73

Chapter 73: Expect the Plan to Go Off the Rails, Part II

As Yang bobbed and weaved between Taurus's attacks, she couldn't help cursing her hair-trigger temper.

Charging Taurus had seemed like a good idea at the time. With the complete blindside of the crashing train, then seeing him try to charge forward and attack, her instincts had kicked in. Once she'd gotten back to her feet and saw Adam stumble back, clutching his face, she was already moving. She somehow figured that if she hit him fast enough and hard enough, she could take him out of the fight before he even knew what hit him.

Like most things she set out to do, this didn't work.

She managed to fool herself into thinking the fight would be easy for about a minute, just like most of her fights. Even with Blake's warnings and her retellings of how the man fought, Yang convinced herself it would be a piece of cake. But that assumption was promptly obliterated when Adam faked her out with an overhead strike, only to change his angle mid-strike, aiming for her arm.

It was only thanks to a burst of Ruby's Semblance that let her block the strike. Even then, she now had constant, burning pain in her forearm from where Adam's blade had cut through her armored gauntlet like butter.

Adam… he was on a whole other level than the opponents she was used to. He didn't attack randomly-but-obviously like most Grimm. He didn't telegraph his attacks like her sparring partners in school. He just attacked. Quickly, fluently; no movement wasted, no strike unplanned. And every single one of them was made with the intention to maim… or kill.

Luckily, she wasn't fighting alone.

"Ladybug!"

Yang dived out of the way as Ruby and Blake sped by, the two a flurry of blades as they tried to find an opening in Adam's defense. But just as with her, he blocked their attacks with apparent ease, sliding out of the way of their attacks like he knew where they'd land before they even moved. He had a twisted grin as he parried their blades, clearly conveying his sick enjoyment of the fight as well as his ferocity.

"What's wrong, Blake? I thought that Hunters were supposed to be the best of the best. But all you've done is gotten slower!" He emphasized his taunt by feinting left, tagging Blake with a pommel strike across her temple.

Blake hissed as she stumbled in her movements, but Ruby was right there, blocking Adam as he tried to advance on her.

"Stay away from her!" After blocking another sword strike, Crescent Rose shifted into rifle mode, erupting with a burst of fire dust bullets aimed right at Adam's chest.

Again, the Bull Faunus rolled out of the way of the bullets, leaping forward under Ruby's aim, his blade aimed towards her stomach.

A white snowflake materialized in their path, sparks flying as Adam's blade skimmed across its surface.

Snarling, Adam instead threw his arm up, slamming the blunt edge into the barrel of Crescent Rose, throwing off Ruby's aim as he turned his attention towards Weiss, throwing all his weight into his next slash. Weiss blocked it swiftly, gritting her teeth as Adam's blade came down again and again against Myrtenaster.

In the middle of one of his heavy blows, Adam caught a blur of black in the corner of his eye. He threw his free arm out, lifting his blade's scabbard to block Blake's strike, forcing her to rush back. But when he tried to follow through on his blow against the Schnee, his arm was forcibly held back, as he found Gambol Shroud's ribbon wrapped around his forearm, the reinforced fabric stretched taught as Blake pulled hard against him.

Adam sneered, his visible blue eye boring into Blake's amber. "Well, at least a few things have stayed the same. You still let those stronger than you fight your battles for you, until you can stab your opponent in the back."

"It's called teamwork, asshole!"

Adam instinctively ducked under Yang's incoming shotgun blast, but was instead met with a gout of dust-fueled flame bursting from Weiss's rapier. Snarling as fire burned at his shoulders, Adam yanked on Gambol Shroud's ribbon with all of his strength, ripping Blake right off her feet, shocking a yell from the cat Faunus as she was sent hurtling towards her former leader.

Before Adam could impale Blake on his outstretched sword, the crack of a sniper rifle sounded. Adam was thrown to the floor as the force of a sniper round slammed into his armored back. Blake twisted in midair so-as to sail right over him unharmed, crashing unceremoniously into a startled Weiss. The two tumbled across the ground, Blake only just managing to land on her feet in a protective stance as Weiss rushed back to her feet.

Adam heaved heavy, ragged breaths as he pushed himself to his feet. He caught red and yellow flashes in his peripheral, looking to see Ruby and Yang now flanking Blake and Weiss. Adam curled his lip at the sight of the completed team.

"Teamwork?" he called to them over the sounds of battle around them. He barked out a mocking laugh as he adopted a relaxed position. "If that's all she wanted, she needn't have left the Fang. Had she merely waited another month, she would have had the support of an entire army."

Blake bared her teeth at him, retracting Gambol Shroud's ribbon back into its hilt. "I didn't need an army, Adam, the Fang didn't need an army. And my team is worth more than any of this-" She threw her free arm out, gesturing to the masked men and women fighting all around them, beginning to be pushed back as their numbers slowly thinned. "-ever could be."

Adam snorted dismissively. "Truly? Well, then…" His visible eye suddenly darted over their heads, widening before a dark grin spread across his lips. He lifted his sword, not to attack, but merely to point at something behind them. "You won't have any trouble combating my 'team', will you?"

In a sudden panic, the RWBY's quickly glanced back…

Finding a prototype Paladin looming over them, guns trained.

"Oh, boy..." Ruby breathed, her pupils shrunken to pinpricks.

Before any of them could move, the Paladin fired, its guns roaring. A white snowflake materialized between the girls and the mech, Weiss gritting her teeth as high-caliber rounds rained down against her glyph.

"Dammit!" Yang cursed, angered at how she was stuck hiding behind Weiss for protection instead of the other way around. "Didn't we blow this thing up already!?"

"He has friends!" Ruby called out in warning, swapping Crescent Rose's fire rounds for ice as another Paladin rushed at them, this one flat-faced and chrome. Ruby fired quickly, icing over the mechs guns before it could fire, but the shots she aimed at its legs did nothing as it neared, raising its frozen arms over its head.

Yang snarled under her breath. "Weiss, how long can you hold that?"

"Not long!" Weiss called back, clearly in pain.

"I'll make this fast, then!" Without another word, Yang blurred straight at the mech, hair and eyes blazing as Ruby and Blake could only watch helplessly, before having to parry a new onslaught by Adam.

Yang could hear the bullets ricochet off the ground behind her as she super-sped straight at the Paladin, leaving a trail of burning rose petals in her wake. The Paladin shuddered for half a moment, the Faunus pilot inside likely blindsided by the comparatively small blonde charging at a ten-ton warmachine. They adapted quickly, however, the mech shifting its aim to bring both arms down to intercept the speeding blonde.

Yang met it head-on.

The mech brought its arms down with all it's might right on top of Yang. The ground shook from the impact, new dust and debris joining that already in the air.

The mech's posture relaxed slightly in the following seconds, the pilot likely satisfied with having dealt with the threat. But then, its arms shuddered, its servos groaning in protest as the massive limbs were slowly raised… and not by choice.

The dust settled, revealing Yang standing in the middle of a crater, straining as she slowly pushed the mech's arms up with her crossed forearms, her body practically glowing as her eyes and hair burned. Glowing yellow veins flashed briefly across her body, traveling down her arms and up her neck.

As if feeling the Paladin pilot's incredulousness, she gave a ferocious smirk.

"Not bad."

Her legs tensed, crimson eyes trained on the mech's cockpit.

"My turn."

With a mighty yell, Yang pushed her arms out with all she had, forcing the mech's arms apart. With the Paladin momentarily wide open, she blurred forward to the feet of the mech, before jumping up. In a flash, Yang appeared over the head of the mech, her arm cocked back as far as it could go.

She threw her arm forward, and the flat face of the cockpit shattered like glass, revealing a lanky man with curved ram horns poking out of his white hair. The Faunus threw his arms up over his head as glass and metal blew past him, a yell of shock on his lips. He looked up through the slits in his mask, only to flinch back in his seat when Yang landed on the dashboard in front of him. She looked down at him for a moment, the glow dimmed but not dead, before reaching down and yanking him out of his seat with one hand.

"H-How?" The man stuttered.

Yang could only grin. "Super strength plus super speed. 'Nothin else like it."

"Yang!"

The panicked yell of her name made Yang's head snap to the side. Her satisfied grin vanished as she saw the titanic fist of another mech rushing at her.

Yang tensed, her mind caught between dodging out of the way and trying to block. The Faunus in her grasp yelped in fright, shouting to an unfamiliar name that they were about to hit him.

Before the blow connected, a mass of red clouds materialized between them, Yang's view obstructed by the red mass. She heard a crunch of steel and a mighty crash. When the portal dispersed, she found the attacking mech now flat on its 'face', its arm amputated up to its elbow and it's back crumpled and dented. A second crash revealed the mech's missing arm falling to the ground just behind the mech, a second portal quickly vanishing above it.

"Yang."

The same voice sounded above her, this time sounding much more relieved. She looked up to find Raven perched on top of the mech she'd defeated. She held up a hand, bobbing her head to the Faunus in her grasp. "Throw him."

Yang blinked, before her grinning. She looked back at the Paladin pilot, now paled under her gaze.

"W-Wait! Can we talk about- AAAHHHHHH!" Yang hurled the man over the side of the Paladin, where he disappeared into Raven's portal, screaming all the way.

Raven jumped down beside her, giving Yang a cursory look. "Are you okay?"

Yang's grin faltered, wilting slightly under her mother's gaze as old frustrations tried to work their way to the surface. "I'm fine," she responded in a clipped tone. But after a moment where Raven looked her up and down for injuries anyway, she added, "Thanks… for that." She bobbed her head quickly towards the downed mech.

"You're welcome," Raven murmured back. Her eyes narrowed as they scanned over Yang's body, zeroing in on her arm. "You're bleeding."

"Huh?" Yang looked down in surprise. She felt a chill as she watched a steady stream of blood run from beneath her gauntlet and down her hand. "I thought that healed…"

"Taurus get you?" Raven gripped the hilt of her katana tighter. "Then you're stuck with it. Your girlfriend told us about it, remember? His Semblance nullifies aura."

Yang groaned. "So I got to heal the hard way. Great."

Raven scoffed. "Pay more attention. You could end up with worse before this fight's through."

Yang could just feel the indignation building in her chest, her eyes glowing even brighter at Raven's flippant words. A sharp retort was just begging to burst from her lips, and Yang was seconds away from letting it fly…

"Raven! I'm ready!"

The mother and daughter looked up sharply. Two more Paladins, both prototypes, had joined the standard one firing on Weiss. The heiress now had both hands raised, two massive glyphs in front of her as she tried to hold back the hail of gunfire. Just behind her, Ruby and Blake had taken up a defensive position to watch her back, doing their best to battle back Adam. The White Fang leader now seemed less interested in fighting them and was just trying to cut down Weiss with his every movement, his blows just barely being blocked by Crescent Rose and Gambol Shroud. But with every second that passed, more and more spiderweb-like cracks formed across Weiss's glyphs, threatening to shatter at any moment.

But up on top of the middle Paladin, Qrow Branden stood tall, having gone completely unnoticed until his sudden yell. He waved at Yang and Raven, his transforming blade Harbinger held tightly at his side.

Without any further prompting, Raven threw her arm out. Two new portals formed in front of the paladins, one between them and Weiss, and the other just above that, tilted at an angle.

For the few moments right as the portals formed, the pilots of the three Paladins didn't seem to register what has just happened. They continued firing every gun they had right into the portal, only to have every single bullet fired right back at them from the portal above, their armor being shredded like tin foil by the high-grade weaponry.

Finally realizing that they were firing on themselves, the Paladins ceased their attack and stumbled back, the leftmost one nearly falling over thanks to its damaged legs.

Capitalizing on the pilot's confusion, Qrow plunged his sword into the groove where the cockpit opened. With the click of a switch, Harbinger rapidly unfolded into its scythe mode, ripping into the cockpit surface like a massive can opener. With a hard yank, Qrow wrenched the cockpit door open, jumping inside. The Paladin shuddered in its movements, jerking harshly, before stilling. Seconds later, a screaming White Fang was hurled through the opening, vanishing into the portal Raven opened up beneath him.

As soon as he disappeared, the Paladin shuddered. With frightening speed, it's swiveled at the waist at a ninety-degree angle, unloading at the mech next to it. The bullets were aimed carefully, tearing into the Paladin's shoulder joints until the mech's arms fell to the ground. The attack was so sudden that the Faunus within didn't even register that he was under attack until he found his vehicle armless.

The remaining White Fang Paladin pilot had gathered his bearings by that point, firing in the same manner Qrow just had. To his great surprise, Qrow spun his Paladin around and lunged, the two mechs grappling until the enemy mech's guns were forced into the air, firing into the ever-growing night sky visible through the crumbling ceiling.

Yang watched in awe as the two mechs fought, which only increased as she saw Weiss, once again free to move, spin around and rejoin Ruby and Blake in their fight, putting Adam back on the defensive. The blonde was just about to jump down and rejoin her team, when she heard Raven let out a sharp hiss.

She looked over, momentarily confused since the dark woman appeared all right. But the closer she looked, the more she noticed that Raven looked… tired. Her face was paler than normal, her breath was growing choppy, and if Yang looked really closely, she could barely see the tremble running through Raven's hands.

"Are… you okay?" Yang found herself asking before even realizing it.

Raven glanced at her, before looking back out at the chaotic fight before them. "I'm fine. Just… it's been a while since I made this many portals like this."

Yang swallowed. Of the few things she had expected in response, an actual acknowledgment that Raven was feeling winded hadn't even seemed an option. "Are you going to be good for the rest of the fight?"

At that, Raven barked out of laugh, giving Yang an eerily familiar look of pure confidence. "I'll last as long as I need to. Probably be completely useless tomorrow, but I'll make it through today." She took in the station as a whole, noting how many White Fang were still out there and how many of her own people we're still standing. The latter was starting to get distressingly low as the stolen Paladins were making themselves known, but she watched in satisfaction as twelve of her people opened fire in unison, Vernal barking out orders to them to concentrate their fire on one of the Paladin's left shoulder. Nearly all of them emptied the clips of their guns, but they let out a cheer as the mech's arm went limp, before scattering as more White Fang took aim at them.

"These things aren't so tough," she muttered, more to herself than anything. "Roman made it sound like they would be unstoppable."

She'd apparently been loud enough for Yang to hear her, as the blonde let out a small chuckle. "Well, his had a lot more armor… and a lot more guns."

Raven rolled her eyes with a sigh. "He always has overcompensated." As if to prove her point, she heard Roman let out a mad cackle on the upper level as he opened fire with Black Valentine, sending White Fang scrambling for cover as he sprayed fire dust rounds randomly, Ghira staying purposely behind him so as not to get caught in the crossfire.

Yang snorted at the sight. "No kidding." Raven chuckled under her breath, making Yang grin back.

"Ruby, look out!"

Yang and Raven's heads snapped back to the fight in an instant. Their eyes widened at the same moment. Without even looking at each other, mother and daughter moved as one.

Blake was getting worried.

It should have been simple, their plan to take Adam and the White Fang down. And for one brief moment, she had let herself believe that her father had gotten through to her once-mentor. But she had underestimated Adam's madness, how far he'd go in his anger and hatred. They all had.

And they were now paying for it.

Adam fought with a fury Blake had never seen from him. She had thought she knew his skill level, what they needed to do to outmaneuver and overpower him. But as the fight wore on, it became more and more apparent that Adam outclassed her best estimates.

Has he been holding back all these years? she thought frantically as she blocked Adam's overhead strike, nearly being overwhelmed by his strength before Weiss materialized at her side, sending Adam back with a burst of lightning Dust. Hiding his true power? Has he always been this strong? Or… or was I just that weak?

Her musings were cut short when her instincts screamed at her to move.

Blake rolled to the left, a warhammer coming down right where she'd been standing moments before. She glared at the large White Fang squaring up with her, an involuntary hiss escaping her as the horse Faunus stared her down.

This was the main source of her frustrations, tied with Adam's unexpected fighting prowess. Even with his outclassing of them, Adam was still just one man. Working together, she and her team should still be able to take him down.

But within the last few minutes, they had lost their main advantage: numbers. As the fight dragged on, more of the White Fang's Paladins ventured closer to the fight, soon joined by stray White Fang members. Any momentum she, Weiss, and Ruby had in their fight with Adam was lost the moment some new foe entered the fray, distracting them and giving Adam an opening to press them.

So it was with great frustration and poorly-contained fury that Blake threw herself fully at the horse Faunus, wanting to take him out as quickly as possible so she could back up Ruby and Weiss.

She tried to keep some focus on them as they fought Adam, both physically and through their Link. As the battle wore on, she quickly understood why she'd come across so many warnings in her research regarding fighting beside her Mates. In addition to her own high-riding emotions, she had a constant rotation of Frustration, Excitement, Fear, Determination, Anger cycling through the back of her mind. She couldn't even pinpoint what came from who, only that all of her Mates were pushing themselves as hard as they could and would no doubt soon reach a breaking point.

So they had to end this, now.

Bringing Gambol Shroud up in defense, Blake braced herself as the horse-Faunus brought down his hammer. The blow nearly sent her to her knees, Gambol Shroud's blade bending dangerously under the pressure. She ignored the sudden pain in her arms and legs, instead focusing on the intense heat running through her. She felt the odd sense of shifting as her hair briefly flashed violet.

The White Fang flinched back in surprise, giving Blake the chance she needed. She leapt up, trying to force all that heat down to her right leg. She twisted in midair, driving her toes of her boot into the temple of the horse Faunus. The White Fang's neck twisted painfully as Blake felt all of her newfound power vanish. She landed back on her feet with a limp, feeling grim satisfaction as the White Fang collapsed into an unconscious heap.

As soon as the Faunus fell, Blake spun to rejoin the fight against Adam. Her heart sunk instantly.

Weiss and Ruby were giving it their all. Weiss rushed Adam head-on with a flurry of precise slashes with Myrtanaster, while Ruby blitzed around her with Crescent Rose, the scythe glinting in the increasing firelight as Ruby spun her like some possessed tornado. The two's styles differed wildly, polar opposites, yet every strike between the pair was executed successfully, the partners bending and weaving around each other with a sort of chaotic synchronicity. The display of imperfect perfection her Mates' were showing would have taken Blake's breath away… if it was actually doing anything.

Adam avoided everything. Every slash was countered, every blow was blocked. What he couldn't stop was dodged. Even Ruby switching tactics, falling back to bring her sniping skills into use, proved fruitless as Adam finally revealed his second weapon, a rifle built into his sword's hilt. Every time Ruby tried to line up a shot Adam would beat her to it, sending wild shots her way as he parried Weiss's sword attacks with ease. And it was clear that he was showing Weiss no mercy, putting his full force behind every strike he hit her with.

Right as Blake was about to re-enter the fray, Adam finally got in a solid blow against Weiss, not in the form of a sword strike, but a sudden gut hit with the butt of his rifle. Weiss gasped as the air was stolen from her lungs, the unrestrained blow sending her tumbling back.

Blake was already moving, rushing towards Weiss at the same moment Adam went to advance on the heiress. He was cut off by the sudden red whirlwind appearing in front of him, bringing his red-bladed katana up to block Ruby's slash.

The two traded blows, sparks flying every time their blades met. Ruby's body blurred as she added her superspeed to her strikes, the sudden increase in speed sending Adam backpedaling. Ruby pressed him, increasing her speed as she tried to overwhelm the White Fang Leader.

In the middle of their frantic fighting, Adam made a wild move, bringing his rifle up with one hand at the same time he slashed at Ruby with the other. Ruby caught the sword slash with Crescent Rose's blade, only for a panicked look to come over her face when she found a gun barrel right in her face.

Her left arm moved without thought, reaching up across her body to shove the gun away. Adam fired in the same moment. Ruby felt her right ear go deaf as the bullet whizzed right past it, feeling the lingering burn against her face from the muzzle flash.

Time slowed for a moment, Adam looming over Ruby as they shoved their weapons against each other, Ruby bracing her elbow on Crescent Rose's snath, her left hand wrapped around the barrel of Adam's rifle to keep the Faunus from aiming at her face.

Adam sneered at her, his face inches from hers, close enough for her to see the red lens in the remaining eye socket of his mask. His visible blue eye was narrowed dangerously. "You're supposed to be Blake's new leader? You're the one she takes orders from." He laughed in her face. "You're just some kid playing hero. Complete with a cape."

Ruby met his mismatched eyes with determined narrow eyes. Despite the visible tremble in her arms as she held back Adam's strength, none of her strain appeared on her face. She just stared into his eyes, as if searching for something. "Blake told us that she could Feel you for a whole week." she finally said. Her silver eyes narrowed. "That means you could Feel her, too."

Adam huffed dismissively at the random, obvious statement. "So?"

Ruby's eyes widened slightly, before darkening. "So... you knew how she Felt about you. You knew how much you scared her. How much you hurt her." For a second, her determination slipped, her face showing just how lost she felt. "How could you do that? How can you just… not care?"

All traces of humor disappeared from Adam's face. He bared his teeth as he snarled. "I gave her everything! Let her in closer than anyone! And she threw it away! For what!? For humans!? For you!?" He pushed harder against Ruby, nearly forcing the girl to bend over backward. His voice lowered to a chilling whisper, leaning in even closer, the shadow he cast over her revealing the faint crimson glow around his katana's blade. "Whatever fear and pain I gave her… she deserves it."

Ruby grunted, gritting her teeth as she tried desperately to hold Adam back. Then, just when she thought she'd end flat on her back, Adam shifted his weight, forcing Ruby to fall to her side. The speedster gasped as she hit the ground, but rather than follow up with a strike against her, Adam ran right by her, towards where Blake was helping Weiss to her feet.

Ruby shifted Crescent Rose into rifle mode in an instant, bringing the sights to her eye. But before she could line up a shot with the back of Adam's head, Weiss suddenly looked right at her, panic in her crystal-blue eyes.

"Ruby, look out!"

In that very moment, Ruby noticed a shadow fall over her.

She looked up to find a prototype Paladin right behind her, its massive right arm reared back to punch downward. Ruby's stomach dropped, her hands simultaneously forming a familiar gesture. A wobbly red glyph formed above her head, but the mech's punch shattered it like glass on impact. Eyes wide in shock, she braced herself, her Semblance kicking in far too late to get out of the way.

Salvation came in a flurry of golden rose petals, Yang screaming across the debris-covered station floor, tackling the Paladin's outreaching arm with enough force to nearly spin the entire mech around. Blinking at the sudden fact that she wasn't dead, Ruby raised Crescent Rose and fired into the seams of the mech's shoulder, it's servos freezing as she riddled it with ice dust.

A sudden yell from Blake made her whirl around, a gasp of fright escaping her. Adam had doubled back and was right on top of her, sword raised above his head. Weiss and Blake were rushing to her aid, their forms blurring as they tried to kick on their super-speed, but they were too far away. Ruby tried to raise her rifle as Adam's sword came down…

Red clouds appeared around Ruby's feet, the ground vanishing right out from under her. She fell with a startled yelp, Adam's sword slicing through her hair as she vanished.

Adam snarled at having his kill be denied, glaring at the vanishing portal. He spun around to intercept Weiss and Blake, only to have his vision cut off with more red clouds, Raven flying out of the portal feet first. Startled, Adam received a high-heeled kick to the chest. He was knocked off his feet, the scent of ozone filling his nose. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw another portal right behind him.

For a moment, Blake felt all breath leave her body. If they could actually get Adam off the battlefield and into a cell...

Eyes wide with panic, Adam threw his blade arm out in a wide, sloppy arc right before he hit the portal. To the shock of all, rather than sink into the portal, the blade cut right through it. The red clouds crackled with something akin to electricity right across the cut, before dissipating completely. With nothing in his way, Adam hit the ground and rolled back to his feet.

At the same moment, Raven let out a loud yell of pain. She clutched her left hand with her right, gritting her teeth. Opening her hand, her eyes widened at the long, deep cut running right along her palm.

Blake fought back a growl, ignoring the dread forming in her stomach. Of course it wouldn't be that easy.

With the situation changed, Blake stopped in her approach to put herself near Raven. Weiss continued on, circling around the White Fang leader until she was at Yang's side, the blonde having just leapt down from the Paladin she'd hit, dusting off her hands after leaving the pilot unconscious in his smashed cockpit. Ruby stood a ways off to their left, where Raven's portal had spit her out. She had taken a knee, aiming Crescent Rose right at Adam's head with her finger tense on the trigger, her gaze alternating between glaring at Adam and shooting Raven concerned looks.

Adam sneered as he looked around, as if insulted at being surrounded. "Did you really think I'd fall for your little gimmick?"

Raven snorted, not even looking at him. "Don't pretend like you didn't just get lucky." She shook her hand a few times, drops of blood running down her fingers. She clicked her tongue an annoyance. "Well, I suppose I should thank you. Always wondered exactly what my portals were made of."

Adam's eyes widened, before snapping towards Blake. "I see Blake has been sharing our secrets," he growled, biting back a snarl.

"You didn't give her much reason to keep them." Raven lifted her blade, completely ignoring the blood running down her forearm. "Gotta admit, an enhancement Semblance that can nullify aura? Pretty unique. Almost scary. Though, it does have one rather glaring flaw."

Adam snorted. "And what's that?"

Raven smirked. "You've actually got to hit your target for it to work. And I already gave you your one free shot."

Adam's eyes narrowed. Then, he smirked. "Y'know… that power seems rather familiar. Portals made of red mist… ah, yes! Cinder mentioned that."

Raven went very still. Her mouth parted a little, and for a moment, her eyes seemed to be looking very far away. When she finally spoke, Team RWBY were taken aback.

"Did she?"

Ruby and Yang shared a startled look. Since getting to know her, they'd never heard Raven's voice so… cold didn't do it service. Empty. Arctic.

Adam merely chuckled. "Yes. She had many words for you, though most could be summed up with… annoyance." His gaze turned inquisitive as he fully looked Raven over. "Though… I could have sworn Cinder said you had silver eyes."

Raven's brow raised a little. Then she smiled… and the RWBYs felt cold at just how chilling it was. "Silver? You mean… like this?"

Appearing almost insultingly relaxed, Raven reached behind her, pulling something hanging from her belt. Lifting it to her face, she slipped her mask into place, her red eyes hidden beneath the guise of a Nevermore. With a click, one of the mask's many sets of eye slits started glowing with silver light, much to Ruby's surprise.

Adam stared at Raven for a moment, before throwing his head back and laughing. "Yes, now I recall! I'd heard Cinder tell of a woman in a Nevermore mask terrorizing her allies. Did you really think that disguising yourself as White Fang would make you more intimidating?"

Raven scoffed. "Nice try, kid. I've worn this mask since before you ever lifted a blade. If anything…" She gave a dark grin. "Your whole motley crew ripped me off."

Adam stopped laughing at that, his face darkening. "Don't insult me." He quickly regained his mocking smile. "I'm sure Cinder would love to know who the silver-eyed thorn in her side truly was." His eyes then drifted to the RWBYs around them. "And that she had family."

Raven's grip on her sword tightened, the dark woman showing no regard for the blood slipping through her fingertips. "Oh, I bet she would." Raven then lifted her katana up and to the side, settling into a warrior's stance. "Too bad you won't be around to tell her."

Without another word, Raven surged forward. Adam met her head-on, their blades colliding with an ear-piercing screech. To his great surprise, Adam found himself being pushed back, Raven wielding her blade with a strength betraying her wiry frame. He stumbled back as she advanced on him, their blades crossing over and over again. After a few paces, his instincts screamed at him to dodge. He moved to the side, neatly avoiding Blake's slash, then having to duck out of the way of Yang's fist.

He swept Yang's legs out from under her, sending her crashing to the ground. Before he could capitalize on her fall, he caught a white flash out the corner of his eye. He swung his blade down, now finding himself locking blades with the Schnee heiress.

He started swinging harder, again and again, snarling with each blow. Weiss blocked the first couple with Myrtanaster, but was forced to use glyphs after a stiff blow nearly ripped the rapier out of her hand. At the sight of the Schnee snowflake embossing her glyph, Adam gripped his katana with both hands, the blade glowing crimson as he brought it down. Weiss grit her teeth against the insane force of the blow, her eyes widening as red glowing cracks started to form across the glyph, spreading out from the blade.

Just as the glyph was about to shatter, the familiar sound of Crescent Rose firing sounded. Adam suddenly reared back, clutching at his face as shards of porcelain rained down from behind his hand.

Weiss jumped back up, bringing her sword back up to attack. When Adam removed his hand, however, Weiss couldn't help but gasp.

Adam's mask had been completely shattered, only a few shards of painted porcelain hanging around his ears. With his other eye now visible, she could clearly see that it was a milky gray, completely blind due to the heavy scarring surrounding it. Burns reached from the bridge of his nose over all the way over his eye, the letters "SDC" branded into his skin.

At Weiss's look of stunned shock, Adam barked out a laugh that contrasted greatly with his enraged sneer. "What? Don't like seeing your father's handiwork?"

Weiss stiffened, her eyes blowing wide. Then her face closed off, her lips pulled into a tight, grim line. "No," she answered quietly, forcing herself back into her sword stance. "Just surprised we have something in common."

Adam's face screwed up in confusion for a moment, before his gaze drifted to the scar across Weiss's left eye. His unharmed eye widened, before his face screwed up in a snarl.

A sudden shaking in the ground drew his attention. Looking back, he found one of the Paladin's approaching from behind. His snarl turned into a feral smirk, throwing his arm out towards Weiss. "Fire at the Schnee!"

He breathed heavily for a few moments, waiting to see the hail of bullets tear Weiss apart. But strangely, it never came. He whirled around, eye burning as he looked up at the cockpit. "What are you waiting for? I said fire!"

The Paladin looked down at him. His stomach dropped when the pilot spoke through the mech's speakers, in a voice that clearly didn't belong to any of the White Fang.

"Well, if you insist…"

Qrow unleashed the full force of the Paladin's guns right at Taurus, sending the Bull Faunus scrambling away. Raven and the RWBY's did their best to steer clear of Qrow's onslaught, but quickly became aware of a new problem. The remaining two Paladin's and White Fang had taken notice of one of their own Paladins firing on their leader, and were quickly abandoning their current opponents to rally to Adam's position.

Qrow's firing came to an end as the final two Paladins rushed him, slamming into his mech in an attempt to knock it over. Raven quickly portaled to the top of one of them, getting to work cracking into the mech's cockpit. Ruby and Yang were forced to engage a new set of White Fang leaping down from the upper level, Weiss being faced with the same moments later.

Blake found herself ducking sword slashes and dodging bullets as she rushed through the melee, desperate not to lose track of Adam. She could already picture the nightmarish situation, their allies being so distracted with the reignited fighting that Adam could slip away unseen.

As she weaved through the battle, she caught bits and pieces of her other allies waging war: Roman was still unleashing gunfire at any White Fang that moved, her father at his back beating away any Fang that ventured too close. Penny and Ilia stood back to back, slashing at White Fang while Neo seemed to dance between them, picking up whatever slack the two were leaving behind in the form of sudden sword slashes and high-heeled kicks. Raven would pop out a portal at random intervals, throwing whatever White Fang she could into said portal before disappearing again, her latest victim being Adam's Lieutenant, who fell into her portal screaming in denial and indignity.

At the rate things were going, she could actually see the battle ending soon.

But not yet, she thought to herself as she ran. It's not really over until Adam is behind bars. So where the hell…

"Damn you, Blake!"

Blake flinched back as Adam's red katana blade swung down from nowhere. Adam had leapt down from the upper level, slamming down on her with enough force to nearly snap her wrists as they locked blades. Being so close to him, she could see the fresh madness in his working eye. He had apparently realized the same thing she had, and he placed all the blame on her.

"Is this the best you've got, Blake?" he hissed in her face, katana glowing menacingly. "Do you think you're brave, hiding behind your parents? Convincing all these stupid humans to fight your battles for you? We both know the truth, Blake. Without help, you're useless. Without the White Fang-" He snarled as Blake tried to push him away, bringing his blade back down with such ferocity that it nearly took Blake to her knees, his working blue eye burning into her own. "Without me, you're nothing!"

For a moment, there was nothing but the sound of their breathing as the two former partners tried to overpower one another. Blake's eyes squinted shut, making Adam grin at her apparent submission. But then, the Mark on her neck glowed. Blake's eyes shot open.

"No, Adam…"

As Adam pressed his blade against Blake's, looming over her, his entire vision was filled with her face. So he had a full view as the yellow flame on her neck glowed brighter than the rest, a cold jolt shooting up his spine as Blake changed. Her eyes shifted into slits, deep amber slowly overtaken by blazing red, so much brighter than his own. Her silky black hair started to raise up at the ends, writhing and twisting like a living creature as it began to glow shining violet. And as Adam tried to push down his confusion and shock, he found that no matter how much he tried to force Blake down with his blade, she was starting to push back just as hard.

"I'm so much more now."

With one final push, Blake shoved Adam away, forcing his arms above his head. Before he could react, she struck, not with a sword strike like he'd expected, but with a sharp punch to his chest.

Adam couldn't even gasp as all the air in his lungs was forced out. What should have been just a light jab felt like a cannon blast to his ribs. The bull Faunus was sent skidding back, doubling over as he gasped for breath. He got no chance to as Blake suddenly reappeared in front of him, violet rose petals filling the air as she swung Gambol Shroud.

Instinct was the only thing that saved him, Adam's body moving before his mind truly registered what he was seeing. Blake was like a living whirlwind, attacking him with the same style he'd always known her for, but accelerated. It was like her every movement was on fast forward, her every strike having twice the strength it should. Even with his sword, his rifle and both hands available, he could just barely block the attacks of her single sword, the air around them tinting purple from her accelerated movements.

Blake then delivered a monster of a slash, and when Adam tried to block it, his katana shattered. Gambol Shroud cut right through the red blade, leaving a meer foot of jagged metal left of the sword and sending Adam stumbling back in surprise. Her opponent wide open, Blake launched a thunderous high kick, smacking Adam across the face with the strength of a warhammer. Adam found himself airborne for a few seconds, before having his flight stopped dead by a flash of yellow. His face lit up with pain as a blindingly fast punch drove him into the ground, the stone beneath him cracking as he skipped across the station floor. He leapt to his feet, going to charge the blonde glaring at him, when the sound of a sniper rifle sounded and his left leg went numb. His head snapped toward the sound, finding Ruby staring down her gun's sights, mist calmly drifting from the barrel.

Looking down in shock, Adam found his left leg frozen to the ground. Before he could break himself free, the hiss of released Dust filled the air around him. He looked up just in time to see Weiss on his opposite side, releasing a torrent of ice Dust from Myrtanaster. A startled gasp escaped him as his other leg and lower torso were encased in ice.

Suddenly, Blake was rushing right at him from the front, hair billowing behind her in a gust of violet rose petals, sword poised to come down. Adam slashed to meet her blow, only for it to pass through her harmlessly, the shade running right through him as it dissipated. Before he could fully process this, a solid punch to the back of the head rattled his skull, Yang continuing on past him.

Adam lifted his rifle to fire after her, only for a blur of red to streak across his vision. He blocked the scythe slash with the side of his rifle, the tip of it just grazing his cheek. He snarled as Ruby ran away.

That was when Adam noticed it, a cold feeling worming its way into his gut that was completely unrelated to the ice trapping his lower body.

Everywhere he looked, he found the members of Team RWBY circling him, their hair glowing and bodies trailing rose petals as they blitzed around him in an endless ring. And just as he noticed this, a streak of white came screaming out of the ring, Weiss's hair glowing with a bright, near-blue tint.

Adam took aim at her, only to get struck across the cheek by a violet flash from a different direction. As he reeled from the blow, Weiss's small fist collided with his nose, both girls quickly rushing away. By the time Adam realized what was happening, Ruby had already clocked him in the back of the head.

The blows came over and over, one after the other, never-ending. Every time he thought he managed to land a counterblow, the girl dispersed into shadow, the original appearing at his opposite side to deliver a new punch. The air became filled with a growing storm of rose petals, red, white, black, and yellow swirling like a multi-colored tornado.

All throughout the station, the various fights drew to a crawl, combatants unable to ignore the colored petals filling the area. The White Fang watched in shock, their weapons going slack in their hands as they watched Adam Taurus, their leader, be pummeled at the eye of his own personal hurricane.

Adam lost track of how many hits he took, his vision starting to blur at the edges. The blows weren't all that strong, Yang's notwithstanding, but the neverending bombardment was quickly chipping away at him. He couldn't even make out who was hitting him as his attempts at striking back became fewer and fewer as he was battered. As the blows continued, he could feel his consciousness slipping.

After a particularly hard blow to his jaw, Adam made one final, desperate move. He struck wildly, his blade slicing through Ruby's clone harmlessly. As soon as the shade started to vanish, he flipped his katana around in his hand, thrusting the blade backward blindly.

A great weight slammed into his sword, coming to a sudden stop.

In an instant, the blows stopped. Adam gasped for breath, every nerve in his body on fire from the constant pummeling. He blinked rapidly, his vision filled with the sea of colored rose petals drifting silently in the smoky air. They quickly cleared to reveal Blake right in front of him, frozen mid-run, a look of absolute horror on her face as she stared somewhere behind him. His body shuddering from the strain, Adam slowly looked back over his shoulder.

Weiss Schnee stood just behind him, staring blankly ahead, her mouth parted slightly in subdued surprise. She slowly looked down, Adam following her gaze.

Adam stared. A huff of breath escaped his lips, which quickly turned into a weak chuckle. He turned back to Blake, shoulders shaking with delirious laughter at her pale face.

"Well… at least the night's not a complete loss."

His energy spent, Adam released his grip on the blade, letting his arm fall.

His katana remained in place, buried in the center of Weiss's chest.

"Weiss…" Blake's voice was a strangled whisper as she took a shaky step forward.

Weiss stared back at her, looking bewildered at the sword hilt sticking out of her front. "Blake?" Myrtanaster slipped from her grasp, clattering to the ground. She tried to take a step towards Blake, only to fall forward, all control of her body lost.

"Weiss!" Ruby's fearful, panicked shriek echoed throughout the station, bringing an end to all other sound in the station. In a blur of red, Ruby caught Weiss before she hit the ground. She fell to her knees, with Weiss in her arms, unable to take her terror-filled eyes off the inch-or-so of jagged red metal protruding from Weiss's back.

Furthest away from them, Yang stood with her arm cocked back, having halted midmotion from her next punch. She stared at Ruby cradling Weiss's limp form, watching as the back of Weiss's battledress slowly stained red. Her mind unable, refusing, to process what she was looking at, how she Felt Blake and Ruby's emotions go haywire, how Weiss Felt nothing but Numbness, Yang turned her blazing, raging red eyes to the still laughing Adam. Her legs tensed, pulling her arm back to unleash a truly unrestrained blow to that… thing that hurt Weiss.

Blake beat her to it.

With a sound like a small explosion, Adam was broken free from his icy prison in an instant as a streak of violet slammed into him, carrying him all the way into the nearest wall. The bull Faunus gasped as he slammed into the wall, the concrete around him crumbling from the impact. Falling to the ground, Adam blinked the stars from his eyes. He looked up to find Blake standing over him, hackles raised, hair writing violet, and her weeping eyes burning slitted crimson.

"You…" she rasped, her body shaking with barely restrained emotion. "You…"

"Me..." Adam breathed back, grinning sickly. "How's your Mate doing… Kitten?"

There was no warning to the punch Blake hit him with. Nor the second, or the third. Blake rained down blows onto Adam's prone form, screaming herself hoarse with every hit. Through it all, Adam just kept giving her that smug grin, not even trying to defend himself, even as his face became bloody under her wrath.

Blake didn't care. She just rained down hit after hit, lost in that Feeling as Weiss's emotions suddenly seemed to freeze, muting until they nearly disappeared entirely. Somewhere in the white-noise filling her ears, she heard something that vaguely sounded like her name, but she ignored it, her mind stuck in a loop of Weiss, Hurt, Mate, Hurt, Protect, Hurt, Adam, Hurt.

Finally, she hit a breaking point. When she reared for her next blow, she opened her hand, her nails extending into cat's claws. With a feral howl, she brought her arm down, aiming for his neck.

A large hand caught her midswing, wrapping around her wrist.

Without a thought, Blake spun around, swiping her free hand at whoever dared to-

"Blake! Blake!"

A second hand stopped her retaliatory blow, before both hands shifted up to grip her shoulders, shaking her hard. The sudden jolt cleared the haze for a moment. She looked up in shock, finding her father's grim, panicked face looking down at her. "Dad?" she whispered in confusion.

"Blake." Ghira stared right into her eyes, his commanding gold boring into her crimson. "Go to your Mates."

Blake's emotions flared violently, Anger, Rage, Denial screaming from her as she tried to twist back towards Adam. "He-!"

"I know!" Ghira forcefully grasped her by the head, making her keep her eyes on him. His expression was a mix of compassion and command as he spoke quickly but calmly. "Believe me, sweetheart, I know. But he's not going anywhere, he can't hurt them anymore. But your Mates are hurting now."

Blake swallowed, Feeling her father's Understanding, Commanding, Compassion wash over her. She slowly moved her eyes, looking past her father to where her Mates were.

Weiss now lay in Yang's arms, the blonde holding her like priceless glass as Ruby hovered nearby. Qrow knelt right next to them, running his fingers around the sword hilt with a feather-light touch, muttering words of comfort and everchanging directions to his nieces, Raven and Roman stood right over them all, looking like they were going to murder the first person who dared come near.

Weiss was unnaturally still in Yang's arms, not seeming to react to anything around her, not even Yang and Ruby's attempts to get her to look at them. Her blue eyes seemed blank as they drifted from face to face, as if unaware of what was happening. But when her eyes drifted enough to meet Blake's, the Faunus gasped as she was slammed with Weiss's emotions.

Everything coming from the heiress seemed muted and jumbled, but all of it was buried by a single emotion that overwhelmed all else, like it was screaming, begging to break free and reach the surface:

Fear.

Blake's eyes and hair cut back to normal in an instant. She was already moving, shaky steps taking her away from her father and Adam's broken body and closer to her Mates, Ruby and Yang's Fear, Panic, Helplessness becoming clearer by the second. She fell to her knees once she reached them, Ruby and Yang looking up at her, completely lost for what to do. Ruby's hand quickly found her own, squeezing her with a crushing grip that Blake immediately returned.

Qrow didn't look up from his work, Blake now clearly seeing that he was applying some kind of thick paste around where the blade pierced Weiss's skin. The paste dried quickly, turning pink as it mixed with the endless stream of blood bubbling from the wound. The three could do nothing but watch as the man worked.

After what felt like an eternity, Qrow stopped what he was doing, capping the small jar that he hid back within his jacket. "Okay, that ought to hold for a few minutes, so let's make this fast." He looked up at Raven, all business. "Rae, do it."

Raven nodded sharply, ignoring the violent shudder in her hands as she threw her arm out. A red portal formed right next to them. Qrow looked back at Yang, putting his arms right under hers to help support Wiess. "Okay, Yang easy does it. No sudden moves. Gently, gently! There you go, there you go. Perfect. Just like that, Little Dragon..."

Yang never looked more frightened than she did slowly standing with Weiss cradled in her arms, doing everything in her power not to shift her weight to a more comfortable position, as doing so would make her hit the tip of the broken blade. Blake and Ruby rose with her at the same rate, as if fearful that they'd hurt Weiss too if they moved too fast.

Ghira watched as the group slowly made their way through the portal, Raven and Qrow sharing a few parting words about Raven staying behind to finish up with the Fang and find Winter. The Chief sighed as the portal closed behind them, feeling like he'd aged a decade in the last few minutes.

A sudden watery chuckle broke him from his thoughts. His head snapped down, finding mismatched blue eyes staring up at him.

"So…" Adam rasped, grinning through bloody lips, laying in a growing puddle of blood. "Who do you think won, Chief?"

Ghira stared down at the broken, bleeding man before him. At the brand over his damaged eye and bruises over his functioning one. At the complete lack of remorse on his bloody, grinning face.

Ghira's eyes narrowed as he pulled back his arm.

"Not you."

With one final punch, Adam's world went black.

Betaed by Covert Weapon

A/n: Yeah…

So…

That… happened…

C'mon, it can't be all cuddly fluff and one-liners all the time! At least everyone still has all their limbs this time around!

I adjusted Adam's Semblence a little from canon, since this is how I always pictured it worked even since he cut Yang's arm off and she bleed yellow. Plus, it adds to the whole 'aura = souls, theme I've got going here.

To the few people who got the reference from the last few chapter titles, you can probably guess what the next one will be called. If you're wondering what that chapter might be about… ain't there someone who's been missing from this whole big White Fang brawl? Hmm…