Much time had passed. Kori had joined Beacon and became a favored student for his helpfulness and skills. His crowd controlling ice was well effective when the Grimm had escaped from the underground tunnels. Suspicion of him being of the dark was very little. Everything was calm, until the very day of the attack. A stray of wire and twine, slicing into a metal being of the name Penny. The rise of despair in the crowd became a beam of light for the Grimm wandering about.

"Incoming Grimm attack. Threat level nine"

Retreating civilians run as the student hunters appear to face the threat. Among them, Kori is there. Only for a little time though. Once the robotic threat was diminished, he makes his make to Ozpin's office. Cinder was finishing up business below.

"Lovely carnage galore" Kori says in glee. He watches the Grimm and retreating hunters run amok the falling Beacon Academy. "Three spry Grimm, Three spry Grimm, see how they screech, see how they breach, they scared away all the hunters alight, tearing and bearing oh a fright that blights, have you ever enjoyed the fear and shear, of Three spry Grimm"

"Is that a rhyme of for our future children?" Cinder enters over hearing Kori's rhyme.

"And if it was?" Cinder runs her finger over Kori's lips before he nibbles on it.

"I think it deserves much love." Cinder pulls her finger away before planting a passionate kiss on his lips. The elevator suddenly begins to grind. "Time to play the fallen hero my ice demon"

"Till we meet again, my fiery mistress." Cinder lets her aura rise and slaps Kori in the face. He's sent flying through the window and falling to his..indefinite death. "Daaaaam yooooooou!!" he cries in a false fear.

"Kori! The wall!" Kori looks down and sees Weiss setting a Glyph a few meters down. He aims his ice as it and uses it as a lasso to break his fall. When he reaches the ground, he switches to an offensive weapon and helps fight off the Grimm.

"What were you doing up there Kori?" Ruby asks over the slicing of Grimms.

"Got caught in the flash fire of the Grimm attack"

"Better wording can help you know" Weiss jerks.

"Fine. I was *Slash* watching the fights from the *Bash* computers when the Grimms attacked"

"Why didn't you say so in the first place?"

"Had my tongue frozen on ice" Kori jokes.

"What-" Weiss' question was solved when Kori attached his ice sword to his tongue.

"Focus guys!" Ruby tells them. She snipes off two Grimm about to pounce them.

Meanwhile...

The stranger on the scraping elevator was none other than the 'star pupil' Pyrrah Nikos. Couldn't keep her heroic nose out of a flare queen's business it seemed.

The elevator doors open as a small hand-held blade spins through. Cinder leans to one side and dodges it with ease. A shield thrusts through the air with Pyrrah pushing it forward. Cinder crosses her arms and blocks, tossing aside the shield.

Pyrrah regains her footing and polarizes her weapon and shield to her hands. Cinder levitates with a flame below her feet. Her eyes go aflame as she lashes a barrage of fire at Nikos. Pyrrah skillfully dodges and keeps her distance. Cinder switches to a flamethrower attack. The shield protects Nikos as she charges forward. She tries to lash with her blade, only to be stopped by a grip of hand. Quickly, Cinder blasts her with flame. Nikos is shot back, her aura still intact to deafen the blow.

Cinder lunges forward with flames powering her speed. Nikos gets pushed back but bends her knees at the contact of the wall. Using this, she reverses the force and flips Cinder onto the ground. Cinder quickly flips to her feet only to be shield bashed. Quickly, Nikos continues with a flurry of lashes and strikes. Cinder blocks with her aura and kicks upward with a fiery blast. Pyrrah is sent upward but quickly takes advantage of this. Polarizing her blade to her hand, she throws it at Cinder.

Her shield close after. Cinder summons in invisible shield of wind to block the blade and shield, exhausting her strength-filled maiden abilities. Pyrrah throws herself at Cinder tumbling to the ground. In a blast of fire, Pyrrah had Cinder in a headlock. Her blade keeping both of Cinder's hands busy. A clever method to stop her from activating her maiden abilities.

There was two things Lady Nikos forgot to take into consideration. Cinder's inner blaze and the Grimm Dragon sensing the disturbance. The Dragon flies away from the tower before rounding for a straight charge at the glowing green ball of energy. In the while, Cinder's inner blaze slowly melts at Nikos' weapon. The Dragon screeches catching Nikos of guard.

*SNAP*

Her weapon snaps into three pieces of melted metal. Elbow into Nikos- Glass exploding as the cover of Beacon splices it's demise of one grave soul. The smoke clears as Pyrrah gathers her strength to end it all. She crawls toward her shield, her only form of weaponry. Cinder still vibrant for any attacks, floats on a flame in front of her. Still a chance of redemption, Nikos pep-talks herself. Polarizing a shard of metal at Cinder and smashing her aside, she charges forward- grabbing her shield.

Cinder quickly frees herself and flurries a barrage of flares at Nikos. Her shield keeps up, her aura nearing it's edge. Behind a wall of flame, Cinder sees the end. Suddenly Nikos' shield, thrown like a discus is shot at her. Nothing a little backhand couldn't stop. A mere distraction, for the main course was set. A barrage of giant gears were polarized to attack at once. Using her tossed shield once more, Nikos strikes her legs- Cinder pushed to her back and the barrage overtakes her.

Buried under a collision of gears, the pressure surely to finish her. An explosion of aura and flames sends the gears flying away. One stray gear strikes Nikos. Her shield up at the ready, nonetheless. She gets launched into a shard of wreckage- her aura depleted on contact. Pain fires through her, no aura left for defense.

Below on the ground..

"The tower's been slashed!" Kori exclaims.

"Gah, we got to hurry" Ruby commands. An end-game plan falls unto Weiss. She summons a line of Glyphs up the tower.

"You know what to do." Ruby nods and charges forward using her Speed Semblance. Kori tails her.

"Kori?"

"Never to do this alone. Something my father told me one to many times" he lies in a false sense of encouragement.

"Kay, let's go." Kori summons blizzard winds to propel himself as Ruby dashes upward with the Glyphs.

The final battle was rearing it's petty end...

Nikos rises as Cinder summons her favored weapon of ending battles. Her bow and arrows of ash. Nikos throws her final chance of battle with her shield. At the same time Cinder fires an arrow. They collide but other than canceling each other out, the arrow dissipates around the shield before reforming past it.

Carrying it's remaining momentum, it strikes Nikos' leg. Without an aura to protect, the pain was inevitable.

"It's unfortunate you were promised a power that was never truly yours" Cinder begins. She kneels down and raises Pyrrah's head. "Take comfort in knowing, that I will use it in ways you never could imagine." Nikos raises her head away from her touch.

"Do you believe in destiny?" The final words of a worthy foe.

"Yes." 

The finals word the great warrior would ever hear. Summoning the ashes to her hands, a bow and arrow of obsidian is formed. To fate's luck, the ice demon and unknown silver eyes reach the top for the final parting. The arrow flies. Striking the heart of a spartan warrior. 

'Fight till the end, the code of a spartan.'

Lady Nikos gasps for air, the arrow searing at the wound sight. A moment later of pain and tired attempts of breathe, the spartan's head droops. Her arms fall to her side. Mistress Flame catches her dropping head in her palm. The last bits of life fade away. A dead corpse is easier to turn to ash than an alive one. Pyrrah Nikos' body glows aflame into golden ash as the breeze carried them for the land to savor. Her headdress falls with a clang. Pyrrah Nikos..had passed.

Something clicked in Ruby. All this time, she didn't realize the true pains of loss. Losing her mother at a young age, an age too young to understand death. Now it dawned on her. Pain, suffering, madness, insanity, anger..corrupted sadness. All of this welling inside her.

Exploding at once two silver snake like beasts or wings flood from her eyes.

"Pyyyrraah!!!"

Ruby cries letting her flood of emotions carve the path. Everything begins to be bathed in the silver of light. Anything she saw as evil over her time with them was corrupted.

The Dragon Grimm turns to stone.

Golden flecks from the body of Pyrrah Nikos, caught within the flares of light.

Kori was unharmed, though the same could not be said for his Mistress.

Ruby did not know all the evil Cinder had done in her times. Cinder's left eye was scarred with an intensity even more than her own flames, never to see the true beauty of life with full sight. Her left half, covered in scars of blight and to strike it all, her voice was damaged, never to utter another lie for years to come.

Silence,

calm,

the end of a war.

"Come now Mistress" Kori whispers when everything passes. He notices the wounds the instant Ruby had fainted but plans to utter no such word of it.

"Ko..ri?" Cinder manages to speak. Her voice scarred and scratched.

"Shh..don't speak." Kori forms a mask of ice over her burned eye before carrying her like a child. He places her head near his shoulder.

"Wh..why?"

"Why what?"

"Why..save..me?"

"This heart isn't as cold as it seems. Sometimes, even a force of love is stronger than your flames." Kori plants a light kiss on her lips, letting his cold breathe travel through her. Cinder sighs in a slight relief as the cold soothes the pain her scars were inducing.

"I..love..you..my..Ice..Demon"

"I love you to, my Fiery Mistress."

Kori leaves a frozen statue of himself as a decoy of his death.

A fog rolls through as he carries his scarred lover to someplace she had advised.

--------------------------------

A/n: One tale ends, in the fog of mystery.

Man, i really went all out with this finale. adding so much wordings and touches. 

And a nursery rhyme in the mix too.

It took me a while to find a special picture of Cinder...and it brought tears to my eyes. 

Doppelganger Darkness is not over..yet.

A small update...

to shame the hate we feel for Cinder..

See you in the next one.