RWBY: RETOLD

(Pilot)

Alright, so how do I start this? Hello there people viewing this. I've never really done fanfic writing or storytelling much, so this is all new to me. That and i'm nervous about this, but I'll explain what this story is and what it's about.

So the main title of this story is RWBY: Retold. Not that creative, but it's short and simple. This is pretty much a different take on writing RWBY, such as fixing mistakes, adding plots and new characters, etc. Pretty much changing/re-writing history. With this, I want to write a story not just because I want to make a different take on it, but to also share this with many in the fandom or who are new to RWBY that would enjoy this take on it. I am passionate about this show and do this not because I hate it, but more out of love, and to respect it. But either way, rather people like this or not, I'll be happy that someone who's read this enjoyed it.

Anyways, this is meant to be a taster for you reviewers and audiences, seeing how the writing and storytelling will be like and decide rather you want to continue or not. If you don't then that's fine. This takes place after volume 2 and before volume 3. Either way, I'll let you get to reading. Disclaimer, I do not own RWBY.

A dark night in the Emerald Forest. The sound of Beowolves could be heard, howling at the shattered moon of remnant. Deep in the forest, an operation was being held down, by no other than the white fang. Two goons were guarding a cavern, walking past many machinery that the gang had brought with them. One of them stopped for a moment, as one of them went to go pick up something.

"What's wrong?", asked the first goon.

The second goon looked up at them, as he picked up a 1 lien coin. "I found myself a lucky lien."

"Sweet. What did you wish for?"

"I can't just tell you that. It would ruin the wish."

"Aw come on, don't be such a spoilsport."

Well, alright, fine. I wished to get lucky with a girl."

"Pfft. Really? That'll never happen."

Suddenly, a mysterious figure caught them by their shoulders. Their velvet eyes could be seen through the shadows. "Actually, it just might be your lucky day boys." As the two guards were surprised, they figure banged the goons' heads together quickly, knocking them both unconscious. The figure walked out of the shadows, patting their hands together for a job well done. They were no other than the blonde bimbo herself, Yang Xiao Long.

"Phew, that was easier than expected, and all of that done with stealth"

"Running in and smashing every single white fang member and exploding two drop ships, is not stealth.", Blake corrected, as she caught up to Yang,walking alongside her.

"I'll have you know it was three drop ships" Yang corrected back, with a smirk.

Blake shook her head, smiling a bit at the blonde's humour. "So where's the other two then?" Yang shrugged, not knowing where their teammates were. They turned around to see Weiss and Ruby walk out of the woods to them, with Weiss looking unappeased and Ruby being...well, Ruby.

"Sorry about the delay, someone needed to have a pee break whilst on a mission", Weiss remarked, obviously talking about Ruby.

"Well sometimes when you've gotta go, you gotta go", Ruby replied, blushing a bit.

"Whatever, let's just get this over with."

The team were exactly at the coordinates that they were sent to. They were standing in front of an abandoned laboratory, owned by no other than the man himself, Dr. Merlot.

Their mission from Professor Ozpin after their incident with their first encounter with the Dr, was to find his abandoned labs, & find what plans he had, and retrieve them. For this team however, they have not been so lucky to find them.

"This lab better have his plans.", Weiss said. "We've searched two labs already, & we've found nothing."

"Come on Ice Queen, maybe third time's the charm.", Yang joked.

Ignoring Yang's usual name calling, Weiss followed Ruby to the lab's entrance, along with Blake & Yang. The lab looked like all the usual ones, dark, gloomy and needed a good cleaning out. Without hesitation, Ruby and the others went in. They turned on the lights of their scrolls and looked around the laboratory, looking for anything that to them, spelled the word 'Secret plans, do not touch' on them.

"I hope we don't walk into any mutated grim.", Ruby said, feeling nervous. "Like the Beowolves, or those explody things, or even another Deathstalker"

Blake looked back at Ruby, and assured her, "Don't worry, I'm sure we destroyed them all along with his main lab."

"Hmph, as long as he doesn't have any more of those annoying robots", Weiss reminded them.

It was true, what team RWBY faced, along with JNPR, was an absolute travesty. They were first sent to find something odd, facing a few creepers and Beowolves along the way, only to find out about a crazy scientist who made mutated Grimm, planning to what in his words call, 'helping' remnant. They had also had to face red robots with spears, and white ones with grenade launchers. The last thing to remember, was facing off a mutated Deathstalker, causing Merlot to get mad and self destruct the base.

"Well we'd better find those plans, before he decides to do something else, like make a two headed Nevermore or something.", Yang said, shivering at the though.

It took the team 20 minutes of looking, searching every nook and cranny for these plans. Even Yang was getting impatient & decided to go and punch down walls, having the team needing to stop her at least once, & hopefully not twice. Weiss had started to get impatient herself. "Ugh, how long is it going to take until we find a single piece of his plans!?"

Ruby went over to Weiss & tried to calm her down. "Hey, come on now Weiss, we'll find them eventually-"

"Well how much longer? We've looked all over these labs, and we've gotten nothing."

Weiss walk over to a wall, with a red button on it. "I doubt that if I just go over to this wall, and push this red button", she'd press the button. "that a secret door will just open and reveal a secret lab area."

As she said this, a secret door would open behind her, revealing a lab that was kept away from the rest of the facility. "Have I made my point?"

The other three were dumbfounded, looking at each other, speechless of what they saw. Yang was the first to respond. "I guess third time, is the charm.", she'd walk past Weiss, patting her shoulder, "Way to go Weissy."

Weiss was confused, as she looked behind her, seeing the secret entrance. "What? But I...how..."

Blake shrugged at her, as she went past with Ruby skipping along. Weiss gave up, and followed them in. Inside wasn't as exciting as Ruby though it would be, such as new tech or weapons, and instead seemed like a supply closet, full of hung up blueprints, a computer with a small desktop, and a box full of parts. There was no light switch, so they still had to use their scrolls. "Yeesh, it's like a 30 year old's basement when they're living with their mom." Yang joked.

"Alright team." Ruby said, acting like a leader. "Let's search for clues!"

Immediately, Ruby dived into the box, throwing around parts as she looked in it. "Ugh, Ruby!", Weiss snapped. "You're gonna hit someone with those."

Ruby got out of the box & looked down at her feet, blushing a shade of pink. "Sorry."

The team continued to look around, searching the closets, whilst Weiss checked his computer, searching through his files. Ruby seemed to walk around a bit, looking around. Until she stopped, looking at the blueprints hung up. A lot of them seemed to be old inventions of his, one of them was some kind of walking kettle. But one blueprint seemed to have caught her eye.

It resembled a paladin that Atlas made, except it seemed as if modified with different weapons and such that Ruby didn't recognise. "Huh, what's this?", she looked up at the writing, seeing some sort of name for it, and read it out to herself. "Project...RoW...Ba...lYn? Odd name."

"Guys! Come over here!" Weiss called the rest of the team, sounding as if she'd found something. Ruby quickly grabbed the blueprint, and shoved it into her pocket, running off to Weiss.

Blake was the first to ask, "What did you find?"

"What did I find?", Weiss repeated. "I just found Merlot's stash! We're talking projects, weapons, all sorts. Hell, even stashes of dust he's stolen."

The others were impressed, especially Ruby. "Yay! Way to go Weiss!"

The heiress would gently smile at her amazement of her, but quickly hid it, blushing pink a bit "It was no problem." She'd take out her scroll from the computer, holding it in her hand. "Now all we just need to do is take this to Ozpin, and Merlot can say hello to prison in no time."

Just as she said this, the entrance had locked itself remotely. They looked at the door, surprised, yet unamused. "He locked the door, didn't he?" The other three looked at her and nodded.

"Welp, now what?", Yang asked.

Ruby looked around the small room, trying to find another way out."Hmm, well we could take that elevator" she pointed at an elevator that was there the whole time.

Blake was astonished, yet confused. "Who puts an elevator in a small room?"

Yang shrugged, "Who cares? If it's a trap, we'll kick his ass anyway."

The rest of the team agreed, and went into the elevator. They looked at the button panel, which only had two buttons, up and down. Ruby though to herself, before picking. "I say...we should go up." She pressed the up button, causing the elevator door to close, & send the team up.

"Talk about some weird building design." Weiss inspected to herself.

Ruby looked at Weiss' scroll, a bit excited. "Eh, who cares? What I care about, is that we've totally won the bet against JNPR!"

"SCORE!" The team cheered, as they all pumped their fists in the air in unison.

As the elevator had finally stopped. The door opened, & they walked out, but only to look around in shock, yet annoyance. They were all the way back, in the ruined city of Mountain Glenn.

"Aw come on! Here!? Again!?" Ruby shouted in an outrage. "How do we even end up here from an elevator!?"

First she had fallen into the city, finding out a secret plot between the white fang and Torchwick, then she and her team had to stop a bomb from going off and killing them, and now this. It seems as if this place is a bad omen to them.

Suddenly, a sound of hands clapping could be heard, echoing through the ruined city. But this wasn't just clapping, this was 'sarcastic clapping', coming from a screen projection, of Dr. Merlot, grinning at the prey he had just caught.

"Why hello there girls, long time no see." he'd look down, grinning maliciously at them. The girls brought out their weapons, ready to face whatever he'd send at them. Robots, Grimm, it didn't matter, cause either way, it was going down.

Merlot spoke up first, "Well then, it seems that once again you've all fallen into my trap."

"Shut it Merlot.", Ruby hissed back. "This time's going to be different."

Merlot looked at her with curious interest. "Oh? How so, little huntress?"

Ruby replied, acting courageous. "Because today, we're going to be taking you in, not just that but we also have all of your evil plans on Weiss' scroll!", Ruby stood there with a goofy heroic pose, pointing at the projected screen, "Therefore, your tyranny is over!"

There was an ambient silence between all of them, including the Doctor himself, unamused at the red hooded girl. "Ruby...", Weiss spoke out. "You weren't supposed to tell him that."

Ruby looked back awkwardly, feeling embarrassed. "Oh. Er, oops?"

Weiss sighed deeply, holding the bridge of her nose. "You dolt."

Merlot chuckled to himself, as he witnessed the stupidity of team RWBY for himself.

"My, you girls really aren't as clever as you show yourselves. But I already knew you had taken my plans. And besides, I actually have a surprise for all of you."

The team had gotten into their fighting stances, ready to fight. "You see team RWBY, you all actually inspired me."

They stopped, looking at each other, then back to him. Ruby was the first to question. "Er, inspire? Didn't we, you know, ruin your lab and all?"

"Indeed you did.", He replied. "But you see it goes to show how rather strong you four are for a bunch of first years. Which is why I decided to make a little something out of all of you." As he said this, he pressed a few switches. From in front of them, a circular door was opening up, steam pouring out of the crevice. Something made of machine was slowly rising up from the pit, as the steam covered it up.

"Team RWBY, I present to you..." The steam would clear, revealing the machine. "Project, RoWBalYn!" The team looked at his creation, shocked of what he has made. It was a Paladin, stolen by Atlas, but it was especially modified. It had white paint, with red lines across it, with a circular red eye on the left side. On it's left arm, was the combination of Ruby's Crescent Rose scythe, with Yang's Ember Celica gauntlet. On the right arm, was the combination of Weiss' Myrtenaster Lance, with Blake's Gambol Shroud Sword. The mechanised battlesuit towered over the four, dwarfing them in size.

Yang looked back at Merlot, scowling at him. "What the hell is this thing!?"

He smiled with malicious intent at her reaction. "Why it's an Atlesian Paladin, designed especially with all of team RWBY's weapons and skills. The perfect machine, meant to be able to destroy both Grimm and Huntsman alike. Now team RWBY..." The screen would turn off, with the sound of an intercom turning on, coming from the Paladin. "Let's dance, shall we?"

The mech leapt at the the quartet, slamming it's gauntlet at the ground where they stood. The four of them barely avoided it in enough time, as they each spread out. "Woah! That thing is fast." Ruby exclaimed.

The paladin faced Ruby, as it shot with it's Shroud, firing consistently. Ruby reflected the bullets by spinning her scythe, hitting them back into it. But the bullets seemed to bounce off of it's plating, not scratching the war suit at all. Blake attempted to stop it's left arm. She slid past it, tossing the jag of her weapon with the ribbon to wrap around it. She'd pull it back, attempting to keep it from moving.

Yang ran towards the behemoth, eager to punch it. "I got this!" She'd leap up, ready to give it a wallop. Suddenly, the Paladin used it's right arm to grab Yang, spinning her like it was a baseball player, readying up their throw with the ball. It aimed at Blake, and threw the blonde into the unsuspecting faunus, sending them into the ruined building blocks away.

Ruby looked in their direction, shocked. She called out to them. "Yang! Blake!"

The two laid there, stars swirling round their heads. "Soft...landing." Blake replied, not realising her soft landing was from Yang's own bosoms. Ruby wiped the sweat off her brow, sighing in relief.

Weiss urgently called out to her, "Heads up!" Ruby quickly looked back to the Mech suit. While she wasn't looking, it had lined up the sniper of Crescent, aimed straight at her. Ruby yelped, as she jumped away as it shot, the bullet flying past her and devastating three ruined buildings past her.

She looked at the wreckage, shuddering as to imagine what would have happened if it had hit her. While this was happening, Weiss took the opportunity to jump onto the Paladin, striking down her lance onto it and preparing a glyph. She froze up the centre of where she struck, the mech attempting to swipe her off, yet failing. She leapt off, firing a barrage of flame at the ice, blasting the mech.

She fell on her feet gracefully, smirking at her work. "That wasn't so hard, now we just need to get the inside of it." As soon as she took a second look, she was shocked. The Paladin was only dented by the damage, showing that not a single shot had pierced through it. It seemed like the attack was well executed, yet it lacked the firepower to pierce through it's plating.

It suddenly turned back to her, swiping it's scythe at her feet, causing her to fall off balance. It then sliced at her with it's sword, a few feet across. She fell onto the floor hard, landing on her side.

"Weiss!", Ruby called out, as she ran to her. But before she could get to her, the mechanised menace fired a shotgun spread from the gauntlet, exploding where the heiress was.

It looked straight at Ruby, knowing it's next target. "Will you look at that", Merlot spoke from the suit. "The first time the RoWBalYn has been used, and it's already incapacitated your teammates. Goes to show how far superior my intellect is."

He pointed at Ruby, a grin on his face. "It seems that this will already be over!" He'd laugh at her, as she looked upon her team. Blake and Yang were out, Weiss was injured, it was just her now. She just stood there, as she formed her hand into a clenched fist.

The Paladin raised it's left arm, ready to strike it's target. "It's already over, Ruby Rose." The Paladin struck down, about to hit...but suddenly, it stopped moving. Merlot questioned what was happening, until he saw with his own eye. Ruby was holding the arm in one place, a metre away from her, with just her right hand. As she looked up, he could see something was different. Her silver eyes were glowing almost white, a scowl on her face, gritting her teeth as she looked at him. He suddenly felt a bit of fear from the girl, shocked as to what he was seeing.

"Merlot!" She shouted at the top of her lungs, as she punched the paladin with her bare hands, sending it flying towards the next building, smashing right into it. Ruby walked to the wreckage of the building, anger building up inside. But this wasn't any power, this was the power of a silver eyed warrior, stopping the cruel from hurting the kind. This power, is the one unleashed from Ruby Rose.
And she is pissed off.

Jaune picked up a piece of rubble from the floor, inspecting it. "Nope, no signs of an evil underground lab here." Pyrrha walked beside Jaune, putting a hand on his shoulder. "I don't think we're going to find an underground base with a maniac like that."

As it seemed, team RWBY wasn't the only ones to be sent on the mission to find Merlot's plans. Team JNPR was also sent by Ozpin to look for Merlot's lab, going to Mountain Glenn for any luck in finding it, and the plans within it.

Nora and Ren were right behind the two, as they were still looking for any clues of the Doctor's labs. Jaune sighed, looking around, "At this point, it would be luck if we found anything." Nora quipped in the middle of them, punching the blonde boy's shoulder playfully. "Aw lighten up! We'll find that lab in no time. And when we do, I'm gonna bash his head with my hammer of justice!"

Ren nodded his head with Nora, sort of agreeing with the excited Valkyrie. Jaune was about to say something, until they heard a loud crash go on in the distance. "What the hell was that?"

Pyrrha though to herself for a second, then answered. "It might be Ruby and the others. They could have already gotten into trouble." Nora leapt up, running towards the noise. "Then let's investigate! Team JNPR to the rescue!" Pyrrha rushed to her, with Ren jogging to them. Jaune tried to call out to them, but was unsuccessful. He sighed, trying to catch up to his team. "Someday Jaune, someday."

The RoWBalYn slowly got back up from the rubble, getting back it's footing. Merlot was completely dumbfounded on what he just witnessed. Ruby Rose, a fifteen year old first year, just grabbed the arm of his creation, and without a weapon, managed to punch it back with force. Just who the hell is this girl?

He looked back to where Ruby was. She was walking towards him, anger flowing through those shining silver eyes. "What is this power of hers?" he thought to himself, trying to figure out the mystery of this girl.

Ruby stopped in her tracks, facing the madman and his machine. She lifted up a finger, pointing straight at him. She spoke, rasp in her voice, "You're going to pay for hurting my friends, you filthy psychopath." Filthy? Calling Merlot a psychopath is fine, maybe crazy or a maniac. But filthy? How dare she.

He raised the lance of his mech at her, this time casting earth dust at her. She jumped over the basic attack, drop-kicking the chassis of the Paladin with force, causing it to crack. "What?" Merlot staggered, "Impossible, she managed to damage my RoWBalYn? Why you little menace, take this!" He hit her back a few metres with the gauntlet. She pulled out her scythe, using the blade to dig into the ground and stop her moving back. The battlesuit used the ribbon to grapple onto the ceiling of the underground city, swinging at her with full force, as it had it's scythe out, ready to cut through her.

All of a sudden, the ribbon was cut off, causing the mech to crash down onto the ground, giving Ruby ample time to avoid it. She looked up to see the culprit, who was no other than Blake. She was happy to see that her teammate was alright. She shook off the negative emotion from her power, getting back to her normal self. "Great timing Blake!"

Blake jumped down to her, landing feet first. "Good to know you're getting a better control of that power. I thought you were about to go all out berserk like with that Grimm Knight." Ruby rubbed the back of her head, grinning. "Heh, glad I didn't."

They got back to being serious, looking back at the Paladin that was getting back up.

They were joined by Yang and Weiss, ready for round two. "Good thing our aura took most of that damage", Weiss said in relief, glad that her bones weren't broken like glass. "But how are we supposed to damage this thing?"

"Punch it really hard?", Yang asked. The rest of the team looked at her unamused, their expression showing the answer. "I'll take that as a no."

The Paladin faced them, it's intercom turning back on, "I don't know what kind of sugar rush that power surge was, but either way you can't beat me. Like I said, this Paladin is designed out of all of you. RoWBalYn has no weaknesses."

Team RWBY faced him in despair, hopeless as to how they were going to fight this behemoth. Maybe this was the end for them, that there really was no way of beating the madman. But that all changed in a matter of seconds.

Ruby felt a slight annoyance in her side, putting her hands in her pocket to feel for what it was. She found something that felt like a piece of paper, and pulled it out. Folding it back to the way it was, she realised exactly what it was. It was the blueprint of the Paladin she found back at the lab. She looked at the blueprint carefully, attempting to spot anything that shouted 'weakness' at her face. Since Ruby was a video games connoisseur, or so she though of herself to be, there must be something like a generator on the back of it that they needed to beat up.

That's when she spotted two things. One, the left eye of it that looked similar to Merlot's, and two, a dust powered generator inside of it's chassis, "Ruby Rose you are a genius", She though to herself.

"Now time to die, team RWBY!", The Doctor shouted, aiming the Paladin's sniper at them. Ruby turned to Weiss, ordering her. "Weiss! Gravity!" Weiss looked back at her with confusion, but then realised what she meant. She stabbed her lance into the ground, summoning a black glyph below each of them. She then activated them, sending the quartet into the air as they hardly avoided the bullet from the sniper.

With the team in the air, Yang was the first to ask Ruby. "Alright Rubes, what's the plan? Since I know you have one." Ruby looked at her sister, smiling with confidence. "See that eye?", she pointed at the paladin's circular red eye, gaining their attention. "He must be using that to see where we are. So when I disable it, go with the rest." Though it didn't sound like much of a plan, they agreed. Cause if it's one thing that team RWBY can do, it's knowing how to improvise the plan.

Ruby rushed towards the Paladin with her semblance, aiming the sniper right at it's eye. She lined up the shot perfectly, firing it right into the centre of it, destroying Merlot's vision from the mech. "Gah! I cant see anything out there!" He exclaimed, unable to know where he was going from the inside of it. Blake and Weiss took the opportunity, leaping down to it's right. Weiss summoned two glyphs below it's legs, summoning ice and freezing it's legs onto the ground.

It attempted to swipe at Blake, but the Cat girl was too nimble for him. She jumped onto the tip of it's sword, leaping backwards onto the roof of a building. Once again, she wrapped her ribbon around it's arm, but this time was different. Yang leapt up to the roof of where she was, assisting her. "Let me give ya a hand or two kitty cat."

She'd grab the right arm, using her strength to keep it still. "Don't say that sentence ever again..." Blake replied, displeased with her cat jokes.

"What do you think you girls are doing!?" Merlot shouted, attempting to find a way to gain back the RoWBalYn's sights. With the Paladin temporarily incapacitated, Ruby once again used her semblance to speed towards the mechanised behemoth. She got out her scythe, readying her next move. She looked to Weiss and yelled. "Gravity!" Weiss understood the command, aiming the lance behind her leader. She summoned a gravity glyph, that launched the red-tipped girl towards the Paladin.

Ruby spun round faster and faster, as she got closer to the Mech suit. Until finally, she went completely past it, slicing through the right arm and tearing it straight off of the machine. After she landed, she looked back to the wreckage of the Paladin's right arm, getting a better work of her handiwork.

"Way to go Ruby." Yang cheered. "You really are a cut above the rest." Blake placed a hand on her shoulder, giving her a dead panned look. "Yang No."

"Yang yes."

Weiss cleared her throat, catching the other's attention. "We still have a lunatic in a Paladin to deal with." The others agreed, getting ready for their next move. The RoWBalYn had managed to break out of the ice, facing back towards the team. Merlot had finally managed to get back the sights of the Paladin, and saw the damage they had incurred to it. "Gah! Look at what you've done to my glorious creation!" Merlot shouted, looking upon the wreckage of it's right arm. "You're going to pay for that. Both hypothetically and literally."

He aimed the sniper at them once more, as he got them to prepare for his next move. But instead of shooting at them, he aimed the sniper at the cavern's ceiling. Team RWBY was confused as to what he was doing, but they still kept to being cautious as to whatever he was scheming. He fired a round into the ceiling, causing a slight quake. There was a short silence amongst them, as the sound dissipated.

"Was that it? Hey, you know that missed us, right?" Weiss questioned, confused as to what he was aiming for.

The madman merely smiled at them, and replied. "I wasn't aiming for you." As he said this, the ceiling suddenly started breaking, causing chunks of rock to fall down into the ruined city. Blake and Ruby almost got hit by the debris, as it crashed onto the floor. Merlot seized the opportunity, knocking the faunus into a building whilst punching the leader with it's gauntlet, launching her away from the group.

"Ruby!", Yang and Weiss exclaimed, as they went to her rescue. But it was hopeless, as the machine smashed it's gauntlet into the ground in front of them, launching them back. Meanwhile, Ruby slowly got up, her left arm being damaged by the impact of the mech. The Paladin charged at the wounded leader, ready to chop her up with the scythe. Merlot boomed at the top of his voice, "This is the end for you!" This time he wouldn't miss. No one would stop him, no one could get in his way. This was the end for the red hooded girl, known as Ruby Rose.

The Paladin raised it's scythe as it charged her, and curve it down quickly towards her and...missed? Somehow the Paladin swung down and missed it's target. "What the!?", Merlot exclaimed, baffled as to what went wrong. He'd try to move the arm, but something was wrong. It almost seemed as if something was jamming it in place. or something was pulling onto it.

Ruby looked up to see that it was Pyrrha Nikos, her savior who was using her semblance to control the metal of the Paladin. She looked down to Ruby, greeting her. "Hi Ruby. Sorry for the late arrival"

Ruby smiled in relief at her. "Trust me, any timing is good."

Jaune jumped down from the rubble next to them. "Nora, do the thing."

Nora would run towards the Paladin, eager to smash it up. "Doing the thing!" She launched herself up by hitting down her hammer onto the ground, letting gravity do the rest. She fell down, slamming the hammer right onto the top of the chassis where Weiss once dented it, causing the plating to smash off, and make the Paladin tumble back a few metres. Merlot looked in shock at the damage that had been caused by the crazy ginger. "No! My beautiful creation!"

Nora jumped back down in front of the machine, sticking her tongue at him. Merlot tightened his fist at this mockery, his voice raised. "Out of all the eight of you, I hate you in particular."

As Jaune helped up Ruby, the rest of his team got back together. "The hell is that thing Ruby?" Jaune asked.

She answered him shortly, "Atlesian Paladin, has our weapons and skills, crazy doc."

Jaune nodded, understanding what she explained. "Alright, so how do we beat it."

"Well we haven't figured that out yet." Ruby answered.

As the paladin marched towards them, Ruby looked closer to it's smashed chassis on the top. There seemed to be a generator, powered by dust shards. That's when Ruby remembered about it's second weakness. "That's it. The generator on the top, we just have to disable it. All I need is to prepare a shot while you guys keep it steady."

Even though this plan sounded good, Pyrrha was concerned for Ruby's injury, "Are you sure you can make she shot with a damaged arm?

Ruby looked at her, determination filling her silver eyes. "Yep."

"Alright, sounds good to me.", Jaune replied, agreeing with Ruby.

The rest of team JNPR would would prepare for combat. She ran off to the nearest building, whilst they charged at the mech suit. It fireed off a shotgun spread at them, making the quartet avoid it by spreading apart from each other. The Paladin would go for Jaune first. It punched at him, only for it to luckily be blocked with Jaune's shield. Ren fired at the eye of the mech, attempting to make a distraction for Jaune. Thankfully it worked, as it faced it's attention at the silent teammate.

Meanwhile, Ruby used her semblance to quickly get on top of the building. She'd aim her sniper at the Paladin, trying to line up her shot as she attempted to ignore the pain in her left arm. While she was doing this, She signalled them that she was ready. They got the message, as they were getting his attention, facing towards Ruby. While the Paladin rushed Ren, Pyrrha once again used her metal-kinesis, making the mech unable to move. Pyrrha signalled the Red hooded girl with a thumbs up. Ruby made sure the shot was lined perfectly at the generator, and fired off the shot straight towards it.

Even though it seemed as if they had this, Merlot proved that he had one more trick up his sleeve. He pressed a button, that launched a couple of missiles at Pyrrha, forcing her to stop and avoid the attack. With this advantage, he got the Paladin to avoid the bullet, only grazing the side of the chassis. Everyone was surprised from this move, dumbstruck as to what to do now.

Merlot laughed at their wasted attempt. "You fools. Did you really think I'd fall for Pyrrha's semblance? I've planned a contingency for anything, there's nothing you can do to stop me."

"True, but I can."

"Huh?" Merlot quickly looked to the voice that spoke. He was shocked to see that it was Yang, right on top of his generator. Yang shot a smug look at him, making one last bad pun. "You're going out with a Yang." She fired her gauntlet at the generator and jumped away from it as it blew up. Merlot was devastated at what he witnessed. "No! My Paladin!" The machine lost power, falling onto the ground with a loud crash. It was finally done. The RoWBalYn was no more.

Ruby jumped down from the building, rushing back to the others. She'd cheer for her big sister. "yeah, way to go Yang!" Everyone was relieved, finally able to catch a break from the fighting. Meanwhile, Weiss was walking back to the others, supporting Blake all the way to them. "Yeah don't worry about us, totally fine."

They laughed at the heiress' sarcastic remark, helping them both out. But even though it was a happy moment, they still knew that they had to deal with Merlot.

Ruby used her scythe to pull open the entrance of the Paladin, pulling out Merlot and throwing him onto the floor. He scrambled back up, infuriated. "When I get out, you are all going to pay for-" Yang punched him, shutting him up as he put a hand to his face, groaning at the pain.

"Yang! No need to be that violent." Ruby exclaimed.

Yang would shrug, "Sorry, just wanted to relief a bit of stress. That and he's also annoying when he goes on." Jaune agreed, as he got out some cuffs, and put them onto the doc's hands behind his back. They got him up, escorting him out of the underground city, and finally getting outside. Weiss sighed in relief, smelling the fresh air. "Let's hope we don't have to come back here again." They would all nod in agreement, hoping this was the last time.

While Ruby went to call for a lift from Beacon, they sat over at a ruined park, with Merlot custody. Blake sat there, questioning something in her head. Yang noticed this and asked her. "Got something on your mind?"

Blake would look up at her and replied. "Just one thing. If Merlot works by himself, and only we and Ozpin know of his existence, then how did the White Fang know about him and the lab. And further yet, why were they there as if they were guarding it?" This question got to everyone, as they tried to figure out the answer. All of a sudden, Merlot silently chuckled to himself, catching Pyrrha's attention.

"What's so funny?" Pyrrha questioned, Everyone else looking at him curiously.

Merlot looked at them, a threatening look in his eye as he answered her. "Let's just say, I made friends with a charming man with a great hat."

They looked at him, worried as to what he said. Until Jaune had realised and asked, "Wait, you don't mean..."

But before he could get an answer, a drop ship came over them, not belonging to Beacon at all, but the white fang. there was a shot fired from the ship, right into the middle of them all that made smoke come from where the ground was shot. It fogged up their view, rendering them unable to see. When the smoke cleared up, Merlot was gone.

"Sorry, but I believe this scientist belongs to me kids."

They would look to where the voice came from and were startled as to who it was. From the side of the ship was no other than the charming crime leader Roman Torchwick himself, wish his mute, ice cream-looking right hand gal, Neopolitan.

"But thank you so much for bringing him back kiddies. I'll see you next time."

Ruby attempted to stop the ship from going, but she was stopped by Merlot, who shot her weapon out of her hand. He blew a raspberry at her, as the drop ship fled off with the villains.

The eight students stood there in disbelief, unable to process fully as to what the hell happened. Until Jaune spoke up first. "Did we just uh, do that all for nothing?" Weiss rolled her eyes at what he said, holding up her scroll to him. "We still have his plans you dunce. Though it's still annoying that he got away. Again."

Ruby walked up to them, attempting to cheer them up. "On the bright side, we'll have another chance to kick his butt again. Along with Clockwork Orange and triple sundae"

Nora and Yang liked the sound to that, pounding their fists together in agreement. "For now though, let's just get this info back to Ozpin."

Pyrrha nodded in agreement. "Right, there's always another chance."

A few minutes later, a Beacon drop ship would finally arrive, landing at the site. They would all go in, with Ruby went last. She'd look back at Mountain Glenn, giving it one last wave goodbye, before getting in. The drop ship would launch, flying back to Beacon to give Ozpin the report of their mission.

In the distance of this, a figure watched as the vehicle flew off, red eyes emanating from where they were. For their hunt for these students, had just begun.

End

Author's Notes

So there you have it. I'll be honest, I was really happy about the time and effort I put into this, and will hopefully get to planning & writing the first volume. Though it may sound like an excuse, I have lately been having a low self esteem for this, so it may take a while before I get to writing the first episode. Either way, if you read through all this and enjoyed it, then thank you very much and i'm glad you liked it. If you didn't enjoy it then that's alright, this isn't meant for everyone. Anyways, seeya possibly in the next chapter or so.