Author's Note:

It's been ages! Anyways, stuff is about down in this as it reaches one of it's major scenes. Hope you all enjoy!

- Lor

Chapter 6: Confrontation

Jack continued to wander throughout the city, looking at buildings that were just begging to be set ablaze. He smiled maliciously, taking out a small white blaster and firing lasers into the buildings, causing them to light ablaze. Neo followed behind eagerly, observing the chaos that he was creating. There was also a group of his robots behind him marching forward as they cleaned up in the chaos.

"Isn't this just thrilling!" He laughed maniacaly.

"Yes, yes it is," Neo agreed, bouncing along as she observed the destruction.

Jack sighed, "If only I could get that pesky Haru, oh, the face that he's going to make when I kill his mother right here."

"But isn't it so much fun here?" Neo questioned.

"Yeah, but it's nothing compared to his look of despair," Jack rebuttled smirking while he turned around. "Oh the pure bliss that he will bring to me. It's too unbearable!" He continued, dramatically. "Speaking of which," Jack's voice trailed off as he raised his hands and counted to three with his fingers before looking down and smiled cockily.

"Stop! You are under arrest by the entire Vale Army, lower your weapons and put your hands in the air," The officers yelled.

The officers were dressed in a black uniform with white trimming along the edges. They were also armed with standard weaponry, most of them carrying assault rifles powered with high explosive dust ammunition. There were also others in front who were holding a riot shield coupled with shot guns which were all aimed for Jack. Around the officers were white robots which were made by Atlas especially for militaristic use. They were deployed with their aim ready, awaiting orders.

"That's funny," He turned and smirked while taking small strides before the officers. Holding out his blaster in a lazy gesture, "And here I thought you guys were here to greet me."

"Greet us? You destroyed half of the city!" One officer yelled through a megaphone. "Now put your hands up or we will use force."

"Okay, I give," He surrendered, dropping his blaster while returning to his human-like form. The officers were fooled from his false display of surrender, as they sent a team of people to apprehend Jack. But as they were marching up to him the falling blaster was then kicked up grabbing it and holding it at trigger. "Not!" He yelled before proceeding to blast through the officers and their robotic officers.

Screams of anguish and hurt resounded through the city as the officers were slaughtered one after another from the combined might of Jack's forces, Neo, and him. Eventually after pools and pools of blood was spilled onto the streets and only one trembling soldier remained he stopped, before walking over to the last remaining officer who was trembling on the ground beyond control.

Jack proceeded to pick him up, before setting him down gently. "Now, you're going to run, and tell your superiors that I'm here for all of Remnant. Now won't you?" His voice contained a hint of kindness as he toyed with the officer. "Now run along." The officer then ran for his dear life as he feared his death after seeing his comrades slaughtered in an instant by that man.

"You're really going to let him go?" Neo asked.

Jack smirked, "Nope." Before turning around and blasting a hole through his chest. "Media's got enough of us by now."

"Hold it you monster!" Jack heard from in front of him.

"If it ain't the kid," Jack said, cockily.

Ruby and the others were quickly moving to where large blasts of energy going off from. Ruby was zipping across terrain, jumping over and under debris whilst using her speed to get as fast to where the explosions were. It's either Jack or Haru, I hope its Haru. As usual everywhere around her was falling in a crimson blaze as the fire began to eat the homes that people used to live in.

Blake herself was keeping up with Ruby due to her Faunus agility and speed. Though she tried even harder her mind was on something else, their fearless leader Ruby had no idea what would be in store for her in these precious minutes. She only hoped that nothing would happen and that they would return home safely.

The three of them continued to dart through the city as robots seemed to converge on where the explosions were going off from. Yang and Weiss swiftly dispatched them as they continued to move forward as quickly as possible. The four of them could see beams being fired into the air as if there was a large battle going on. They were halted by a large cluster of robots that barrelled straight through a building.

Ruby skidded to a stop as she pulled out her weapon, as did the rest of them. Ruby turned to the right to see that there was large debris in their path that couldn't be cleared easily by them. It would take hours to attempt to clear it, there were also piles of robots being hung over along with a blaze straight through them, as if they were blasted apart. It was most likely from Haru's fight through the city. And going straight through was risky too, the cluster seemed to stretch on infinitely. And if they stopped for even a second there would be no way to stop the robots from turning on the four.

Both are risky, if we can't make it on time Haru might not even be there. Think Ruby! She thought back to how she first handled the Nevermore during their initiation. With the speed we might just be able to clear it if we continue cutting through. Alright! We'll use that, "Weiss, you remember how we killed the Nevermore?" Ruby asked.

"You cannot be serious," Weiss asked.

"It's the quickest way through, we'll hit them with everything and barrel through to the other side," Ruby explained. "We don't have the time to talk, Haru is just beyond that wall."

Weiss looked over to the side where the mountain of debris was compared to the wall in front of them. Both were trials and they needed to make it through in time. "So what's the plan when you stop?"

"We keep fighting," Ruby stated. "Now let's go!"

"Fine," Weiss agreed, understanding the urgency of the situation.

"Blake?" Ruby called, and Blake nodded, understanding what their leader intended to do. She began to set up the bow as quick as possible as Ruby jumped in front. Weiss created a glyph and pulled back the string, "Now once I st-," Ruby began before being hushed.

"We keep fighting," Weiss responded decisively. "Only you would think to use this twice."

"Heh," Ruby replied before facing forward.

Weiss let go and Ruby bolted through the crowd, spinning to slice through the crowd. Weiss and the others quickly dispatched from their positions to fight with Ruby through the crowd, cutting enemies left and right as much as they can. Unfortunately they had to aim for their weak spots which took a bit of time. But when you can smash through their husks easy you can just slice them in half.

They steadily approached through the dense crowd as bodies were falling left and right, team RWBY made quick work with them as they inched ever so near to their destination.

I began to cut through the crowd with V supporting his back, V was firing lasers from his arm cannons while punch through the monsters, making quick work of them. He occasionally switched back to Raptor mode on whim in order to swipe them away with his tail before returning to warrior mode to blast them apart with his arm cannons. We flowed effortlessly from each other, me rolling over his back to slash at other robots while he blasted through crowds of them.

We seemed to be making progress but they just kept on marching forward. I was growing weary from using the suit for so long, as it required an energy battery of some kind. Thus, aura was devised as the main way for the user to power the suit. But right now, I could see it drop slowly and slowly as I used up energy to combat the robots. My arms started to feel heavy as they began to let go. I willed myself to keep them up, I can't stop here. I can't. But with each robot down it felt like it was never going to end. That the robots would go on for miles and miles and they would never stop until they were all destroyed.

Eventually my body gave in as the energy indicator reached into the red. As I messily slashed one robot apart I'd neglected to watch my guard and got struck from behind. While the momentum pushed me forward it sent me into another crowd where they were waiting to blast me apart. As I took the brunt force it sent me flying elsewhere to be pummeled.

I watched as my energy levels were at five percent capacity. But the pain was still coming through as the suit's defenses slowly began to fade away. "Disengaging suit," A robotic voice told me from inside my helmet.

"Agh, delay, that order," I told it, using my last of my will to order it. "Engage hyper mode."

"User, I highly suggest that you do not engage hyper mode. Your aura levels are too low to-," It began to retort before I cut him off.

"Just do it!" I ordered, taking another blow to my chest.

"Engaging hyper mode, amplifying remaining energy reserves," The voice responded.

I felt a power surge through me as I began to glow in a fiery red aura. The energy bar was replaced by a timer where I had a minute left to kill everything. I puffed my chest out like a primal animal would before lower it down. And dashing forward, using my semblance I began to go faster. Hyper mode completely amplified my power, making each hit destroy a target completely. It also amplified my semblance to go at speeds similar to my mother's.

Dashing forward I began to cut and clear away robots, wittling them down as I began to clear around V. "Alright buddy?" I called to him as I continued to obliterate each robot.

He roared in return, before continuing to fight with me. We continued this final fight as I went away to clear from the end into the center of the crowd. I could see the crowd slowly die down as it was now near one thousand bodies. I looked at my timer and found that I was only on five seconds. C'mon, five seconds! Last just a bit more! I continued to beat through the crowd as V cleared robots in dozens.

I looked up at my timer and found that I was on three seconds. There were still 100 left around us. I pushed, harder than I had ever before to make those last three seconds count as much as possible. As powerful as hyper mode was, it would only delay the energy used as it amplified the remaining amount. After this I would be a sitting duck as V would clear the rest. So I continued to defeat them until I had no time left.

"Three," The voice began to count down. 800 left.

"Two," 500 left.

"One," 200 left.

"Zero point five seconds left," 50 left. C'mon! C'mon!

"Zero seconds left. Disengaging, hyper mode," The voice finished before eating up all of my remaining energy even taking part of my deep internal aura.

I slumped over as I huffed and panted, my knees were trembling as my vision began to blur. I looked up to see only ten left which V promptly destroyed with a single swipe of his tail. "We, did, it, V," I told him, as I almost fell over. He ran over to hold me as I tried to regain my energy, using his neck to support me as I held onto it. He purred as I lifted my head just a tiny bit to face him. "Thanks, but it's not over yet," I murmured to him.

"You're damn right it's not over!" I heard a maniacal voice respond from behind.

I turned around to find Jack in the suit ready and with his hands in the air with a flare of extravagance. He was treating this as a game as usual, the sick, sick, maniac. "C'mon V, one more fight," I told him as I let go only to feel my ribs grinding as they had been battered in the previous fight. V returned to my side as I clutched on to him.

"Oh, lookie here, the human seems to have run out of steam," Jack taunted, "All the more fun for me to kill you."

He slowly walked towards me while I continued to stutteringly breathe. V set me on the ground as he went in front of me, changing into his warrior form. He was ready to fight him as he charged Jack. He made the first swing only for Jack to dodge and kick him in the side, sending him staggering as Jack continued to make his advance towards my limp body.

V roared as it began to ram its fist into Jack's back with strength that could topple over a building as he attempted to destroy Jack today before he got to me. Jack turned around and grabbed his fist with a single hand, sending rippling shockwaves into the air around us. This also sent me flying onto my back as I slid along the broken cement, causing even more damage to my body.

V attempted to ram his fist again but it was in a hold, so he could barely create any force as Jack continued to hold on. "You're one loud robot," Jack stated before flipping V over onto the other side and kicking him into a building. Sending him crashing through whatever rubble remained of it. V struggled for a moment as he tried to get up but couldn't, he was stripped of any energy and the impact must've damaged his systems drastically.

"Now, you," Jack returned back to facing me.

"You'll get what is coming to you," I spat out as I rose up to face him. I held up my fist as I messily swung at him he dodged my fist before grabbing my arm and putting me into a lock.

"What a messy form you've got here Haru," Jack taunted. "Now tell me, what should I do?" He further taunted, enraging me more and more. I more than wanted to kill him. I wanted to eradicate his existence from ever being born. I wanted to obliterate the monster that defiled what it meant to fit into a humane world, the monster that wanted nothing than to see the beautiful world burn down into rubble.

The world that I wanted to protect, my world, was at the balance in my hands. And with my life and existence burning away I was even more motivated to kill his sadistic life. "Maybe I should watch your existence burn? Won't that be fun? To realize that you were the only hope left in saving everybody." He taunted.

He's right; I am the only person who can kill him. I am the only hope my world has, for Aunt Yang, Mom, everyone back in the future. Damn it! Why did I have to be so weak! My face scrunched up as I grew more and more enraged. "That's it! Rage! Hate me! It'll only make things more fun!" He grabbed onto my neck as he began to strangle me

The visor on his helmet continued to look at me and stare at me. The piece of technology that mom invented and created. Mom placed high hopes that this would be the future in protecting the people from the criminal threats which still plagued everyday life. She always strived to create a perfect world, one where we wouldn't have to fear criminals plaguing the streets and one where everyone respected each other.

Her hope and dreams were poured into the device thinking that it would surpass my suit. Now, it was a tool being used for evil and madness. I looked into those visors and all I could feel was anger at how Jack defiled it. I began to gather strength again as rage began to fuel my body. I began to pry away at Jack's hold around my neck as I slowly loosened his grip.

"Oh, looks like you've got some fight left in you," Jack responded. "This' getting even more exciting."

As I continued to loosen Jack's grip on my neck I heard a sniper shot come from across. Jack caught the bullet in his free hand but failed to dodged the person bolting straight for him. All I could see was a red streak as I fell down to the floor. I coughed as I began to regain air, I could feel somebody pick me up. Turning to face them I found the lilac eyes belonging to Yang looking at me. "I've got you." She told me as she picked me up off of the ground.

"Thanks," I replied barely standing on my feet. I looked around to see Blake beginning to pick up V along with Weiss while Ruby engaged Jack. The two of them danced around as Ruby dodged and swept with her scythe. Jack continued to dodge and attempt to slash Ruby with his sabers.

As they continued to dance around, Ruby led Jack into the building before firing a shot from her scythe to damage him. "Alright, let's go!" Ruby ordered as she began to run back to us.

I smiled as I could see that Ruby was safe, as we were beginning to be carried off. Yang switched to carrying me in both arms for us to move faster. My arms lied lifelessly over as I could barely move at all. I spent all of my energy finishing off Jack's army and V was in need of rest and self-repair; so they came just in the nick of time. We were beginning to make progress and things were looking up, Ruby's alive, we stopped the army and I can feel myself holding together. Thank god, I, I, Thank god they came just in the nick of time. Looks like part of my mission is being fulfilled, thank you, guys.

In that relieving, hopeful moment everything slowed down. I turned my head in time to see a rushing red blur, my eyes shot right open. I feared what I was about to see, and I saw it Jack returning from the building, unscathed, helmet up and sword out. Rushing up to Ruby, no, no, NO! I began to open my mouth to say something but he was faster, he gripped Ruby by the back with such a force that it sent everybody else flying. In a smooth motion he gripped onto her neck and began to strangle it. I landed on the floor nearest to Ruby while the others were still trying to get up.

Yang was the first to look up as her eyes began to seethe in anger, her eyes lighting up with red flames as she began to charge. I could see Weiss' face welling into anger but channelling it into her blade. Blake began to dash towards the automaton as he laughed.

Jack held her close to my face as her eyes were spread wide open, slight tears coming from her eyes. I reached forward but couldn't, "Argh!" I screamed as I attempted to reach forward to stop Jack.

"I want you to take a good long hard look at her Haru, because this is the last time that you ever will. Not that you'll remember it anyways," He taunted. "Today, you die and the future is mine!"

Time seemed to slow down as I watched the blade come through Ruby's gut as she screamed a blood curdling scream. "AHHHH!" She shrieked as he plunged the blade through her gut before turning it.

"No," Yang stopped before she began to become even more enraged. "I'M GOING TO KILL YOU YOU BASTARD!" She screamed before launching herself at him.

A burst of energy erupted from me disrupting everyone, causing Jack to make his escape. "Ahahaha, AHAHAHAHA!" He laughed as he escaped.

I felt my chest heave in and out as I began to feel myself dying. I breathed in and out as I began to get heavy I could see my legs begin to disappear as my arms faded. Damn it! Ruby! She, if they save her, I began to reach out to her before I could feel my legs disappear completely. "Damn it!" I screamed before stopping to struggle as my existence began to extinguish my energy.

"Haru!" Yang turned to me, extinguishing the flames in her eyes as she began to make it to my side.

"Listen, you all don't have much time, and at the rate that I'm going I won't make it. You need to save Ruby," I told them.

"How?" Yang asked.

"Get back to Beacon, you'll know what to do when you get there," I told them before taking one last deep breath. "If I don't come back, make sure that you kill him, make him pay for everything he's done."

"You, will come back right?" Yang asked looking at me with fearful eyes.

"I don't know," I told them before noticing their sorrow. "Don't get so emotional, we've only known each other for a little bit-," I began before feeling the last of my strength die as I faded from existence. Taking one last deep breath I felt my mind leave my body as I faded away into the sky.

Yang bent over as he held onto Ruby's body whilst wailing. The destruction of the city around them was slowly falling as it made way to rubbles of concrete steel and plastic. Blake approached Yang, placing her arm on Yang's shoulder. "Yang, we have to go," Blake said.

"Go? WHAT'S THE POINT! RUBY'S GONE! LOOK AROUND! THERE'S NOTHING STANDING! HOW COULD WE EVER THINK WE COULD STOP HIM! WE BELIEVED AND LOOK WHERE IT GOT US! HE'S GOING TO KEEP ON WALKING! AND WE'VE GOT NOTHING TO STOP HIM!" Yang yelled towards her teammate with red crying eyes before "And we've got nothing to stop him."

Weiss grabbed Yang's shoulders as she began to scold her, "Yang! Listen to yourself! If we give up now everything that we've fought is for nothing! Ruby's death! Would mean nothing." Weiss said, slightly phasing out before coming back in. "You're not going to let two people die right before your eyes in vain! Are you!"

"What's the use, we couldn't even stop him," Yang replied with spacious eyes.

"I'm done arguing with you Yang, if you don't want to save Remnant then you can die on your behind," Weiss said. "Blake, get Ruby."

Blake nodded as she took Ruby's body from Yang, "We're leaving."

Weiss turned to leave as Blake looked back once at Yang who sat there with the same look as before. Please Yang, we need you now more than before. Blake thought as the two of them left Yang in the ruins of Vale.

Weiss had her own troubles to attend to, sure she had put up a strong front but there was more to her than met the eye. In truth Ruby had thawed the ice princess' heart and warmed her up to being a part of their team. With her childish attitude Weiss admired how carefree her friend was. But at the same time she also admired her determination especially at her age. But that wasn't it. No, she treated her as a true friend. Not an object like many others before her, she saw the Weiss that was deep inside her and opened it up. Weiss' mind was tearing for the young leader but she held them back. She had to be the one who led them now.

Ruby, I know that you're in there. Don't die on me you dunce!

Weiss' thoughts were running through that same line in multiple variations. But the meaning was still there as the two of them left to return to Beacon as fast as they could. Both Blake and Weiss were applying as much aura as possible so that Ruby would last until the trip back.

This fight is far from over! It's only begun!

Post Story:

With Haru dead and Jack still running and causing havoc, will the three remaining girls save the day?

What will become of Haru?

Will the future be saved?

Find out next time!

- Lor