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Chapter 2: Scatter

"WEISS!"

The sun was setting on Beacon as Weiss slowly bled out.

"Penny! What've you done, why?!" Ruby cried as she ran to help Weiss.

Penny said nothing, pulled the blade from Weiss, and leveled it, wet with fresh blood, at Ruby.

"AAAUGGHHHAAA!" Weiss screeched in pain at the blade being drawn from her chest.

"Stop this, stop hurting her!" Ruby half-cried over Weiss and half-screamed at Penny.

The crowd stood either confused or paralyzed the screams, gradually beginning to panic. Yang and Coco both ceased their brawl to look up at the source of the terror, unable to make out exactly what had transpired from that distance.

All at once the android guards opened fire on the audience. The students were shielded by their auras, but many noncombatant spectators were cut down instantly. Screams arose all around the colosseum as the civilians all began to flee. The students and teachers in the audience jumped into action, attacking the ironic guards.

"Out of my way, now," Ruby yelled, frantically drawing Crescent Rose and charging at Penny.

Penny split the single blade into a fan of 10, splattering teams RWBY and JNPR with Weiss' blood. A single drop of blood sailed over the audience, down from the stands, finally bursting directly on Yang's eye. Yang blinked rapidly and reopened her eyes to reveal Weiss' blood, soaking and corrupting her lavender eyes, turning them red with wrath.

"Coco, with me," Yang commanded upon hearing the general distress, leaping straight for Ruby. Her mind didn't bother to figure out exactly what was going on; only that she needed to protect her sister. Upon seeing Penny's blades the fire in Yang's eyes spread through her hair, blazing through the sunset sky.

Penny's blades blocked Ruby's scythe, their magnetism struggling against her panicked semblance.

"Get away from my sister you bitch!" Yang screamed, flying at Penny. Her fist was quick, but Penny's floating blades were a moment quicker; blocking her blow with the flat of her weapon.

Yang's flame engulfed her fist as she pushed it straight through Penny's blocking blade, melting the metal as she went. She nearly punched Penny's emotionless face to molten dregs, but the robot reacted too fast, leaping back over the rim of the colosseum.

Ruby ran to Weiss' side as Yang landed, shocked as she looked over her bloodied form.

Seeing this, Yang, growled, leaping over the colosseum's outer wall, chasing Penny with Coco right behind her. Pyrrha made for the nearest automation.

Ruby just looked into Weiss' eyes. The shock was ebbing now, as she seemed to noticed Ruby. Their eye contact said more than words ever could.

"Ruby, I'm glad you're here," Weiss said softly, causing herself to hack up more blood.

Ruby stubbornly shook her head, the tears finally arriving as she choked her words out, "D-Don't talk! You'll be fine, you have to be!"

Weiss sadly looked at the girl with benign regret in her eyes.

An explosion tore through the sky; Atlas' capital ship had rammed into another of its own fleet. The two gargantuan constructs hanging momentarily in the sky as they met before plummeting down to earth. The capital ship itself looked to miss the school; heading for the waters below the cliff's edge. The second ship, however, loomed dark over Beacon, closing in on the crowded colosseum. As it sank lower the crowd screamed with renewed panic.

Goodwitch turned from fighting to see newest source of their terror. Leaping down into the ring, she held her magical riding crop astride. Fixing her glasses with her left hand she thrust her wand forward with the other. Immediately the ship froze in place, it's welding buckling in sequence; the compartments' momentum rippling to a halt. The force was no less on Goodwitch's end, as the sand beneath her all crumpled as if struck by an invisible meteor. Straining, she readjusted her glasses while beads of sweat gathered on her brow. "Everyone leave of the vicinity immediately!" she shouted, her voice magically amplified. The ship above loudly groaned in protest, seeking gravity's full embrace as loose metal wreckage rained down upon the campus.

"Ruby, we need to go!" Pyrrha shouted over the screams, gunfire, and deafening sound of ripping metal from above.

Ruby silently nodded, taking Weiss into her arms, flinching at her partner's pain from being moved. The three girls leapt down from the stadium's rim.

The colosseum was now rapidly emptying of bodies; alive bodies, that is.

Ironwood was loathe to follow Goodwitch's advice with death looming above her. He leapt down to her side, immediately grunting under the pressure. "Glynda, we need to go!"

Shaking her head, Goodwitch wordlessly redoubled her efforts. She managed to push the ship back slightly, her breathing ragged.

"You need to get out of here before you release the ship!" Ironwood pleaded.

Goodwitch collapsed to one knee, ignoring him and clutching her wand with both trembling hands now. The force on the sand around her lightened as the ship began to slip towards the emptying stadium.

The corpses still populated the stands; sitting as audience to her mortal struggle.

Seeing his vessel approach, Ironwood grabbed Goodwitch. Grunting in effort, he lifted her and some of her burdens with her. Without pausing he ran off, harnessing more speed than seemed natural, heading into one of the arena's exit tunnels.

Using the last of her strength to slow the ship's descent as much as possible, Goodwitch felt unconsciousness coming on. Her vision flickered to blackness while traveling through the dim tunnel.

Ruby landed far outside the arena, as gently as possible for her partner's sake. Her warm tears fell softly onto Weiss' clothes, which were already covered in her lifeblood. Weiss, too, was crying, though, unlike Ruby, she wore a fragile smile on her face. Meeting her eyes, Ruby held her tightly and whispered, "Weiss."

Weiss raised a trembling hand to Ruby's cheek. "Ruby… live," she uttered ultimately.

"D-Don't talk like that! You'll b-be fine, please," Ruby choked out, half in prayer.

Ruby held onto their eye contact like Weiss' life depended on it; as if their shared gaze was the only thing tethering her to this world. She saw in Weiss' crystal orbs all of her happiness, love, sadness, regret, hope, and good-natured anger. And then her orbs shattered. Her hand fell limp from Ruby's face and her eyes went still.

"Weiss? Weiss! Please don't leave me, Weiss!" Ruby's screams were drowned out by the deafening sound of the airship crashing into the stadium behind them.

Outside the now-smoking colosseum Ozpin ran up to the disturbingly modest-sized group of survivors. He surveyed them in his usual calm manner, though noticeably faster. Hundreds of students, a handful of teachers, some Atlesian guards from nearby, many civilians, and plenty of wounded. He also spotted Ironwood nearby, holding— His eyes widened, "James, what has happened? Is she—"

"She's fine! She passed out after saving most of them from the crashed airship," Ironwood said, gesturing to the crowd. His brow then furrowed, "My robotic guards, they, they just started firing on the everyone. I think our network has been compromised."

"It would seem that way," Ozpin said in his usual demeanor.

Ironwood clenched his fist in anger, not at Ozpin, but at himself. He knew that he had played right into the enemy's hands; allowing his large army to become invaders at the push of a button.

"I'm sorry, Oz, I had no idea—"

A unnatural roar echoed from across the plains outside of campus, prompting everyone's gaze. A pitch black mass was emerging from the eastern forest, soon to cross the grassy field separating the campus from the trees. Within the mass of grimm were all of the normal shapes as well as several larger, much more ancient beasts. Among them mammoths and giant gorilla-like creatures.

"We'll discuss strategy later, James! Just get the wounded and civilians to the docks! Glynda too!"

"You won't get rid of me so easily." Goodwitch said, dropping from Ironwood's arms, gathering herself, and rising to stand.

"Can you still walk?" Ironwood asked.

"Do I still have legs? Goodwitch countered, walking over to the terrified crowd. "Alright, noncombatants and wounded follow General Ironwood; he will help you all evacuate. Team CFVY! Follow and keep them safe."

"Alright, but our leader isn't here right now," Velvet replied, clearly nervous of her impromptu command.

"I'm confident that you'll be able to guard these people on your own," Goodwitch said, dismissing her, "Now! Everyone else follow me; we're going to end those grimm."

And with that Goodwitch threw her head toward the grim. Her glare rocketed a deathstalker's stinger clear through it's head; slaying it instantly. "Charge!" she cried, appropriately thrusting her riding crop aloft.

Sun, Neptune, CRDL, and the rest of Beacon charged across the field; blades, polearms, and blunt weapons all at the ready.

"Glynda, keep them safe! I need to look after the rest of the students around campus," Ozpin called. He jogged off towards the center of campus, seeing White Fang ships descend upon the school in the distance.

Meanwhile Jaune was still crossing the campus southward; from the colosseum to the infirmary. Lugging Nora, who rested over his shoulder, all the while. The sun shone over the school's many rooftops, leaving the campus' paths below in a cool contrast with the amber-lit buildings. Unfortunately for Jaune, the sun also revealed many, many androids dropping from the lone remaining airship, reflecting brightly off of their chrome bodies.

Having seen the airship go down earlier Jaune knew something was amiss. So when the robots landed and approached him, he tensed, worried for Nora and himself. "Noraaa, now would be a great time for you to wake back up!"

Hearing no response he armed himself with Crocea Mors' shield on his left hand while his right secured Nora over his shoulder. He took off, sprinting, aiming to weave behind the nearest building to him. As the androids began to fire on Jaune, a thought occurred to him, 'Oh, for cryin' out— Why are the hyper-effective death robots never on our side!?'

Earlier...

"AUGHAAA!" Weiss' scream played through Blake's scroll.

"Dammit, that bastard!" Blake yelled, enraged by their hurting Weiss, and ran out of the infirmary building after Adam.

She saw the suavely-clothed faunus break into a run, obviously involved with whatever was happening at the arena.

Blake just ran harder.

Above her she heard a loud, echoing crash.

She ran even harder, impotently hoping that nothing hurt her friends further and that Weiss was okay. 'She must be, right? She couldn't be… Rrrg, Adam!'

She saw Jaune out of the coroner of her eye, passing him and dismissing the thought of talking too him. Involving him in this fight would endanger not only him, but the unconscious Nora as well. Moreover, they would just slow her down and Blake wanted Adam all to herself, regardless of what happened to her.

Nearing the colosseum, now, Blake and Adam both saw the gigantic ship careen into the rotund structure; their respective forms melting into each other violently.

Blake hoped to God that her friends, not to mention everyone else, had gotten out in time. She wouldn't allow Adam to harm a single other person, she thought as she closed in on him. They both sprinted into the smoking arena's south entrance tunnel, which, despite everything, seemed undamaged, if a bit dustier than normal. They ran in the darkness, their forms indistinguishable from the walls if not for their faunus eyes.

Gripping Gambol Shroud, Blake cast the right blade forward, ribbon in tow. It wrapped around Adam's leg, who quickly cut it away with his katana, but it had given Blake the time to close she needed. Picking up the knife again, she drew its twin, combining them into a single blade and lunging at Adam, her katana raised, and bring it down upon him with all of her might.

As they emerged into the fire-lit colosseum Adam wheeled around, drawing his katana, and blocked Blake's vertical strike in a single horizontal motion. Sparks leapt from their swords' contact, flying into the air to dance with their countless brethren drifting up from the airships' burning wreckage in the orange sky. Despite his reflexes, he could not abate the force of Blake's attack; as she pushed downward upon their blades he was forced to take a knee.

Seeing this, Blake took the opportunity to deliver a quick kick to his stomach, causing his guard to falter momentarily, but quickly regain its strength.

Adam knew this blade-lock could only end badly for him, tilting his katana downwards to slide Blake's blade off to the side and backstep out of the contact.

"So, you weren't sated by all of those workers you killed?" Blake spat at him, "You wanted more human blood!?"

Clang, clang, kaching.

Blake's advance was countered by Adam, throwing her blade off to the side for enough time to elbow her in the face.

"You misunderstand, Blake, the White Fang isn't doing this for revenge or spoils, no! We're in this for the long game; to create a society that your ivory-walled school could never make!"

"Your murder will only result in more deaths; peace won in battle never lasts," Blake retorted.

"What? Are you upset that I killed some of your human friends?" Adam mocked, "They would do the same to you if they knew you were a faunus; don't mistake your false world for the real one!"

The two dark figures clashed back and forth, their dancing shadows cast across the stands by the flickering firelight. The sounds of their struggle echoing through the arena; off of the wreckage, through the flames, and over the many bodies that littered the stands.

"Well, I hadn't wanted to kill you, but you're giving me no other choice," Adam said, the insignia on his tuxedo glowing red and white.

"Just try," Blake said.

Adam leaped back, sheathing his blade, and instantly drew it again, slashing horizontally to unleash a deadly wave of energy at Blake. The energy seemed to consume all nearby light, throwing the arena into stark contrast between the brilliant flames and bottomless shadows; the blood-red sky and pitch-black void that had replaced the arena's sand floor.

As color returned to the world Blake stood atop a bisected shadow of herself, stretching. Her yellow eyes just as angry, though significantly more amused, "Wow Adam, I'm destroyed, really."

Adam remained silent, though obviously internally frustrated.

"You always were just talk," Blake said, leaping at him as her likeness' two halves fell apart.

Batting her katana away with his own, Adam leapt up to the stands.

Blake was about to follow when the embers in the air were suddenly cast aside by a loud wind from above the arena. A bullhead descended to hover about 30 feet above the ground between Adam and Blake; a heavy machine gun mounted on its side, pointed at Blake.

Wasting no time, Blake threw half of Gambol Shroud, piercing the fuselage just behind the cockpit, ribbon tether and all. Staking the other blade into the sand and tying it off, Blake leapt up onto the ribbon as the turret began to fire on her, sprinting up it's taunt surface. As soon as the pilot realized what was going on, she immediately pulled up.

That severed the connection sure, but Blake managed to leap from the ribbon as it came loose, landing in the bullhead's passenger bay and kicking the White Fang gunner overboard in one fluid motion. The ship's ascent had yanked the latter half of Gambol Shroud out of the ground, launching it into the air. Blake swiftly turned back and created a clone that caught the blade in its flesh. Pulling half of Gambol Shroud out of her shadow's torso with her left hand, Blake let the doppelganger drop. Instead she chose to pull the ribbon, rocketing the other edge of her blade into her right hand.

"Your mistake was getting between my target and myself," Blake chided. She then spun, whipping Gambol Shroud's twin parts around her body using the ribbon that connected them.

She leapt out of the bullhead as it began to sink, crashing in the arena behind her, it's power lines having been cut.

Blake landed and rose, her body wrapped in the ribbon. She left just enough slack to allow free movement of her arms, which held their respective blades high. "The White Fang's path of blood ends here; I won't allow you to harm even a single person more!" Blake said adamantly.

"You think fighting amongst ourselves is going to solve anything?" Adam retorted, readying his katana.

"It will avenge the faunus that you killed here today," Blake said coldly.

"What would you know about avenging your own kind, Blake? You're afraid to even show your true face," Adam yelled.

"Only because of murderers like you!" Blake cried with fury, cutting her ears loose.

"Murderers like us."

Blake lunged before the ribbon halves even hit the ground, striking at Adam with renewed wrath. He blocked her attack, but her strikes came quicker now and from both sides. Using the ribbon that connected Gambol Shroud's two edges, Blake whipped the weapon around, manipulating its reach and trajectory before pulling it back into her hands for another quick strike.

Blake fell upon him in a rage; her form seemingly shifting between humanoid as the firelight struck her and a savage, bestial shadow in its absence. Adam, however, remained upright, fending off her rapid slashes with his defensive stance. Her strikes echoed throughout the ruined colosseum, forming an discordant refrain with the crackling, burning wreckage.

"Happy now that you've killed more humans!? That was what you wanted, wasn't it!?" Blake spat.

She was screaming now, despite his parrying the fight was starting to look like a great panther matron mauling her prey. Blake's rightward slash knocked Adam's blade just a little too far and she instantly capitalized; tearing into his side with her left claw.

Adam staggered back, only to receive a cut to his thigh. He quickly reupped his guard only to bear the brunt of a new flurry of slashes. Left, right, up, down; each one he blocked at a perpendicular angle, each one came faster than the last.

The audience of corpses bore witness to yet another mortal duel.

Blake's unhinged form flickered even more in the dying firelight, appearing to shift and diverge with the shadows. Her clones seemingly flowed from her; some blocked her prey's path while others served as posts for Gambol Shroud's ribbon to wrap around before flanking him.

Within seconds Adam was engulfed in a crowd of shadows; all shifting, merging, and splitting with the firelight. The brilliant glow of his suit seemed a beacon that would drive away the dark. Nevertheless, it was clear to him that continually blocking would only lead to exhaustion and eventually death. So he struck out, taking several hits to his aura in the process. His one swipe, though, cleared more than half of Blake's clones and provided him an opportunity to escape from the onslaught.

Stepping back, out of the clone crowd, Adam staggered slightly, holding his katana straight in front of him in a blocking position.

The real Blake savagely lunged at him, striking Adam's katana with a cross dual slash; pinning his blade. She eyed his throat, pushing his katana back towards it, growling in rage and exertion. Suddenly the thought came, 'Will I kill him?' and she disengaged, leaping back a few meters. Her rage was dispelled, leaving only the hurt girl that only Blake's closest friends knew.

Adam sheathed his blade, preparing to draw and unleash all of Blake's fury back upon her. He lunged toward her, drawing his blade in a diagonal slash.

Blake, surprised, barely managed to evade out of the way of that strike as it cut down her many clones, but it was not Adam's true attack. He had held the devastating dark energy in, using it now to propel his katana back at her rapidly.

The blade made a sickening noise as it sunk into Blake's chest.

The thrust carried Adam forward; causing him to hoist Blake off of the ground while still on his blade. Her eyes were lifeless, devoid even.

It was then he looked down at his chest to see a katana protruding from his own body.

"AUGKH!" he cried, coughing up blood mid-way through yelling.

"You never did know restraint, Adam," Blake said, ripping the blade from his flesh.

Adam slumped down onto the arena floor besides Blake's shadow, his blood soaking into the sand.

Blake sheathed Gambol Shroud, walking out of the arena.

Blake emerged from the east side of the arena, leaving the darkness of that place behind for the bright-orange outside world. She saw her friends; Ruby, Pyrrha, and Weiss.

She broke into a run.

No sooner had Blake reached her trio of friends than she had realized she only had two friends left.

"I'm sorry… I wasn't fast enough," Blake said, tears forming in her eyes.

Pyrrha looked sadly on, "Blake…," she said softly.

Ruby just weep into Weiss' bloodied and cooling form.

Blake stood there for a moment, but her resolve soon hardened.

"I'm sorry, Ruby," Blake said, picking up Myrtenaster and removing its elemental cartridges. She set the blade down gently by Weiss and the crying Ruby.

"Just stay safe, ok?" Blake said softly, touching Ruby's shoulder. She rose and made for the White Fang ships descending upon the campus. "Pyrrha!" she called, handing the lightning and earth cartridges to the gladiator.

They slotted the elemental rounds into their weapons, starting to run towards the nearest group of White Fang.

Blake split once, twice, three times. Exhausted, she managed to produce a fourth clone; this one of fire.

Pyrrha tapped the burning shadow on the back, gesturing it up and launching it at the White Fang soldiers with her semblance.

Ruby wept into Weiss's body; clutching and slowly rocking her. Her pained cries ringing out across the amber-lit square.

Rose petals began to swirl around her in an unnatural whirlwind. Her semblance always brought petals with it, but this was different. This flurry whipped around her in a violent, chaotic path. Ruby went silent. She gently set Weiss down and rose, eyes still shut tight, the wind catching some of her tears. Her shirt and blouse were dripping with Weiss' blood, but the wind took that away too; literally dissolving it into rose petals that joined those already encircling her form.

Ruby's eyes snapped open, heavy with hateful tears for the first time.

"Penny!"

With that, she disappeared. Not literally, of course, but to everyone looking Ruby was simply gone. In truth she had just moved faster than the human eye could see; nothing remarkable.

Ruby, however, did not lose sight of her goal. She sprinted southward, where Yang seemed to have gone, judging by the burn marks on the buildings. Ruby's feet had left the ground, the wind whipping through her hair as she rode over rooftops with her semblance.

Her presence, it seemed, had not gone unnoticed by the world itself, as her speed left in its wake a wind that tore branches from trees and tiles from roofs. Ruby was seeing red, even as the cool-colored campus blurred past her in the evening light. What she didn't expect was for her vision to go even more bloody.

Out of nowhere Cinder landed atop the building in front of her; fire, red-hot garb, and all.

Ruby instantly drew, attempting to cleave the crimson woman.

Despite Ruby's speed Cinder still leapt over her scythe, coursing into the air while Ruby touched down on the rooftop.

This earned Cinder a projectile Crimson Rose, which she easily dodged mid-flight.

What she wasn't expecting, however was for Ruby to vanish before her very eyes in a flurry of rose petals. An instant later she reappeared, perched upon her still-spinning blade, crouched and ready to pounce. Ruby evaporated once more, this time reappearing only inches from Cinder as her fist closed the distance.

"YOOOUUU!"

A booming smacking sound reverberated across the northeastern part of campus.

"You did this!" Ruby yelled after the woman, retracting her fist.

Cinder, for her part, had seen the hit coming. Much like she now saw the pavement rushing to meet her quite-bruised face as she hurtled towards the ground.

"Ruby!" Yang yelled, leaping up to her sister as she landed back on the rooftop. Pulling Ruby into her embrace she spoke into her sister's hair, "I'm so glad you're okay… is Weiss?"

Ruby shrugged her off, "Yeah, she's dead. What about Penny?"

Yang closed her eyes for a moment. She had figured Weiss would be dead, judging from what she had seen of her wounds earlier, but she had still maintained a hopeless hope. 'It doesn't matter now. All that matters now is keeping Ruby safe.'

Sighing deeply, Yang answered, "She continued on southward. I ran to you as soon as I heard; you were moving pretty fast there."

"Right, well, we can get her later. Right now help me with Cinder; she looks like the leader so if we take her out their whole attack plan will go down with her."

"Okay," Yang agreed, extending Ember Celica to cover her forearms. She was glad that she and Coco had salvaged some fresh rounds from a group of Atlesian androids while chasing Penny, even if it has slowed them down. "Just promise me you won't do anything stupid."

Ruby simply leapt down.

Yang followed suit; if her sister was going to act dangerously at least she would be there to keep her safe.

They landed on a path that ran through the campus' well-maintained grass. What the sun didn't illuminate was covered in long, pale shadows.

Ruby walked over to pull Crimson Rose out of the ground where it had fallen.

Coco walked up to the two sisters pulling out her gatling gun, "Hey, Ruby, I'm sorry, but could you help me out here?"

Ruby took one look at the sorry state of the barrel and gave it a quick slice with with her scythe, cutting off the gnarled end of it.

"Thanks," Coco said, reloading her weapon. She remained quiet while they walked up to Cinder's slight crater in the concrete as Ruby obviously did not want to talk.

Cinder started to stand up when Ruby emptied a clip into her.

Deflecting the rounds with her palm, Cinder chided her, "You should expect better of me, girl. Now are you going to keep up your futile attack or—?"

After blocking another volley of gunfire from the trio, Cinder sighed, "Now, that's just not civil."

"I'm not doing this for nothing, you know?" Cinder started, taking a few more bullets in stride, "Everything this place stands for, huntsmen fighting grimm to the death, and quite-often that of the nearby townsfolk as well; it's not right."

"Are you really trying to convince us that fighting is wrong the same day you invaded our home and killed our friends and classmates?" Coco said dryly.

"Hardly," Cinder replied, "I wouldn't be mounting an attack if I needed to 'convince' people not to fight back to win. I simply wanted to paint the other half of the picture for you. Now, the inevitably of every single huntress dying in battle aside, your witless professors have told you that grimm are attracted to negative emotions, no?"

The group just glared at her.

"Right, well they aren't just attracted to negative emotions; they seek them like we do food. You see, grimm are literally made up of malicious feelings," Cinder said.

"What the shit does that have to do with anything!?" Yang yelled, eyes aflame.

"No negative emotions, no grimm; no violence. By hunting and dying the huntresses are literally creating their own enemies. Beacon is an institution that imparts this endless cycle to the next generation, tainting the future. I used the data-mining program I slipped into the CCT network on the night of the dance to write a virus that caused the Atlesian Knights to turn on everyone here. Without Beacon the population would be forced to control their—"

"You killed her!" Ruby screamed incredulously, slashing at Cinder.

Backflipping out of the way, Cinder cried, "If Beacon was gone everyone would be forced to reign in their emotions to survive!"

Ruby came at her once again, forcing Cinder to draw her twin swords. The result was a in a flash of flames closely followed by a burst of sparks as Crimson Rose met Cinder's blades.

"We could finally have peace; no violence, no discrimination, no more killing," Cinder implored, real emotion in her voice as she struggled; her blades locked against Crimson Rose.

"You've killed too many already," Ruby barked, hatefully glaring at Cinder over their sparking blades.

"You can't only think of yourselves; countless more people will live and die in this world. Forcing them to fight to even survive isn't right!"

"Rage Rose!" Ruby spat.

Using her semblance, Ruby ran rapidly, each step pushing Cinder back while her scythe threatened to come down upon her. After pushing her back around 8 meters on the path, Ruby delivered a quick kick, sending Cinder reeling. Taking advantage of her opponent's momentary falter, Ruby sprinted back past Yang and Coco and abruptly turned heel, her deep-red cape whipping around in the air as she rushed back towards Cinder at full tilt.

Yang simply grabbed onto Crimson Rose, hanging (or rather 'Yanging,' as she had insisted it be called during combat practice) off of the haft while Ruby sped them both towards Cinder.

Ruby phased in and out of visibility during her approximately 0.73 seconds spent traveling from Yang to Cinder. Even pulling her weapon around was a strain as the her own ridiculous momentum fought her. Nevertheless, Ruby circled Crimson Rose around, over her head, once, conserving her momentum and launching Yang at Cinder. The second rotation came much quicker now that her scythe had accelerated; Ruby leaning into the reaping strike while Yang pulled back her blazing fist, flying at Cinder.

Cinder lunged backward, moving the same direction as the sisters to lessen the effective force of the their dual strike. She maintained her guard which the far edge of Crimson Rose clattered into; shattering the twin blades with the force. The impact knocked Cinder back, alive, but helpless as Yang shot forward and delivered a gunshot-powered punch straight to her gut.

Cinder shot back, striking the concrete hard before beginning to tumble, rolling on the path. She righted herself, sliding to a stop on her crouched legs with her right hand scraping the concrete to slow herself, her glove sparking. Rising, Cinder sprinted straight back in. Nearing a regrouped Yang and Ruby, her leggings flared as she summoned another set of obsidian blades. Deftly combining them into her bow, she loosed several blast dust-infused arrows in quick succession, sprinting through their smoking wake.

Yang and Ruby chased after her.

Coco transformed her purse into a now-sawed-off gatling gun. She stepped off of the path so as to not hit her comrades and opened fire on Cinder.

Cinder quickly sprinted through the hail of gunfire, taking a few shots in stride, and lunged for the rapidly back-pedaling Coco. Dodging around her weapon, Cinder slashed up with her swords twice, reducing the barrel to a third length and then to nothing.

Coco tried to retract her weapon into its purse form, but it jammed up. She stepped back and swung the handbag up defensively.

Cinder dodged the clumsy blow and stepped in, slashing Coco twice, rupturing her aura, her blades meeting flesh.

"GAAAHHH!" Coco's cries came.

"No!" Ruby cried, desperately sprinting at Cinder as Coco fell to the ground.

"Ruby, wait!" Yang called, breaking into a dead sprint.

"Get away from her!" Ruby cried, swinging wildly at Cinder.

Deflecting her scythe to the side, Cinder saw another opportunity and swung her right blade at Ruby's exposed right.

A cane blocked her blow, its surface aglow with a white aura.

As soon as she saw Ozpin, Cinder pulled her weapons back and leapt to the rooftops to flee.

Immediately dropping to Coco's side, Ozpin observed the twin gashes on her abdomen. Removing his ascot, he wrapped it around her to tie off the wound. "You're going to be alright, these cuts don't run too deep."

Coco barely registered the noise as she was passing out.

Yang and Ruby just stood there, silently looking on until Jaune ran up, Nora hoisted atop him.

"What's going on!?" Jaune inquired.

"Cinder," Yang simply stated.

"Mr. Arc, you are to stay by Ms. Adel's side and protect her until the fighting ends, is that clear?" Ozpin said.

"Yes sir," Jaune said, going to lie Nora down.

"I myself will be following Cinder, do not follow me. What happened to Ms. Schnee was a tragedy that no one could have predicted or stopped. My only command for you two is to protect your fellow students within your abilities."

"We will," Yang said.

"Good. Stay safe you three," Ozpin said, running off to pursue Cinder on the rooftops.

They stood there in silence for a moment.

"Weiss…?" Jaune started.

Yang simply shook her head.

"Oh… I'm sorry," was all Jaune managed.

"We're going, Yang," Ruby stated.

Her sister nodded her consent.

"Don't you dare die," Yang told Jaune.

He simply nodded as the two girls leapt up the rooftops and headed south, headed for Penny.

Author's Note: I hope you enjoyed this issue of 'Weekly' Shonen RWBY (laughs.) Either way, please tell me how you felt about the character interactions as well as action-y parts among other things in a review. I felt the need to progress the plot significantly in while maintaining the requisite quality for being even slightly worth reading. The result is a long update cycle and a chapter longer than all of my previous ones on this site combined.