10

Author's Notes:

(Don't you hate it when you write a chapter, get ready to post it, and then can't log into FFNet?)

Oh, all right. A reviewer pointed out how hard it is to keep track of who the POV character is for each line break. I knew it was a problem, but I was having fun trying to key people and myself in by context. Well, with the POV changing with increasing frequency, especially this chapter, I'll add titles.

Of course, I could only see this particular review because it went into the moderation system rather than the reviews... Which I can't see as they refuse to update. Apparently this is a common enough problem and the solution is to wait for the system to restart in a few days. Possibly overloaded.

Speaking of shifting POV, it becomes much easier once you decouple yourself from the character, when there is a line between 'Yuki' and 'me'.

Hope the formatting comes across alright, there's something off about my writing software now. I didn't change any settings but now new lines are misbehaving. I also hope I got everything I wanted into this chapter. It's a lot harder to write multiple POV for me, keeping track of a dozen different characters across the city and what they are doing. Oh, and juggling what is happening with them to the greater what is happening everywhere.

I was actually going to write a song, or at least lyrics, for Weiss' Warbeat. But then that would be owned by CockBite.

Warframe, The Elder Scrolls, DOOM, Naruto, Doctor Who, Avatar: The Last Airbender, and any other references I've made, are all owned by Rooster Teeth, as due to their current fan content policy, they claim ownership of any fan works.

Just like Monty intended.

#FreeRWBY

Partial Maiden Yuki Tenno

Half an hour since the walls clashed, and we are losing. Oh, it's subtle, the first wave of Grimm got repulsed or destroyed, and moral in each pocket of defenders is high, but it's there. I can see it as I jump from hole to hole, no longer able to spend time to patch them up after or during eradicating the Grimm there before I have to jump to the next one.

And to each one I jump to, the Grimm are a little bit deeper into the city when I arrive.

I notice a news crew on the walls and a half playful, half tactical idea comes to mind. Fly low, just a bit slower, look directly at the camera, and wink.

'Hey Salem. Guess who has Silver Eyes.' Now if we have to use Silverlight, I can take the flak from Ruby.

More and more fire flows out as I burn Grimm, the warm buzz of fucking with Salem bleeding into the well worn videogame mindstate of murdering drones. Using it as my base, I can actually fight. Well. No.

I can't fight. I'm directing a huge lump of my thoughts into every action. Even using videogame experience, well, I'm not pushing 4 to cast an ability, I'm having to do it manually.

I land, burn, think up new ways to kill Grimm, monitor the back of my mind trying to invent and convey new ideas to James. "Please! Someone, help!"

A woman is screaming after I clear this set of Grimm, and I thrust over. And stop.

Be wary, it may be an illusion or hostile action, a trap. Amber's mistake was trusting her eyes, and with people like Neo and Emerald out here, (ha, I can't trust my eyes, I'm in an anime!) it's best to take a cautious approach.

She's holding her son, dying in her hands, and I have to make an assessment. Why is there a child on the front lines? Because I pushed for it. The wall needs supplies, it can't stand alone. People need to give Dust, load bullets into magazines custom for each Huntsman, provide food and water, be visible to rally the defenders to fight far more than a vague 'defend the city' effect will provide.

And I pushed for everyone to take part. I called up Total War for the city. More than that, the city is still full from Vytal. It's not quite at the limits of overpopulation like during the peak, it has been days of people leaving, but it's still busy. A mother, a family, they would not want to be separated, especially with the Grimm shelters shut down.

Now what doesn't make sense. Dying? No, the Grimm are here. That she survived? No, there are still active defenders. Location? No, that's fine, pulled her son away from... blood. A lot of blood, a trail of it.

It seems to make sense, but I can't be sure. Assuming this is real, and it does seem to be, after all there is too much blood. Too much blood. Too much blood.

Stop.

Even if it is real, I have to make a far worse choice.

I make my choice.

About a second after I stop, I fly down, kneel, place hands, and spend Aura to heal. He's real, I note, and his wounds close up. Floppy dog or rabbit ears twitch, and his mother's tears shift from pain to relief as her son wakes up. "He's still hurt, but he will live."

I thrust off before she can say thank you, the next hole needing to be cleared of Grimm. But more than that, I leave before she can thank me because what I did wasn't as good as it seems.

Clear. Drop, heal. The choice I am now making, every time I see someone hurt or dying, is who to save. That boy will live, this man will too, but at the cost of someone else further down the line. Magic might take over much of the cost of using Amber's Semblance, but not all of it. In the end, it's still a boost, and it needs something to amplify.

So they will live, but not everyone. My Aura isn't recovering fast enough to save everyone, and it needs to protect me as well. If I die, no-one will be saved.

Funny, how my sense of self perseveration is only held up by what I can do for others. My self esteem, despit-

The arrow, the feather, knocks me to the side, and my Aura drops hard as it absorbs the blow. Shit. How many lives did- Stop.

A blast of fire and the Nevermore is dead. I stopped paying attention my surroundings, my mental breakdown is peeking through. Self analysis will distract me. Questioning how many lives every hit costs will distract me and cost more. Shake it off, keep going.

There are still people to save, and logic to work through in order to empower my attacks. I can think on that, so long as I maintain a balance of it along with awareness of my surroundings.

Let's get clever again, just not too clever or I'll be distracted.

"We have it." Yes. James' voice comes over the headset as my most recent gamble plays off. "She keeps switching connection, but we are countering."

Burn them, burn them all. Now heal them. Jump and thrust.

Cinder isn't in the city, I realised that too late. When she closed the blast doors in the Mountain Glenn train tunnel, I realised it. She is playing remotely. Which is strange behaviour, to my understanding, but then again, she isn't high of her victory over Ozpin and getting the full Maiden powers.

So, if she is playing -Hollow ice spike filled with gasses in that group, then trigger with lightning for airburst effect- remotely, then she would do several things. One, she would have scrolls all over the city, explaining the reinfections of every system. The lights, the power grid, it turns out wasn't flickering because it's a more effective means of generating fear, but because the staff kept turning the power back on when the virus turned it off. A game of whack-a-mole across the city's power grid.

Land. Fire jets spray out. Wash away the tiredness on the Huntsmen and move to the nex- she's dead. I'm too late. Take off.

The news stations keep getting reinfected, the Dust caches are still going up, almost a year's worth of Dust stored in hundreds of locations scattered across the city, each one turned into a mine. But Cinder, she will want a personal eye on it, to have total control over the situation. Which means, wherever she is, she is pushing the buttons to trigger each event.

Which means by analysing the active network traffic -sand to glass via white fire, accelerate at the pack of Beowolves- and network logs, we can pin down what data stream she is by comparing the traffic to the events. If a Dust cache goes up? Well, mark down the exact time and check the traffic.

The fact that so much of the Beacon CCTS tower's bandwidth traffic is being used for military and emergency stuff means that there is less for 'civilian' traffic, which means a smaller datapool for her connection to hide.

You shouldn't have tried to trap Winter down there, Cinder. Not that it even worked, Paradigm Shifted blades cut through the locking mechanisms with moderate effort, and Glynda threw the doors open.

Form separated gasses in my hands, freeze the air in a cone, infuse with fire magic and then ignite. A wave of white fire spreads out and washes over the Grimm in front of me, the larger ones barely scorched, but the smaller ones, like that swarm of Nevermore, are gone. Throw a couple bolts of lightning at the legs, make the Deathstalker fall over on it's side and into the mammoth looking one.

So, we have her connection, which means we can block it. Even if she keeps changing it, every signal sent will give us a closer trace to her location and will open up counter hack attempts. She will have to slow her attack a lot to remain hidden.

Slick the ground with ice just as the Deathstalker falls sideways and watch as the Goliath, that's what it's called, falls and blocks the Boarbatusks that were spin dashing towards us. The defenders on either side of the wall pump rounds into the exposed and un-armored underbelly.

Victory here, but costing Dust. We are running out, I can see it on their faces, and over Picket's updates on the situation.

A HydroOxy bomb goes under the Deathstalker trying to stand up before I give a cocky grin at one of the Huntresses and take off. She leaps, mid air her battleaxe mechashifts into a crossbow and she fires at the ice orb.

I give her a high five on the way past. Moral is what will win this fight, the better the moral the less Grimm in the future we will have to fight.

Can we kill enough Grimm before the Dust runs out? Time for another gamble.

The scrolls will be active, if we can look for radio signals, we can shut down her remote scrolls for good, rather than the game of connection switching that will now be played.

I start outlining the idea to Picket who sends it to the software crew in Atlas. Remnant's cybersecurity is terrible, because they haven't really had to fight eachother before. Instead they fight -seed the ground with needles then grip and rip a chunk of earth up in front of the spin-dashing Boarbatusks. Impact and uncurl, now impale them from below where the armor is lacking.- Grimm.

No wonder Watts has such an easy time. Hollywood hacking here is a real thing, nothing like Terra.

Oh look. More Grimm.

Jaune Arc

I pant and lean against the wall, muscles achingly sore from all the fighting, far more than the training sessions have ever made me. "Jaune?" Pyrrha asks.

"I'm fine. I just need..." I pant again. "To catch my breath." She's tired, sweating, but nothing like what I am. Even Nora seems more energetic than me, and she has been swinging around her giant metal hammer all... how long has it been?

"I'll call for a rotation." Ren pulls out his scroll.

"No!" I order. Just One More. "I just nee-" Pyrrha's hand on my shoulder cuts me off. "okay."

"It's all right." She waves Coco over and updates her. "We could all use a break."

While people are dying? No, if I die here, I can't save anyone. 'Don't forget that One.'

"How long has" Breathe. "it been?"

"2 hours since the attack started, we have been fighting for almost 30 minutes." Almost 30. Not the 34 from last time. I'm getting worse. "Jaune, we are all getting tired." Pyrrha lies... No. She doesn't. She's covered in sweat. It's kinda nice, actually, to see her flushed cheeks and the sparkle in her eyes. And that I can at least sorta keep up with her. "You're doing so much better than before."

Something between a pant and a cough seizes my throat as air tries to go both ways at once. The cough wins out as I compare myself to 'Of course I know what Aura is. Do you know what Aura is?'

"Yeah. Your right." A bullhead lands and drops off a pair of teams, and we hop on board for our flight up to Amity.

As we rise, I see in the distance white fire along the walls, where the fighting is the worst. Guilt and shame flares up in me. I should be out there, stopping the Grimm from entering the city rather than here in the city cleaning up pockets that slip through. I should be stronger.

I need to be stronger.

Pyrrha pushes a bottle of water into my hands, and half a fresh loaf of bread still warm. A smile of thanks and she bites into her half as we ride to Amity.

Food, water, Dust, a few beds, Amity has become a mobile hub of recovery and coordination as it slowly circles around the inside of the city, an almost constant buzz of aircraft ferrying people and supplies up and down.

"It's amazing, isn't it?" The Faunus girl stands next to me, Velvet her name was. She's our camera girl, taking video and posting it to someone on Amity for some editing and distribution.

Oh right, we are famous now, I guess. Feels tiring. I nod as I watch, words are too tiring to spend all the time, and we begin to enter the buzz.

I look again at the walls, not for whatever Yuki is doing, but at the flying Grimm. Bullheads, military Gunships, weapons fire from Paladins, they all cut into the specks of moving black, each one hard to see. The stars are out, I realise, and I grip my great-great-grandfather's sword.

"We are still fighting." I have energy enough for those words. We aren't done yet.

A mouthful of water and a bite of soft bread, we touch down on the Amity landing pad, quickly getting off as the next group gets on.

"It's Jaune Arc!" A guy gushes as he loads a crate full of Dust onto the Bullhead. "Did you see the way he-"

We move on and I smile, half the team behind me laughing gently. Even if I'm not on the front lines, I'm making a difference.

We are making a difference.

Partial Maiden Yuki Tenno

A call comes through, Picket playing call center for me. "Tenno." Qrow.

"Tell me the bad news." I jab, with less enthusiasm than the quip at the start of the night as I surge more fire down the line.

I'm getting used to this, a constant awareness of the world around me as I weave and burn. It's odd, really. I was aware that people here, Aura unlocked anyway, have a kind of sixth sense for danger. It's how the fights seem to move in advance of -air blast that wave of small feathers away- the actual actions as part of Monty's style, but actually feeling it?

Maybe it's because I know about it cognitively, that I am paying close attention to it, that it's developing kind of fast. Probably closer to Amber's skills, to be honest, but all in all, it's damm weird having another sense.

Not bad weird. "Bit of both. I found the Xiong. They are hiding." Seriously?

"Do they know the-" accelerate glass shard into the gap of the armor, now detonate. Glass is more expensive than ice, but it detonates with shrapnel where as ice either vaporises (losing a bit of explosive effect) or needs to be enchanted with more magic to not melt. Little quirks I am picking up on with the magic system the more that I use it. Oh and I am using it a lot. "-city is on fire?" I bitch over the comms.

"Seems we 'have the situation well in hand.'" No, we don't.

"Fuckers. Give me your location. I'm coming to beat the shit out of them."

"Or you could just talk with them." He offers. Right, that will cost lives every moment I'm away from the front.

Ah. "You're with them now. Put me on speaker."

"You're live." Right, now to convince a mob boss to risk his life.

"We are losing." I hit them with the truth. "If we were winning, they wouldn't be in the city, people wouldn't be dying, I wouldn't have set people out to look for you, and you, Mr Businessman, wouldn't be losing your customer base."

I release another wave of fire, it got boring hours (has it been hours?) ago. I need a new trick. "I get that you want to protect your clan, but this isn't the way. I can't promise you that none of you won't die, but I can promise you, that win or lose, your casualties will be the same as ours."

"And why should we believe you?" He speaks. Finally. I think I recognise his voice, but I'm too busy burning the fucker who stabbed me!

"You clearly don't have a good understanding of your city." I insult him. "But I suppose it's not your city, is it? Because you're not fighting for it. Do you think that this just some unusual business hours? Or that this is some ploy to draw out the underground and destroy it? There are Grimm in the city and people aren't hiding in the shelters. Why? Because we need literally everyone fighting, in one way or another." Breathe, I'm getting worked up. That's not like me a- focus!

"If that isn't enou-" A glob of acid swooshes by too close, I grab and redirect it down at the armor of that Grimm, a monkey? Doesn't matter. "-if that isn't enough, then I ask literally everyone else around you. Do you have people you care about? Because they are dying while you are hiding. Profits? Can't milk ashes of a city. Respect? If by some miracle we survive, I will personally make sure to point out that there were no people in red helping. So fuck you, Junior. Your father would at least understand that you have to actually provide the protection the clients are paying protection money for."

I think Qrow is laughing. I'm too busy healing the feather wound and realised that it cost less Aura to magic amplify Growth to heal my injuries than it does to prevent them from occurring in the first place. This 'upgrade' is going to hurt.

But it will save someone's life down the line.

I retract my Aura, selectively. Small hits were already allowed to pass through and hit my armor, the stone sheet that I am covered in, while larger ones will now break through and cost pain and time. Unless it would cost too much time, then I will block it even if it's Aura cost is cheaper.

Fuck, that's through my thigh. Blood and pain from the first hit using my new defence technique, and now I pay blood and pain to save people's lives.

General James Ironwood

"Sir, we have a dozen, two dozen aircraft rising out of the abandoned industrial sector!" I turn and look at the holographic display of Vale.

Qrow is joking a moment later. "Hey Jimmy. Thought you could use some help, so I did a little digging and found a few antiques to share."

"We all heard the call, Qrow." I'm smiling despite my remark. Each aircraft blinks and changes icon on the display as they link into the command network and start asking for orders. Well, as much as a bunch of criminals can ask for orders.

"No, no, he's being fair. All I did was bitch a bit at them." Yuki pushes the credit away, and I hear her yelp in pain. She's suddenly been doing that a lot more, but Officer Fence has been telling me that her Aura hasn't dropped low enough for that to make sense.

"You alright, Tenno?" Qrow asks. He has noticed too.

"Fin-Ow. Fine. It's cheaper to heal than it is to block." That... Using her magic to amplify Amber's Semblance rather than...

"That's pretty hardcore." Officer Fence comments out of line. Considering what the private message from Ozpin said, it's not the most 'hardcore' thing she has done tonight. "Um, Sir. Hardcore sir." Ah, I am staring at her.

"As you were." I chuckle and get back on task. "Well, I'll be sure to buy you an expensive bottle when this is over Qrow."

He grunts irritation and I internally grin at my victory as I hit buttons to issue a new set of commands. He's sworn off drinking, so I will have to drink it slowly in front of him. "Hope you enjoy it." Qrow bites out.

Taiyang Xaio-Long

Dust poisoning, she's dead. A horrible way to go.

I haven't seen anyone like this since Mountain Glenn, when people in Vale were desperately trying to rig crude Dust explosives and either setting them off accidentality on themselves, or getting caught too close to the blasts meant for Grimm.

Even without an unlocked Aura, Dust reacts. So an explosion of any kind often embeds tiny fragments or dust of Dust into the victim, before they react inside the body. For mixed Dust types like these charges, that's dozens of effects all going off inside the body.

I tighten my mask and check with the team I'm with. Even breathing airborne Dust particles is hazardous, or having get into your eyes. It's one of the things that makes mining it so dangerous without proper equipment.

"Mercy." One of my squad calls and a blade swings. Mercy. For the worst cases, there is nothing we can do but kill them and end their suffering. Something that is kept secret from the rest of the world. The image of Huntsmen killing civilians is...

I'm glad Ruby and Yang are on the inner track, away from where the explosives are fighting easy Grimm. Not combat level easy, but morally easy.

"Two dead and- Fuck. Huntress." I rush over to her, her screams half muffled.

Her Aura is keeping her alive even as it amplifies the Dust in her body. Worse yet, it looks like she got primarily lightning Dust. Some say fire is the worst, burns forming inside your body, the heat setting off little explosions. Others say earth, the grating of bits of glass and sand flowing through your veins tearing up the inside of your body, while larger ones form lumps that takes complicated and often fatal surgeries to remove, if the sudden presence of a rock in the wrong place doesn't kill the person outright.

I know it's lightning.

Because fragments of lightning Dust can discharge for hours, days, sometimes even months for the larger ones. Discharge right into the nerves of the person, constantly sending pain across the body and causing it to thrash. They say it was banned by all parties during the great war as a method of torture, not even Vacuo willing to go that far.

She is thrashing now, flickering yellow under her skin wherever there is a small red spot of blood. "Huntress, use your Semblance, use up the Dust in your body!" I try to get through to her.

She screams as she tries to get the words out. "Not... No use." Her Semblance isn't one that uses Dust.

"I'm going to break your Aura, understand?" We can't move her while she is trashing like this, and her jittered scream is the closest I can get to permission.

I pull my fist back, call up on my own Semblance, and punch her. Again and again flame covered fists rain down on her Aura as Dragon Fist amplifies my strikes. I keep very careful watch of her levels with my own Aura sense until it breaks.

She goes limp and I slip a mask over her mouth, nose and eyes. "Get her out of here!"

A broken Aura is lower than a civilians locked one, so it will slow the rate of reaction considerably. Enough to save her, physically at least.

Lightning is the worst, because while the others can, in theory, be recovered from, the pain often breaks the minds of those stuck with it.

At least Ruby and Yang don't have to see this.

Partial Maiden Yuki Tenno

THE LONGER YUKI TENNO IS ON REMNANT, THE STRONGER SHE WILL BECOME!

Also the more pain I'm in. That 'upgrade' is -I eject the plate off my body as it catches the acid and form a new one, healing the splattered burns where it melted through- Painful. Capital P. And costing me in a new way.

Mentally.

I have to further split my attention every time I get hit, my development of new tactics stalling. I have one more, but between this and am I allowing myself to get hurt because I hate myse- NOT NOW!

My next 'spell'. White fire lances out in a tight beam, super heating the air to the point it ionises it, creating a pathway which I dump lightning magic into. With the pathway already created by a far more efficient means, a lot more of the energy can go into the target.

The target, in this case, being another Goliath. Specifically it's eyeball. Yeah, I can guide the fire to do what I want, just like I can control other magic made materials. My accuracy is amazing, though it does require more concentration. Too much to get perfect accuracy in most cases.

My head is getting sore, no matter how much I heal it. Not as sore as the Goliath i just hit. It's head explodes under the sudden pressure difference from the inside of it's head absorbing a lot of lightning.

There are no cheers, and Weiss' Warbeat isn't being chanted with nearly as much energy as before. Moral is dropping. Wide area effect white fire is more inspiring than the curving beams that cause things to explode. Fine, it's too expensive mentally anyway.

How long have I been fighting? The world has gone all numb. Food, water, sleep, even air at one point, I can wash them away with Growth. I sway and fall before catching myself and landing. It was intentional. Somewhat. I move over to the Huntress and lay hands, pulling the shards of broken rock out of her body with magic and sealing the injuries as best as I can.

"You're Aura is getting low." Picket tells me over the comms.

"I'm aware. 16%." Even at full magic boost for every time I use Growth, even with the 'breaks' of not using it every flight, (when I don't get hit. Don't get hit.) it's still dropping too fast for my soul? Is that what is making more Aura? Ho-NOT NOW!

The Huntress breathes, her lungs no longer filled with blood and stone, and the Aura is well spent. "You're going to be alright." I lie.

She pushes herself up and grabs her weapon, a polearm of some sort with a chain in the middle, so it can be fired like a kind of harpoon and reeled back in. Or reel the Grimm in. Or her towards something. Crazy Remnant weapons. "You get the bastard?"

She's not going to be alright. She was close to death, and that leaves marks I can't heal. I nod and lift off, moving to the next step in a long fight. She isn't going to be alright because despite the Xiong helping us, we are still losing.

Losing slower now, and maybe if they were helping during the first wave we could have held the Grimm back. But they didn't, so we are still losing, and she might not make the next wave on her breach.

Worse, I am going to need to stop. I can't stop. I need to soon. And the people are getting tired despite the rotations and coffee. The Grimm do not stop, though they too have slowed down. The result of the high moral from the start of the fight, I think. Think. I can't afford to think.

I convert magic into matter and energy, and energy into violence, as I soar over the wall. Too many breaches, I can't stop at each one, only the worst of them. Left, right, right again, I dodge another wave of feathers sharpened to kill and a few slower moving but far more damaging rocks thrown at me by the Beringels. It might be cheaper to take a hit and heal, but it's even cheaper to not get hit at all. And I need as much Aura as I can spare.

There. That breach is overloaded. A pair of alpha Beowolves guiding packs to flank the defenders who have fallen back to a secondary wall of rocks and sandbags. Boarbatusks are rolling up the middle. Smaller Grimm, but their huntsmen is dead, or dying and they are losing hope.

Land. Burn. Jets of fire swing outwards like wings and burn away the lesser Beowolves before coming together again in the middle and melting through the central un-armored core of the spinning Boarbatusks.

They are dead, and the flames almost go out, except for two beams of tightly focused fire on the alphas. Lightning flows down them and they explode before I leap back and check the Hun- He's dead. Shit. "Have you called for a-"

"They're coming. I didn't think..." I lay my hand on his shoulder and stare into his eyes.

"We are going to make it." I lie. I don't know if we can, but the belief that we can is what has held back as much of the Grimm already. He nods, he believes me, and I look forward.

A giant snake. Great. I don't like King Taijitu in particular because you effectively need to kill them twice. One for each head.

I lift off and head towards it, a pair of ice spikes forming with hollow interiors, already filling with the reactive gasses. It's eyes, one set of them, track me while the other charges at the Huntsmen-less defenders. Aim, throw.

It dodges, but I adjust the flight path mid flight and hit them, cutting across the neck near the two heads. Not a decapitation, it's damm fast, but I don't need it to be.

Explosions take care of the rest, and behind me a bullhead comes close. I look back and down, nod at the survivors, and take off.

It might be time to start thinking of using an instant win.

After all, that final attack proved something to me as I stood between the coming Grimm and the defenders. Something I already knew but had to test.

I can't use the Silver Eyes.

Heiress Weiss Schnee

Step, turn, foot forward (just that amount forward) and push. Grimm fall as I dance around them, the rest of my friends all working together to save lives. It has been hours, on and off, of fighting, my Aura coming close to breaking over a dozen times.

Step, jab, twist, push off Yang's fists. I allow a small smile to take my face as I pun. Such a silly thing. "Having fun, Weiss-cream?" She noticed.

"Hardly." I lie. "You are a terrible dancing partner."

She sputters as I execute a textbook perfect landing. Onto the Beringel's shoulders. A swing from Myrtenaster cuts it's head off and I leap away, twirling mid air to gather momentum for my next strike.

"Hey, I can dance. You should see me on the dance floor and not one of your stuck-up balls."

"Like the club before Beacon?" I most certainly do not have the most smug of expressions as Ruby backs me up.

The last of the Grimm falls as I land, the heavy swing cutting off it's legs and a single powerful thrust upwards adding to it's falling piercing it's head. Smoke drifts out of the wound before spreading across the rest of it's body.

"Clear." Blake calls. "And I'm not sure I would call what we are doing here dancing, Weiss."

Oh, so that is how it is. Two versus two. "Team RWBY, come in." Ruby's scroll chirps.

"Here!" She replies. "And clear!"

"Excellent. I've sent the next group to you." Our coordinator sends a location to our scrolls.

"We are on it! Another point for Team RWBY!" Her enthusiasm is infectious. "How far behind is Team SSSN again?"

Team SSSN had to break off and go on their own. I think Yuki only assigned them to us for protection. Her comments towards Neptune certainly implied that, though they were needed as background singers... most of them anyway.

"We just got another point, so that brings us up to-" Sun starts speaking before Ruby cuts him off.

"How far behind are you?" Yang starts laughing as Ruby rubs in how much better Team RWBY is doing.

"Five points." Ruby clears her throat. "We are five points behind you." Sun admits bitterly.

"Yeah." She beckons and we start running through the city, Paradigm Shifts too expensive to use. "That's right! Five whole points behind. Team RWBY is the best!"

"Whoo! Go Team RWBY!" Yang yells and I can't help but grin as we move through the city.

Blake is smiling too. We are going to win.

Partial Maiden Yuki Tenno

So. That's why Remnant weapons are both melee weapons as well as guns.

We have run out of Dust, here at least, and the people are fighting back with the only things they can.

When you have an endless foe, running out of ammo isn't just a possibility, it's an inevitability. So the people of Remnant train with and design weapons that can function without ammo. That's why Ruby introduced her weapon as a scythe first. 'It's also a gun.'

Because guns come second in this world. Dust is far, far more expensive than gunpowder, risky to mine and often deep in Grimm territory as all the closer, safer, options have been mined out. So weapons are melee weapons first and guns second. It's why no-one bats an eye at Jaune's totally normal sword, or Ruby's massive scythe that is also a gun.

Having something complicated and Dust based is like signalling that your are rich. Nora's 'Expensive.' explanation on why she doesn't have lightning Dust handy is making far more sense now. Especially since she has lived in not the best situation.

I don't know how bad Nora and Ren have it, but I get the feeling they didn't really have a home before Beacon. Maybe I'm just reading into it too much.

Grimm die under white fire, but they keep coming and I keep moving. Aura regeneration is one thing, but I'm using more than I can regenerate. I've thought these thoughts before. I'm so tired. Aura? 17% right now, I can only afford to heal one twin.

I'm sorry.

I kneel down and... They are so young. No. I'll do both.

Aura drops down to 14% and flickers of white shine across my body before dropping further. 15% is the red line, the point where tournaments and spars stop. The point where the breaking of Aura becomes visible. How many lives did I just spend for both of them? She was weak, but her twin was almost dead. It would have been better to only heal one, more efficient.

"Stay together. Care for and protect eachother, and you will be alright." Doing so would hurt her more than I can understand. I was a terrible older brother, too desperate to survive the world I was pushed into to even think about my younger sisters. "Promise. Not to me, to eachother."

I stand and lift off, trying to shake off the feeling of failure that only my older self can understand. All the troubles my sisters went through that I did nothing to help. I probably made it worse. No. Now is not the time for that. Push back the breakdown, keep fighting.

Keep fighting. I saved them. I can still save at least Just One More.

General James Ironwood

"Another Dust cache has been found." The officer informs me. Good.

'If they are linked to scrolls, then they are transmitting. Get people to monitor radio broadcasts with their scrolls and report in any odd scrolls lying around.'

That tiny bit of advice has saved a lot of people's lives. I think Tenno meant it for finding Cinder's virus scrolls, but it has been invaluable for finding Dust caches, especially now that the criminal elements are involved. They know the city, the kinds of places to hide a cache, and now they are finding them for us with far more effectiveness than most of the civilian population.

The tide is turning. Between Dust, the fact that the main bulk of the Grimm has passed, the moral boost from the Warbeat slowing the incoming attacks and now the extra fresh people on the lines, we are pushing them back.

The added aircraft have been invaluable as well, the pilots also fresh, something we are in limited supply of.

Another Paladin comes back online and I direct the Tenno to a different part of the city now that the anti air defences there are restored.

"General. We are done." Another bit of good news.

"Then get into Vale, Specialist." I order. "And good work."

"Of course sir." Specialist Winter Schnee, Headmistress Glynda Goodwitch and half the squad of Huntsmen they went with have restored functionality and security of the Vale-Glenn tunnel. Including the train. "And sir, we found three shipping containers worth of Dust here. Should we leave them behind?"

A call. Do I leave the Dust there for the evacuees in the event we fail, or pull it into the city to help prevent it from falling? Three containers, I could leave one behind and take two.

A look over the map show's that's not an option. I have to put all of them... I need to make a choice. One that the entire fate of the city rests on.

'I trust you, James Ironwood.'

I look at the clock, the one ticking down until Mistral arrives. And I make my choice. "Bring them with you, Specialist, as well as everyone you can spare. We are not losing Vale." As I say it, I know it is true. We are winning this.

"Yessir!" Only a skeleton crew will be left behind as the rest, and the Dust, come to Vale. Yet Winter's voice agrees with me. 'Trust in yourself and the people around you.'

I have made the right decision.

Now, about the Red Fang saboteurs. Compared to the level of Grimm, they are a non-threat. Only half organised, few, and easily identifiable. Even with how tired the population is, everyone is keeping an eye out for anyone acting suspicious and everyone is working together to help save Vale.

That said -I flick a squad to the Red Fang safehouse we located- it's best to resolve this before they get out of hand. The Dust such places often have is also a nice bonus. A bonus we need.

Now, where is, ah. "Thank you." I nod to the officer as he passes another mug of hot coffee into my hands before I can find the one I was looking for. He takes it off the bench and I realise it is empty.

"Sir, confirmed report of Adam Taurus in the field." A holographic screen manifests and shaky footage plays of his distinct Semblance in action, as well as the man himself striding out and grinning as my men are cut dow- Crack

The fresh mug seems to have developed a fault. Not enough for it to leak, but it will need to be replaced. "Get me a line with Specialist Schnee and her team the moment they arrive at the Vale station."

The end of local coordination and the news of his capture or death will help the fight against the Grimm. And he will kill no more of my men or the innocent people of Vale and Atlas.

"Yessir!" She has had encounters with him before, and if we are lucky we can pin him tonight. With the whole city on alert, and the Grimm along the walls, there is nowhere for him to run.

Specialist Winter Schnee

"Understood Sir. We will resupply at Amity ASAP and get him." The call ends just as we exit the station proper and walk into the market district.

The scent of bread and baking, of soups and fried meat, is significantly better than the tunnel air. So much so I can feel my mood shifting just from the scent alone. So, this is what the Yuki Tenno was talking about. The Schnee manor may not have had anything like this beyond the kitchens, but everyone here seems relaxed despite the dead of night and sound of explosions and fighting further away from the city.

We stride, a bullhead rising after picking up a batch of goods, and wait for the next. It won't be a minute.

A little girl with a smile on her face skips up with "Slice of Cake, Huntress?"

Cheerful, if a bit tired, she holds up the plate half covered in cake slices. I shouldn't, both because of the food type, and the possibility of it being a Red Fang attack. Poison, possible poor cooking, bad ingredients.

"Shouldn't you be in bed?" A Huntress part of our group asks.

"Nope!" She pops the p of the word, "I'm doing my part! 'Sides, you can't fight on an empty stomach. Mom! We have another group over here!"

There is something heartbreaking, bittersweet, about the scene and I have to control my expression tightly. She is trying her best to help, even if it is just running around and handing out cake. Even if she really shouldn't be.

Weiss' voice sings across the city, and I realise that the girl is humming along with it

Her mother walks up, a pot on straps around her body along with disposable cups and a ladle, handing out soup. No, not Red Fang. I take a slice. "Thank you."

And give it a nibble. It's still warm, if a little undercooked. But sweet and soft and most definitely a cake. More than that, there is a little weight I didn't know I was carrying that vanishes. A faint feeling, a memory of my own Mother making cake late at night. Before home became a house.

But it also carries with it another memory, one untarnished. One of me making a cake that was a little undercooked, still warm, sweet, and definitely a cake before sneaking it to Weiss.

That is what Yuki said: 'Remnant hasn't studied human psychology nearly as much as Terra, for obvious reasons. There is a definitive link between memory and the senses of scent and taste, far more than visual or even auditory stimuli. That is why I want the streets filled with the smell of baked goods. Home, protection, safety, family. More than the food itself, the smell of love will ward off the Grimm.'

Memory Weiss giggles before I shush her, Father is sleeping and we don't want to wake him up. Especially not to the sight of crumbs in bed. Klein will keep our secret and clean up in the morning, so long as we save him a slice.

We board the next bullhead to Amity with cups of soup and the scent of home on us.

Partial Maiden Yuki Tenno

I lean down and put my hands of the cockpit door of the broken Paladin, realising that I could use Transference on it. Penny was a person, she could support a soul, so may- NOT NOW! It's getting worse, my impending mental breakdown. Focus.

I can't magically manipulate mental, but I can draw on the Blind Bandit and metal-bend. Grab the impurities of the cockpit door, just like I did with the pod I woke up in, years ago, and pull. Rip it open and pull the soldier out, he's physically fine, now rip out the Dust from the parts and dump it over the wall for the support crew to use and distribute.

"Pilot saved, Dust recovered. Status?" I ask Picket as I move again, flushing more Aura into my body to recover the loss.

It doesn't work. The tiredness isn't physical. I'm just too mentally tired from all the fighting. More and more questions and observations on my own behaviour are piling up, demanding more and more attent-NOT NOW!

Picket says we are winning, but too slowly. Right, I need to use an instant win.

Nora Storm. But without the Nora. I can spike the energy with magic, like how I did for melting the communication equipment, but larger. Not that it will be enough, but I have more tricks up my sleeve now. Tricks like creating pathways using white fire and then discharging the electricity down it.

Couple that with either Pyrrha or Nora, I can amplify their Semblances and have Jaune backing us up. No sacrifice of Nora's life required.

I hope.

So, Pyrrha or Nora.

Pyrrha. Electromagnetic fields are far more in line with my understanding of science, rather than whatever mechanism Nora's Aura uses. Not to mention her Aura is a finite resource that when it runs out, the electricity goes into her, where as with Pyrrha, if her aura runs out, the lightning goes feral rather than directly into a person's body.

I speak into the headset. "Officer, can you please get me Pyrrha Nikos and James Ironwood on a secure channel, no listeners in. Not even you, sorry."

"Understood." I hear it in her voice. Hope in me, ha. ha. ha.

"Tenno." James responds almost immediately. He sounds... Like we are losing. "We are losing. People are getting too tired to fight and the Dust we have recovered is almost out."

A couple of moment's later Pyrrha connects. "Yuki. I'm on Amity." And she is on Amity, good. "Is Raven ready?" Raven?

"Oh shit. I forgot all about her." The words are out as I think them, all the mental power I use for checking my speech going elsewhere.

"You forgot?" She sounds disbelieving.

"I don't know how to fight, I've had to dedicate so much of my thinking juice to that and to giving James tips and tricks." Those aren't words I would normally use. Not now. No, I have to mentally yell NOT NOW to get it to work. I'm so tired.

"Of course." He sounds... disappointed? In me not knowing how to fight? I don't know, I can't think on it. "If Raven can help-" And he doesn't know. I didn't tell him. I've fucked up.

And I cut him off. "No. I have a plan. James, is the People's Service still able to get airborne?" It's been tucked away near Beacon, which hasn't taken nearly the beating Vale has. Far more people, afraid and drawing Grimm, are in Vale.

"Yes, but the weapons and communications are still down." We won't need those.

"But its internal controls and importantly, it's Dust core, it's lightning, that is still working right?" Calling it lightning, brain not up to task to be more eloqu-NOT NOW!

"Yes." Good.

"What do you need me to do?" Pyrrha asks, but I think she is putting the bits together.

"If you will allow me, I will need to use my Semblance and then power and skill to-" I try to explain before she cuts me off.

"Yes. I give you permission. Jaune too?" Thank you. That's... too much trust for someon- NOT NOW!

"On our backs" I sigh. "Aura Amping us, yes." He went with the name. I mean, yes, it is cool, but honest-NOT NOW!

"Nora is a second option, but I don't want to run a battleship's reactor through her." Take a breath and order the general. Haha, who am I to order a general? I play video games not-NOT NOW!

"James. Get Team JNPR to the Service and ping me it's location. Start getting it airborne and have the engineers work out a conduit that can take as much load as possible to closest point on the outside of the ship. Pyrrha's Semblance is Polarity, by supercharging it, we can direct the main power from the battleship into a singular beam of lightning and then fly the ship around the city's edge eradicating Grimm."

There's an almost disbelieving tone embedded with a strange relief and maybe just the barest hint's of insanity in his laughter. "That's insane."

"Well, no. The definition of insanity is trying the same thing over- Sorry, bad joke. Madness, or crazy, I accept." I shouldn't be joking not at a time NOT NOW like this.

"I've sent the bullhead and commands. If this doesn't work..." I have others. Silverlight is next, if that fails then fusion maybe. Don't want radioactiv- not now?

"Ramming speed, I think." What else do you use a ship like that for. "Probably the gap between mountains and sea south-ly." I slur the word and the world goes blurry before I shake it off. "Overload the reactor or Dust core or whatever you use to power the thing."

"Yuki, are you alright?" Pyrrha asks, noticing my failing fail. Mental state fall. Fail. Brain. Focus.

"Fighting." I lie. Well, no, I am burning Grimm right now. "James?"

"Do you have any idea how much one of those costs?" A joke? No. It's a test, to see if I'm not melting down. I am melting down, but I'm also cleverer than most.

Deceive using a joke. "Well, I guess I'll take out a loan. Now, where exactly is it? I'll wait for you there."

A direction is given to me and I take off at full speed, cutting a bright line of white across the sky as I move over the city in a straight line for the first time since... months ago? Years? It must be hours, the sun hasn't come up. Normally my path followed the wall and-

The red beam slices my arm off as I fly.

The pain disrupts my failing concentration and I fall.

The ground rises up to meet me.

No.

Grabbing my bones with magic, I halt myself an-

CRUNCH

A groan, or my lungs deflating, passes my lips. I hit... I hit the ground with much less force than would have been. Blood pours out of my right arm, an application of ice freezes the wound shut. Ribs borked. Bork? Bork bork. Broken. Not good, need to find the... The. What am I looking for? Wait, How long have I been here? Seconds or years?

"Hello Tenno." I turn my head and it head rolls around on it's neck like a weird unhinged bobble head toy thing. Borderlands, hahahaha. Marcus the weapons dealer, with his junk and level scaled vending machines.

Wait. I know him. Adam Taurus is here, why? He should be in Menagerie, rallying th- MOVE!

Holy shit he is fast. And I am slow. "Adam." I speak, aware of my headset... No. His blade cut it off. I didn't dodge, he simply didn't kill me. They don't know I'm stuck here with him.

"Now, no calling for help." Oh, and he is pissed. I need... Fuck my arm burns. "You are going to pay for what you did."

Think. Scroll. My scroll is still active in my pocket, I use the moment he thinks over my words to pump some ice over the speaker, muffling the sound. No, short it out. A bit of lighting is better. There, now it will be silent.

"Saving Faunus lives?" I ask, I need to stall, he's far too fast for me to escape, my Aura is far too low, 4%, and as for attacking? Not likely. I may have to though.

I don't think he realised I was using the headset at as a wireless headset linked to my scroll, and not a stand alone unit. "Is that what you call it?"

I'm fucked unless help arrives. Use my words, concentrate fully on that. "What do you think the word Remnin means, Adam? It's a trap. If we change the definition of the word human underneath the laws, then the laws that protect Remnin will suddenly apply to everyone."

Got you. Got a tiny fracture in his defences. "You took away our victory."

"I've seen enough dead Faunus the last attack to think otherwise. Why Vale, Adam?" I have to follow up, keep on the attack, keep him off guard. Does he frown behind that mask? "Atlas I can understand. Mistral too. But Vale? It has the best-"

"It's not good enough!" He shouts, angry, snapping at me, at the world, at every Remnin that has taken a Faunus life.

"I know it's not good enough!" I shout in return, gambling my life. I want to create oxygen and hydrogen, but the same threat detection that I have been using half the night, he will have it. He will know if I'm being hostile towards him. And then I'll die. "But you have cost the cause decades! How many bastards are now saying 'Oh, Vale tired to be nice, and look where that got them?'."

"Red Fang, Tenno?" He spits, pointing out the separation, the fact I divided his forces and turned others against him.

"Those who remain are loyal. Those who join know exactly what they are-"

"Do you think I'm an idiot?" No sell. Fuck. I can't do this, not in this state.

"Yes." His blade shifts stance. "I do, Adam, because you allowed Cinder to use you." I hold out my good arm, again slowly, and call up a flame. Not white, but the orange red of the normal magical flame. "Look familiar?"

"That's... Her Semblance?" Okay, I definitely can see his eyes narrowing behind the mask, right?

"No. This is Magic." He snorts. I turn the flame into ice, then run lightning over it before swirling the steam from the evaporated ice around with some wind magic. "This is the power Cinder is obsessed with, that the cult she's part of is after."

Well, I have his attention. "While I'm not Faunus, I care for the cause," another snort. "as hard as that is to believe. That said, you have been used as a pawn in a much larger game. There are two literally magical immortals. One, is Ozpin. His form of immortality consists of his soul finding a new body every time he dies. The other, is Salem. Hers is the more classical form of undying. They have been fighting for literal millennia, and the Faunus have been a pawn in that war for as long as they have been around."

Wrong things to say. I'm not speaking good. "Why should I even consider believing you."

"You won't. You are going to kill me Adam. We both know I'm stalling, but I am stalling with the truth. The moment someone comes to rescue me, I am the first to die. But, they will come for you, Adam Taurus. Maybe Cinder, Maybe Hazel, Maybe some other pawn of Salem. Do you want to know what the stakes are?"

"Let me guess, control of the world." He doesn't believe me. He gears up to kill me. I force my mind to work though survival strategies, and I come up with one. Just one, and it's a risk. Unless I convince him to spare me or somehow get rescued, that is my only shot.

"No. The continued existence of sentient life." I am totally serious, every part of me conveys that, even through my decaying deranged state. A pause.

"Salem is old, Adam. And she has tried to kill herself many times. One such attempt involved Grimm, and what came out was a hybrid. Unable to kill her, they infected her. Salem's ultimate goal is the death of all sentient life on Remnant, the same as any other Grimm. The main difference, she's still clever. Clever enough to not tell her cultists her ultimate goal. Tell me, Adam, did the Grimm act unusual during the attack on Beacon?"

The slight turn of his head tells me yes, as did the footage I watched of the attack to make sure this point even existed. "Odd isn't, how they seems to ignore the Atlesian Knights far more once they got infected. How hard was it to get the Grimm on your Bullheads? Why did they suddenly attack at the perfect moment, mere seconds after the event, and far faster than the fear should allow."

Gears turn in his head and after a moment he realises. "She can control the Grimm."

I nod. "To a degree. Cinder and her fellow servants are free to walk through Grimm territory untouched. So long as they follow Salem's commands. The Grimm have ears too. How hard was it for her to find you?"

There we go, I'm getting through to him. I can see the change, but he doesn't reply. "Salem's strategy, as it always has been, is to divide and then crush us." I watch his body language, us. I shouldn't be able to do that, how much of my social skills are NOT NOW! He doesn't like that.

"And she is old. The Great War, who fired the first shot? Before that, the attack that led to the banning of art, it was strange. More recently, Mountain Glenn, sabotaged from the inside. Did you look for evidence while you were there?"

No you didn't, but you might now. "As great as an advantage it would be to move through Grimm controlled land, doing so would only be to her advantage. And she is not interested in helping any of us. Ask yourself this, if she can control the Grimm, why is Menagerie still covered in them?"

More and more questions, get him guessing, thinking. Oh, and I cough blood. That's not a good sign. Still, I don't use Growth, I need to appear weak and I might need it for something far more deadly than a bit of blood lung.

With a clear set of lungs I put force into the next four words. "Look at her actions! She has had literal thousands of years of experience manipulating people with words, so look at her actions. Look to Vale that she used you to burn down. To Mountain Glenn. To Atlas and everyone desperately needing Dust, paid for by Faunus blood, to fight the Grimm. I agree the SDC needs to burn, but it wouldn't exist if there wasn't a demand."

That's all I can say, everything else is just flat stalling and unconfirmed, and I realise it's time to die. I've failed to convince him. Ha, was it a quicktime event I failed? Or a dialogue tree I clicked wrong? It doesn't matter.

Time to wake up. "Kill me, but take one thing from this. Stop being the Blade, Adam, and start being the Blademaster."

I wipe the blood from the corner of my mouth and pull up my fist. "Not that I'm going down without a fight. Ask Cinder next time you see her. Ask her about Maidens and Magic. Relics and Gods. About Grimm and Immortals. And watch her lie and share the lies she has been told."

My best hope is my Semblance. If I can jump into him, stall him like that... All I need to do is touch him.

Touch him while avoiding his blade. Sonic damage, if I can vibrate the air loud enough, that will disorient him and I can use magic to prevent myself from getting damaged, it's friendly fire reducing effect working to my advantage. And... If I can find the resonate frequency of his blade, I can shatter it, take away his Semblance.

If I'm fast enough.

He moves. I move. Ice covers the ground and a barrier of air around me starts to screams, disrupting him enough for two jets of white fire to thrust me aside.

Except I was holding out my left arm to push me. It falls to the ground.

He is too fast.

Increase the frequency, constantly. Find the resonate frequency of his blade and sh-MOVE!

Even disoriented from the rising screaming sound he moves. The closer he is to me, the louder it is, but his Aura is fully ch-MOVE! Louder!

"Arrrhgg!" He groans in pain as the sound overcomes his Aura and attacks his hearing, and I throw fire onto the ice slicked floor.

The basketball court between three buildings (is that where I am?) Is filled with white fog. Cutting off his vision.

Data from hazard sense, from my Aura, demands I move, and a bullet rips pass me. The sound, it's giving away my location. Idiot, thin-MOVE!

Another round hits my chest, upper left breast, before flattening out against the bone and getting lodged there.

Use the fog, feel out his position based on where the magic made material is and isn't. Move now! Jump across, Amber's instincts forcing my movement in ways I would not no-NOT NO-MOVE!

Thrust! DOWN!

I slam into the ground and Adam is right there, his blade cutting the top of my hair off.

Kinetic pulse! Wait, that's not a magic I ha-NOT MOVE NOW "AARRRHHH!"

I hit the wall behind me. A deep red gash across my body, his blade robbed of a killing blow by passing through the vibrating air I am using as a speaker.

Get up. I'm up. And the fog is gone, he swung his blade in some impossible way to create wind currents to remove it. He was tracking me by Aura sense anyway, but now he aims- MOVE!

I dodge. I get shot again. My neck splurts blood, and I realise two things. One, his shot was perfectly lined up with my neck, and two, his attack...

It was a feint. He used killing intent, my own Aura sense of his hostility, to target one place, make me dodge, and then fire at another point. He knows how to kill Huntsmen. I'm not a Huntress. I'm jus-NOT NOW!

MOVE! I try again to jump. I land.

I land without my legs and I land with his blade opening up my stomach, red tubes falling out. Those are digestive organs, ri-NOT NOW!

Air. Shove him back! Fight back idio-NOT NOW!

Lighting flashes out and his blade blocks it. More. It's charging his Semblance, but that won't matter. Keep shifting the fre-

There! The frequency is locked. I increase the energy and his blade starts shaking in his hands. Rocks start... blood pours out... the world is going dark. Use Growth to close the neck wound idiot.

The world stops getting darker, though the edges of my vision are wavy hahhaha. Oh and my Aura is 1%.

He realises what is happening and between lightning strikes (he can move faster than lightning? Idiot, anime rules!) the world goes dark for a moment.

A slash cuts across the world.

Something breaks.

Adam hits the wall behind him.

Three shards of Wilt are in my chest, my lungs are now super punctured. I should have grabbed him with my arms when he struck, I forgot all about that. Wait, I don't have arms.

Oh, that's what happened. The blade went through the vibrating air again during his Slash Dash. (Hehe, he is Excalibur) The blade shattered under the resonate frequency and didn't kill me. Not yet. Will die soon. Too much blood.

I think he was playing with me the entire time.

Aura at 1%, new plan... that one.

My scroll is remarkably untouched. Get the blood out and- whoa that's a lot more blood than I was coughing before. Now get the words out. "Pyrrha. Trust me." I'm going to die.

Adam gets up. I pull on my magic and halt as much bleeding as I can. "Why won't you die?" Adam asks me.

'Nanomachines Son. They harden in response to damage.' "Magic." Ah, 'Magic' and an explanation. Also known as 'Fuck you, it's Magic, I don't gotta explain shit!'

His fist glows red.

The world goes dark as the Red Glow around his fist crackles with power. My power, turned on me.

He doesn't need his weapon to use his Semblance.

I can't redirect magic away from my injuries to move, it will cost me the last of my blood, and he is too fast for it to work. Try anyway.

Pyrrha Nikos.

Red.

Like her hair.

Qrow Branwen

An endlessly changing screeching scream echoes down the buildings as I fly over them, my bird wings beating as hard and fast as I can make them, body groaning under the stress. Ice Queen was closer, but I am faster. A shatter is heard and a wave of Red flashes up and out the side of a parking lot. Over there!

No. Not there, close. Not again. No, no, no. Not again. I can't fail again. Amber. I was too late. Yuki, in her body, I can't be-

Faster, faster. There she is, kneeling on the- her legs have been cut off, her arms cut off. A massive gash is up her chest, red slowly flowing down as she holds herself together somehow. Her neck is bleeding still, too much blood covers the frost all over the game court. A line of intestines are dragged around the ground.

And in her chest... Adam's blade is broken.

Shards of it... two are lodged in her chest. No, three, one is too deep, explaining the blood out of her mouth. His fist glows red, the world goes dark, and jets of fire blast upwards from her shoulders, shoving her down.

I have already shifted and am already leaping towards her. Why does she have Ruby's and Summer's eyes?

A red beam of energy is suddenly between his fist and the wall behind her.

It passed through the top of her forehead and out the back of her skull, the image of her kneeling with a fist sized line passing through her head.

I land and am covered in bits of skull and brain, pink blood and a wash of heat still crackling with Red energy.

"Yuki is dead." Her scroll, my scroll, both send the message to everyone else.

Why is she smiling?