(Haven Academy)
Back inside the Vault, the shocked Cinder looks to Raven, seeing the flames of a maiden glowing around her eyes, and then to the motionless Vernal.
Cinder: "She was a decoy the whole time..."
She then turns her attention back to Raven.
Cinder: "The last Spring Maiden must've trusted you a great deal before she died. I bet that was a mistake..."
Raven growls and shoots Omen out of her hilt, and flying toward Cinder at high speed, catching her blade before impact. Cinder levitates and conjures a sword of her own. They lock blades for a moment until Cinder forces Raven back with a burst of strength. Raven lands on the pathway and after several backflips to regain her balance and charges again. Both Maidens clash several times before the force of their blows shatters both swords simultaneously. The shard of Cinder's sword is lodge in her Grimm arm, causing her to hold her arm and wincing in pain.
Raven: "Aura can't protect your arm. It's Grimm."
Cinder pulls the shrapnel out of her arm and faces Raven again.
Raven: "You turned yourself into a monster just for power."
The glaring Cinder conjures another blade in her hand as she retorts back.
Cinder: "Look who's talking..."
The two proceed forward to clash again with Cinder counterattacking and Raven rapidly re-equipping her sword with a yellow blade to parry it. During their bout, Raven quickly switches between the various colored blades in her hilt to counter Cinder's various weapons that she conjures. They continue their fight with Cinder's attack becoming more aggressive as she tries to use her Grimm arm to extract Raven's Maiden power, but Raven continues to retreat, dodge, or deflect most of her strikes rather than countering them, forcing Cinder to keep chasing her.
Cinder: ("Ugh, quit flying away and stand still!")
When Raven finally counters back, she ends up swiftly cutting Cinder's Grimm hand. This attack makes Cinder cry out in pain as she pushes Raven away with a sudden gust of wind. Painfully, Cinder manages to regrow her Grimm hand back before glaring back at Raven.
Cinder: ("Fucking bitch!!!")
As the two Maiden charges forward, both of them break their swords again, causing an energy flare to fly up and strike the walls of the cavern. Cinder leaps back onto one of the large stalagmites, conjures two swords, and then charges after her. As for Raven, she re-equips her sword's red blade and does the same. As the two Maidens throw everything, they have at each other, their fight takes to the air. Their attacks become more and more intense, both of them shatter swords several times until they grab the other's weapon. Soon enough, spheres of blue and orange energy begin to whirl around them, picking up debris and damaging the walls of the cavern. Cinder finally breaks away, using the debris to conjure a giant flaming sword. In response, Raven takes out the large sheath that held Omen and begins firing blade after blade at Cinder like a minigun.
Seeing this, Cinder flies over to Raven, while dodging and deflecting the barrage of blades coming her way. During this, Raven uses her Maiden powers to create a massive ice sword with Omen's red blade. The moment they clash together with their conjured weapons, this creates a massive shockwave that shakes the cavern, with the two Maidens above ground also feeling the tremors. Due to their battle, the giant stalactites hanging from above start to drop, making both Maidens jump back to dodge out of the way, losing their conjured swords in the process with Raven only having the hilt of Omen. Swiftly, Raven sees that her large sheath has a few blades left in it as goes to attach the last red blade to Omen's hilt. As Raven prepares for her next strike, Cinder's Grimm arm elongates through the cloud of dust and grabs Raven's neck, pinning her against the elevator door.
Raven: "Grrgh!"
The smirking Cinder slowly approach her as her Grimm hand slowly drains her Maiden power. However, Raven glances upward and smirks, raising her hand up. Upon seeing this, Cinder conjures a sword once more to deflect her attack but, Raven instead aims at her feet, freezing the Fall Maiden in place.
Cinder: "What?"
She then looks up to see boulders and stalactites crashing down on her. Cinder is about to leap out of the way, forced to release Raven. Only for Raven to quickly grab Cinder's Grimm arm and her blade before swiftly cutting the elongated Grimm arm off.
Cinder: "Auugh!!"
Now free from her grasp, Raven does a massive leap into the air and lands on top of one of the falling stalactites and boulders. She looks down and notices Cinder survived the cave in, using her fire powers to fly up to her as she painfully regrows her Grimm arm back. The two of them engage in combat on top of the falling rocks, with Raven landing a number of blows on Cinder. And as the falling rocks land back on the ground, the two Maidens end up landing on the pathway of the Vault again. Both of them are on their knees, panting in exhaustion while their auras shimmer as they are about to break. Raven is the first to stand back up and glare at a furious and out of breath Cinder.
Raven: "Had enough yet?"
Cinder: "Shut up!"
Raven: "If you were stronger or cleverer, then maybe... you'd remember to watch your back."
Cinder glares at her, wondering what she is talking about, but then gasps as she looks behind her. She notices the dying Vernal aiming her weapon and fires a blade at her. Cinder deflects the attack, but Raven quickly dashes up behind her and lands a devastating lightning attack on her face, shattering her mask and revealing the heavily scarred left side. The sheer force of the attack sends Cinder stand over the edge of the vault's walkway and before she can retaliate, Raven impales Cinder with Omen, up to the hilt.
Cinder: "...!"
With a scowl of disdain, Raven uses her blade to push Cinder off the edge, detaching the red blade so it'll go down with her. The impaled Cinder stares back up at Raven, who uses her powers to encase the Fall Maiden in ice like Cinder did to her. Cinder's frozen body falls down into the dark depths of the abyss, fading from view. Raven looks down as she watches her enemy continue plunging, before deactivating her Maiden powers and sighing, sheathing back Omen.
(Several Moments Ago)
Outside of Haven, Adam wields Wilt, which is glowing red hot with energy from his fight against Y/N, Blake, Sun, and Ilia. Adam manages to keep them at bay for a couple moments until he spots something. He catches glimpse of the last remainders of his forces being overwhelmed by the combined forces of the Menagerie militia and Mistral forces with Ghira and Kali leading the charge. The last handful of his forces flee towards him as their last line of protection.
Y/N #2: "So much for your grand revolution, huh."
Blake: "It's over, Adam."
Enraged and backed into a corner, Adam glances over to see that he's near the backside of the CCT tower. With a shout, Adam quickly unleashes his Moonslice at the tower behind him before anyone else had time to react. The cut was so devastating that the air itself blows Y/N, Sun, Blake, and Ilia back and it severs the CCT tower at its base. Recovering from that, the four of them see the tower starting to fall down and Blake and Y/N is forced to roll out of the way to dodge it, landing themselves in the grand hall of Haven Academy. The tower itself crushes the school's front wall but, doesn't go much deeper than that, leaving the grand hall itself exposed to the gathering forces outside. Adam watches this and begins to step forward to pursue Blake and Y/N once more only to be stopped by his own men with one of them grabbing his arm.
Adam: "What are you doing!?"
White Fang Member #33: "We've lost, Adam! We need to retreat."
Adam manages to free his arm as he turns to his troops.
Adam: "Retreat? We've already accomplished the biggest step of our goal and a trio of traitors at our mercy. The time to strike is now!"
As Adam begins to step away and go after Blake and Y/N, four of the White Fang members look to each other before deciding to jump on him.
Adam: "What the?"
The troops begin to wrestle and pull him towards the vegetation on the edge of campus to flee from the scene.
White Fang Member #34: "We need to go before we get capture!"
White Fang Member #35: "Please, Adam. Let's escape. We can't fight this many people."
Struggling against them, Adam loudly speaks up.
Adam: "No! We're not leaving! We'll keep fighting until the very end! For the cause!"
Realizing he won't listen to them, the biggest troop takes his weapon and land two solid blows to the back of Adam's head with the weapon's stock. This finish off Adam's strained aura and knocks him out cold, allowing the remaining troops to pull him away from the scene without a fuss.
Back in the grand hall, all eyes turn to the collapsed tower then to Blake and her Y/N, where Weiss, Ruby, Yang, and their Y/N are all equally stunned. Especially Blake, considering that she's seeing two Y/Ns, instead of one.
Blake: "What... the...?"
Meanwhile, Mercury, Emerald, and Hazel are all simply confused over what just happened to the school's front entrance. Probably more surprised than them, Ruby and the others get the upper hand as Ruby quickly turns to look at Yang and their Y/N.
Ruby: "Yang! Y/N! Go!!"
Knowing that she's pointing in the direction of the vault entrance, Yang goes to get a cheap shot in on the baffled and tired Mercury and sprinting towards the elevator shaft with the red-eyed Y/N following after her.
Emerald: "No!"
The green-haired girl tries to stop them with her pair of kama but, Weiss create a wall of ice catches the chained blade, allowing Yang and Y/N to escape and jump down the hole leading to the Vault.
Back inside the Vault, Raven kneels down to have a quiet moment to mourn Vernal's death. After that, she gets up and turns around to approach the Relic chamber's doorway. She activates her Maiden powers again and begins the process to unlock the chamber. Eventually, the door opens up, and on the other side, a massive desert is shown with a path leading to the Relic of Knowledge, which rests on a stone pedestal.
Raven head inside to retrieve the relic. She grabs it with utter disdain, almost as if she's trying to break it with her grip alone. And with that, Raven exhales and turns to exit the chamber just in time to hear the sound of gunshots. She finds Yang in a three-point landing pose as Yang begins to rush her with Y/N just arriving. With a panicked look to Vernal, Raven makes the split-second to flee, opening a portal beside her to vanish. Yang reaches the spot a second too late and just punches empty air.
Yang: "Tch, damn it."
Y/N rushes over to Yang's side, who is catching her breath only to stop upon seeing Vernal's lifeless body.
Y/N #1: "No... Vernal..."
Yang turns around to see Vernal as well. They see Vernal's eyes are still open. Silently, Yang and Y/N stare at the corpse for a bit before Yang goes over to carefully close Vernal's eyes and pick up her body. Without sparing him a glance, Yang addresses to Y/N.
Yang: "Let's go back..."
As she said that, Yang walks towards the elevator with a stunned Y/N nodding and follow after Yang. Upon reaching the elevator and making it go upward, neither of them saying a word to one another as the elevator ascends.
Back in the grand hall, Emerald, Mercury, and Hazel are outnumbered and outgunned, especially when the recovering Jaune, Ren, Qrow, Roman, and Neo step in to join the fight to aid the tired Ruby and Weiss. Although, Jaune goes to heal the unconscious Nora in the background along with Blake and her Y/N watching this unfold. Regardless, Ruby and the gang has the upper hand in the fight now, especially since Mercury and Emerald are visibly exhausted to keep fighting while Hazel is beginning to feel tired. Realizing that things aren't going their way and the plan failed, Mercury tries to drag Emerald towards the left-wing door out of the school with Hazel.
Mercury: "Emerald, come on! We need to leave now!"
Emerald is beginning to panic as she fumbles against Mercury as she loudly speaks up.
Emerald: "Cinder is going to be back any minute! She'll have the relic! She'll save us!"
Suddenly, the sound of the elevator captures everyone's attention and it's not long before the platform reaches the top with Yang carrying the dead Vernal with the frowning, red-eyed Y/N beside her.
Ruby: "Yang... Y/N...?"
Realizing that Cinder must have lost, Emerald has a full-blown meltdown as tears comes down from her eyes. Mercury becomes more forceful in dragging Emerald away as Emerald looks around as her breathing gets frantic. She holds her head and lets out a loud scream, activating the full force of her semblance. Suddenly, the room turns dark as black smoke rises from the ground nearby. From it, a giant horrific effigy of a skeletal, almost ghostly humanoid wraith, limbs bent and deformed, towers above everyone in the room.
The giant image of the humanoid wraith opens her eyes and lets out an ear-piercing scream as it swoops down over everyone, leaving all in the room stunned in horror, including the two armed Y/Ns, who has their eyes widen upon seeing this.
Y/N #2: ("No... no... not her...")
Y/N #1: ("Salem...")
Unbeknownst to Y/N and the others, Mercury and Hazel, who already recognize the distorted image and use it as a cover to escape through the left-wing of the school with Hazel quickly carrying the unconscious Emerald over his shoulder. Afterwards, everything inside the grand hall returns to normal with the distorted image vanishing from sight. Ruby shakes in fear as she comes to terms with what she had just witnessed. Everyone in the room is still present, with the exception of Emerald, Mercury and Hazel, who have disappeared. They all turn to see the left-wing door left open. Ren moves to go after them but, falters on the spot, still too injured to keep up. Jaune grabs him and help stand, using his semblance to heal him as the main Y/N rush over to the left-wing door instead. However, upon reaching the opened door, he finds nothing.
Y/N #1: "Tch! Damn it."
He then walks back to the others. Meanwhile, Yang walks out of the elevator platform, still in a state of shock over Vernal's death and as she looks to find Ruby, catching her breath and dropping to the floor to rest with Weiss, Blake, and her Y/N look at Yang with shock, confusion, and sadness.
Weiss: "No... Vernal..."
Ruby: "Yang..."
Dread sinking in, Yang flashes back to when she and Ruby were kids and cruelly, her mind replaces Ruby with a young Vernal. As the time takes away, the reality of Vernal's death and what she could have ultimately meant to Yang sinks. As Yang collapses to the floor, on her knees while still holding Vernal's body, and begins to cry her eyes out, sobbing as she does. Ruby and Weiss are the first to confront the crying Yang, hugging her, trying to comfort her while crying themselves for Vernal's lifeless body. Blake and Y/N share a sad look with one another before walking towards them. While the others watch this unfold, Blake joins in, crouching down to meet Yang's gaze and when Yang sees Blake there looking at her with a sad and apologetic look, Yang continues to cry as all four girls hug together with the deceased Vernal at the center. Wordlessly, the main Y/N and the other Y/N shoot a glare at each other before looking at their girlfriends huddling and sobbing together as a team. Finally reunited...