V2 & Volume 3

In the office of Ozpin, a request to enter pop up on his table. The person who wants to talk to him was James Ironwood and by the looks on his face, he came here for serious business.

Ozpin: "Hmm... I know what you came here for James. You want to know who is responsible for the barrier that saves the citizens of Vale of which only Atlas was to have or the knowledge of said technology. I can only say that I don't completely know of the person other than he was capable of ending the biggest threat."

James: "Then why didn't you tell me before?"

Ozpin: "He also said that the enemy has eyes and ears everywhere. And you being able to come up here without being stopped by anything means you are in the clear. It's not that I questioned your loyalty by bringing your army here from Atlas. Our ally just wants to make sure that everything went according to his plans."

James: "Then do you have a way to contact that "ally"?"

Ozpin: "Yes and as far as I'm concerned, he already knew that you would confront me first if one of his plans activated."

James: "I'll drop it for now but keep me in the loop this time. I don't want to have shot our "ally" if it comes down to it."

Then James left Ozpin's office and the wizard just continue what he was doing when another message pop-ups again but this time it was from a different source. It only reads, "still continue".

Ozpin: "I only hope that these plans of yours can have better results."

Another message came, "it will be enough"

Somewhere in Beacon, a few minutes after the events in Vale.

Cinder: "DAMN IT!!!"

Emerald: "Do we need to do the plan again?"

Cinder looked at her and rather than roast her, she force herself to calm down.

Cinder: "No, we already achieve what we need. The people of Vale's peace had cracked larger. It seems that the barrier that surrounds Vale can only last for a day and the ones for the people for an hour. We will start by spreading these rumors to increase the anxiety of the people and by the time of the finale, the plan would be complete. For now, watch out for potential danger from the students other than Pyrrha and this Saeko."

Mercury: "I tell you, even for an assassin like me, that Saeko girl gives me the creeps."

Emerald: "I think that my illusion does not affect her when I challenge her after Mercury with Pyrrha."

Cinder: "It won't matter, once the final plan starts and I get the other have of fall maiden's power. Nothing will stop me from destroying Vale. Contact Neo so we can start our show in the tournament."

A few days after that. The start of the Vytal Festival finally begin. Saeko did not want to compete in the tournament even though Blake said that she will be the one to sit out if Saeko participate which she declines.

She said she wants to spend some time with Raizen which was hired to make a banquet for the participants one day before the start of the tournament. He also has a food booth for his restaurant in the designated area so they will be able to meet him after their fight.

Before the official start of the tournament. A music video was being played for the participants. The title of the song is Rise (League of Legends), and whenever the chorus was sung in the music video. It made the blood boils from the participants and the audience including those who are watching from a different kingdom.

The music video was sponsored by Beacon and with the help of the exchange student from different academies. Raizen was able to recreate the music video with fewer special effects because the students will provide the fighting scenes. At the end of the video, you will see the person who climbs further looking at towers with the name of the academy and the group that won the other previous tournament. Then the battle of Atlas and Shade's representative battle it out but the Shade Academy prevails. In the ending, you will see the new competitors climbing to the top.

After the music video finished. The audience goes wild that even the participants cannot wait to fight. For them, the MV represents the essence of the tournament. It took two minutes to calm down the audience so that tournament can begin.

When team RWBYS finished their fight which took a little longer than the original. They manage to find Raizen's booth. They saw Saeko serving some customers while Raizen was packing some take-out foods.

Ruby: "Hey sis!... Did you see us out there?"

Yang: "Our opponents were tough, the first two minutes and a half we are in a stalemate when Ruby finally disrupt their momentum."

Weiss: "Yeah it really was a hard fight and our opponents are giving it their all."

Blake was just drooling at the food that was served for them by Saeko.

Saeko: "If your first fight was already this difficult. Then you guys should up your game because I know the others will."

The team just nodded while eating the food Raizen made. Raizen and team RWBYS were just got off the ship that carried them back to Beacon to rest when Weiss notice a coming ship that is very familiar to her. What happened after is the same as the original up to when Qrow showed up. This time, Qrow did not destroy the robots and just start trash talking which Winter did not appreciate.

Raizen is watching the whole drama from the side and decided to not interfere yet and let Qrow vent some anger. He told Qrow and Ozpin that with James increasing the presence of his army in Vale. There could be more potential danger than safety. Then Qrow runs off to some bar because he might punch James in the face if he sees him.

Raizen suddenly appears between Qrow and the coming bullet that is Winter. She tried to stop mid-flight because she will crash to Raizen but she was almost close and deploying another glyph will not make it. But "lucky" enough, Raizen grabs the right hand of Winter then he spins his body one time while pulling her closer to him did a princess carry on her.

Raizen: "We just meet again after a few months and you want to stab me with a sword. That is harsh Winter."

He is looking at the blushing face of Winter while she was carrying her. Winter notice their position and got off of him while defending herself.

Winter: "No no, that wasn't for you. Qrow started the fight." *acting like a kid and gone her persona of specialist*

Winter has a crush on Raizen from when he started cooking for some events of the SDC and they see each other often for the duration of the events but she knows that Raizen would want for her to continue her career before doing romantic stuff. Maybe in the future, they can be together but not in the next few years. She also accepted that Raizen will have multiple women so she is cool with sharing Raizen with Saeko. They even spar when he brought her to some events.

Raizen: "Well you know Qrow, he's always drunk. Probably just venting some stress."

Raizen looked at Qrow who is slightly sober but the guy doesn't want to look him in the eyes and he knows he will be beaten down like the last time even when using his bird form. Qrow didn't want to be cooked again slowly. The last time he was beaten is when Raven was forcing him to tell the truth about Raizen. Before Qrow gave in and tell her, they felt the most disturbing thing they could feel. They didn't know where it came from because they were only two of them in their surroundings but even so, Raven decided to retreat first, and when Qrow was about to leave. A hand holds him down before transforming into a bird. Qrow just saw a smile and blackout.

Back to the scene, Raizen was chatting with Winter when Weiss and Ruby come to them. A few moments later, James, Ozpin, and Glynda came.

James: "What happened here?" *looking at Winter waiting for an explanation*

Winter: *fixing her posture* "Just a misunderstanding sir!"

James: "Misunderstanding? *looking at the damaged pavement around then looks at the crowd last to Qrow* And you, why are you here?"

Qrow: "Well mister obvious, I'm here for my nieces and my friend here invited me." * pointing out to Ruby that wave and next to Raizen who James recognized in some events from Atlas for being an incredible cook*

Ozpin invited James with Winter and Qrow to talk in his office leaving Weiss, Ruby, and Raizen going to the dorm room of team RWBYS to plan who will fight for the doubles round.

In the tournament, Team JNPR manage to finish the fight faster than the canon and they already picked John and Pyrrha to fight in the doubles match.

The next day, Ozpin, James, Glynda, and Qrow still talked to Pyrrha about the maiden powers and why Amber was in the chamber.

( an: the chamber was better because of the upgrades of Raizen)

After Glynda and James walked out of Ozpin's office, Qrow told her that she brings the next maiden will be a sort of backup plan in case plan A did not happen and the chances of using their last resort are 10% based on another source. They also have a way to restrict and extract half of the fall maiden power from the culprit because of the extensive research of one of their allies.

She still needs to make a decision in case something happens. She talked about it to John and he told her that whatever decision she made he will always support her. Pyrrha was really happy especially when John asked her to be his girlfriend and that was one decision she will cherish. She decided to accept the power and John will protect her no matter what.

Continuing the tournament

Yang and Weiss were able to beat their opponent easily with how Weiss is able to show her summons. Saeko and Blake help her because their semblance is close to what she needs for her summons. The team of Penny advances when she single-handedly beat the teammates of Cardin's.

After the rounds of doubles, the representatives of each team that will fight were presented to the audience. Weiss was chosen instead of Yang and they did it by rock-paper-scissors.

Yesterday night, Raizen got to the stadium and deployed a swarm of drones that will be helpful for the upcoming event.

After Weiss wins her match against Mercury. He tried to do what he did to Yang in the original but he was locked in place and can only stare at the back of his opponent going back to her team. While this was happening to Mercury, in the viewing seat of Cinder's team, Emerald and Neo have a minor headache which prevents them from using their semblance. Cinder notice this was seething in anger that one of her plans did not work. In the audience stand, Raizen was laughing at the misery of Cinder.

After the preliminary rounds, Cinder's group have a meeting to discuss what had happened with Mercury's match.

Cinder: *after venting her anger to a few trees* WHAT HAPPENED OUT THERE!!! EMERALD! NEO! WHY DIDN'T YOU USED YOUR SEMBLANCE!? MERCURY! WHY DID YOU NOT ATTACK WEISS!?

Mercury: "I was going to but something was holding me in my place that I was not able to move my body."

Emerald: "I and Neo had a headache that we were not able to control our semblance as if it disappeared from our body."

Cinder: "Someone knows our plans I had a suspicion when only a part of the plan with the bombs happens. I just thought that Ozpin was just trying the new defenses that they installed but thinking back. The timing was so close."

Emerald: "So should we postpone our plan?"

Cinder: *after thinking* "No, even if someone knew, the barrier that was deployed before was only as strong as in Atlas. The amount of grimm will be enough to break it. *looking at the news about the spike of grimms* Besides, we have control of the Atlesian knights and paladins. Not to mention the grimm that will bring down Vale, with the chaos that will be happening, I am sure we will be able to summon it. If that plan even fails. The mistress gave me something to summon elder grimms." *smiling*

Unknown to them, their conversation was being listened to by 3 people.

Before the match of Penny and Pyrrha. Qrow, Ozpin, and Raizen were listening to the discussion of Cinder's group.

Qrow: "So these minions of Salem think they're so clever. *smirking* They didn't even know we were listening to them."

Ozpin: "Whatever it is that they were supposed to do will probably increase the grimms coming to Vale."

Raizen: "Well, they still have 1 more try before they become desperate. But that would be the same for us, some things need to happen. All my plans will deploy with a click of a button when they started their move. I even have a backup just in case something goes wrong. As for the elder grimm. I already have a bigger version of the one I used in the breach and for the grimm coming to Vale, I already started the second barrier.

Qrow: "You know, before when you said that you can build a barrier that only grimms can't get in, I was skeptical."

Raizen: "Well I don't really want to hinder the trade so I build it so that it will only block grimms. It still took me a lot of experiments. It could have been faster if I got a sample from the goo in the land of darkness but Salem would notice me quickly. So seven years is good enough. For now, I only deployed for Vale but after this, I'll spread them to other kingdoms.

Ozpin: We can only hope that will be enough.