flashed across his mind.

Tai with one arm slung around him, wrestling him on the mattress of the Beacon dorms as Summer cheered out in support for both of them while Raven just laughed and cracked open a beer.

Raven herself always teasing him and annoying him, laughing as she beat him in a drinking contest, kicking his ass in a spar, and just all around having fun. She always had a smile on her face back then. He remembered that he did too.

And Summer… oh, Summer. He remembered strutting into Beacon, looking down on everyone as he thought they were weak and couldn't beat him. He remembered arguing against Summer, snarking to her that she was useless and would never match up to him. He also remembered getting his ass thoroughly beaten in the spar following that statement, her words about friendship and compassion and teamwork and everything else that never existed in the Branwen tribe finally getting through to him.

No wonder he fell in love with her, even if she never seemed to notice it.

And he remembered Summer dying. But more than that, he could remember what happened afterwards.

He remembered Tai always being either drunk or passed out, falling back on alcohol as a coping mechanism in order for him to deal with life.

He remembered Yang shedding silent tears and being forced to grow up far quicker than what she should have.

He remembered Ruby pulling at his clothes, asking him why there was a stone with her mother's name on it, and why he was crying, and when Mom was going to come back since she promised that she would make me some cookies and play with me and-

And he remembered his oath. That they would never cry again, that he'd help Ozpin in any way he could so that the same Grimm that killed Summer would all die. So that they'd all live happily ever after.

And so he wouldn't die here.

Not because he wanted to live.

But because they would be sad.

He forced every bit of his aura into trying to force his Semblance to try and make some random probability lean in his favour. A final gambit.

He'd sell his soul if it'd prevent anything bad from ever happening to them ever again.

His body roared in pain.

He could feel something shatter within him. Whether it was bone, or something else, he wasn't sure but he didn't care either.

He prayed for a miracle.

And a miracle occurred.

Harbinger, the weapon which he was even more fanatic about taking care of than Ruby for Crescent Rose, malfunctioned.

A single shot fired out of the scythe, the scythe whose magazine of fire dust was emptied already. The only thing that shot out was some air.

That didn't matter though.

What mattered was that the recoil of the shot forced him to fly even faster downwards.

He was finally fast enough.

Qrow let out a war cry that seemed to shake the ground of Remnant itself as he plunged Harbinger into the Dragon's eye with a sickening squelch.

The roar of pain the Dragon let loose was heard all over Vale, extending for kilometers.

As he was right next to the source of that scream, Qrow could feel his ears bleeding, his eardrums bursting, and his brain rattling around his skull.

He didn't care. Something as small as that wouldn't be able to stop him.

"DIEEE!" screamed out Qrow as he ripped through the eye's soft tissue in an effort to reach the brain. If he could just tear that, he would be able to kill it. It was his only chance. His Aura was spent on strengthening his Semblance, and he had no other tools at his disposal.

The Dragon was stumbling around, unable to see and the cut achilles tendon finally destroying the Grimm's stability. The blood streaming from its eye was dripping onto the ground and summoning more Grimm, even as the summoner itself killed the them in its pain filled rampage.

Pain filled, Qrow realized in panic, but not brainless. How the Dragon managed to even somewhat think when a giant scythe was impaled in its eye was beyond Qrow, but it did think and think well at that. Qrow tried to move, but it was too late.

The Dragon smashed head first into Beacon academy, plowing through stone and steel. It's massive and extremely durable body could take the damage easily, most likely only manifesting as stinging pain akin stubbing your toe. Painful but far from deadly.

Qrow's soft and fleshy and extremely human body couldn't take the damage as well unfortunately. He spat out blood as large rocks struck his body. Yet he still made sure to not break in front of the assault, digging Harbinger ever deeper into the Dragon.

The Dragon became more frantic than ever, its rampart steps shattering the ground like glass while the head continue destroy the architectural novel of Beacon as it tried to remove Qrow.

Qrow shouted his defiance out to the world, his iron will refusing to bend under an attack a lesser man would have died a hundred times over to. At this point, Qrow had more blood than actual skin on his body. Ribs, shoulder blades, arms, legs, the bones was shattered under the endless attack of the Dragon.

Eventually it was his blood that did the trick. The slippery substance started causing him to slip from Harbinger's hilt. Qrow's eyes widened as he redoubled his efforts to keep his grip on the scythe, but it was useless.

Qrow slipped off of the hilt of Harbinger, flying upwards and slamming onto whatever was intact of that level's ceiling. He then broke through that level's ceiling, impacting the next level's ceiling before finally slamming down onto the ground. Thankfully when slipping from Harbinger, he had been launched at a somewhat diagonal angle so he didn't fall through the hole he had just made in the ceiling… or floor now since he broke through to next level.

Qrow couldn't move at all. He wasn't sure if he broke his spine from the impact. God, he hoped he didn't. He didn't want to spend his life as a paraplegic. He wouldn't be able to kill Salem that way, wouldn't be able to protect them.

The agonizing pain sending shocks throughout his body didn't matter. The way his arm was bent in a different way than normal didn't matter. The way how his right hand was completely mangled and wasn't responding didn't matter.

Qrow twitched his left hand. Good, his left hand was working slightly. Proof enough that he wasn't paralyzed from the neck down at least.

He tried to pick himself up using his left hand. He managed to slightly pick himself up but collapsed midway, his crimson life fluid soaking his white shirt a dark scarlet. He had to get up, he had… to… protect them…

And then all Qrow saw was red.

Was that his blood? Ugh, he couldn't see straight. He swore, he could actually could see his blood swirling.

Damn, he must be seeing things. Hell, if he looked it at the right angle it actually looked… like…

"Everyone gets one." He had forgotten that. What stupidity.

Qrow started laughing, even as that caused his blood to flow out even faster. "Fucking hell, really? What an entrance." He said.

"Why Qrow, you look like more of a mess than the first time you drank some alcohol. I never thought I would see the day."

Though she said it casually, he could see her tense up. It was understandable. After all, he was about as strong as her. If they faced each other it would be a coin flip to who would win.

"Listen. The Dragon, it's not right. It shouldn't be able to exist." Qrow managed to say.

"Wait, Dragon?! A Dragon Grimm?!" She asked, somewhat surprised.

Qrow tried to say something but was cut off by him coughing up a large amount of blood.

"Tch. Internal bleeding." She growled angrily, somehow quickly accepting the fact that a Grimm Dragon existed. "I'll have you taken back to the medics quickly."

"No!" Qrow managed to slap away her hand as the woman reached out to him though it sent lances of pain throughout his body. "You have to listen! The Dragon! It's, evolving somehow! It's either gaining new abilities or strengthening what it had before! I'm not sure which or even how, but you can see it! Every minute more increases its strength and durability! All of the moves it was pulling out is clunky to the extreme! Big and powerful yes, but easy to dodge! But as time passes it's showing more control over each power! The fire breath that was originally a plasma beam became large fireballs, and soon rapid fire attacks that it can shoot out! The Grimm summoning it does went from a conscious action only able to produced from wings to one that could be done unconsciously through its blood!'

"Which means it's not a power that it had from the beginning due to the original lack of control." The woman muttered in shock. "The power is one that it has only recently gained and is learning to control at a rapid pace! If it had the power from the very beginning, it wouldn't be clumsy with the ability at all! It would be an instinctive response and control!"

Qrow nodded tiredly, every action exhausting his already taxed body. "If the battle is dragged out, the Grimm could get more powers or be able to completely control what it already as! You… have to finish it quickly." Exhausted from the action of conveying the necessary information, the Unlucky Reaper slumped onto the ground, his eyes starting to close.

The woman widened her eyes in shock as she processed all the information. That… wasn't possible. "Salem wouldn't allow something like that to exist! It could eventually become even more powerful than her! Qrow? Qrow!"

It was no use though. Qrow had fallen asleep, most likely unconscious from the blood loss and the adrenaline shooting through his body finally starting to fade.

"Rrrrgh, damn it!" The woman cursed as she drew her sword and sliced open space before picking up Qrow and carelessly chucking him through. Vernal would get him to the medics in the camp. She wasn't idiotic enough to assume that Qrow was to be left for dead after coming through one of her portals.

While Qrow's theory made some sense, it had rather obvious holes in it. With the size and power of it the Dragon must be well over a century old, most likely closing in on a millenium by now. If it was constantly evolving and either gaining new powers or strengthening its old ones, it should have easily been able to burn Vale to the ground with an errant breath, never mind actually trying to destroy it. But that in turn led to a dark thought if Qrow's theory was right.

Something, somehow massively boosted the power of the Grimm. Raven wasn't sure if that applied to every Grimm or just the Dragon, but either effect wasn't good.

Hell, she wasn't even sure if Qrow was right or if the brainless fool was talking nonsense out of blood loss, but… just in case she would try to end the beast as quickly as possible. She placed a mask over her face and went out of the collapsing building to see her prey stumbling around and roaring in pain.

As she appraised the beast before her, she couldn't help but be slightly awed at the state it was left in. Not being able to move properly and Harbinger dug deeply into its left eye, the Dragon supposed to be a killer of humans was instead grievously injured by one. Qrow always did surpass expectations of a normal huntsman like that.

The Grimm being summoned by an abyss colored portal started to cover the landscape but they were obviously not at full power. No doubt Qrow had slayed a large number of them. She was slightly stronger than him in a one on one combat, not using her more mystical powers obviously, but even she would admit that Qrow was far better against dealing with a multitude of opponents than she was and most likely would ever be, his Semblance coming into play for him there. Again, when restraining herself to only pure swordsmanship.

No matter though. At the end of the day, she was far stronger than Qrow when using all of her abilities. She would be able to deal with the Dragon Grimm easily, and then she would take care of its more numerous and weaker companions. Actually… she would just do it all at once.

An eldritch light filled her eyes, burning like the flames of hell.

"Heed my call." She muttered softly. "Requiem of a Maelstrom."

She lifted her sword skyward, light radiating off of her dust blade. She then raked it downwards, her entire essence commanding the sky to respond to the whims of a mortal. It should have been impossible, an absurd and laughable thought that something would actually happen just from someone swiping at the heavens.

Then the heavens responded in turn.

Millions of volts of energy gathered into the sky and struck downwards, a jagged yellow and white scar ripping through the sky as if God himself came to smite all of her opponents. The deafening sound of thunder roared endlessly as lightning bolts rained down from the sky like droplets in a storm, eviscerating the landscape and converting the army of black monsters into even blacker ashes.

The Dragon screamed in pain as it was assaulted by half a dozen lightning bolts itself, electricity dancing through its body and its organs rupturing in near synchronization.

Gazing across the scarred and empty battleground filled with hundreds of Grimm a few seconds ago the woman gave a soft yet sadistic smirk at the barely alive Dragon, not even sweating from the use of such a godlike power.

Raven Branwen has entered the battlefield.

This is the story of a boy.

A boy born full of life, flush like a forest.

And just like a forest…

It was all burned away. In less than an hour, a single fire managed to burn away everything.

Scarred and scorched earth was all that remained of the land once filled with life.

However a man ran into the fire and was able to save him. He planted an idea, a seedling that could eventually grow into a beautiful tree. An ideal.

To become a Hero of Justice.

Watered by his last promise to the man before he passed away, Shirou Emiya's fate was decided. His life did not matter. For as long as he lived he would take care of others, placing them above his own wellbeing.

For millions, billions, of versions of Shirou Emiya throughout the Multiverse this would be their life goal. A twisted sense that allowed the scorched earth of a Reality Marble to bloom in their soul.

However, for him, a miracle occurred.

Another tree bloomed in the scorched earth of his life. A Sakura tree.

He observed it bloom, mesmerized by its beauty. Yet he could feel, deep in his heart, that something was wrong about it.

It took multiple years but eventually he finally looked inside the tree, chipping away at the unblemished bark on the outside to gaze within rather than gaze at its outside.

What he saw horrified him, filling him with revulsion. Inky blackness flowed within the tree, rising and bubbling like acidic tar.

The tree was corrupted. Poisoned. Not normal poison either, but one of All The World's Evils.

Any other man would have given up on the tree, allow it to die. A shame, they would have said, but there was nothing that could be done. Better for the world to let it just die, a mercy killing.

Ignoring its corruption, Shirou Emiya instead took care of it. He couldn't stand to see something filled with such life in suffering.

However he could only take care of one of those trees. He had to give up on one of them. Either the one Kiritsugu gave him as a child, the one that became his entire reason for existence, or the one that somehow crept into his heart, the poisoned beauty.

If he chose the one Kiritsugu gave then it might be possible to become a True hero of Justice, one who won't let lives be lost. But if he chose that, then the tree who just wanted so badly to just live with him would die.

Unacceptable.

And so he chose the Sakura tree. The ideal, the dream of becoming a Hero of Justice, died. In the end, he decided to live to protect that Sakura.

He had a feeling Kiritsugu would be happy with that.

He gave it all he had and in the end, where it was closest to dying, he saved her. Even when she cried out for death, pleaded with him to kill her, he refused to and saved her.

However she was still in pain.

A corpse moved. It gripped the ground, fingers digging into the scorched soil it knew so well from so long ago.

The tree that was his life… it was still hurting. He was separated from her though.

It was impossible though. To move after what he's done within the past twenty four hours, no, just the past twelve hours was beyond the power of a human. The body just wasn't built for such strenuous activities, a human not fit to be fighting against Heroic Spirits, a God, or for using Excalibur, much less all of them in the same day. He just couldn't. Not anymore. Maybe if he could rest for a day or so he could but not now. Not after all that.

He couldn't save her. No human strength could.

So he couldn't rely on his human strength. It was good that he wasn't human.

Green iridescent light flowed up his arms, mana reinforcing his body even as the circuits inside of him cried out in pain to stop. Shirou felt like he was boiling from the inside out, knowing he was toeing the line that separated life and death.

Even through the pain, Shirou grinned.

If he couldn't rely on his human body, then he would force his body to ascend beyond pure human strength. If he was toeing the line of life and death, then good because he belonged there. After all, Shirou wasn't a human.

He was a magus, even if he was a third rate one. And a Magus walks with death.

Shirou roared with pain as he pushed himself off the ground, stumbling and catching himself on a tree.

He gazed across the scarred battlefield in stunned horror. What happened here?! He knew it wasn't like that when he came, and he knew for a fact that he didn't do this.

He pointedly ignored the stupidly large but narrow trench in the ground, one that looks like it could go down for a kilometer, denying that it could have happened due to him unleashing Excalibur. Well, more pleading than anything.

He had just wanted to destroy the incarnation of all evil! He didn't want all of this!

Wait, where were the monsters that were coming after him? He didn't see any of those around.

Ah he remembered. Some silver light appeared out of nowhere and destroyed the monsters, along with somehow destroying the metal on him and also destroying… Excalibur…

Wait what?

No. No no no no no. That wasn't possible. That was not possible. Excalibur could not break. It was absurd to even think about, and his relationship with Excalibur was extremely intimate.

After being nearly killed a couple hundred times with it at the start of the War, he could testify that… wait.

What did he mean by being nearly killed at the start of the war? Saber was his Servant back then and not yet corrupted by Angra Mainyu. A Servant like her would never try to kill her master.

Though it was understandable, he supposed. After all it was supposed to be a war between Servants and since he was Servant Archer it would only make sense to- gah!

Shirou clutched his head in pain even as he tried to think through what was going on, ignoring how his nose started to bleed.

How long had this been going on?

Shirou smirked, a face that was not unfamiliar to whoever had seen the crimson garbed Archer of the Fifth Holy Grail War.

He was going to die here-like he did thousands, millions of times in the act of being Alaya's dog though he never was.

"Tch! Damn." Shirou muttered angrily while glaring at his bulky and abnormal left arm.

He was acting like Archer, or at least thinking like him. Replicating his emotions and gaining his memories, no doubt coming from the bleeding effect caused by having EMIYA's arm attached to him. It might allow him to project the Noble Phantasms inside of Archer's Unlimited Blade Works, but it honestly was more of a hindrance than a help.

Shirou grunted in pain when he felt the blades of Unlimited Blade Works start to stitch together once again, building from the feet up.

Shirou clenched his eyes close for just a moment. Too many things were happening back to back. The Kaleidoscope, Excalibur breaking, the silver light, the metal of Unlimited Blade Works somehow dissolving, the time curse and-

Wait. What happened to the time curse?

It was one of those things that you didn't notice until it was gone. The feeling of a noose around his neck suddenly letting him go after seemingly years of it partially cutting off his breathing, him getting used to the feeling of ever increasing danger to the point that he was used to it. It left him off balance, to have it gone.

Shirou focused, trying to clue out what the Light did to him. Nothing came to mind immediately, no solution jumping out at him from his admittedly meager Thaumaturgy training. He grit his teeth together, gnashing them angrily. It felt like he had all the pieces yet they weren't fitting together, as if he was a mere child trying to shove a cylinder into a square hole.

"Isn't it obvious?" A voice within his mind snarked towards him, reminding him of Archer. Shirou immediately hated it. "Think about something other than swords fool. What does the time space curse, Excalibur, and the Reality Marble have in common?"

Shirou thought for a minute before widening his eyes. "Thaumaturgy." He breathed out softly. "The time curse came from the backlash of improperly using the Second True Magic. The swords forming are from Avalon's healing being influenced due to the Reality Marble, another product of Thaumaturgy. But that means… Excalibur wasn't broken due to the sheer power of the Silver Light, but was because it was a projection! The Light somehow dismissed the projection!"

Shirou frowned after a second of thinking about it. "But that doesn't account for those monsters also being killed by it. Unless those were also somehow made out of Thaumaturgy also… but even assuming that the monsters were made out of Thaumaturgy that wouldn't account for the Time space curse." That wasn't mere Thaumaturgy, even if the definition of it was stretched massively to even include his Reality Marble. It was the backlash of a True Magic, something that shouldn't be affected by any mortal. Hell, even immortals shouldn't be able to overpower the effects of True Magic."

Nothing was making sense. But then again they didn't really have to, Shirou realized with a sigh. What he set out to do hadn't changed from what the Light did to him, nor what it's effect actually was.

He had already accomplished destroying the Grail. He had originally planned on dying after destroying the Grail, sure that Excalibur would kill him, but thankfully that didn't come to pass. He had however barged into another world which was on the verge of extinction. He needed information if he had any chance of getting back to his own world, to get back to Sakura. If he could help them somehow end their Apocalypse then all the better.

Shirou tried to analyze the battleground he was in along with the enemies. He turned to the right, making sure to not just rely on his sight but also his other senses.

Shirou froze when he saw the Dragon, a black behemoth that could probably annihilate him with a careless step. His reinforced eyes could catch the sight of… was that a bird?! Sweet Akasha, what the hell was this planet if a bird was fighting against a Dragon of all things?! What abilities did it have?!

Shirou watched dumbfounded as the bird transformed into a human and, after a half second, swung a scythe- Harbinger, if the information he was getting was right- into the eye of the beast.

…

Oh. So that's what the bird could do.

He shook his head and started to once again analyze the battleground, sadly immune to such physics defying abilities after the War. Shirou eyed the flashes of fire blasts and explosions coming from somewhere to his left, rather deep in the forest now. He could catch glimpses of weapons glinting as the battle continually moved deeper into the trees.

Crocea Mors. Crescent Rose. Jingu and Ruyi Bang.

Information flashed through his mind, though the terms confused him. No doubt due to the alien resources on the new planet, or perhaps similar items with different names. He could at least trust that these people were rather friendly and shouldn't try to kill him if he appeared in front of them.

Shirou started running towards the fight, trying to ignore the sounds of thunder rumbling at the back of him. While the man facing the Dragon seemed to be in a far more dire circumstances, the wielders of the weapons he had just analyzed were kids, even younger than him. He would try to save them first before facing the Dragon.

Besides, he had just barreled into their world. It would be rude not to introduce himself in the meanwhile.

…

God, he hoped they spoke Japanese.

Omake: Kirei makes a horrible mistake.

The rain poured down, soaking him though he didn't mind all that much. How could he? After all, the tears running down the young girls face provided him far too much enjoyment. He wondered how much more could he savor that face of pain.

"He's in a better place now, in God's grace and Heaven along with every great soul that has ever been born in this world." He comforted her, his kind words not reflecting his actual thoughts and emotions.

The young girl just bent her head lower, trying to disguise her tears in the pouring rain and miserably failing. "Shut up, you fake priest. I don't know why Father ever took you on as an apprentice."

Kirei just shrugged in response. "I myself do not know the reason behind Tokiomi-sama's decision Rin. Even so, I promise you. I followed your father's orders to join the War, and followed his will to the end."

Kirei did not lie. He would never perform such a crass action. He did, in fact, follow Tokiomi's will for him to join the Grail war. And what was more in spirit of the Grail war than killing a fellow Master?

Oh, Kirei relished in the memory of Tokiomi's face at the moment Kirei had stabbed him with the knife the fool gave to him. The broken confusion leading to understanding and then fury… oh, it was beautiful.

He wondered how Rin would react when she inevitable learns that he killed her father. He barely restrained laughing out loud, mindful of the implications of laughing at a funeral. Oh God above, if his mere undeveloped imagination could send such shudders of pleasure running through his body he feared that he might not be able to take the beauty reality would present to him. There were simply so many flavors of pain, and while he was new to the field of sadism, Kirei would fully admit that he had a very specific taste. While he could easily cause some pain by kidnapping some poor soul and using the knowledge granted to him by years of experience being an exorcist, he would not debase himself to the point of gorging on common murder like the Master of Caster did.

No, he would ensure one of Tokiomi's wishes was granted by protecting his daughter. Oh, he could imagine his old master turning in his grave right now.

Kirei had to admit though, he was slightly impatient to seeing Rin's suffering. How could he sweeten the pot in order to ensure he would not try to reveal the circumstance behind her father's death too early, which would in turn causing her suffering to not become a true work of art?

A grimace tugged at Kirei's normally inexpressive face. No, that wouldn't do it all. Rather, how could he make her suffering be even greater, to take the concept of pain and horror to new heights?

An idea sprung to Kirei's mind and he had to bite his lip hard enough to draw blood in order to not cackle in the middle of the ceremony, as if he was a thoughtless hyena.

The only thing that could be better than her Father's apprentice being the one to kill her father, would be to realize that her Father's Servant himself was the one to cause him to entertain the notion in the first place. That Tokiomi caused his own demise from the simple fact of trying to win the Grail War and achieve opening a pathway to Akasha, that her father's moral lead to his own downfall… yes, very few things in the world could beat that.

Yes. After a day or two, Kirei would take Rin to Gilgamesh. How that meeting would go, he didn't quite know. It was sure to be rather interesting at the minimum. Hopefully Gilgamesh would be in a rather accepting mood to agree to his selfish request. Though he somehow had doubts that the King of Heroes would refuse him. After all, he too would no doubt enjoy such a play and would be interested in viewing such an ending.

[Two days later]

Kirei could barely restrain his grin as he led Rin into the heart of the Church. The girl in question was gazing around warily at her surroundings, as if he would try to harm her or laid some hidden booby traps that would try to kill her.

He shook his head in mock disparity and opened a door, leading to a room that was decorated in pure gold, with red trimmings and decorative marks glaring out.

Similar to the room's appearance, an extremely handsome and half-naked man laid down on the coach in a casual state. With the divine blood of the Gods flowing through him, it wouldn't be a joke that the 'man' was essentially sculpted to be perfection incarnate. With his blond hair and red tattoos, Kirei wouldn't hesitate to say that every woman in the world would flock to him with adoring eyes. Including the ones not even interested in men.

His haughty gaze slowly traced its way from Kirei to the small girl beside him, the child in question stiffening under his gaze. "So," Gilgamesh drawled. "You are the spawn of Tokiomi that I've heard so much about."

The seven year old bristled, raising herself to her full 'intimidating' four feet in height. She tried to glare at the Heroic Spirit but unfortunately for her it was more akin to a puppy pouting. "My name is Rin Tohsaka!" She defended. "Not 'spawn'!"

Kirei's eyes widened and he held his breath in anticipation. Hopefully Gilgamesh would not murder the young girl where she stood. He berated himself for being caught up in his enjoyment and not fully thinking things through before inviting Rin here.

Gilgamesh lifted an eyebrow, his expression showing one of amusement rather than insult. "Oh? An infant not even reaching a decade of age has more pride than her father before her?" The man rumored to be two third God took a slow sip of his wine as Rin refused to drop her gaze from his crimson eyes, no matter how tempting the idea was. "I admit, I am pleasantly surprised this. To think a mongrel such as Tokiomi could bring up such a child is astounding, though I suppose it isn't exactly difficult to have more self worth than that sniveling fool."

Rin felt somewhat uncomfortable and relieved at the same time. It was as if she had passed some test unknown to her, one that was important in some way. Akin to the Rin that would come years from now, the young girl acted the exact same way to an uncomfortable situation she was in. That is, to bluster and bluff even if she didn't really know what he was saying.

"What's your name stranger-san?" Rin asked inquisitively.

Gilgamesh's expression turned to one of strange neutrality. "And you believe you are worthy of knowing my name mongrel? You believe too much in your own self worth. I have already given you a pardon of staring directly at me, something that would be an immediate death sentence in Uruk. Such audacity cannot be excused twice, no matter your age or class. For all is equal under the King, no matter if you are born of man or God."

Rin flinched and looked downwards, unconsciously deferring to Gilgamesh as the greatest authority in the room.

Gilgamesh gazed down at the young girl before sighing. "I cannot fault you for wanting to know the name of the One True King, though ignorance is a paltry excuse for being unaware of it already. My name is Gilgamesh, the King of the Gardens you walk upon."

"Gil-gaa-maysu?" She tried before grimacing. No, that wasn't it. Rin looked up to the King of Heroes once again and realized something. If his name was too long and difficult, then she should help him and give a shorter name.

Gil? No, that was too friendly and familiar. The man bore an impressive stature, one that even she knew easily overwhelmed her father's. Gil ojee-sama? No, he wasn't old. Rather, he seemed to be in the height of his youth.

Gil Jiji? No, that sounded weird. Gil oni-sama? No. What about…

"Uncle Gil?" She seemed to ask, unintentionally saying it out loud. 'Yeah!' She thought. It seemed pretty catchy, or at least fitting if nothing else.

Only after a few seconds she realized she had said it out loud. Her face burned crimson as she bowed her head in shame. Only after a few seconds did she actually peak upwards to see his frozen expression.

"What," Gilgamesh breathed out. "What did you just call me?"

Kirei was in a similar state of shock. He couldn't help but think he had just made a horrible mistake.

[10 years later]

Counter Guardian EMIYA sighed as he 'floated' down the hallway in his astral form, following Rin as she started to call someone.

He had been summoned with his memory intact, a rare occurrence that he enjoyed. However, with that he could easily spot out some notable differences in Rin's household. The amount of wealth it displayed able to easily overshadow what was in his memory was one of them. The fact that it looked completely different with the insane amount of gold in there was one other thing.

'Perhaps,' He pondered. 'Is this a timeline where Rin somehow won a lottery or two, or maybe able to control her land and make money rather than Kirei giving it to the Church?' He didn't really know, and he doubted that it would actually affect him in anyway.

What he did freeze up at was the dozens of Noble Phantasms in glass cases in the hallway.

'What the hell?' He wondered in disbelief. 'How?! There's more Noble Phantasms in here than what the Clocktower would have!"

He turned his gaze to Rin who seemed to finally be able to call Kirei. "Fake Priest. I assume that you already know I summoned Archer for the War? Of course you do. Give the phone to Uncle Gil."

Archer didn't know how it was possible, but he somehow choked while he was in astral form. 'Uncle Gil? No. No, please, for the love of Akasha please tell me I'm wrong.'

"Hey Uncle Gil!" Rin chirped happily, only to turn into a grimace a minute later. "What? Of course I'm skipping school! I was chosen as a participant in a magical war that has a high chance of me dying and the only way to prevent that is to kill six other people! What do you mean that's not a good enough reason?! Yes, Sakura's at school but what does she have to do with it? She wasn't chosen! What do you mean exactly?! … What do you mean you're coming here right now?"

Archer sighed in relief and almost burst out laughing. Of course it wasn't Gilgamesh! There was no way the King of Uruk would be mothering Rin of all people! The possibility was so low that it wasn't even worth considering.

A giant golden portal as tall as he was formed out of thin air and through it Gilgamesh lazily strutted out.

Archer froze as 'Uncle Gil' turned to him, fear flickering through his body and clouding his mind for just a moment before he calmed himself. He'd been through worse in Alaya's service, he could pull through this.

Gilgamesh dismissed him, however, and turned to Rin instead. "Just what," Gilgamesh demanded. "Do you think you are doing Rin? You're being childish."

"I'm in a war!" She shouted hysterically, looking as if she was about to run for her life. Archer personally agreed with that option. "That should be able to excuse me for at least two weeks of no school! You're the one being childish."

"Two weeks?!" Questioned Gilgamesh. "You're putting your acceptance to college at risk! And me being childish? Says the one who was begging me to use Sha Naqba Imuru (The Omniscient Omnipotent star) to find out what the 'secret' to the Krabby Patty Formula was and to use the Gate of Babylon to give you a ticket to your favorite emo punk band!"

"It was just a stage!"

"That's not what you said while trying to convince me to get you black lipstick!"

"Damn it Uncle Gil! Not in front of my Servant!"

"Watch your mouth young lady!"

Archer watched the argument with a baffled expression. Gilgamesh… Gilgamesh… was mothering Rin…

Damn it Kirei, this is somehow your fault. That or my E-rank luck.

Archer was legitimately considering slitting his own throat right here and now. Yes, eternal enslavement to Alaya might be bad and he hated killing people, but this… simply wasn't worth it. He would rather go back.

Though he had to admit, it was impressive seeing Rin somehow countering charisma rank A+. Though that might just be from pure unadulterated teenage angst somehow beating out the skills of legendary kings and warriors. He could never really tell with Rin.

"Sakura would never do such a thing!"

"Stop comparing me to Sakura all the time!"

He took it back. It was definitely teenage angst.

Hey guys! Did ya miss me?

'Spontaneously combusts from the pure fury directed at him.'

AGH! THE FIRES OF TEENAGERS TRYING TO ESCAPE REALITY AND FUCK UP THAT IS THE CURRENT SITUATION OF THE AMERICAN GOVERNMENT SYSTEM! IT BURNS! IT BBBUURRRRNNNNSSSSS!

To be completely fair I have a semi-legitimate excuse. I started JoJo… and I caught up with JoJo. Fucking christ, the show is stupid and riddled with plot holes but I love it anyways. Also, I'm halfway sure Joseph is actually immortal considering the shit he's going through. I was also watching some other anime.

By the way, Sha Naqba Imuru is a Noble Phantasms that gives Gilgamesh omnisciency. Omnisciency. Is that a word?

Whatever. Gil is actually Omniscient. Yeah. So theoretically he actually does know the secret to the Krabby Patty formula.

He's Plankton's wet dreams.

So to fans of my other work, I'm gonna finish up the arc of Beacon's Fall, should be done in a chapter or two, and then get Crimson Purgatory to 60,000+ words before I come back. That'll be fun.

If you have any questions then please just review. It'll be easy to answer your questions then.

Oh and if you're curious about the Dragon's new power and Ruby's Silver eyes, you'll find out the answer to the first one in next chapter. Second one… you're gonna have to wait a while. Theorize and just send it to me in review format. To those who get it right, you're a fucking God. Because there should be no god damn way you should get it right now.

Sorry for being late. I'll try not do such a thing again.

REVIEW! HAVE A NICE TIME! THE NEXT CHAPTER SHOULDN'T TAKE… what, three months? More? Not sure, but I'LL BE QUICKER! GOOD NIGHT!

AND YES, I AM A REVIEW WHORE!