16

Chapter 16

I rounded the last corner, stepping out of the corridor and out into the vast open area that ringed the outside of the arena where the dustplanes would normally be ferrying people to and from the arena.

Understandably, there weren't many dust planes left. Most having been used to evacuate the civilians back to the safety of the ground below and the shelters that were built within them.

But that didn't mean they were all gone.

The eerily empty area made it easy to spot the others, all of them having come to a stop in front of one of the few remaining dust ships.

Guess that's our way down.

Time for us to get to work.

I went to step forward after them before I froze as a thought struck me.

I hadn't picked up my Candidus Mors.

After that last attack against the P-01s I remember the sword and sheath coming free, clattering to a stop somewhere in the arena.

And then in all the excitement of Cardin's message and the plan to get off the arena, I'd completely forgotten about it.

I swore.

Great.

Now I was going to have to go back and look for it while Tob, Peter and Oobleck were in the middle of their battle royale with the Grimm.

Real smart move there, Jaune, sheer genius that was.

How the heck was I going to find my…

CLANG

I paused mid-turn as I gazed down at the familiar form of Candidus Mors, blade safe in its sheathe, beneath my foot.

…sword.

"What the hell?" I murmured, bending down to grasp my weapon from the floor, holding it tightly as I did so, so as to confirm it was actually there.

How the heck had Candidus Mors gotten all the way out here?

And I could have sworn that the floor was conspicuously empty of anything that could have been my sword and shield when I'd last looked down at it moments ago.

None of this made any sense.

I shook my head, refocusing.

But this wasn't the time for that.

I need to get down to Beacon with the others and make our way towards the CCT tower.

…and hopefully not run in to the 'artist' who left the little message on the window inside the tower.

I shuddered. Not someone I was intending to meet anytime soon.

Now the others are still standing there so I should be able to catch up to them fairly easily.

Looks like they're still talking to whoever it was they were before.

I tapped Sage on the shoulder as I came to a stop, taking a place next to him at the back of the group as I listened in to the familiar figure addressing the rest of us. He raised a very powerful looking pistol in my direction before firing, the round smashing into the form of the Creep that had tried to sneak up to attack us.

Looks like I found out where Ironwood ran off to.

I was wondering why he hadn't been part of the fight against the P-01s but it stood to reason that someone needed to coordinate the evacuation of the civilians back to Vale proper.

And as a respected figure both as a Headmaster of a Hunter Academy and as a General, they would have listened to him when he spoke.

Like I should be now.

"…going to take it back." The general finished, turning and walking towards the advanced looking dust plane, bristling with intimidating looking weapons hanging from its wings. The rear hatch of the plane was open revealing a squad of inactive Atlesian Knights standing within it, apparently having been far enough away that the P-01s' puppetmaster protocol hadn't taken effect.

My eyes flicked towards the skies of Beacon, immediately noting that three of the four massive airships that had been part of Atlas' air fleet had crash landed to the ground below, smashing into wither the outskirts and in once case directly within the city itself, roaring flames only further adding to the desolate backdrop of the Grimm invasion.

Well, looks like things we're just as bad as Cardin said they were.

"What do we do now sir?" Flynt Coal asked, stepping forward as he addressed his headmaster.

Ironwood stopped midstride, turning back around to face us, his hands going behind his back, a serious expression on his face. "You have two choices;" Iron wood revealed, his eyes scanning over all of us. "Defend your Kingdom and your school…or save yourselves."

Wait, what did he just say?

Save ourselves?

What kinda bullcrap was that?

The rest of the huntsman and huntresses in training seemed just as bewildered by Ironwood's option as I was, quiet murmurs breaking out between some of them in the silence that followed.

Ironwood didn't turn away from us, looking far kinder than his typically serious face seemed to. "No would fault you if you leave." He said calmly, not letting any judgement enter his voice. Then he spun around back to the ship that was behind him and walked inside of it, "Let's move out!" He commanded, the door to the dropship closing with a thud.

We stood there for a moment in silence, staring off at the airship that had just left.

"I mean, come on!" Sun said, summing up my thoughts on the matter with a single phrase, no-one among the students looking like they were going to try and run away today.

And looks like I just found our way down. "We can take that ship down to Beacon!" I called out, drawing everyone's attention back towards me as I dashed forward, making my way towards the sole remaining dust plane remaining on this level of the arena.

We'd already lost enough time, and the Grimm had a nasty habit of being impatient bastards.

And besides that, I was worried about the people I knew that were still on the ground. The rest of team RWBY, minus their leader as she was with us, team CRDL in the CCT tower, and wherever the hell Qrow had stashed the kids when all hell broke loose.

My eyes narrowed.

Hold on guys.

We're coming.

As Roman Torchwick pranced about in front of the control console of the sole remaining floating battleship still in the skies, Neo fought the urge to sigh.

She really didn't want to be here.

Frankly it was just boring, being stuck with babysitting duty.

Again.

Granted, she'd at least gotten to have a little bit of fun in the CCT room before everything really got started, but the fun that she'd had seemed to fade all to quickly after having to come back to here again.

She gave up fighting the urge and sighed silently.

But if this is where she had to be, this was where she had to be.

On the plus side, with the end of this endeavour in sight, Roman was no longer a necessary part of the equation.

Sure he'd been fun to hang around at first but then he just got annoying.

She'd had to save him from a bunch of brats and then hadn't even been allowed to slaughter one or two of them afterwards because they were trying to 'keep a low profile'.

Neo scoffed inwardly.

Sure, and running through traffic in a stolen Paladin prototype trying and failing to kill students was just the utter epitome of subtlety.

His hat and cane would no doubt make a wonderful addition to her collection.

Along with a few vials of 'ink' of course.

It wouldn't do for her to neglect her art.

And besides…

She turned her head to the side, ignoring Roman entirely as she leisurely strolled over to one of the windows, gazing down at the final few airships getting ready to lift off from the Coliseum. One airship in particular.

She could feel him, as close as he was, the very essence of his nature a beacon to the usually silent girl, a ungodly smile that promised unspeakable things spreading across her lips as she looked upon the vehicle carrying her prey.

She'd waited this long hadn't she?

What was one day more compared to the years she'd already waited if it meant that the fruit of their labour would be finally ripe enough to partake?

Her scroll beeped and she looked down at the one word message written upon it.

Her smile extended a bit further.

All according to plan.

I sneezed as I took a seat on the plane, steadying my stomach as I felt the engines spin up, ready to lift off and takes us away from the arena.

For once, airsickness was the least of my worries.

A Category Nine.

In Beacon of all places.

It was going to be absolute chaos when we hit the ground, the Grimm below only increasing the fear and panic of the masses, in turn attracting more Grimm into the city in a viscous cycle. And the rest of the world thought we were killing each other.

We need to fix that, fast.

I was worried about the kids but until we solved the CCT issue first things wouldn't have a chance of getting any better.

Someone dropped into a chair beside me and I turned to see Sun sitting there, a light sheen of sweat on his body after the fight with the Prometheus Unit. The rest of team SSSN was sitting nearby, with the exception of Neptune who had run up the front to where the cockpit was to act as pilot.

There was a reason this airship hadn't left with the rest. The pilot had most likely had a rather unfortunate encounter with the Grimm.

"Now to start up the engine you're going to need the ignition code." Geppeto called out from his seat where he was still avidly working away at his daughter's repairs, sealing what would have been veins of blood on a regular person. "The code is…"

Before the inventor could even utter another syllable he was drowned out by the sound of the engines roaring loudly, the turbines spinning rapidly as the craft began to lift off from the platform.

"And we're away!" Neptune's voice called out from the cockpit, the door still open so he could communicate with the rest of us. "Next stop Beacon!"

Geppeto sat there for a moment looking utterly flabbergasted by what had just happened. "How the hell did yo…" He began, incredulous before he shook his head, refocusing on Penny. "Not the time for that."

I agreed with him.

We were going be entering utter chaos when we hit the ground. The time when the Grimm invaded Freshwater was bad enough.

But Vale's defences extended far beyond a basic wall and a remote locale.

If it was bad enough to be a category 9 here of a places, than it would be more Grimm than I had ever seen in my life.

Sun coughed lightly beside me, drawing me out of my introspection as he looked expectantly at me, as if he thought I had something to say. I remained silent, raising a brow at him sceptically.

My oldest friend rolled his eyes dramatically at that before he started speaking, doing so in an overly loud voice. "I can't believe that Tob was actually Alan freaking Quatermain." Sun said, shaking his head in disbelief. "I mean, it explains a hell of a lot, but that is not something I saw coming."

"Agreed." Said Sage, the normally taciturn titan of team SSSN clearly still somewhat at a loss at the revelation of the Old Bastard's identity. "Did you have any idea Jaune?"

At Sage's question I could see some of the other students around us, some subtly some not so subtly turn their attention towards me as they waited for my answer.

I shrugged. "I'd never heard of the guy." I admitted easily before the people around me let out cries of disbelief at my claim. "What?"

Ren raised an eyebrow at me. "You'd never heard of Alan Quatermain?" He asked seriously, looking at me askance as he did so.

"No." I shrugged my shoulders, bewildered by what was such a big deal about not knowing about the Old Bastard's other name.

"How the heck could you have not heard of Quatermain?" Nora exclaimed, throwing her hands up into the air dramatically at my ignorance.

Pyrrha instead of lambasting me for my supposed ignorance as the rest of the others seemed to be had a more thoughtful expression on her face. "He was raised by him, I suppose it's easy enough to just not tell him anything about him." My partner proposed, murmurs breaking out among the rest as they talked amongst themselves.

I felt an eyebrow twitch.

What am I chopped liver?

"Someone care to fill poor, ignorant Jaune in on what the big deal is with this Alan Quaterstaff?" I asked with a growl, eyebrow still twitching as I did so.

"Quatermain." Arslan cut in, emphasizing the name as she did so as if doing so would cause me to suddenly remember who she was referring to.

"Whatever." I answered dryly, trying to impart just how very little I cared about how to pronounce his name.

"He was a hero." Sage interrupted, drawing my attention back towards him. "He was the hero."

"The man all huntsman and huntresses seek to emulate." Yatsuhashi agreed, nodding solemnly.

Scarlet chuckled, flicking his hair as he did so. "How did the old saying go?" He mused, brushing some dirt of his shoulder idly. "There are three things that are certain in life: death, taxes and Alan Quatermain."

A chorus of agreements sounded out around the ship at that.

Okay, then.

Nice and utterly unhelpful.

Let's try that again.

"So…" I dragged out, looking from face to face as I waited for more info to appear. "What exactly did he do that made him so 'great' then?"

"What didn't he do?" Fox muttered, sounds of agreement echoing out from the others at that.

"Quatermain was a huntsman back before huntsman were taught in academies. First one to ever use firearms in combat against the Grimm and proved to be so successful at it that everyone else started doing it too." Pyrrha said calmly, reciting the facts as if she'd read them straight out of a textbook.

"He led the first team to the Dark Continent that ever returned again, and bought back the largest cache of Lost Tech ever recovered in the process." Ren continued, a very serious expression on his face, clearly contemplating something.

I heard Geppeto chuckle at that as he worked on Penny, drawing my attention towards him. "Now that was a fun few weeks." He remarked wistfully, shaking his head as he did so.

"He even bought an end to the Faunus War by killing the Asura and helped broker the peace between the two sides." Nora exclaimed enthusiastically, waving her hands about in the air as she did so.

My eyes widened, and I let out a low whistle as the list of Tob's achievements grew larger, without any end seemingly in sight.

The Asura.

Now that was a big deal.

I'd heard about him in Oobleck's classes about the Faunus Civil War.

The Asura was the bogeyman of the war, appearing out of nowhere, slaughtering his way through whatever appeared in front of him before vanishing back into the night, for days or even weeks at a time before reappearing and proceeding to eviscerate anything unfortunate enough to be in his general vicinity at the time.

He's the reason Atlas doesn't have a council, due primarily to the fact that in the latter stages of the war he somehow managed to breach the perimeter of the Council's chambers in the middle of Atlesian territory and brutally murder each and every member of the council and got out again without raising so much as a single alarm.

No-one even noticed that he'd been until a day later, when a janitor was performing his morning rounds and stumbled upon the corpses of the Council members, each one nailed to his or her chair, with the symbol of an armoured fist, drawn in the councillors' blood on the center of the floor.

What later became known as the mark of the Asura.

Some people even said that the Asura had been the one that had started the conflict.

And Tob had killed that guy?

Looks like the Old Bastard really got around back in the day.

But that does leave one question.

Why the heck was some big shot hero running an orphanage in the middle of nowhere?

When I asked this question the once excited looks hesitated, before faltering, everyone averting their eyes as they looked away from me.

I sat there, staring at the silent room before Sun muttered something lowly under his breath about cowards before he turned towards me. "Because he's supposed to be dead." Sun revealed finally, running a hand through his hair as he did so.

"Supposed to be?" I parroted, still not sure what the heck was going on here, trying to make sense of it all. "From the way you were talking about him he's supposed to be some kind of super-huntsman. What the heck could take him out?"

Sun sighed heavily before continuing on. "Well as far as we thought, and when I say we I mean the world, Alan Quatermain went MIA presumed KIA running an attempted rescue mission when Mountain Glenn was overrun by the Grimm over thirteen years ago." Sun's face tightened, "And Quatermain wasn't in a wheelchair when he went in there, I can tell you that much."

Okay, okay, pieces are sort of coming together now, sort of making sense.

Mountain Glenn, the greatest assault by the Grimm since the Great War. First Category 9 in over a hundred years.

Well, until today of course.

That sounds like something that could have killed even a badass like who Tob was supposed to be.

But how the hell did he get out of there?

I'm looking at this from the wrong angle, I need more information. "Okay then, what do we know about Mountain Glenn?" I asked, turning to look at some of the other students from Beacon, hoping that maybe some of the more experienced ones would know something I wouldn't.

Fox shrugged his shoulders. "You already know it all kid." He replied dryly, his eerie eyes gazing at something over my shoulder. "The Grimm came and killed everyone. The End. Nothing more."

"Nothing?" I said in disbelief, looking back and forth between the members of team CFVY. "A whole freaking city got taken by the Grimm, there had to be something?"

Coco winced. "After Mountain Glenn failed the council confiscated everything they could, and supressed everything he couldn't. Supposedly to prevent a panic from breaking out and causing an upswell in Grimm attacks." She snorted derisively.

"Supposedly?" I repeated, the older students of Beacon looking to Geppeto for guidance for a moment, only to find him working away at Penny's repairs once more, with no advice to be had.

"Well…I'm not too sure about this one but apparently there was a councillor inside Mountain Glenn when it happened. And when the council convened the next day, no-one was missing." Velvet spoke up, hesitantly at first before gaining more confidence as she went on.

"But?" I asked, looking for the connection.

"The council refuses to acknowledge it. Adamantly denies that one of their own was there that day and somehow managed to make it back safely to Vale, despite thousands of others failing to do so." Coco said, her lips pursed. "But there were rumours that the councillor got out in Quatermain's ship. Without Quatermain."

Ooh.

That's not exactly painting a pretty picture.

'Hey there Vale, remember that National Hero we have that totally saved all our lives a few dozen times over? Yeah well, he came in to save one of us from certain death in Mountain Glenn and we kind of left him behind. Huh? Did we save anyone else? Hey there was only once councillor there what more do you want from us?'

And que the riot.

"There's more." Coco said, interrupting my thoughts and dragging me back into the conversation once again. "The rumour also says that the councillor didn't escape entirely alone. There was one other passenger on the ship that made it out on the ship, although no one seems to be able to agree if it was a man or a woman."

"The one thing that is known," Flynt interjected, glaring intently at his weapon as he did so, seemingly fighting the urge to tighten his hands into fists. "Is that they were ferried back to Atlas on a private airship at the behest of the president of the Schnee Corporation."

Schnee Corp?

What have they got to do with this?

Before the conversation could begin again all words were silenced by the sound of an explosion ringing out, one that was extremely close by.

I turned, trying to see what could have caused the commotion when I caught sight of it.

General Ironwood's ship, a particularly advanced looking bullhead was careening towards the ground with alarming speed, smoke trailing behind it even as flashed of bright light could be seen intermittently through the crashing ship's windows.

Was that gunfire?

Almost as if in response to my thoughts the Atlesian Knight that had been standing at a steady rest before had activated, faceplate glowing a dull red as it went to point its rifle towards us.

Only to be cut short, quite literally, by a flurry of attacks and projectiles slamming into it, everyone on board more than a little wary of Atlas combat droids after they had decided to try to kill us in the arena.

And now in the ship as well apparently.

I turned away from the scene in front of me, looking towards the one man I thought could know about what the hell had just happened. "Geppeto! Any idea why all the mechs decided that now would be a wonderful time to revolt?"

Geppeto waved me off, eves focused on something unseen to me as his hands danced on the air as if he were pressing keys. "Hold on just let me check the, SON OF A WHORE!" He roared, slamming a fist into the window in front of him. "It's the Puppetmaster Protocol. How the hell did they get their hands on that blasted protocol?"

"Oh today is the gift that just keeps on giving, isn't it?" Scarlet asked sarcastically, running a hand through his hair as the others looked worriedly at each other.

I was pretty damned tempted to fall back onto sarcasm too, but that wouldn't help fix this latest dilemma. "Okay then, don't suppose they've got a master shut down switch or something do they?" I asked, trying to think of a viable solution to Atlas army of robots deciding to turn on us without warning.

The one that was currently stationed throughout the city in the middle of a Category Nine Grimm incursion.

Not good.

"Oh there's an off switch all right." The inventor agreed, pointing a hand to floating battleship reigning supreme in the skies above Vale. "It's just on board the floating battleship that we have no way of reaching without being blasted out of existence." He said caustically before he paused, a contemplative look coming over his face. "But we may not need too."

"What's the plan?" Coco asked, sounding eager for a game plan that would help us turn the tide in this onslaught.

Geppeto clicked his fingers before opening his palm, a hologram of a miniature P-01s appearing above it. "The algorithm they're using to take over the mechs' artificial intelligence is entirely identical to the one that the P-01s used in the arena." He began, gesturing towards the hologram with his free hand as he did so. "The good news? Penny now holds a firewall that renders the recipient immune to the Puppetmaster Protocol. If I can get to the CCT and upload a copy of her firewall as an update patch, we'll be able to regain control of all the mechs in Vale."

Okay that seems like quite the plan.

Not only take out our enemies but gain allies as well in a single fell swoop.

And plus, we were heading to the CCT anyway to take down the false broadcast!

"And the bad news?" Flynt Coal asked calmly, spinning his trumpet around his hand as he did so.

Geppeto winced. "The bad news is that the update isn't exactly instant, and the instant I start it, I also alert all mechs in Vale to our position, as well as designating ourselves a priority target."

Hoo.

An entire army of machines converging on us with the express intention of trying to kick our teeth in.

Yeah that's pretty bad.

"Define 'isn't exactly instant' for us if you would Doc?" Sun asked casually snapping his gun-chucks into their staff form with a twirl.

The inventor shrugged, rubbing the back of head as he mused. "I honestly won't know until I see how much damage has been done to the CCT. It could be anywhere from five minutes to thirty." He admitted, wavering a hand about as he did so.

I swore internally, scanning the crowd in front of me as I did so, making an inventory of who was here that could help clear a path to the tower.

And noticed someone missing who had been there last I looked.

"Ruby?" I called out, turning my head from side to side as I did so. "Has anyone seen Ruby?"

Despite my questions Ruby didn't make a reappearance and I felt a cold seed of dread begin to sprout within me.

"She just jumped off the ship back to the stadium!" I heard Neptune call out from the front of the ship. "I can see her on the rear cameras!"

I swore.

Ruby what the hell do you think you're doing?

I thought of turning back for her for a moment before deciding against it.

The kids were down there in the chaos below, chaos which had no doubt only gotten worse with the Atlesian weaponry deciding to turn against us at the worst possible time.

I just had to have faith in Ruby's ability and focus on the problem at hand.

You better be careful Ruby Rose.

"Okay then listen up!" I called out, drawing everyone's attention towards me. "Professor Polendina has a way to regain control of the Atlesian mechs. Unfortunately this also is going to draw their attention towards us. The game plan is simple. The Professor and Penny go into the CCT to do their thing, while the rest of us hold off anything that tries to get inside and stop them."

Geppeto stood up from where he had been seated working on Penny and clapped his hands together. "Alright, that'll have to do. Ready to go be heroes munchkin?" The inventor asked with a wide grin, extending a hand to his seated daughter.

Penny smiled brightly in response taker her father's hand and standing up before making their way over to one of the doors, the ship slowing as it prepared to dock at the landing bay.

The door opened and the floor shattered under Penny's feet as she shot forward, once more carrying her father as she sprinted towards the CCT tower, her floating blades trailing behind her, cutting down anything that leapt towards them.

I bit back a whistle as I saw just how much ground Penny had made in those few moments.

Geppeto does damn fine work so it seems.

I went to address the others only to find them already making their way out the doors, rushing out to face the dangers amassed before them.

I unsheathed my sword, sheath extending into my sword once more as I hurried out after them, Neptune sliding into place beside me as he ran out of the cockpit for the aircraft.

We ran after Penny, who was a fading blur in the distance now, doing her own impersonation of Ruby's semblance as she disappeared towards the CCT tower.

But unlike Penny, we couldn't just jump and swing our way towards our goal.

We had our own obstacles to deal with.

The Grimm blanketed the streets, rampaging in every direction the screams of civilians and the motionless forms on the ground a testament to the chaos that they wrought. The roared and shrieked, bellowing their war cries for all to hear as they searched for fresh prey to hunt.

The Atlesian mechs in comparison were eerily silent, the only sounds they made the gunfire as they strafed the area with their guns or the wet sounding slices of their blades as they eviscerated any Grimm that chose to get too pushy.

I rolled my head around my shoulders, letting out a series of loud cracks as it did so as I retightened my grip on my sword.

This'll certainly be a good one to tell the kids.

I roared and charged forward, some of the others already having sprinted ahead of me and started laying into the armada of enemies that surrounded us, be that Grimm or robot.

It was carnage, violence in every direction as I moved from one enemy to the next as the charging students converged upon the foes blocking our way to the CCT tower.

I caught sight of Ren redirecting an Ursa swipe with his bare hands just in time for Nora to slice Stormflower through its throat, the two partners carving a bloody scythe through the battlefield.

My own partner was holding her own, making use of her semblance to tear into the Atlesian mechs, tearing a Paladin apart limb from limb with a gesture before using the remains to flatten a squad of Knights that were trying to flank us on a nearby roof.

I slipped past the leap of a Beowolf, leaving it to collide with the boarbastusk that had been sneaking up behind me before I snapped out a kick at a Creep, the monster giving out an affronted shriek, before Candidus Mors plunged between its eyes, silencing it.

I heard the whirring of guns spinning up and twisted, turtling behind my shield as a torrent of gunfire slammed into it, the impacts so constant they sounded like rain.

A squad of Atlesian Knights, rifles upraised and firing as a single unit, each shot fired at the same time as the last, creating a veritable wall of bullets between myself and them.

This could be tricky.

"Jaune, heads up!" A familiar voice called and suddenly an arrow planted itself in the ground before the mechs, a blue glow surrounding it before a wave of energy pulsed over the machines leaving them to collapse onto the ground, bereft of power.

I stood up and turned to face my saviour to see Paris, standing atop one of the pillars that decorated the landscape, bow in one hand and a trio of arrows in the other. "Thanks for the assist!" I called out, waving a sword in gratitude before turning back to fight once more, the Grimm seemingly unwilling to let me have a proper conversation with the archer.

They're mighty inconsiderate like that.

I caught sight of Paris running ahead, sticking to the rooftops as he harried the enemies below with his arrows, explosions of fire, ice, electricity and more exotic things helping to clear a path for us as well.

After a few more moments of bloody frantic conflict, the broiling sea of foes seemed to clear and gave me a moment to take my bearings once more.

We were almost upon the central courtyard now, most of the others already having gone ahead to help defend the CCT tower, cutting down whatever foes were in their way as they went. The path we had carved through the enemies was also being used by civilians that were still trapped here in Beacon, and they ran with panicked speed towards the landing pads that were their only hope of reaching Vale proper.

I could see Paris, still perched high above the rest of the conflict making use of his vantage point to pick off the Grimm and Mechs that were approaching the fleeing citizens, giving them a greater chance to escape.

His sister on the other hand was down in the thick of the fighting, her shield used as a bludgeoning weapon, great conflagrations of dust fuelled power smashing into her enemies, even blasting a paladin off its feet when she caught one of its punches cleanly on the center of her shield. She was also wielding a sword, her spear probably still broken from our doubles match.

Fighting alongside her was Weiss, the Schnee heiress a terror on the battlefield, darting to and fro with tremendous speed leaving Glyphs in her wake that wrought terrible detrimental effects upon the Grimm or the Atlesian mechs.

These were all people that I was happy to see, thankful to know that they were alright.

But at the same time I wasn't shocked to see them out here fighting.

Not as much as I was seeing the ones before me.

I was taken aback to see the White Fang out in force, adding fuel to the fire as they attacked the fleeing civilians, causing even further panic with their every action.

What the hell were they doing here?

Were they…helping the Grimm?

I felt something begin to burn deep within me, a barely restrained simmering that I hadn't felt the likes of in a long time.

I fought to regain my calm as I took stock of the White Fang members I could see, the surety to their motions, the lack of panic that gripped everyone else.

They knew this was coming.

They planned on this.

It felt as if fog was beginning to seep into my thoughts as the rage grew stronger, the hate so fierce it seemed to be burning me from the inside out.

I spotted a Bullhead setting down in the distance, dropping off more White Fang members.

And an Alpha Beowolf as well.

They had brought Grimm into the city.

The burning wrath that was coursing through my veins vanished abruptly, turning to emotionless ice as a kind of serenity came over me. I watched those masked Faunus laugh at what they had wrought, my sword and shield held in a white knuckle grip as I stalked forward, the closest of the White Fang members leaping towards me with a screamed battle cry that I all but ignored.

The world was suddenly silent, the Faunus in front of me frozen in mid-leap, the world fading away to a dull lifeless grey.

…l .h..

Even if I couldn't see it, I could feel the moon beaming down on me, illuminating the night life as it always did.

The problem was simple.

k..l .he.

There was an enemy before me.

A threat to the children.

A threat to my friends.

A threat to the innocent.

Remove it.

I blinked and the world seemed to restart, color bleeding back into existence once more as the descending blade inched ever closer to my face. But sound remained to be non-existent, the heavy beat of my heart thrumming in my ears.

Kill them

I tilted my head to the left, his wild stab shooting over my shoulder even as Candidus Mors fell from my hands clanging soundlessly on the ground as one hand whipped up like a viper and seized him tightly around the wrist. My other hand thundered forward with a ferocious strike, slamming into his elbow and breaking it messily as it all but imploded. His blade dropped bonelessly from his broken hand even as he moved in seeming slow motion to cradle his injured appendage when my hand snatched the falling blade out of the air and thrust it forward into his gut, impaling it into his stomach.

The laughter was cut short at that, as the man I had stabbed crumpled to his knees, his uninjured hand clutching at his wound.

I dully noted that one of them, a woman this time called out something, maybe a name in despair going to run towards him before being held back by one of the other White Fang members.

Oh.

Looks like they're not quite so willing to fight against something that can fight back.

They might even want to retreat.

I narrowed my eyes, the sound of my blood pumping loudly the only thing I could hear.

Kill them

Now that just wouldn't do at all.

Time to give them some incentive.

I stepped forward lightly, coming to a stop before the collapsed White Fang member I had attacked, his hands desperately trying to keep the cut shut, determined not to die here.

How cute.

I raised my foot and slammed it down on the man's chest, his mouth opened and I'm assuming he was screaming his lungs out the way he was thrashing about, trying to force my foot off his chest.

I regarded him for a moment, before I looked back at the terrorists in front of me, taken aback at how I was prolonging the agony of their comrade in front of them

Something I'd never do to a person, be they human or Faunus.

KILL Them

But this piece of scum beneath my feet, like the ones in front of me, weren't people.

Oh no.

They seemed to be so set on being creatures of Grimm that they not only wore the masks that mimicked them, but they wanted to act like Grimm as well.

And that was fine with me.

If they wanted to be Grimm so badly, then I'm happy to oblige them and treat them with exactly the same amount of respect and courtesy that I would any other creature of Grimm.

That being none in the slightest.

They charged forward and I moved to meet them, the stolen sword scything out in cruel vicious attacks, aiming to maim, not kill, to leave them helpless in agony on the cobbled streets, the borrowed blade pinning the final combatant through their arm into the cracked and damaged pavement, even as they weakly tried to remove it with their free arm.

I mean after all, It's not like I have to go out of my way to kill them now do I?

Not when they've bought so many Grimm that are happy to do the job for me.

But that doesn't mean I can't express just how thoroughly disappointed I am with them in the meantime.

KILL THEM ALL

Something grabbed my shoulder and I spun, ripping the sword back to stab once again only to restrain myself when I saw Ren there standing beside me, mouth opening and closing as he tried to communicate with me.

I heard not a word, the heady thrum of my blood as it beat in my ears still the only sound I could make out.

Ren's arm blurred and pain exploded in my face, a hand coming up instinctively to clutch at the throbbing cheek that Ren had just slapped none too lightly.

Rage surged through me, disrupting the surety that had been filling me for the last few moments.

Why the hell did he do that!

Didn't he see that I was…

I blinked.

I was…

I looked down at my hands.

At my bloody red hands.

Oh god.

Bile filled my mouth as I recalled just what I had been about to do.

What I had already done.

What had I done?

"Jaune!" Ren roared at me, the chaotic sounds of the conflict around me coming to the forefront once more, the pumping in my ears vanishing to nothing. "Answer me, damn it!"

"I'm okay." I muttered dully, shaking my head as I did so in a vain attempt to clear my head. "I'm okay." I repeated, trying to convince myself that it was true.

What the heck had just happened?

I lose focus for a few moments and suddenly I'm killing people?

What the actual hell?

I refocused as I saw the heavy swipe of an Ursa Major coming down to flatten Ren only for him to redirect the blow without turning away from me and proceed to pancake the Grimm's face in the same movement.

He shoved something towards me and I blinked and looked down at my weapons, at Candidus Mors held candidly in my comrade's hands.

I blinked.

When had I let go of that?

I grabbed the sword and shield, nodding thankfully at Ren as I did so and as the shield was strapped to my arm once more, my sword held tightly within my hand, I felt the last of the haze that had clouded my thoughts lift, as if I had stepped out of a patch of fog into the bright light of day once more.

My thoughts went briefly to the kids, somewhere down in Vale, hopefully with Qrow there to look after them.

I didn't have time to lose my head.

The faster I get this done, the faster I can get to finding them, and keeping them safe.

Once this is all over and done with, then I'll deal with it.

I twisted around the Boarbatusk's charge, trusting it was well taken care of by the others by the pained yelp it gave behind me. I blocked the hasty swipe of a Beowolf as I approached it with my shield as my sword separated its head from its body, scanning the field for another enemy to engage when I caught sight of Sage and Scarlet dogpile on top of an Ursa Major, barely avoiding it's spines as it reared back to try to attack them.

Leaving its underbelly free for me to disembowel, an opportunity I ruthlessly exploited, the monstrous bear dropping without making a sound.

Suddenly the ground shook beneath my feet and I had to fight to keep upright, even as the low rumble seemed to drown out all other sounds with the force of its presence.

An earthquake?

Now?

Despite myself, I turned to face the direction I could hear the rumbling coming from, off in the distance towards the mountain range behind Mountain Glenn.

I could see the peak of the tallest mountain begin to quake once more, rocks shifting and tumbling as it shook.

The mountain top exploded, massive pieces of stone being sent flying through the air like miniature meteors to crash into the thankfully empty necropolis below.

But to be honest that was only a secondary concern in comparison to what had just emerged from within the mountain.

A Dragon.

An actual, honest to god Dragon.

Heading straight for us.

Well, there goes the plan of retaking Beacon.

My hand went up to my headset, contacting Geppeto's scroll. "Geppeto, how are we doing for time in there?" I asked loudly, forcibly dragging my attention away from the utterly enormous Grimm approaching to decapitate an Ursa that had been trying to sneak up on me.

"We're about halfway done." Geppeto replied distractedly, clearly focused on the task at hand. "Why? Any problems?"

I chuckled humourlessly. "Well does a full grown Dragon heading our way sound like a problem to you?"

There was silence on the other line for a moment. "Say again Jaune, for a second there it sounded like you said that there was a Dragon coming our way." Geppeto said incredulously, chuckling nervously as he did so.

As if in response to this a harsh shriek filled the air, a sound that seemed to stretch on forever and shake the very world with its strength, windows down in Vale proper shaking themselves to pieces with a loud crash from the force of the monster's cry.

I heard the sound of Geppeto swearing faintly through the earpiece before he addressed me again. "Okay, looks like we're going to have to scrap the firewall install and just go straight for the hijacked broadcast. That'll cut down the amount of time you all will need to hold the base, but the Atlas mechs aren't going to stop coming." He warned me, the clacking of pressed keys audible to me.

"We'll deal with it." I promised, watching the flying beast draw ever closer. "But we can't hold them off forever Geppeto. I don't see us winning a fight against something like that Dragon."

There was silence for a moment from the other end before a loud sigh echoed out. "Beacon's lost to us today." Geppeto admitted grimly, not sounding pleased with his proclamation in the slightest but still aware of how utterly futile resistance was in the face of something like that. "But tomorrow is a different story."

There was a scuffling sound and suddenly a new voice appeared in my ear.

"You do your job Jaune, we'll do ours." Cardin promised, his tone determined even in the face of this new obstacle.

A vast shadow passed over head and I looked up to see the colossal form of the Dragon flying above us, in seeming defiance of gravity, the slow beats of its wings sending debris flying from the sheer force behind them.

The beast didn't stop, didn't even seem to notice out existence but something seemed to change as I stared up into the sky my eyes focusing intently.

I only just caught sight of it, the black essence almost invisible as it dropped from the night sky, the inky blackness falling like titanic raindrops before they slammed into the ground, spreading with the impact.

I braced myself ready to call for the others to dodge out of the way of the falling projectiles only to halt as I realised they were going to land away from us, well outside the risk of striking any of my comrades.

Had it missed?

"Look out!" someone called out across the battlefield and I spun back to face the black substance once more to see black mist rising up from the strange matter before the monstrous white mask of an Alpha Beowolf tore itself free from within, the mist fading away to reveal the Grimm where the substance had once been.

It made Grimm.

It made Grimm.

My eyes flicked out to the other drops of the black substance that marked the Dragon's path realising with a thrill of despair that the beast was still releasing more of the substance even now and likely had been doing so ever since it had exploded out of the mountain.

An endless assault of Grimm.

Oh that is so unfair.

No wonder Geppeto said Beacon was lost. As long as that Dragon's still up there, they'll never stop coming out of the woodwork.

Okay then Jaune, lets recap our goals for a minute.

All you have to do is hold the line in front of the CCT, while an army of Atlesian Machines tries to get inside, a problem further exacerbated by the addition of Grimm quite literally spawning from the ground around us.

"No rest for the wicked." I murmured under my breath, flourishing my blade as I focused on the drooling monster before me, its gleaming fangs beared towards me.

Then I roared and leapt forward, flinging myself at the Grimm.

Blake shuddered as she felt her clone be destroyed by Adam's strike, his attack being unleashed without an inch of hesitation as she dragged the unconscious Yang towards the nearest exit, the stump that had once been Yang's right arm illuminated by the glow of Yang's aura the only reason her partner wasn't bleeding out at this very moment.

But even with Yang's prodigious reserves a wound this big would drain them fast.

Her own wound wasn't exactly helping her either, the dark spots at the edge of her vision a clear sign of how close she was to unconsciousness herself.

She couldn't stop, couldn't hesitate or both Yang and herself would perish, either by Adam's blade or by the Grimm.

Adam surged forward, his blade drawn back for another ultra-quick draw, aiming to cut his old partner down with a single swing before he twitched, goosebumps forming instantly across his neck. His sword blurred into position, just in time to block the two rounds that would have slammed into his back, the power behind the two sending him sliding backwards. Adam looked up, his eyes narrowing behind his mask as he caught sight of who had shot at him. "Quatermain." He growled, the name sounding like some vile curse as he spat it out.

Blake turned her head to the side, still supporting Yang as she looked towards her saviour.

Tob's wheelchair rolled forward, both rifles up and aimed steadily at the terrorist's chest, a serious look coming over the old huntsman's face, even as he motioned with his head for Blake to get going. "Son." He answered casually, his tone at odds with the tense atmosphere.

Blake stood there, frozen in the face of this revelation before Yang let out a low moan and she reprioritised, wanting to get her wounded partner out of harm's way before Adam got the chance to so any more damage.

"Adam do that?" Tob asked simply, gesturing slightly with one of his guns towards the stump that had once been Yang's right hand.

Blake nodded and Tob scowled fiercely. "Lilith would turn in her grave seeing what he's done to her sword." He muttered to himself, shaking his head as he did so. "Bah, he even named it some blasted girly thing."

"Get out of my way, old fool." Adam demanded, determined to finish the conversation he'd been having with his onetime partner.

"Or what?" Tob challenged, not moving an inch. "You'll attack me with 'Blush and Eyeshadow'?"

Adam growled at that, Wilt's hilt leaving the sheath slightly to reveal a hint of crimson steel. "Don't think I won't kill you old man." Adam warned darkly, his grip tightening. "I'm a thousand times stronger than I was when I left."

Blake stepped back involuntarily, the sheer bloodlust emanating from her onetime teacher making her hair stand on end as a kind of primal fear filled every inch of her body as she fought to keep herself breathing, let alone holding onto the dead weight of Yang.

Tob in contrast, dropped on one of his rifles in his lap and preceded to clean out his ear with a pinkie, looking upon the leader of the White Fang with sheer and utter boredom oozing out of his every pore. "Hold on my whiny shit is a little rusty but what I heard was 'boohoo, I'm a right massive ass, boohoo, I cut myself, boohoo, I'm a right royal prick." He said, his tone an utter deadpan as he delivered the inflammatory words.

CLANG

Adam's blade shook as he tried to force it down, having crossed the room in a blur of speed so fast that Blake hadn't even seen him move, Tob easily blocking the blow with his rifle.

"And I still throw temper tantrums like a squealing brat." Tob continued as if Adam had never attacked him.

The backhand that cracked the masked man across the face caught him completely off guard, such was its speed, sending him sliding backwards, a spray of blood spitting out from Adam's mouth before he regained his footing.

Tob caught Blake's eye and gestured subtly toward the exit and without hesitation the young Faunus fled, dragging Yang alongside her as Adam fought off the dizziness of what felt like head-butting a steel wall.

The sound of a round being chambered filled the room and Adam looked up to gaze into the barrel of the rifle his estranged father was pointing at him. "And you still can't hit worth a damn either." The old huntsman finished before he blasted the hastily blocking Adam across the hall, landing with a crash on what was once a table.

A Creep leapt forward, aiming to attack me from the side only to be eviscerated by Sage's swing, his massive blade powering through two more Grimm and a knight before his strike ended, Scarlet leaping off his shoulder, gun firing in one hand as he sliced a wing of a Griffin with his sword.

I slid into place next to Amynta, and with a gesture our shields locked together as we acted as an impromptu wall for the Grimm to break upon, a torrent of projectiles being used to cut them down as we prevented them from charging forward.

I felt sweat drip down my forehead as I held the line, the Grimm being cut down only for even more to charge over their decaying corpses.

They didn't stop coming.

An endless tide.

And we were starting to get tired.

"New wave of Paladin's coming in!" I heard someone cry out, the heavy footfalls of the rogue mechs shaking the ground with their approach.

Directly behind us.

Grimm from the front.

Paladins from the back.

Pincered.

Not good.

I shouted for us to move, some of the others clearly having already picked up on the dire situation we were in, hoping to avoid being completely encircled by both the Grimm and the machines

I thought of running towards the Grimm for a moment before thinking better of it as I caught sight of more of the black substance dropping down from the sky, a clear sign of more Grimm soon to be pulling themselves from the pavement, and turned on my heel to move towards the approaching Paladins instead.

They may be far tougher than the Grimm to take down, but at least when they go down, four more don't pop up afterwards.

I saw one of the Paladin's throw a massive punch at Yatsuhashi, the tall huntsman blocking the blow with his sword ably but was still forced off his feet by the blow, heading towards me.

I moved my shield out of the way and braced my body, stopping the tumbling teen with my own form with a grunt of exertion.

He nodded in thanks before pushing himself up when I heard Nora shout out a warning of "Ren, look out!" from somewhere out of sight and I saw Ren be pushed to one side as the same Paladin that had launched Yatsuhashi slammed its fist where he had been standing.

Ren rolled to his feet, his eyes frantic. "NORA!" He roared, a hand outstretched to where the mechanical fist was slammed into the ground.

I felt as if I had swallowed a ball of ice.

No.

Not again.

The Paladin lifted its fist, revealing Nora's limp form beneath it before it spun on its axis, centring on Ren's form once more, fist whipping back for another mighty blow.

I was too far away.

Damn it Ren, dodge!

My teammate let out a snarl so viscous that I wouldn't have believed it possible to have come from him had I not seen it.

A violent pink aura exploded off him like a roaring inferno, the light blinding in its intensity before it shrank without warning, now only a pink outline that surrounded his form as he drew back a fist for a punch of his own.

The two fists, one mechanical, one mortal, met in mid-air and a shockwave rippled out that knocked all those nearby off their feet, be they student, Grimm or machine.

There was silence for a moment.

Then I witnessed a ripple of pink energy, fast as lighting, dance across the Paladin's chassis and the back of the mech detonated, exploding apart in a blaze of pink energy like a bomb had gone off, the Paladin falling with a mechanical groan as it did so.

I saw Ren stand there, gasping for breath with great heaves of oxygen before he swayed, collapsing without a sound.

I ran forward, shouting Ren's name as I went to him, sliding to a stop before his fallen form. His eyes were closed, his breathing still. "Ren! Wake up buddy, now is not the time to be falling asleep." I said frantically, trying to sit him up as I did so.

Ren's body was limp against mine but after what seemed to by an eternity I saw his chest rise and fall with a breath, air coming out of his nose.

Oh thank the heavens.

He's alive.

In the corner of my eye I saw Yatsusashi cradling Nora, the bubbly beserker still conscious but cradling her ribs, a black eye forming on the left side of her face. Looks like Nora's done for the day too.

"Ren?" I heard her ask as they grew closer, her concern evident even with the obvious amount of pain she must be going through.

"He's fine, just unconscious from that last attack." I reassured her, lifting up a surprisingly light feeling Ren as I did so. "We need to get you out of here."

Nora shook her head at my words. "You need to stay here. You're the only one that can contact Geppeto, you can't leave."

I went to argue when I felt Ren be lifted gently from my shoulder and I turned to see Sage and Scarlet by my side, the taciturn titan of team SSSN holding my teammate. "She's right Jaune." Scarlet said simply, cocking his pistol as he did so. "We can't do much against these Paladins, but we can get your teammates to safety."

As Scarlet said the words I heard a sudden quiet question in the back of my head, one that had my heart racing with panic as I did so.

I spun, scanning the battlefield frantically as I searched only to come up empty, the spreading panic quickly turning into dread.

"Where's Pyrrha?" I asked aloud, hoping that someone else might know where my missing partner was. "Has anyone seen her?"

"I have!" A cheery voice cried out and with a blur of motion Neon Katt slid to a near stop in front of me, still rolling on her skates. "I saw her with that Ozpan guy, you know? Your headmaster?"

I blinked at that. "Ozpin?" I murmured, wondering what the heck he would have been doing here. I would have thought he would have been out in the thick of it, fighting with all his no doubt considerable might against the invading force.

And instead he came here, didn't help us and vanished again.

"How long ago was this?" I asked, pushing aside my confusion for a moment.

Neon shrugged her shoulders. "I think around the time the Dragon started dropping Grimm around us, maybe." She said sounding unsure of herself.

Damn.

That was a lot of time, they could have covered a lot of ground during it.

There's no way I would be able to track her down myself through this chaos.

I paused, a thought striking me.

But I might know someone who can.

"You guys get Ren and Nora back to the ship, they're in too much danger to stay out here." I said turning back to face Sage, Scarlet and Yatsuhashi, the three of the agreeing with a series of nods. Yatsuhashi let out a loud whistle and within moments his teammate Fox was by his side, ready to assist him on the journey back.

As he went to move away Nora called out my name and threw something through the air towards me. I caught it in one hand, the cool metal held snugly within my palm. "You'll need it more than I will!" She called out loudly before grimacing and curling in on herself, her ribs clearly paining her.

And with that the four students and my two injured teammates left, leaving me on the battlefield once more.

Not exactly conductive to what I was going to do next, but I'd have to make do.

With a quick "cover me" to my nearby comrades, I reached up to my headset and placed my hand against it trying to get in contact with the person I thought could help me find my partner.

Thankfully he picked up.

"Jaune?" Cardin's voice came through the line, sounding distracted and questioning at the same time. "The Professor is busy working on the last stages of the false broadcast's code, he can't talk right now."

"That's fine," I reassured him, cutting the leader of team CRDL off before he could gain any steam, "I was actually calling to talk to you. I need your help."

There was a pause for a moment before a reply sounded out. "What do you need?"

"Pyrrha's gone missing." I said bluntly, trying to summarize as best I could, "I was hoping you could use the thing you used to track my phone to track hers."

"Okay, just hold on a sec," There was the sound of movement before it settled again the sound of fingers tapping keys reaching my ears before Cardin spoke up again. "Looks like the system's still mostly intact, I'll just need her number then."

I nodded to myself in response, reaching into my pocket to pull out my scroll, moving quickly through my contacts to retrieve Pyrrha's number.

I'd never really felt the need to remember scroll numbers.

I mean after all, they were stored inside my scroll, and I only used the scroll to call them so why bother?

I spoke the numbers aloud and the sound of Cardin bashing away at the keyboard responded back, a foreboding silence filling my ears as Cardin said nothing.

On the battlefield I witnessed Velvet pull out her weapon for the first time I could recall, which seemed to be a hard light replica of Ruby's scythe. She leapt into the air not only wielding the leader of team RWBY's weapon but also mimicking her technique, landing a heavy blow on the Paladin before the scythe broke apart into fragments.

She reached behind her and another wire frame weapon formed in her hand, this time Weiss' rapier deflecting an oncoming first before charging forward with a flurry of thrusts before she was suddenly wielding Yang's shot gauntlets instead, changing weapons mid-strike.

I felt my eyebrow raise.

Now that was one hell of a trump card for team CFVY.

I wonder why they hadn't had her as part of the doubles round instead of Coco or Yatsuhashi?

I mean, having the ability to seemingly conjure any weapon and use it with all the skill of its owner sure would open up a lot of options.

But my thoughts were once again drawn back to my partner and the increasingly unsettling silence from Cardin.

Eventually I could wait no longer, a question of "Anything?" escaping my lips, sounding far more desperate then I had wanted it to.

"I can't find her." He admitted, sounding honestly confounded as he worked away on whatever it was he was doing to try and find Pyrrha. "I'm not sure if it's because of the system failing or if she's somehow out of range but I can't connect with her Scroll." There was more typing sounds for a moment before an 'aha' came through the line. "But I can tell you where she last was, according to the last telemetry logged in the system.

"Where was it last broadcasting?" I shouted, trying to speak over the cacophony of violence occurring. I did feel my jaw drop slightly when I saw Weiss bisect a Paladin with a giant glowing white blade wielded by an equally huge arm extending out from one of her Glyphs.

Since when could she do that?

I heard the sound of Cardin typing away at something before he responded. "Looks like she made her way inside Beacon tower, then the signal just cut off, no sign of her leaving it. She might still be inside."

Beacon tower.

Well it's a starting point if nothing else.

Time's a wasting.

"As soon as your done in there meet up with the others outside and evacuate to the city." I ordered Cardin, turning to face the towering form of the building. "There's nothing more that we can do here."

"What about you?" Cardin's voice yelled back, the sound of static beginning to encroach upon our conversation.

I narrowed my eyes at the groups of Grimm prowling about between where I was and the tower, the monsters no doubt less than willing to let me just pass on through.

"I'm going to find my partner."

Adam pushed himself to his feet, shaking himself slightly before scowling at the wizened hunter. "Aren't you proud of me father?" He asked, his tone mocking as he slowly circled around the wheelchair bound man, mask fixed solely on the rifles pointed at him. "Fighting the good fight, just like you."

The terrorist leapt forward without warning hoping to strike Tob down in an instant only for his attack to be met with a slash of Tob's own, the rifle barrel holding firm in the face of the attack. "I am nothing like you." Tob answered, pursing his lips as he did so.

Tob lashed out with a swipe from his other rifle, Adam tilting his head out of the way, going to engage once more before being knocked backwards by the force of one of Tob's bullets slamming against his upraised guard.

"This is how you repay your mother?" Tob asked amid the conflict, Adam masterfully weaving between his gunfire before being forced to dodge to the side. "Was this the best you could think of? You and your worthless cause?" Tob roared at him, his voice growing louder with every word. "How dare you disgrace your mother's legacy for your own selfish pride!"

"I am fulfilling my mother's legacy!" Adam roared back, leaping forward to attack his father once more only to be sent crashing backwards into one of the shattered tables by his father's counter. "I'm making the council pay for what they did! Them and Schnee!"

"By murdering hundreds if not thousands of innocents in the process!" Tob retorted, harrying his foe with another volley of gunfire. "What kind of victory is that?"

Adam strode forward once again, a flurry of peerless strikes held off by only Tob's own masterful defence, gained from a lifetime of combat. "One that I claimed with my own two hands, one that you were too weak to grasp yourself."

With a loud clash the two were pushed apart once more and the two remained there for a moment. Watching each other warily.

"Adam, you may be too old to put over my knee, but that won't stop me from tearing your bleeding ass off and beating the ever loving crap out of the rest of you." Tob said bluntly, cocking both of his rifles with a theatrical spin, both of them still levelled at him.

Adam laughed derisively at that. "You don't have the balls, Old Man." He sneered, a vicious slice of his sword turning a table into kindling as Tob's wheelchair spun out of the way.

The Old Bastard ignored his son's reply. "You should be thankful your mother isn't still alive boy, she's not nearly as nice as I am. After the crap you've pulled she'd tear off your favourite limb and beat you half to death with it." Tob pauses for a minute, both rifles still firing constantly. "Then she'd probably tear off another limb and finish the bleeding job."

Adam bared his teeth and growled like an animal at that. "Pity she can't since you let her die." He snarled, still growling at Tob as he did so.

Tob went very still at that. "What did you just say?" He whispered, the quiet words cutting through the oppressive silence.

"You. Killed. Her." Adam said slowly, emphasizing every word as he did so. "Just like you did the Asura during the war, cutting them down when they least expected it."

Tob remained silent at that, his shoulders shaking as he watched Adam through narrowed eyes and the younger man took his silence to be an admittance of guilt and powered on, continuing his tirade.

"When I learnt the truth about you, I swore I'd kill you." Adam revealed, his weapons held within clenched fists as he levelled his sword at the man before him. "So I took the mask of the Asura, your greatest foe, and took control of the White Fang only this time, you won't be the one to walk away after the fight with the Asura, you're going to DIE BY MY HAND…"

Adam's pronouncement was cut off by a sudden bark of uncontrollable laughter, the terrorist halting as the laughter only got louder and louder before it ceased, if only because the one laughing ran out of air.

Tob leant up against the back of his chair and exhaled before he laughed lowly again at his son's words, shaking his head admonishingly. "Oh Adam, you daft fool. I didn't kill the 'Asura'." He let go of his guns, the two rifles dropping towards the floor before the halted, floating in mid-air in seeming defiance of gravity. He placed his hands on the chairs armrests, pushing himself up with his arms before suddenly he was up, floating above the chair. The air behind the old hunter shimmered for a moment before something shifted into view, four gargantuan arms extending from above and below Tob's own, each one golden and glowing as if they were freshly forged.

The bottom two arms supported Tob, propelling him up into the air even as his useless legs dangled bonelessly beneath him. Tob threw out his two normal arms and two gauntlets flashed into existence over his hands before suddenly they too were encased in the same golden armour as his other two arms. "I was the Asura." Tob growled out, his teeth gritted together as he glared down at his gobsmacked son.

Adam stared up in shock, taking a step back out of reflex as a fresh wave of power erupted from Quatermain as his free hands clenched into menacing fists in unison.

The four free hands tightened around the two rifles they were holding up before twisting, a loud 'cli-clack' sounding out as they did so. And suddenly there wasn't two rifles, but four identical swords, each one curved and cruel, tightly gripped in an armoured fist.

Alan's eyes narrowed, his pupils no longer visible within the white void that had become his eyes, tattoo like markings seemingly carving themselves into the hunter's face as he passed judgement upon the foe before him. "

"I'll be taking that right arm now." Tob announced, sounding as if there was no question of what was going to happen next.

As Adam stood there in shock at the revelation that the man he'd idolised, that he'd based himself on as a way of defying his father in fact turned out to be him all along, an Alpha Beowolf leapt through the glass window with a clatter, long lanky limbs outstretched as it reached out to cut down the old man.

There was a blur of movement and suddenly the Beowolf was behind Tob, his four blades now covered in the black ooze of a Grimm. Red lines etched themselves across the monster's body in an instant before it all but exploded, meaty chunks being thrown every which way before they started evaporating.

There was a reason that the Asura was known as the Bloody Demon, and it seemed that Tob was perfectly willing to remind the world of that fact once more.

And besides…

The white voids that were the Asura's eyes centred on Adam, who took a step back almost unconsciously at the sheer weight of the wrath that was emanating from the legend of the Faunus War.

There was another target for his wrath.

With a berserk cry that sounded more like the roar of a monster than that of a man, The Asura set himself upon the foe before him and did his level best at doing what he did best.

Violence.

The doors to the lift sprang open and Professor Ozpin dashed forward, his cane upraised as he sprinted down the corridor, Pyrrha barely keeping pace with him.

Suddenly they were before the pods once more, the comatose form of Amber, seemingly sleeping peacefully in one, the other pod empty.

For now.

"What do we do now?" Pyrrha asked, turning towards Professor Ozpin desperate for some kind of direction from the headmaster of beacon.

But the man was silent, his eyes focused on the screen as his fingers danced across the keyboard.

Suddenly the pod let out a hiss of escaping air before it opened, the lid extending upwards before Pyrrha's uncertain form.

Ozpin closed his eyes.

He wanted to tell her that everything was going to be all right.

That if she just stepped into the pod that everything would be okay.

To not think about it and just believe in his words.

But her couldn't.

Not only because she deserved better than that.

But because for one to become a Maiden?

It is a burden one must take up of their own free will, or not at all.

He thought he'd have more time, give Pyrrha longer to adjust to the possibility, allow her to consult with her team, receive mentoring on what the process would likely involve, what to expect.

But there was no time left.

"We do nothing." He said aloud finally, opening his eyes once more as he turned to face the scared young girl before him. "You miss Nikos…" Ozpin hesitated, almost disgusted with what he was forcing upon this girl yet aware of just how horrible the alternative would be. "Have a choice to make." He said finally, watching her carefully.

Pyrrha stared at the pod, uncertainty gripping her before her thoughts were dragged back to those fighting for their lives above the school.

Of the civilians and students.

Of her friends.

Of her team.

Of Jaune.

She closed her eyes and hardened her resolve.

This…thing…terrified Pyrrha.

Scared her more than anything had in her entire life.

If she stepped into that coffin, the person who stepped out might not be her anymore.

But…

If even half of what she'd been told about the Maiden's powers were true, than they were utter juggernauts on the field, weapons that could reap the Grimm like chaff from wheat.

That power could keep her friends safe.

Pyrrha stepped forward and leant against the back of the pod, nodding to Ozpin as she did so, the headmaster working away on the keyboard once more.

So there was no choice really.

The lid lowered and Pyrrha had to fight to keep the comparison of the lid of a coffin sealing a corpse in tight to mind.

"Are you ready?" Ozpin asked, looking at Pyrrha through the see through window of the pod. Pyrrha met his gaze and nodded silently, bracing herself for what was to come.

"I…" Ozpin began, not only seeing the face of Pyrrha but of Amber, of Lilith, and even more at one time young girls as they took up the mantle of one of the Maidens. To fight. And to die. "I need to hear you say it."

"Yes." Pyrrha said, staring straight ahead, not looking at Ozpin.

"Thank you, Miss Nikos." Ozpin said quietly. Then his hands blurred across the keyboard once more, his fingers pressing keys so fast it was a wonder how the machine was able to keep up with him. With a hiss of air and a mechanical groan Amber's pod stood up tall, now parallel with Pyrrha's own.

An aura of power surrounded the Fall Maiden, an orange glow visible as her eyelids fluttered unconsciously. Suddenly the pipes connected to her pod began lighting up, that same orange glow travelling up along them, disappearing up into the ceiling before the energy before flowing down into Pyrrha's pod.

An identical glow to Amber's surrounded Pyrrha and she began screaming, her agony clear as her body began to shake as the Fall Maiden's power was forcibly injected into her aura. Ozpin wanted nothing more than to stop this, to try and ease his student's pain.

But there was no stopping now. Either she came out of that pod with the Fall Maiden's power, or she didn't come out at all.

Ozpin turned his eyes away, not facing the screaming Pyrrha but instead looking upon the girl in the pod beside her, Amber. Yet another one of his many failures. "I'm…" Ozpin started, the words tasting like ash in his mouth. "…so sorry."

There was a whistling sound that just met Ozpin's ears in time for him to see an arrow pierce through the window of Amber's pod, slamming into her heart and piercing her chest with impossible precision.

Alarms started blaring as Amber's eyes opened wide, her consciousness seemingly returning just in time for the last of her life force to slip away from her, eyes drifting closed one final time, her body going limp.

Ozpin spun, turning to face this new attacker only to nearly stagger as he caught sight of her, horror and despair in equal measure filling him. "No…" he murmured, unwilling to see the figure standing before him but accepting it none the less.

Halfway down the corridor stood Cinder Fall, a bow of what looked to the eye as obsidian in her hand, the means by which the arrow had been fired. As the bow lowered a small smirk crept across her face.

Even as he face this unexpected foe, he could feel the power of the Fall maiden behind him being called to rejoin the rest of rest of it. To be whole once more.

With her.

He couldn't allow that to happen.

And so even as he turned to face his foe one of his fingers trailed almost imperceptibly on the keyboard, pressing one of the keys as he did so, his actions hidden in the sudden darkness of the green flames that lit the corridor going out.

Pyrrha started slamming her fists against the wall of the pod, desperate to get out, even as the flow of the orange light reversed, trailing back up the tubes and into the pod of the unmoving Amber. The power then burst out of Amber's body as a physical thing, the energy shattering the pod's window before careening towards Cinder and entering her form.

The woman in the red dress began to glow the same orange, raising her head to reveal long trails of what appeared to be flames extending from her eyes before her feet left the ground as her aura first doubled, then tripled. Two streams of fire began orbiting around her moving so fast that they seemed to be solid circles of fire continuously moving around the dark haired woman, a cruel smirk on her lips.

In the corner of his eye he caught sight of Pyrrha finally breaking out of her pod with a blast of her semblance before she staggered to the floor, her eyes fluttering shut in the face of the ordeal.

But Ozpin wasn't paying much attention to that.

In all honesty, his mind was seized by the assailant in front of him.

By just who this was.

And with the Fall Maiden's power in her grasp…

He didn't see a way for him to win this one.

But even if he couldn't find a way for him to win.

Ozpin slammed his cane, end first on the ground and there was a flash of green.

Didn't mean he couldn't find a way for her to lose.

In Ozpin's empty office, the colossal gears turning and clicking in the ceiling above stopped without warning, freezing in place without making so much as a squeak.

One moment Cinder was staring down Ozpin as he stood protectively over the comatose form of Pyrrha.

The next they were gone.

Cinder blinked before spinning on her heels just in time to see the elevator doors close, hiding the 'Invincible Girl' from view. Standing before those closed doors was Ozpin, breathing heavily but still standing strong.

Cinder laughed darkly at the scene before her. "Oh Oz," She drawled, shaking her head as she did so. "Ever the fool. You couldn't save them then and you can't save them now. The power of the Autumn Maiden is finally all mine."

Ozpin walked forward calmly in the face of his opponent, a single brow raised archly. "Truly?" He inquired, locking eyes with the malevolent glowing yellow gaze of the woman before him. "All of it?"

The cruel gleaming eyes narrowed, wary of what trick the old hunter had to play this time. "What are you babbling about?" She demanded, stalking forward as she did so, plumes of flame erupting with her every step.

Ozpin lifted his cane from the ground, holding it firmly in one hand. "You may try to snuff out the light, old friend." Ozpin said before smiling lightly. "But all one really needs, is a single spark."

Cinder froze, feeling through her power, experiencing it flowing through her very veins. And that was when she felt it.

It was tiny.

Miniscule even.

But she noticed it.

A fragment of the Fall Maiden's power was not there.

A fragment of her power was not there.

Impossible.

But where wa…

Her eyes flicked back to the doors of the elevator that Ozpin had just shoved Pyrrha into before she turned back to face the man in question, fury consuming her. "Why you miserable little cockroach!" She roared flames erupting from her in a conflagration of heat and light beyond anything that Yang could have dreamed of achieving. "You know you can't stop me, old fool!"

Ozpin nodded calmly at that, even in the face of what appeared to be certain doom. "True." He acknowledged easily, rolling his shoulders as he did so. "But I'm not trying to stop you. I'm just buying them time."

At that Cinder began visible shaking, such was the force of her fury, her aura becoming visible as her tight fisted control began to loosen in the face of her wrath. As Cinder's face contorted into a rictus of hate and she propelled herself towards the headmaster of Beacon, he didn't turn or flinch in the face of what was sure to be his end.

Up above them, unseen by Cinder, the great gears of the tower began to turn once more, an aura of green energy surrounding each individual gear. The headmaster of Beacon drew in every drop of power he could, making use of all the power his fortress could provide him, granting him enough power to overpower an army with ease.

But not her.

Ozpin twirled his cane, guard up and ready as he faced his foe. "One final time into the breach." He said softly, the words not for his opponent. He pressed his fingers tightly around the grip of his cane, the once immobile gears on the hilt beginning to spin wildly. Then he stepped forward and vanished.

And then all was chaos.