AN: Sorry this is so late! I am now finished with the writing process for the whole volume, so you'll get the last chapters a lot quicker.
While Ozpin was fighting Signal inside the abandoned school, Leonidus and Brutus were engaged in combat against Ozpin's mysterious companion, Dusk. Despite the tension of the fight, it was hard for Leonidus to concentrate, which was usually a strength of his. He felt almost—dazed.
Slowly but surely, his master was beginning to seem crazy, and now his brother was talking about possibly abandoning his job as one of Signal's assassins, leaving Leonidus to wonder where he belonged in all of this.
As Dusk swung his sword at Leonidus's legs, Leonidus leaped up and landed his feet on the table. He drew a plasma pistol from his belt and fired several rounds at Dusk, who spun his sword in a dizzying blur to deflect the bullets. Then Dusk swung his sword again, this time aiming for one of the legs of the table. The leg split in half, dumping Leonidus off the table as it collapsed on one angle. Leonidus fumbled for his shield and opened it up, feeling the back of his head hit the table as Dusk's sword collided with the shield.
With every bit of strength he could call forth, Leonidus pushed his way up onto his feet and shoved Dusk back with a strangled cry. He took up his knife and tossed it up in the air above Dusk so that Brutus could teleport to the spot in midair and go down on Dusk. Brutus appeared in midair and attempted to hack Dusk's head with his black sword, but with a sleight of hand, Dusk grabbed Brutus's leg and pulled his whole body away from him, using physical strength that Leonidus couldn't see on Dusk.
Who is this guy?
Dusk kicked Brutus hard enough in the side to make his body roll. Khol Taurus finally came at Dusk with his own knife and an animalistic cry. Dusk's blade retreated into its own hilt and Dusk put the hilt away to confront Khol in close combat. Khol attempted several jabs at Dusk, one at the head, one at the torso, and another at the head again, which Dusk deflected by using both his hands to push Khol's dagger hand aside. Khol flipped the dagger, caught it and aimed for Dusk's head again. Dusk used both his hands to grab Khol's wrist and drive the dagger-hand down while Khol gripped Dusk's shoulder with his free hand to shove. Leonidus watched and couldn't help but finally feel a sense of admiration for his own foe. He was quick, obviously more skilled in ways that he wasn't, and he rarely seemed exhausted. Something was pushing him to keep going, Leonidus just wondered what that had to be.
When Khol swung in a wide arc to slice Dusk's head, Dusk ducked, but just barely enough for him to miss his hair. Another swing immediately after was Khol's free hand to strike him with his fist, which missed too, giving Dusk the opportunity to smash his own fist into Khol's face. Khol stumbled backwards and Dusk went after him, allowing Leonidus to dive for his knife while the enemy was distracted. He flipped it over so that he was holding it by the blade and tossed it at Dusk to get him in the back. Dusk saw it coming out of the corner of his eye however, and his sword hilt slapped into his hand and the blade popped up in time to deflect it.
Brutus appeared where the dagger fell, this time his black sword being twice the size that it was and swung it overhead. Dusk leaped aside to avoid it and the blade smashed into the floor, tossing up debris in the process.
"No!" Leonidus heard Signal scream.
Everyone's attention turned to Signal, who was watching a Huntsman attempt to save Summer.
"Dusk, I need your help!" Ozpin yelled. He was fighting Signal with his cane. Dusk tossed his sword to destroy about a dozen clones of Signal pursuing the prisoner, and the sword returned to his hand. Khol ran to Signal's side and they both chased the Huntsman and Summer out the door while Ozpin and Dusk fled to go after them.
In a last ditch effort to stop them, Leonidus transformed his shield into his shotgun and fired off several rounds, all of which Ozpin and Dusk batted away before they disappeared through the door.
Leonidus sucked in an angry, stinging breath through his teeth.
"Let's go," he said to Brutus.
"Where are we going?" Brutus asked.
"I'm going to end this. Ozpin and his friend will die, and then I'm gone."**
*Signal wasn't chasing after Summer with Khol anymore. She didn't think she needed her power. If the pool could give her the power she needed to bring Onyx back, then she didn't need Summer. If the pool didn't end up being enough, then Khol would already have Summer for Signal again.
Thanks to the location information Khol gave to Signal before they split up, Signal was able to track down the opening into the tunnels, amidst the debris of a downed building, which was a significant distance away from the other businesses and apartments in the city. In one of the books Signal had read from Ozpin's underground library, it said that the same building of which Signal walking through the ruins used to be a school for Huntresses specifically, until one of the Huntresses-in-training discovered her Semblance and got a little too excited with it. The building crumbled to the ground, and rumor had it that every student perished in the accident, because no one had been able to find any of the students anywhere afterwards. The location was convenient, because it was obvious that the Headmaster there decided that the pool underground could be used for the students once he felt they were ready to be responsible with the power that it provided. The actual origin of the pool however was unknown.
Signal felt her hand along the tunnel wall as she descended underground. She could feel her heart rate rise higher and higher as her aching body got lower and lower.**
*"This is pointless, brother. Why can't we just leave now? There's nothing we will gain from this," Brutus hissed as he followed Leonidus down the sidewalk.
"It will put my mind at ease to know that the one who hurt you is dead, that's what I will gain from this," Leonidus replied.
"Leonidus—."
Brutus was cut off when Leo's scroll rang. It was Signal.
"Leonidus, what is your position?" Signal asked when Leo answered it.
"I'm in hot pursuit of Ozpin and his companion. They will try to stop Khol from nabbing the Huntress. Where are you?"
"In the underground tunnels that Khol spoke of, but don't worry about me. Kill Ozpin and his friend."
"Yes, boss," Leonidus answered. He hung up and slipped his scroll back in his pocket.
"That'll be the last order from that witch me and you have to follow," he said to Brutus with his gaze still straight ahead.
Leonidus felt a blow to the back of the head, there was a sudden ache of deep-seated pain, and the world went dark.**
*Brutus stood behind the fallen body of his brother holding his sword with the bottom of the hilt facing outward.
"I'm sorry," he said. He took up his knife and laid it beside Leonidus. That way he could never teleport to where he was going. He then started heading in the direction of the school ruins where the entrance to the tunnel was.**
*Having stolen motorcycles from a bar parking lot, Ozpin and Dusk sped down the road to keep up with Khol and his men.
Ozpin could feel his confidence rising as he got closer and closer to the group, then the city sirens started wailing.
There were creatures of Grimm in the city.
From the side, Ozpin felt something tackle him off his motorcycle and his body collided with the side of a car.
"Ow," Ozpin said as he struggled to get back up.
Through blurry vision, he could make out the dark shape of a Griffon, a creature of Grimm with the head, wings and talons of a large predatory bird and the rear legs, tail and body of a lion or tiger. A row of bony spikes ran along its wings.
Ozpin reached for his cane that had fallen by his side and batted the Griffon away just as it lunged for him. When the Griffon attempted to go after him again, it was stopped short by Dusk's blade through its back. It fell over and began fading away to nothing.
Ozpin got himself back onto his feet and looked up to see several Griffons as well as a few Nevermores perching themselves on the roofs of random buildings and howling.
"This is not good. Signal did it. The whole city is seeped in fear, and it attracted the Grimm," Ozpin said.
"What do we do now?" Dusk asked.
For Ozpin, it was usually easy to come up with an answer. He believed he usually had the answers for just about everything. After all, wasn't that part of his responsibility as a leader and a Headmaster?
Nevertheless, the answer did come to him, and he wasn't going to enjoy telling Dusk.
"I will go face Signal myself. You will stay behind and get these people to safety."
"What? No. That wasn't part of the agreement. You had this whole strategy of us taking on Signal together."
"I know, but if I had just decided to finish this with Signal earlier, I don't believe the Grimm would be invading this city now. She is my responsibility, and mine alone."
"Ozpin—."
"Trust me, Dusk. I know what I'm doing," Ozpin insisted.
Dusk's eyes narrowed, and a disgusted scowl that even made Ozpin shiver flitted across his face.
"You tell yourself that right before every one of your failures?" He asked. Before Ozpin could reply, Dusk hopped back onto his motorcycle and sped away. Just as quickly as Dusk had left, a blinding spotlight poured over Ozpin and he looked up to see a large ship descending. A turret extending from its side mowed down the Nevermores and Griffons on the buildings nearby.
Reinforcements from Atleas. Which means…
The ship touched ground and James Ironwood stepped off of it armed with a machine rifle. He widened his eyes.
"Ozpin?" He asked.
"James, its been a while," Ozpin replied, too exhausted to make light of the moment.
"We were sent as soon as soon as word reached us that the Grimm breached the city limits. There are so many of them. I assume you're here to stop the Lioness's Pride."
"Yes, I need to find their leader, and her lieutenant is after Qrow and his team," Ozpin explained.
James raised an eyebrow. "Qrow and his team are here too? If you needed all of them, why didn't you call for us?"
"We were hoping to keep this under wraps. Seeing that you're here now, that's impossible at this point."
James raised his rifle and shot down a Beowolf that was coming up behind Ozpin.
"I will do everything in my power to take this city back," James said.
"You're a general now?"
"Captain. But I'm trying to work my way up," James replied with a smile he couldn't help but let slip.
"Hey, hey," someone shouted. James and Ozpin whirled around to see a large Faunus stumbling towards them. Blood was dripping down the skin between his eyes. Ozpin recognized him as one of the brothers that he and Dusk faced a while back with the Faunus Grimm.
James aimed his rifle directly at the Faunus's chest. "What do you want?"
"Calm down, okay? I just need help."
James and Ozpin briefly exchanged glances. "What would that be?" Ozpin asked.
"It's my brother. He knocked me out and left me. I think—I think he went where my boss is."
"And where is your boss?" James asked.
Leonidus chuckled, which allowed Ozpin to get a glimpse of his bloodstained teeth. "If I tell you, will you find my brother and bring him safely?"
Ozpin stepped forward. "I will try my best, but first tell me where your boss is. I need to find her."**
*I had to babysit a child before, but this is the most lethal babysitting job I've ever done.
Qrow was driving a stolen car with Taiyang and Summer in the back and Krystal in the front passenger seat. Behind them hot on their trail was Khol and about a dozen of his soldiers on motorcycles.
We have to get Summer out of here.
"Oh!" Summer cried out. Her hand clasped her belly and Taiyang immediately embraced her.
"What is it? Summer, what's wrong?"
"Oh no. It's coming."
Qrow's eyes snapped open.
"Oh crap," Krystal murmured.
"Qrow, we don't have time to get to our ship. We need to stop somewhere now," Taiyang urged.
"It'll never be safe as long as we're here, we have to escape the city," Qrow said.
"Look out!" Krystal screamed.
Qrow saw a gigantic Ursa roar its way onto the street, straight into their path. He swerved out of the monster's way and drove around. One of the soldiers crashed into the Ursa's leg and his motorcycle exploded in a ball of fire.
"Grimm are in the city," Qrow said.
"Great, just what needed on top of everything else," Taiyang whined. His rant was cut short when gunfire smashed into the back window and shattered the glass. Taiyang grabbed Summer's head with both of his hands and ducked it to keep it away from the line of fire.
"They have turrets built into their motorcycles," Taiyang informed Qrow.
Qrow reached down underneath the wheel and pulled out a shotgun and tossed it to Taiyang.
"Take this."
"Where did you get this?" Taiyang asked.
"A little care package from Captain Jimmy when you were saving Ozpin," Qrow replied.
Taiyang took up the gun and aimed the barrel through the shattered window. He unloaded a round into the chest of an incoming soldier. The soldier's body immediately exploded in a cloud of Dust and the motorcycle fell onto its side and burst into flames upon it being collided with another soldier riding his vehicle. The soldier was flipped off and the flames embraced him as he cried.
"Tai!" Summer screamed.
"Qrow!" Taiyang shouted.
"I'm working on it!"
"Oh no," Taiyang said.
"What?"
"It's the FunHouse."
It was true. A gang known as FunHouse from the Black Hole was riding ahead of Khol and his men with weapons loaded on their motorcycles. Their motorcycles had flags protruding from their backs, proudly presenting their emblem, which was an F and H together within an orange circle. Greene was the name of their leader.
"Let em have it," Qrow ordered.
Taiyang began frantically firing at the team with more rounds from his shotgun, but the gang managed to ride out of the way, laughing as they went.
Taiyang then gasped when he saw Greene remove a rocket launcher from his back and aim it at the car.
"Rocket!" Taiyang screamed, but Greene had already fired it, and the rocket slammed into their car, forcing the back wheels off the road. Qrow threw himself at Krystal and pulled her to him, activating his Aura as he did so. Taiyang did the same thing with Summer.
"Hang on!" Qrow screamed.
The car finished flipping over, and Qrow heard metal screeching and flames licking everything around him. His body shook and Krystal screamed in his arms. Once the car finally settled, Qrow only knew one thing. The need to get out and get away.
Fast.**
*Khol stopped his motorcycle close by where the flipped car was resting. Most of the whole car was bathing in flames, with one part of it almost completely and hopelessly charred. Members of FunHouse were getting off their motorcycles to see if any of the people inside survived.
Khol removed a pistol from his belt and shot down every one of the unsuspecting gang members before they could get any closer.
"Sorry gentlemen, they're mine," he declared. He turned to the soldiers waiting for his next order.
"Hold this position and be my backup."
When he strolled over to the car, he grabbed hold of the driver's side door and tore it away from its hinges. Once he got a look inside, he saw that they were already gone. He looked up and spotted Qrow following Taiyang, Summer, and the Faunus traitor into a large warehouse.
His grin slipped further a notch.
"Come with me. All of you! We're going to finish this," Khol told his men.**
*Inside the warehouse, Krystal was using her night-vision to safely guide the others to a place where Summer could lie down and deliver her baby. Her face was dust, cheeks streaked with tears and swear. Krystal took them upstairs onto a platform and Summer was laid out between two high stacks of crates, some of them bearing the emblem of the Schnee Dust Company. Her water had already broken, and the contractions were starting to come faster now.
"Keep us safe," Taiyang said to Qrow as he knelt down beside his wife.
Qrow grimly nodded before running off to face Khol.
So this is it. This is what I am meant to accomplish. Failure could mean the end of us all.**