"Everybody on board! This is a mandatory evacuation!"

Peter Port's words rang out over the large landing pad, reaching the distressed civilians attempting to follow his orders and get into the Atlesian ships.

One Weiss Schnee was indifferent to it. Her sight was filled with more pressing matters, namely the dismemberment of one of her teammates and the heavy internal injury of the other, as well as the injured Nora and Ren.

Running steps behind her made her turn.

"Ruby!"

"Oh, I'm so glad I found you," Ruby panted, exhausted from the constant fighting she had needed to do in the last two hours or so.

"Ruby, how did-?"

"Don't worry, I'm fine! How is everyone else?"

Weiss' silence was answer enough.

"Weiss?"

The albino girl moved aside, allowing her team leader to see the scene behind her. Ruby's eyes widened in shock, her sight pinned at the point where Yang's arm ended in bloody bandages.

"Yang…" she murmured, walking forward and kneeling by her sister, her mind's eye taken up by the image alone.

"I'm sorry," Blake repeated, holding one hand over her bandaged sternum wound and the other wrapping around the unconscious Yang's remaining hand. "I'm so sorry…"

"Hey…"

Ruby looked up as Sun Wukong approached them, his face lacking any of the usual mirth that the young Faunus was typically bursting with.

"There's a ship ready to take you guys back to Vale. She's going to be fine, Ruby."

"We can't leave yet," Nora insisted, attempting to stand but falling onto her hands and knees as her internal injuries throbbed painfully. "Pyrrha's still back there!"

"What?!" Ruby exclaimed.

"Guys!" Sun insisted. "We have to pull back! That dragon Grimm is still flying around the school, spawning all sorts of Grimm-!"

The blonde Faunus' words were interrupted by the sound of a crash several meters away. Together, they all turned, looking for the source of the commotion.

To their utter surprise, at the other end of the path that led to the large helipad, a pair of Atlesian Paladins stood, their sights clearly pinned on the helipad and its inhabitants.

"What the heck?! I thought those were all offline!" Sun exclaimed in anger.

"They were! I made sure to check with the other students about it!" Weiss responded, reaching for Myrtenaster.

"They must be being controlled manually," Ruby reasons, reaching for her own weapon.

"No, leave them to us!" the voice of Oobleck interrupted her as he and Port ran over and stood protectively in front of the students. "We shall handle them!"

"You can't! You'll-!"

Whatever Weiss was about to say was cut off as the pair of Paladins began running towards them, their strides covering land quickly and tossing aside any Grimm that were nearby and attempted to attack them. Port and Oobleck tensed, preparing themselves to charge the pair of Paladins and stop them halfway.

To their surprise, however, one of the Paladins suddenly stopped and turned, and a moment later, the reason why became known as another large robot dashed into its path, sending it flying back from the force.

"It's Jaune!" Ruby exclaimed, recognizing the winter-camo style of Jaune's Titan companion Silva.

Silva turned and caught a blow from the second Paladin into her hand, stopping it outright. She used her leverage to turn herself around the enemy Paladin, placing herself directly in between the pair of enemy robots and the helipad, then used her other fist to punch the Paladin directly on the cockpit, sending it flying back to its partner, which was just starting to stand.

"Hey!" a voice called out from the trees next to them, revealing itself to be Jaune's as the pilot dashed out from the trees, landing just in front of the teachers. "Glad I made it in time."

"And just where have you been?" Weiss demanded, striding up to the blonde with a fierce look in her eyes.

Said look was replaced with a pained one as Jaune looked back towards her and reached out his hand, flicking her on the forehead and making her step back. "Fighting, what's it look like?" he responded dully, waving his hand over his body and Silva's. Now that she focused on him, she could see that his armor was a little tattered and dinged, his helmet had several furrows on it, and he had a few scars from deep cuts that had likely just been healed by his aura. "Why do you think that you and the other students only faced three Paladins? Do you have any idea how many of those were in Vale and Beacon at the time?" Weiss didn't respond. "Twenty. Twenty Atlesian Paladins, all of them having gone rogue. It was pandemonium down there."

"Wait, so you saw us fight those three giant mechs?!" Sun exclaimed, pointing a finger at Jaune.

"Yeah, I did, but only the last few minutes. I had confidence you guys could handle them," Jaune responded, turning back to Weiss with a more comforting look on his face. It was a look that Weiss recognized, but only because of how little she had seen it before coming to Beacon.

A look of pride in someone else's abilities.

"Well done, Weiss. I have to say, I'm impressed with your abilities and how you handled yourself."

Weiss spluttered as her face was suffused with redness, eventually resigning to turning away from him and crossing her arms. "W-W-Who said I was looking for your approval, you idiot?!"

Jaune chuckled, though it was short-lived. He turned to survey the rest of the students, noticing that one was missing.

"Where's Pyrrha?"

"She's still at the school," Ren responded, wincing in pain as his ribs protested his attempt to stand. "We haven't been able to contact her, but we saw her run back into Beacon with Professor Ozpin."

Jaune grit his teeth, looking back towards the towers of Beacon Academy. Turning to the pair of professors, who were watching the standoff between the pair of enemy Paladins and Silva, he said, "Professors, you two need to help finish evacuation. Leave these two to me."

"I am sorry, young man, but I have my doubts that you could handle two Paladins on your own," Oobleck spoke up, though Port only looked at the Pilot in scrutiny, as if recognizing something.

Jaune chuckled, making the two teachers raise an eyebrow each. "Don't worry, professors… This is what I live for."

And with those words, the young man ran forward towards his Titan, which turned towards him and placed an open-palmed hand in front of itself. The front of the Titan opened up, showing a cockpit where the pilot could sit comfortably. Said pilot jumped, his jump pack allowing him to cover the distance easily, landed on the hand, and used it as a springboard towards the cockpit, twisting in midair to land perfectly on the seat.

Jaune had barely gotten his butt on the seat when the Titan closed its cockpit, turning back to the enemy Paladins. And with its movement, a single sentence was said by it, resounding all around them.

"Controls transferred to Pilot!"

The pair of hijacked Paladins charged, aiming to outnumber and quickly beat down this new opponent. The one on the left found its path blocked by a tripwire mine that had been laid down in Silva's first attack, which exploded and sent it off its path and into a tree. The second one continued its dash for the Titan, which met it head on.

To the bystanders, it was like watching, and feeling, two giants clashing. The Paladin and Titan clashed cockpit to cockpit, causing the ground around them to tremble. The Paladin reared its right fist back, but Silva dashed sideways, dodging the punch by a hair's breadth and retaliating with its own right hook to the shoulder, which staggered the Paladin enough for Silva, or Argon as it were, to commence a combo, striking its cockpit with Silva's left fist, then dashing directly into it, giving it a powerful shoulder tackle that sent it flying back.

The sound of ricocheting metal came from behind Silva, the source being the bullet striking Silva's overshield from the first Paladin. Argon quickly turned Silva around, reaching behind him for the large machine gun on his back. He opened fire on the Paladin, returning the barrage tenfold and causing severe damage on his enemy.

"Jaune!" Ruby exclaimed, watching as the earlier Paladin stood up and aimed a cluster of rockets in Silva's direction.

Just as the rockets were fired, however, Silva's upper body twisted to face the second Paladin, and it raised its left hand, facing the oncoming missiles. To the bystanders' astonishment, a field of pure white, twisting energy erupted from the Titan's raised hand, stopping the missiles in their tracks and turning them in midair. The second Paladin raised its arms in front of its face, expecting the volley to be returned to it, but instead, Silva turned, aiming and releasing the hijacked rockets at the first, downed Paladin. Each one struck with the force of several Dust rounds, eventually causing the Paladin to erupt in flames, quickly taking it out of commission and killing whomever was inside.

Before the second Paladin could regain its bearings, Silva had already covered the distance with a dash, its hands to grabbing the Paladin's 'wrists'. Using pure force, it pulled them apart, leaving the Paladin wide open.

This time, Ruby learned what the cannon peeking over the Titan's left shoulder was for. It aimed itself towards the Paladin's left arm and, after a short wind-up time, shot a pure red laser that sliced through and made short work of the Paladin's shoulder. With a powerful yank, Silva promptly ripped off the Paladin's left arm, then went further and used it as a bludgeon against its owner, tripping the Paladin with a sweep to its legs and then beating it over its torso until the arm broke.

Silence reigned in the helipad after the display of brute force, the silence being broken by the sound of Silva stepping away from the destroyed Paladin. Before anyone could say anything, Silva promptly turned and began to run as fast as it could towards the school, barreling through the remains of the first Paladin on its way.

"Where is he going?!" Sun asked, still gobsmacked by the battle that had just happened.

"Probably after Pyrrha," Weiss surmised. "He did ask where she was, after all."

"I'll go after him," Ruby said, standing up and striding over to the entrance to the helipad. "I'll make sure to bring them both back."

"No," Weiss spoke up, drawing Ruby's attention. "We will go after them." She turned back to Nora, Ren, and Sun. "Watch after Blake and Yang for us. We'll be back."