The effects were immediate and devastating. A wall of force, strong enough to throw a giant around as though it were a child's toy, slammed into the nose of the train. The front of the vehicle was wrenched to a halt, crumpling under the inertia of the cars behind it. The twisted wreckage acted as a roadblock, causing the following cars to twist, turn, and tumble until there was no way for the train to reach its intended destination.

Surveying the destruction, Lejule allowed himself a pang of remorse for the Faunus whose lives had been taken by his actions, and then he clambered onto the scrap heap to search for his family and friends. The first few cars were crushed beyond recognition; when he reached the first relatively intact car, he Shouted, quietly. "Las Yah Nir." Unfortunately, there was no one alive in that car.

He repeated this process for several more cars, finding only White Fang members both alive and dead. Then he reached the highest point of the ruined pile of train parts and the color drained from his face. As far as he could see down the tunnel, utter hordes of Grimm were converging on the back of the train. He had to hurry.

A familiar, but unexpected, scent reached his nose. He looked down and saw a girl wearing white and brown clothes with pink, white, and brown hair frantically trying to open the top hatch of one of the toppled cars. Lejule quietly hopped down to her position. "Which is the disguise, and which is the real you, Napoli?"

She leapt back, her wide eyes flashing both white as she noticed he was there. She deflected his question with the first words he heard her truly speak. "My friend, father figure." She pointed to the hatch. "In there."

The Khajiit glared at her for a moment before relenting, knowing that he would regret his decision later. He drew the Claw of Akatosh and brought it down against all four edges of the hatch, the ebony blade easily carving through the steel. "Get him and go, but I would like to have a word with you later. You know where my office is." He continued on.

Two cars further down, he finally found his friends. Weiss was unconscious, having apparently been thrown against one of the walls due to not bracing properly; Ma'rahka was tending to her. The door at the end in front of the group was dented almost to the point of popping out of its frame from where a massive White Fang soldier had likewise been thrown. Everyone else was battered and bruised, but alive and conscious. Aela stormed up to him. "Why didn't you howl like you said you were going to?"

"I took too long and, because it wasn't fed, the beast receded."

"Hmph. Figures."

"Uh, guys?" The husband and wife looked at Ruby. "What do we do next?"

"We have to get out of here. An army of Grimm is on its way, and not even the eight of us together can kill them all."

A groggy "Nine." signaled Weiss's reawakening.

"Apologies. But even nine of us are not enough to destroy all of the Grimm I saw."

Oobleck stood up. "So, what do you suggest?"

Lejule looked at his son. "Ma'rahka. Now would be the time for that levitation spell."

The young man grinned as he channeled and formed the requisite magicka in his hands.


Weiss had felt a lot of sensations in her life, but she had to admit that this was new. After a short lesson in how to move under the effects of the "levitation" spell, Lejule had led them outside and into the air, mostly out of reach of the Grimm.

"Professor, are you sure that this is a good idea?"

"It is our only option. The dremora and atronachs will not last forever."

Ah, yes. The strange creatures that Lejule and his son had summoned to distract the Grimm horde back at the train. Two of them had looked like Faunus of some sort wearing bulky and spiky black armor with red highlights and their skin matched; they had seemed to not only be aware of their role, but excited for it. The other two appeared to be synthetics made of rock and fire. Weiss still wasn't sure what to make of the four, but she didn't have the luxury of questioning that right now. She looked back at her feet, stepping on a platform made of three pulsating rings of magenta-colored energy. "How long will this last?"

It was Ma'rahka who answered. "About five more minutes before I need to cast the spell again."

"And, if you don't?"

"We fall."

Weiss gulped. Ruby drifted over to her and looped an arm over her shoulders. "It's okay, Weiss. I'll make sure you don't get hurt."

The heiress looked down at the horde of Grimm below them. "That does not exactly inspire confidence."

"Quiet. No need to attract undue attention." Lejule stopped for a second before gathering energy in his hands. He thrust his arms toward the ground and another pair of creatures appeared.

If Weiss remembered the terminology correctly, they were "dremora." Despite her distance from the floor of the tunnel, she distinctly heard one of them yell, "Raahh! A challenger is near!" Then again, they both had the same voice, so it might have been both of them in unison.

Lejule pointed back toward the train and the summoned beings began marching that way, cutting down any Grimm in their path and ignoring the majority of the attacks directed against them.

The rest of the walk was completed without incident; Ma'rahka periodically recast the group levitation spell, and they exited the tunnel through the nearest hole that had been made by the exploding train cars. Yang spoke up for the first time since they had left the train. "Well, that was a bit less climactic than I thought it would be."

Blake tilted her head as she looked at her partner. "Yang, we stopped Torchwick's plan dead in its tracks." Then she facepalmed as Yang's snickering made her realize the pun she had made.

"Not bad, Blake. There's hope for you, yet. But, anyway, what I meant was that there was no big battle of us trying to stop the train, enemies trying to stop us but instead slowing us down every step of the way. No big battle against the Grimm–" The screeching of Nevermores cut her off. "I really need to stop while I'm ahead."

The group turned and spotted three of the Grimm birds flying toward them. Lejule sheathed his sword and slung his shield onto his back. "Ma'rahka, you and I will take the one on the left. Aela, you and the others strike the one on the right."

Ruby noted his count was off. "Um, that still leaves the one in the middle."

The professor smiled. "That will be taken care of by a friend of mine." He looked at the ground and Shouted. "DUR-NEHVIIR!"

A wave of energy splashed across the grass a few dozen feet in front of them, forming what looked like a portal of some kind. Out of it climbed the most bizarre and awe-inspiring creature anyone on Remnant had ever seen. First, a giant leathery wing emerged and gripped the edge of the portal, followed by a second. After them came a large, triangular head as large as an Ursa with four great, sweeping horns extending from the back of the being's skull. Behind that was a long, scaled neck as thick as King Taijitu's body, which led into the creature's body. Thick, talon-tipped, scaly legs reached out and grabbed the rim of the portal to pull the monster fully into the world. This revealed the creature's back, which was covered in long, thick spines. Finally, a long tail tipped with a wide, curved blade of bone slithered into view and the portal closed. Weiss guessed that the creature would have looked rather majestic in life, but the amount of its flesh that was clearly rotting away suggested that this thing had been, somehow, brought back from whatever grave it had been stuffed in who knew how many years ago. Even so, there was only one beast whose description even came close to matching what had just been summoned by Lejule: a dragon.

The dragon looked at their professor and, to the shock of Team RWBY and Doctor Oobleck, spoke. "Qahnaarin. It has been too long." It – no, he – looked up and sniffed the air through its bony nostrils. "This is not Keizaal; in fact, it is nowhere I recognize. Where are we?" He noticed the Remnant natives. "And who are your fahdon?"

The cat walked up to the dragon. "I will tell you, later, old friend. For now, we have foes to vanquish." He nodded in the direction of the Nevermores.

The dragon followed his gaze. "Geh. I see." It extended its tattered wings, flapped twice, and took to the skies.

Lejule turned around and noticed the looks he was being given. "An explanation for a later time. For now, prepare yourselves." He wove his hands through the air and pulled electrical energy into a big ball he cradled in his palms, the movements matched perfectly by his son.

Weiss prepared her glyphs to launch a Dust barrage at the incoming birds.

Ruby shifted Crescent Rose into its sniper rifle form and took aim at her assigned target.

Blake folded Gambol Shroud into its pistol form and lined up its sights with her eyes.

Yang extended Ember Celica into their combat form and raised her fists. "Aim for the eyes or the open mouth. Those are the weak spots."

Aela nocked an arrow on the string of her bow and drew it back.

Ma'isha pulled a crossbow out of her satchel, loaded a bronze bolt that coursed with a blue-white energy, and brought the weapon's stock to her shoulder.

Her mother noted an error in her form. "You're aiming too low. Bring the front up a bit."

The cat-girl squeezed her eyes shut and followed Aela's order. "Right."

Oobleck raised his thermos, which telescoped out into its flamethrower configuration.

The dragon bared his claws and tore into the central Nevermore, but the other two kept coming.

Aela drew her bowstring further back. "Get ready. Lejule?"

"Fire when I cast." He stared intently at the Nevermore he was targeting. "Now." He and Ma'rahka thrust their hands forward, and twin streams of lightning raced toward the giant Grimm. The beams ravenously tore at the bone mask, rending it and devouring the black flesh behind. The bird screamed in pain for a few seconds, and then it began to disintegrate from the head down. This was not the evaporating that Grimm corpses normally underwent; instead, the lightning seemed to burn the monster to ash.

However, the others had not been idle while the two magic-users destroyed one of the Nevermores. The other was met with an inundation of bullets, arrows, and Dust projectiles. From how badly she had aimed earlier, Ma'isha's crossbow bolt skittered off the bird's face-plate. She redeemed herself with her second bolt; one of Aela's arrows and some of Ruby and Yang's bullets pierced one of the beast's eyes, causing it to roar in pain, and the Khajiit girl took the opportunity to put a bolt down its throat. When it hit the inner flesh, the missile exploded in a flash of ice, strangling its cry. Combined fire from Weiss and Doctor Oobleck battered the fiend's head every which way while Blake's bullets put out another of its eyes.

Disoriented and half-blind, the Nevermore pulled out of its dive and tried to flee. However, its flight path brought it within range of the defensive guns atop the walls of Vale. Cannon shells flew through the air and ripped the bird to shreds.


Lejule looked for the last of the Grimm, only to see Durnehviir grab each wing of the injured abomination in his talons and tear it in half. He turned toward the others. "Is anyone injured?" When they all answered that they were all right, he continued, "Doctor Oobleck, would you say that our mission is complete?"

The green-haired man cupped his chin in thought for a moment. "I would say 'no,' as the Grimm in that tunnel might still need to be eradicated, but that many Grimm might be too much for a team of professional Huntsmen. We should return and gather reinforcements to take care of the problem."

The eldest Khajiit nodded. "Then, in that case, it is well past time we returned home." He turned his gaze to Aela and their children. "Our temporary home, in the case of my family."


When they all reached Beacon, having encountered and slaughtered a few Grimm along the way, Team RWBY stopped and looked back the way they had come, while Oobleck, Lejule, and the latter's family continued on to file their report. Yang was the first to speak. "Well, we did it."

Blake nodded. "We did it."

Weiss chimed in, half-joking, half-serious. "If we don't get extra-credit for that, I'm going to be seriously disappointed."

Yang patted her shoulder. "We did stop an invasion of Vale before it could start, so we might."

Ruby added her two cents. "But we didn't solve everything. A lot of Faunus were hurt, even killed, and we still don't know why they tried to do that."

Weiss tried to comfort her partner. "Well, not every story has a neat and tidy ending."

Blake put in her opinion on the situation. "We may not have all the answers, but there are a lot of dangerous people who won't be able to hurt other people, anymore. And I think that's something we can be proud of."

The crimsonette hung her head. "But Torchwick's still out there, and I wish those people we stopped were in jail rather than dead."

Weiss tilted her head. "How do you figure that Torchwick escaped?"


Neo lifted the unconscious body of Roman Torchwick onto her shoulder. "I've got you," she whispered as she grabbed his hat and cane and teleported away from the train to a White Fang hideout.


"Just a feeling. That, and, that's how it works in the comic books. The heroes stop the villain's plan, and he flees to make a new one."

Yang rubbed her sister's head. "Come on, you've been reading too many of those. Besides, in those comics, the villain never succeeds."

Ruby shimmied out of the brawler's affections and nodded. "Yeah, you're right. If anyone tries anything like this again, we'll be there to stop them!"

That was when exhaustion finally caught up to the team blonde, and she lay down, Zwei flopping onto his back beside her. "Yay…teamwork, camaraderie, go guys, go team. Alright, good job…" Her words slurred more and more the closer she got to the end of the sentences. She shook herself back awake and propped herself up on her elbows. "So, what now?"

Weiss, ever the analytical one, replied, "I'd suggest training for the tournament, but, between the White Fang and the Grimm, I think we have that covered at this point."

Blake waved her hand in askance. "So, that means…?"

Ruby gave her answer in an uncertain tone. "Uh, time for bed?"

There were no arguments among her team, Yang going so far as to say, "I'm going to sleep forever." The victorious, yet exhausted, Huntresses-in-training walked to their dorm room feeling ready to take on the world, after a good sleep.

They had no idea what was to come.


AUTHOR'S NOTE: With this, this story's version of Volume 2 of RWBY comes to a close. There will be one more chapter to cover the time between Volumes before we go into the events of Volume 3.


A little preview of what's to come:

Port's voice boomed over the stadium's loudspeakers. "Welcome, one and all, to the 40th Biannual Vytal Festival Tournament. Our first match is about to get underway: Team PLTM of Shade versus Team MOON of Beacon!"