*Ponyville, Equestria; 1200 hours, December 16, 2016*

The surviving members of Team Unity were sitting in Sugarcube Corner.

Their wounds had been mostly healed, and had all gathered inside, waiting for the person who they had sacrificed so much for, and who had sacrificed for them in turn.

Alex Walker.

"Jesus, where is he? You did tell him to be here by noon, right?" Vanoss indignantly groaned.

Yang raised her hands in defense.

"Hey! Of course I did! I don't know what could be keeping him!" Yang pointed out.

"Maybe he needs a minute to adjust for... What happened... I don't blame him." Rainbow pouted, shaking her head.

Ruby took a minute to look at the Pegasus pony. Cinder Fall had cut off one of her wings early on in the battle and had to be carried away. It had since then been replaced by a mechanical wing made by the Ryders and Atlesian technicians, as well as Equestrian biologists who needed to make sure she could actually fly with the prosthetic.

"Did you see his X-Rays? Man!" Wildcat cringed at the thought.

"I can't believe I let him fight Alpha alone.." Twilight grimaced again.

"It was his mission, Twilight. Oz told us yesterday that Alex was hired to kill Alpha." Mako reminded her.

"And besides, Alex freaking did it! We couldn't find anything of Alpha left!" Kat added.

"Of course you couldn't. The Black Hole sucked everything inside. Nothing could've survived that. Either way, he's gone." Vinyl said.

"Did you see Twilight kill Gamma? That was f**king sick!" Delirious asked, drinking cider.

"I still don't get how or why your consciousness didn't have any problems returning to your original body on Earth while we were in Provinence." Weiss said.

"Honestly, I expected them to be vegetables if they full-on died, and I worked on Project Immersion." Mako added.

"Well, I think it's safe to say that it's been a weird couple of months, right?" Vanoss questioned.

The room collectively nodded.

They suddenly heard the sound of a door opening, and a bell ringing. The whole room went silent after that.

None of them said a word as Alex walked off to the front of the bar type area and sat down.

"Hi, just a hot chocolate and a cinnamon muffin?" Alex asked, pulling out a few bits and handing them to Mr. and Mrs. Cake, the proprietors of the shop.

"Sure. It'll be a few minutes for the hot chocolate, okay?" Mrs. Cake said, trying to act like Alex was just another normal customer.

"Thanks." Alex sighed.

He turned behind him, seeing everyone holding their mouths out of shock.

"What?" Alex asked.

Ruby leaned in and whispered in Weiss' ear.

"Should I tell him?" She asked quietly

"No, you dunce!" Weiss scolded, raising her voice.

"I'll handle this." Yang turned to them both.

"Bad idea." Blake dismissed, reading a book that Twilight had loaned her.

"Alex... Let's just say you're looking a little..." Yang began nervously.

"Don't say it." Alex scowled.

"Stumped..." She said, instantly regretting the pun entirely.

Alex inhaled sharply, looking as though he was visibly trying to control his temper before exhaling.

"It's... This, isn't it?" Alex sighed, rolling up both sleeves, revealing to everyone that both of his arms were completely robotic.

"Woah!" Delirious gaped.

"Oh god, I thought it was just your hands!!" Pyrrha cringed visibly.

"And that's not the best part!" Alex rolled up his pant legs. Just like his arms, both legs were entirely prosthetic.

"Ooh! Sorry!" Rarity apologized.

"Remarkable!" Twilight looked astonished. Vinyl had a similar reaction.

"Are you two out of your minds?!" Weiss yelled at the ponies as they examined his new limbs.

"A quadruple amputee, saved by extra-dimensional technology! It's amazing how Atlesian and Adenienite tech blend so well!" Vinyl beamed.

"Yes, yes, I get it!! I'm literally Darth f**king Vader! Can we please chill out for five minutes!!" Alex demanded.

Vanoss and his crew smirked at the reference, letting out a few laughs, much to Alex's irritation.

Alex sighed, slumped over the counter, and let out a groan.

"I'm sure there's another reason behind this, I mean besides you people gawking at my arms and legs." Alex turned to face his friends.

Twilight nodded, pulling out a small journal and levitating it to Alex.

"This is a handbook of the last surviving Inquisitors. Some were actually at the battle, others weren't. In any case, it would do some good to track them down-" Twilight began.

"Anyone have a pen?" Alex asked.

Nogla handed Alex a #2 pencil, and Alex opened the notebook and started writing inside of it.

"What.. What are you doing?" Twilight wondered.

"Let him do his thing." Rainbow shrugged.

"I'm a bit curious myself.." Ren shook his head.

Alex handed Twilight back the handbook after a few minutes, and she looked over at his 'adjustments'.

List of Surviving Inquisitors KILL LIST

Cinder Fall, AKA 'Sigma'; Remnant

Neopolitan, AKA 'Phi'; Remnant

Morning Star, AKA 'Delta'; Equestria

Xavier Callan, AKA 'Upsilon'; Earth

Ultimus Crux, AKA 'Zeta'; Adenien

Tirek; Equestria

Sombra; Equestria

Salem; Remnant

"This... You can't be serious, Alex!" Twilight groaned.

"I'm serious. What, you think I'm f**king around?" Alex stared Twilight dead in the eye.

Ruby picked up the notebook and handed it around. Yang sat there in place, staring intently at the notebook.

"It's a hit list." Yang handed the book to Vanoss and crew.

"You're joking! You can't expect us to go along with this!" Rainbow reprimanded Alex.

"I don't. That's why I'm doing this alone." Alex scowled.

"Doing what alone, Alexander?" Said Ozpin as he stepped inside the building, along with Qrow, Raven, and Sirius.

"Read this and prepare to be pissed." Basically handed the book to the Professor, who closely examined the contents before sharply closing the book and giving it back to him.

"We'll talk about this later." Ozpin stated.

"So. I can only assume you're here for a reason, seeing as how you've got bodyguards tailing you." Alex blinked, unmoving.

"I came to check on you, as well as my two most promising first-year teams. You all survived. I prepared you well.." He looked over Teams RWBY and JNPR, as well as the rest of the group.

"Onto the real reason I'm here." Ozpin began.

"Oh, god." Alex groaned.

"I'm here to inform you that Princess Celestia has scheduled your trial for tomorrow." Ozpin said.

"Trial?" Vinyl asked.

"As in, court?" Alex wondered.

"Yes. You're finally being tried for your quote-unquote 'crimes'. Including homicide, property damage, crimes against the state, and affiliation with a known terror organization." The Professor listed his crimes, and he suspected it would be a much longer list.

"F**k." Alex face-palmed.

"I'm not going to take anyone's side in this argument. That's ultimately for the court to decide. But, as they say, 'History is written by the victor'." Ozpin stated before leaving.

"Where are you going? I thought we were going to discuss things!" Alex yelled.

"When you are at home, and alone, we'll schedule an appointment." Ozpin called back before exiting the room.

"Bye, Uncle Qrow! Bye, Sirius!" Ruby waved

"Bye, Mom!" Yang waved to Raven.

"Wait, 'Mom'?" Alex gaped.

"You really couldn't tell this entire time?" Yang smirked.

Alex groaned.

"Talk about family issues.."

"Your parents are dead." Yang retorted.

"... Touché."

"And so are both of your older brothers." Vanoss added.

"Okay... Enough." Alex put a stop to that whole mess before it could begin.

"Heh, sorry." Both scratched the backs of their heads nervously.

The group talked for hours as pastries were bought and passed around. They talked about all the great times they had as a team, how and when they should meet up in the future, and, of course, their fates now that everything had mostly been cleaned up.

Eventually, they all things to do and some needed to leave, so they dispersed, select groups going to other parts of town. Alex himself bought some root beer and grabbed .44 Scratch. It was time for his own personal ceremony. A seven-gun salute.

He wandered away until he found an open field, Luna's moon shining brightly over the dark winter skies. The wind howled around him as he sat there, remembering everyone he lost.

'Mom... Dad... Karis... Cloudchaser and Flitter...' Alex shook his head, not wanting to let his grief get the better of him. He carefully loaded six rounds in the revolver, spun the chamber, and cocked it.

He squeezed the trigger once, the bullet ascending to the skies, leaving behind nothing but it's sound, and the thin electric 'vapor trail'.

'To those I couldn't save... I'll never forget your sacrifice.'

He cocked the revolver again, raising it to the skies and firing a second time, the gunshot echoing in his mind.

'To those who fought so fiercely for me.. Not out of greed or malice, but for what was right.'

Alex steadily pulled the hammer back a third time, raising his arm and shooting again. Feeling his emotion well up inside of him again. Sadness overcoming him.

'To those I held dearly, only for them to vanish from my grasp so that I wouldn't vanish from theirs..'

Alex fired again, holding back tears as he felt his metal limbs become harder to move in the cold. He slowly cocked the gun again, raising it to the skies in defiance.

'To those who fought not only for my sake, but the sake of their own friends..' Alex pulled the trigger a fifth time, letting one tear freeze on his cheek, only for him to flick it away.

He sighed again, pulling back the hammer a sixth time.

'To those who went into the night.. And did not go quietly..'

Alex shot the sixth bullet, pulling the cylinder out and inserting another cap into the revolver. He spun it and shoved the cylinder into place.

'Rest well, wherever you are, knowing that your deaths were not in vain.'

As Alex fired, he heard another gunshot behind him.

Alex turned around to find Yang standing behind him.

"You okay?" She asked.

"I'm fine." Alex sighed dismissively.

"Right. You go out into the fields at night in the middle of winter with a six-pack and a gun and you expect me to think everything's fine." Yang chided.

"I'm.. Just.. Keeping the ones we lost in mind." Alex told her.

"Oh, is this one of those 21-gun salutes I heard about?" Yang asked.

"You got me." Alex smirked.

"So, what'd you bring? Oh. Root beer. I was expecting worse." Yang shrugged, funneling through his stuff and uncapping a bottle with her wrist bracelet.

"You know I can't stand alcohol." Alex reprimanded.

"Whatever you say, Admiral." Yang joked,

"Cheers." Alex weakly raised his glass.

"Cheers!" Yang yelled, clinking the bottle with Alex's own and taking a comparatively causal sip.

. Alex smirked nervously, trying to find something else to stare at, for her own sake and his.

"Hey, remember when Blake told you about... Well..." Yang began.

'Oh, dammit.' Alex thought bitterly. He remembered Alex's conversation with Blake on the Iliad, and remembered exactly what he said before.

"Tell her, maybe after all of this is over, maybe we can talk."

"She actually got around to telling you that, huh?" Alex asked.

"Yep! And, besides, I heard from Twi and the others that you actually have a house." Yang recalled.

"I do, actually. I got it as soon as I got to Equestria... Y'know, before... that." Alex shakily remembered.

"So... What do you say? I think spending the night at your place seems better than staying outside in the middle of winter." Yang commented.

Wait, what was that about spending the-?

'Oh, my god.' Alex realized in his mind.

"Uhm... I need an adult." Alex stammered nervously in an attempt to dissuade her.

"We're close to being adults." Yang smiled broadly.

'Dammit, Yang.' Alex thought regretfully as the girl grabbed his wrist and dragged him into Ponyville once more.

Author's Notes:

Sorry for not touching base on the last few chapters in this story. The chapter count is going to be the exact same as Act I.
Meaning 26 chapters in total. And this is #24.
That, plus an Epilogue is about 3 more chapters, two more before the end of Act III.
It's sad, I know..

-The Destoyer