Pain raced through her leg as she fell to her knees. Her Aura had shattered and her last ditch effort to stop Cinder had failed. The black glass arrow sticking through her ankle stopped her from getting up and fighting to the bitter end. Her breaths came in ragged bursts, pain filling her chest with pain as her ribs tried to settle. This was it, this was how it all ended for Pyrrha Nikos, The Invincible Girl, champion of Mistral. Killed at the top of the tower, at the hands of flames and death personified.

She heard the sharp clacks of her heels as she walked around Pyrrha. "It's unfortunate, you were promised a power that was never truly yours." Delicate fingers lifted her chin but she could feel the power swimming just below her flesh. She could see the flickering of flames in her amber eyes, the unnatural power she stole from a defenceless woman in the blink of an eye. "But take comfort in knowing that I will use it in ways you would have never imagined."

Death and destruction were the only things Pyrrha could foresee coming from this woman and she was the only person standing in her way. "Do you believe in destiny?" Pyrrha did not know why she asked that, but the question escaped her lips before she had the chance to think it over. Perhaps she was just grasping at anything that would keep her alive, no matter how desperate it felt. However, she saw the smug confidence fall from Cinder's face and for just a moment, she saw uncertain fear, only for it to be replaced with determined fury barely held in check.

"Yes."

With her fate sealed, Cinder released the grasp she had on her chin and walked away. Pyrrha watched as the bow materialized in her hand when she turned back and raised it at her. Pulling her arm back, the arrow that would take her life formed and was pointed right at her. With a final push, Pyrrha sat on her knees, staring defiantly at her killer. If she was to die, then she could do so unafraid. With only last breath, she closed her eyes and waited for death to claim her.

The twang of the bow made her flinch.

A rush of air pushed her to the side, knocking her to the ground.

A faint smell of roses filled the air.

Opening her eyes, she saw a lump of crimson laying on the floor, groaning in pain.

"No…" The whisper escaped Pyrrha's lips as a young woman began to stand out of the red cloak. Ruby held her shoulder, hissing in pain as her Aura struggled to maintain itself as the arrow fell to the floor. Silver eyes looked between Pyrrha and Cinder, and a frown crept along Ruby's lips.

"Pyrrha, are you okay?"

"Ruby run! She's too strong!"

"Yes, little rose. This doesn't concern you," Cinder chimed in as she eyed up the young huntress, separating her bow into swords . "Runaway, and maybe you'll live…"

Ruby pulled her sniper-scythe to bear and pulled the breach to load another round. "No."

Pyrrha tried to yell at her, to tell her to run but Ruby just aimed her weapon behind her and launched herself at the Fall Maiden. Twin swords in her hands, she countered the attack and threw the smaller woman away with ease. Bouncing back and forth, she tried to find an opening in Cinder's defences. Ruby was faster than anyone Pyrrha had known, going up against her was a test of skill for Pyrrha but the Fall Maiden was just too strong, too skilled for her. Every attack was blocked, every shot was dodged and every opening exploited.

Pyrrha tried to help but she could not stand on her foot, the pain was just too much, her Aura shattered and unable to heal her. A scream caught her attention as Ruby was thrown across the room and slammed into one of the remaining pillars that still stood. Scraps of her red cloak littered the ground from her attacks. Her aura finally shattered in a brilliant red. "Ruby, please just go!" Pyrrha begged. Blood leaking from a cut in her mouth and wheezing from her breath, Ruby stood with gritted teeth and swung her scythe behind her, ready for one more attack.

She charged in and ducked under a fireball, jumped over a second on and landed a hit against Cinder's face. Before a second hit could be made, Cinder struck like lightning. Catching Ruby's neck with one hand and grabbing the weapon with the other and throwing it to the ground. Holding her up by her throat, Pyrrha watched as she struggled, uselessly flailing her legs for any purchase. "Oh, little rose, you should have left when you had the chance," her eyes glowed and Ruby screamed as she struggled even more against Cinder's grip.

"RUBY!' Reaching out, she found Ruby's weapon and lifted in the air with her semblance. With a wave of her hand, the sharp edge of the scythe slashed across Cinder's back, making her cry out in pain; dropping Ruby to the ground and turning her fury to Pyrrha. With a wave of her arms, six bows formed, each with an arrow already notched in place. Pyrrha only had a second to watch this happen before they were all launched directly at her.

Her vision was filled with red, the arrows sailed through Ruby's cloak and ripped it to shreds as she stood between Cinder and Pyrrha. When the attack was over, Ruby fell to her knees and onto her side and did not move again. The sight of that little girl unmoving woke something inside of Pyrrha that laid dormant for years. A fury that was once tempered by kindness was unleashed as her breaths came in shallow and fire burned in her soul. Reaching out with what little strength she had, she found every metal gear that was thrown around and lifted them all up into the air. With a scream, they were all thrown at Cinder.

One after another, they were melted in the air by her hand. But the gears flew faster and bigger gears were hurled at her. Pyrrha waited for when her back was turned before launching the biggest gear she had found right at her. Turning around, she raised her hand to cut through the gear with a flame jet, but the gear was flying at her too fast to completely cut through in time. When Cinder reached the middle of the gear, Pyrrha closed her fists and the gear curled around her, trapping her in liquid metal and binding her arms. With one last push, Pyrrha used the last of her strength to throw Cinder off the top of the tower, screaming as she fell.

Pyrrha waited, one heartbeat.

Two.

Three.

Nothing. Cinder was gone. A wheeze stole her attention and Pyrrha crawled to Ruby, pushing through her own pain to get there. Turning her over, she pulled the young woman into her lap to help her. Three arrows were sticking out of her body, one in the leg, one to the side of her stomach, and another just below her heart. Her neck was red and blistered from where she was held and burned. Blood bubbled from her mouth as she coughed, the wetness made Pyrrha's skin crawl as she quickly wiped the blood from her lips.

"Pyrrha?"

"Ruby! Don't talk, okay? Just rest." There was so much blood, she did not know where to start.

"Did I save you?" Her voice was so quiet and raspy, it was hard to hear her over the pounding of her own heart.

"You did, Ruby. You saved me." Help had to be on its way, right? Someone had to be on their way.

"Am I a hero?"

"Yes, Ruby. You're my hero. Just rest okay? Help Is coming. Just stay with me okay, Ruby?" She looked down at the young girl, "Ruby?"

Her silver eyes were unfocused.

"Ruby."

There was no breath, no heartbeat, nothing.

"No, no no, Ruby!"

She was gone.

"RUBY!" Pyrrha shook the body, but her head just flopped over to the side uselessly. Tears poured from her eyes and Pyrrha cradled her friend and cried into her. She held onto Ruby so tightly but she still slipped away. Pyrrha could not save her but was saved instead. What was the point of all that training if she could not save the one who was right in front of her. She cried out loud until her voice was hoarse, her own body shook with every sorrow filled cry while the wyvern around them roared to drown her out.

A set of footsteps sounded behind her. Pyrrha looked back and raised everything that was metal to push Cinder back again, but instead, she saw the man she met with earlier, Qrow. He stood there, wide-eyed as he stared down at the body of Ruby Rose. His footsteps were slow and unsure. "Ruby?" A fresh wave of tears fell from Pyrrha's eyes as Qrow let a few slip from his. Without saying anything, he fell to his knees in front of her and looked over the corpse. A shaky hand hovered over her form, scared to touch her before settling on her face, drawing her eyes closed.

Another roar echoed from below them. Qrow looked up at Pyrrha and took a deep breath. "We need to go." He quickly took the body from her and stood up, his eyes never leaving her face. Pyrrha looked around and saw the battlefield that was littered with red scraps of cloth. There was one thing she needed to do before she could leave the top of Beacon tower.

She was screaming.

Pyrrha knew what was coming and it needed to be done. It did not make it any better. She had foregone medical treatment since she needed to do it now. She flinched when she heard things being thrown across the room and her voice grew even louder. "WHERE THE FUCK IS MY SISTER!" Yang's voice boomed into the hallway as people struggled to calm her down with their voices. With a deep breath, Pyrrha pushed through the doors with a heavy limp and everyone looked at her.

In the middle of the room, Yang had a small stand that once housed the silver plate filled with medical tools. Her other arm was cut off and bandaged just above her elbow, blood seeping into the clean, white fabric. Against the wall was the doctor, who was cowering behind a clipboard, and the nurse was hiding behind him. Weiss and Blake were there as well, trying to calm her down while not directly getting in the way. "Pyrrha!" She flinched at her name. "Weiss said Ruby was going to save you, where is she?" Yang quickly dropped the small table and walked up to her.

It took every bit of strength to not look away with tears in her eyes. "I'm sorry, Yang." In her shaking hands was a small, simple white box with a lid. Yang just stared at it, unsure what to do and scared to open it. Slowly with an uneasy hand, she pushed the lid open and let it fall to the floor. Silently, she reached into the box and pulled out a strip of red fabric that once belonged to her sister. Everyone in the room gasped. Weiss held her hands over her mouth, Blake just stared in disbelief, Pyrrha could see Yang running the fabric between her fingers, feeling the material, making sure it was real.

Her voice tightened as she tried to speak. "She came to me, on top of the tower. Cinder was there, I tried to get her to run, but she saved me. I'm sorr-" A fist connected to her mouth before she could finish what she was saying. The box fell to the ground at Yang's feet as Pyrrha slammed against the door of the hospital room and slid to the ground. Everyone stared at Yang, but all Pyrrha could see was the blood red in her eyes.

"Don't you dare," her voice shook as tears fell from her eyes, "Don't you dare apologize for the life she gave you." Everyone was silent as Yang looked down at the box again. "I want to be alone, please…" Weiss and Blake helped Pyrrha up as everyone quickly left the room. The last thing she saw was Yang falling to her knees and grabbing a handful of the red, shredded cloak and holding it close to her chest. When the door closed, she cried.

Pyrrha had never been to Patch before. It looked like such a cozy little island town. She would have loved to stay there if she had not been there for this reason. Pyrrha stood with her team down the path to where Yang, Blake and Weiss stood in front of two gravestones that overlooked a cliff. One looked like it had been there for a decade, while the other was brand new; carved out just yesterday and put into place this morning.

After telling everyone what had happened, there was a unanimous choice in hunting Cinder for what she had done. Weiss told her father that she was never going back to Atlas, not even caring after he slapped her across the face and disinherited her . Blake had confessed that she was about to leave when she knew everyone was safe, thinking it better to be gone before someone named Adam could hunt them down, the same person who cut of Yang's arm. Jaune was on board with the hunt for Cinder. Ren and Nora were quick to give their support as well. Everything was prepared, save for one last thing.

Yang stood before the stone, her orange scarf around her neck replaced with one of the larger scraps from Ruby's cloak. She was saying her last goodbyes to her sister, talking to the stone and the body buried under it. On either side of Yang was Weiss and Blake, each of them claiming a bit of Ruby's cloak for their own. Weiss had taken a long, thin piece that replaced the crown hairpin after she sold it to fund their manhunt. Blake had a bit that wrapped around her wrist and up to her elbow.

Pyrrha watched as Yang began to cry louder, screaming that it was her fault for not being able to protect her little sister and that she was sorry. Her knees gave out while Blake held her from behind and buried her face in her hair, keeping her from falling to the ground in agony while Weiss did everything she could to not succumb to her own sorrows. After one painful grief filled scream, Pyrrha had to look away.

Just as they did, JNPR had taken a scrap of Ruby's cloak for their own as well. Pyrrha replaced her sash with a part of Ruby's cloak, the rough fabric now sitting on her hips. Jaune had wrapped one around the wrist guard of his shield arm. Ren and Nora each took enough to make a bracelet for themselves. The rest was either given to Ruby's father or buried with her. Pyrrha had only seen Taiyang once, but she did not blame him for avoiding her.

After all, it was Pyrrha that could not save his daughter.

Her thoughts were brought back when she heard boots walking towards them. Looking up, she saw Yang walked past them and just shoulder checked Pyrrha out of the way. Since that day, she had never seen Yang's eyes return to the lilac they usually were. She did not blame Yang for hating her, she hated herself for the same thing. Next was Blake, who gave Pyrrha a sympathetic look before chasing after Yang, then Weiss followed up, wiping tears from her eyes and following in their wake. "Come on, let's go get this bitch."

Pyrrha turned with the rest of her team and followed the remaining members of team RWBY down the path and towards the ship that was going to take them to Mistral. Their only clue to where she might be was the fact Cinder came in with the people from the Mistral school. With no other leads, they walked their path of vengeance for a little girl who wanted to be a hero.

Pyrrha was going to kill Cinder Fall.

Even if it was going to be the last thing she ever did.