-Your Pov-

You smirked as you and Mercury gave each other high-fives, and then watched as the building burned to the ground. Emerald happily hummed to herself as she went through with the money and valuables she had collected, both during and after the fight, and then split it with everyone based on the bets all of you had made before hand on who would do the most damage. Torchwick happily used the fires from the building to light a cigar for himself, and then Neo rested on his back, eating an ice cream cone as she watched the scene. Adam sat in the corner, brooding like he always did, but you could tell he was happy with how this had turned out. Other members of the White Fang sighed with relief that the plan had gone well, and then Cinder smirked from where she was, a fireball burning in her hand.

This used to be an Atlas Base, one of the strongest in fact. After their project to create an android with a soul had managed to be a success, hidden bases around the world like this began to spring up, working on replicating the success of the first project, with the hopes of one day having an entirely android based army. These bases also had become the home of some of the most dangerous weapons they had, such as the Atlas Paladins. Raids had become common on this base since you couldn't lose either way. If you did succeed, then they couldn't risk finding you, or someone would find out about the secret project, and if you didn't, you had the option of simply leaving, and they wouldn't pursue because of the need for secrecy they had.

Right now, the White Fang grunts were carrying out containers of Dust that had been held in the base, enough to supply a small army, and it would be enough to keep you all afloat for months, with some to spare. Others began to hijack Atlas Paladins, or the mechanical soldiers they had, rewriting their programs to allow them to work for you. That was one of the main problems with machines: No loyalty beyond what their program gave them. In the time since you had begun to raid these bases, mechanics and programmers in the White Fang had had field days, turning hundreds of these over to your side, giving you a small army of robots to throw away when you were done with them.

Once the building had burned down, everyone started to head onto different airships and Bullheads. You were the last to head on, and then you and Cinder stood next to each other as you watched the flames spread through the rest of the town. She let out a satisfied smirk, and then you looked over at her, taking in her beauty, with her amber eyes glowing with the light of the fire, and her long black hair, shining in the moonlight. You looked away when she would have caught you staring otherwise, but your mind's eye had already captured the image of how perfect she looked tonight.

The two of you talked for a little bit, and then she left, probably to report to Salem how the mission had gone, and then get more coaching in how to use her powers as the Fall Maiden. You had been there with her when she had gotten the powers, and knew that if Cinder wasn't careful, it would go right to her head and she would ignore everything else. No matter how strong she was, she was still the same Cinder Fall you had always known, the girl you had known your entire life.

As you think about how you and Cinder had met years ago, the ship lands, and then you walk off, making your way past people quickly, and only stopping to let Torchwick and Cinder know where you were going to be for the night, and then you kept walking, trying to get to your dorm as quickly as possible before anyone could see you. Once you were close, you dashed in, and slammed the door shut, and then went to your nightstand. As you tried to open the drawer, a sharp pain went off in your chest, and then you cried out.

Holding your chest in pain, you began to cough rapidly and violently, to the point where blood was coming out of your mouth. Your vision kept becoming blurry, and you forced yourself back to your feet, and forced yourself to open the nightstand. Once you had, you reached for the bottle of pills, and then opened it. Shakily, you swallowed a handful, and then waited. The pain was still searing and unbearable, until it stopped after a few moments. Out of energy, you fell backwards onto the bed, weakly breathing.

Every Semblance had a drawback, and some downside to using it. Cinder for example was able to control glass, but she often ended up with cuts afterwards, her control of it not being perfect. Whenever Emerald cast an illusion, she was always left with a searing headache after, depending on how complex the illusion had been, and she also had the unpleasant fortune of seeing into the other person's mind as well. Your Semblance was the ability to amplify your strength and power however many times you wanted. The cost of it had initially been nothing more than intense pain, but it had since worsened.

When you had helped Cinder in her battle with Amber, you had needed to push yourself further than ever before to be able to match the power of a Maiden. After the battle, you had been inspected by one of the White Fang medics, and come down with a heart condition, which got worse and worse each time you used your Semblance. It had gotten to the point where even fighting was enough to make you this weak afterwards, even without the use of your Semblance. In the last raid, you had had to fight Winter Schnee briefly, and keeping your Semblance on to keep up with her had been hellish on your body.

Despite this, you had kept the secret of your slowly dying as a secret from everyone else, bearing the pain in secret. Once you had been told there was no cure for your heart condition, you had accepted it, and then made the choice that you weren't going to waste away in the hospital. If you had to die, then it was going to be on your own terms, fighting for the people you had come to care for, and dying in a blaze of glory. And, there was one other reason you kept fighting: Cinder Fall.

Both of your parents had been friends, and huntsman. The two of them had made a choice to move to a part of the world where there was little huntsman, and was mostly lawless and chaos. While doing the best they could to keep you away from the violence, they worked to contain the situation. During this time, you and Cinder had become good friends, and stayed with each other. The two of you had been there for each other when your parents had been killed, and she had protected you for years, and made the choice to join Salem to make her own ambitions a reality.

She had protected you when she had unlocked her Semblance, and was the only reason you were alive, since she had taken care of you for years. Once the two of you had joined Salem, you had promised to yourself you were going to return the favor, and take care of her, which you had been able to. And so, you sat up in your bed, took another dose of medicine, and then went to sleep, thinking to yourself that you weren't going to die until you were able to make her vision into a reality for all of you.

-Cinder Pov-

I sigh to myself as I sit in the room with Mercury, Emerald, Neo and (y/n). All of us have been working for some time on forging our transcripts to get to Beacon, and none of us are having any luck. The firewalls are incredibly strong, and nothing any of us have done has been enough to break past it, despite how long we've been trying to do so. It would have been simple enough if we only needed one transcript, but we need five, the first four being for my team of Emerald, Mercury and Neo, and then the one for (y/n) being as a substitute. Since Neo has to be on the train for the plan to work, we run the risk of someone seeing her and realizing she's not a student, (y/n) is her substitute we can use in her place. Except, none of that matters if we don't manage to get past the firewalls. All of us have given up a little bit, as Mercury does push-ups as Emerald sits on him, Neo eats ice cream and then (y/n) and I keep trying, but not with much excitement or caring.

Eventually, we manage to create the transcripts, and then all of us head down to Beacon together. On the way, I notice that (y/n) keeps coughing more and more, but I figure he could simply be sick. Despite this, I make a note to myself to keep watch of him, and make sure he doesn't get worse. His power is one of the reasons we've managed to succeed this long, and I couldn't afford to lose him, and on top of that, he is my oldest friend, and one of the few people who can hold a conversation with me, about philosophy, or about anything really.

The five of us make our way into the school, and pretend to be lost for the sake of meeting Ruby Rose. I take note that she's gotten stronger since the night we saw each other first when I was with Torchwick on the Dust Robbery, and then she gives us directions into our room. Once we get in, I watch as Mercury laughs. " Easiest scam ever," he says, and then all of us can't help but agree. We knew the Rose girl was going to be innocent, but we had no idea she would be so trusting and easy to fool. Perhaps this was going to be easier than we had imagined it to be.

We make it through our days at Beacon easily enough, managing to hide all of our identities from everyone, and to our surprise, it isn't as miserable as we had thought it would be. Emerald loved how easy it was to steal money from people, and make a small fortune, Mercury loved flirting with the girls here, especially the ones who returned the attraction, and (y/n) never really said anything, but I knew him well enough to know he liked it here. And for me, it was fun to imagine the looks of anguish and heartache they would have when they learned of our betrayal.

The four of us had gone to the dance together, having a good time, with Emerald and Mercury going as a couple, and I went with (y/n) as my date. I had had to leave a little early to plant the virus into the Atlas network, and had had a fight with Ruby Rose, but I had made it back just in time to have one final dance with him, the two of us both having an amazing time. The truth was, I had been falling for him for such a long time, but I needed to keep those feelings of mine hidden. If I did fall in love, I would become attached to him, worrying about him when I didn't need to, something that could cost the both of us our life. I keep telling myself I need to wait until after Salem has won. Then and only then can the two of us be a couple with any future to look forward too.

In time, we manage to pull off everything we had planned on, and right now, I stand prepared to kill Pyrrha Nikos, and take the other half of the powers of the Fall Maiden. As the power flies into me, (y/n) stands by my side, breathing heavily. He was instrumental in the defeat of the " Invincible Girl," and right now seemed weaker than normal, which is something I had noted to myself. Before I can ask him what's wrong, Ruby Rose runs to us, just in time to see the last of Pyrrha start to vanish. She cries out angrily, and then her eyes burst into silver, which causes an explosion, and then I cry out in pain before fainting.

-Your Pov-

After Ruby had awakened her silver eye powers, the explosion had almost killed both you and Cinder. You had sustained more damage than her, having protected her body with your own during the blast. However, because she was a Maiden, the silver eyes hurt her more, to the point half her face was horribly scarred, her voice was mostly gone, and she had trouble even walking anymore. Salem had begun the process of healing her, but you hated seeing her so weak and vulnerable all the time, and you had resolved to hold on long enough to kill whoever had been responsible for hurting her this way.

Right now, Cinder was asleep in one of Salem's chambers, being slowly healed by the Grimm Queen. Salem stood by your side as you watched her sleep, and the two of you stood around in silence, not knowing what to say to each other, until Salem cleared her throat, and you looked at her curiously. " You love her, don't you?"

" Ever since the two of us were children," you admitted to her, and then she nodded. It was true, ever since you had met Cinder, you had slowly been falling for her more and more, to the point you called it love. The only reason you had yet to tell her how you felt was because you needed to wait until the two of you were safe, and you didn't want to tell her and then die on her. Still, she had been the only reason you had joined Salem in the first pace, and you knew the feelings you had for her would never truly go away.

 "And you're dying aren't you," she asked, and then you looked up at her, confused as to how she had known that, something you had never told anyone else. She simply chuckled, and dismissively waved her hand at your baffled look. " I know everything in this world. I know your Semblance has been killing you ever since the fight with Amber, that your heart condition has no cure, and that you've kept extending your lifestyle out of stubbornness, not wanting to die until Cinder has fulfilled her goals."

You nodded, not seeing the point in her telling you this, and not seeing the point in you denying it, since it was clear Salem knew the truth. She stood up, and then turned to leave. Before she did, she stopped and turned to you. " You should tell her while you have the chance," she said simply, and then left the room, leaving you to think about her words, and of course what you wanted to do with the feelings for her that you had. You had no idea when you were going to die, and then you realized Salem was right, you didn't want to go to the next life with anything left unsaid.

Eventually, she had been healed to the point she could walk and talk on her own, and right now, the two of you were in the Vault of the Spring Maiden, fighting with Raven. It didn't take long for you to realize you were out of your league, and then you cursed. Summoning your Semblance, you grabbed Cinder, and then flew her out of the vault, and back into Haven where Emerald, Mercury and Hazel were gradually being outmatched. Raven followed you all, and then you sighed when you knew what you needed to do. Cinder thrashed against you, still thinking she could fight, and then you sighed and kissed her. The shock of it made her go limp, and then you released. " I love you," you told her, and before she could argue with you about needing to fight, you knocked her out.

Emerald and Mercury made their way over to you, and then you handed Cinder to them. " Take her and go," you told them. They both looked at you for a few moments, and then Mercury nodded and he and Emerald began to leave, with Hazel covering them on their way out. Once you were sure they were out of harms way, you began to summon whatever power you had left, every single drop of energy you had left. Raven and the others began to look at you, and you summoned your aura, and it began to crackle with electricity. " Uh, what's he doing," asked Ruby, clearly confused, and then Raven's eyes widened when she realized what your plan was.

" He's turning every ounce of aura he has into energy. His body is too battered to handle it, which means when it reaches the capacity of what it can handle, he's going to self-destruct," she said quickly, flying to stop you, the others quickly following. As they did, you closed your eyes and let yourself think of all the best moments in your life, of bantering with Mercury, stealing things with Emerald, smoking with Torchwick, eating ice cream with Neo, and of course falling in love with Cinder.

As they reached you, you released all the energy you had left in a massive explosion. You cried out in pain as the heat seared you, and your body was torn apart by the force of the explosion. Still, at the very end, was a moment of peace, and quiet. " I love you Cinder," you said out loud, just as the world went bright with the explosion ending your life.

-Cinder Pov-

After the death of (y/n), all of us had been slightly demoralized. He had been one of our best friends, and one of our strongest allies. Without him, our plans would have failed many times over, and he kept us going in his own way. I took his loss the hardest, having never had the chance to tell him I returned his feelings, and blaming myself for his death. If I had known Raven was the real Spring Maiden, or known my limits, then perhaps he wouldn't have had to self-destruct. And so, I sat alone in my room, until Salem made her way in.

" He died the death of a warrior," she tells me, and then I look over to see her. " His final act was enough to kill all of Team RWBY, RNJR, the Spring Maiden, Ozpin and Qrow. Because of his death, we know have the best chance we ever would to conquer the world of Remnant. I know it's difficult, but he would want you to keep moving, you have to know that."

I nod at her words, knowing they were true, but still unable to move forward. " He had been dying for sometime anyways, his Semblance draining his life." Tears well in my eyes when I realize that had been the cause of his weakness in the last few days of his life. If I had known about that, then I would have told him how I felt before it was too late. " Don't cry my child. He wouldn't have wanted this. He gave his life so that you might live, and he didn't suffer. Truly, he went out with honor."

Her words make me realize that she's right, and (y/n) wouldn't have wanted this for me. And so, I throw myself into working with her, making sure each and every ally of Ozpin pays for costing the life of someone I loved, and in due time, Salem has conquered the world of Remnant, and then hands out the rewards everyone had asked for. She calls me forward, and then she summons an orb and places it into me, the power of the other three Maidens. " Now, what is your wish," she asks me, and then I look at her confused, this had been my wish. However, she chuckles. " For his service, I decided for that to be (y/n)'s wish. He would have wanted you to have this power as well. Now my child, what is it you want?"

" I want him back," I tell her. Since all my ambitions have been met, and I have the power I want, I can finally open my heart up to his love, and begin my life with him. She nods, and then concentrates for a few moments, and then (y/n) appears in front of all of us. I do my best to remain calm, and then I give up after a few moments, and then walk over to him, and then kiss him passionately.

Releasing only when I need air, I smile at him. " I love you too," I tell him, and then the two of us have another passionate kiss, and then hold each other tightly.

( let me know what you thought)