As fun as it usually was to float from great heights while vanished, Pyrrha wished her decent was faster, the chance of saving Oobleck was dwindling with every moment. As she finally pierced the ground, her heart sank to see Oobleck's spark already extinguished. Still, she'd snatched him from death before...

As she passed through the walls of the sinkhole, her heart dropped again, when she saw his neck broken, a wound beyond her power to repair. "I'm sorry, Bart, I can't save you this time." She returned to solidity, glad for the peaceful smile upon his still face. "I saw what you did. Thank you, so much, for saving my Jaune for me." She leaned down, and kissed his brow, then closed his eyes, "Ancestress, please, guide him to a blissful afterlife…"

Adam woke, glad the Ancients had designed the pilot chamber to rotate as needed, then cut himself free of his restraints. Finding his legs wouldn't heed him, he dragged himself towards Corsac's dangling corpse, hoping the spirit of the Paladin had died with the rest of his crew…

"Stop pacing, Jaune, she'll turn up." Already, Jaune had worn a line in the dirt.

"I don't know the extent of her abilities, I don't know if she survived whatever means she used to bring that monstrosity down."

"Exactly, you don't know the extent of her power, she's just taking her time getting back here. Besides, that monstrosity did fall a ways away, even at a dead run, she wouldn't have made it here by now." As Jaune kept pacing, Blake stood and grabbed his arm. "Jaune."

"It's not just Pyrrha, Blake, the world is changing in ways that have me frightened. First, a woman that bends reality itself, then, black diamond that eats flesh and mind alike, now, iron monstrosities with strides to step over mountains!" He looked Blake in the eye, "At this rate, you know they'll awaken. They'll come back."

Blake looked to the ground for a time, then, "…They're already back, Jaune." She said quietly, eyes glistening, "I was there when Tyrian went rogue, but it was a Scentless One that killed him, not me." A tear fell from her eye, "I didn't tell anyone, because I'd hoped it was isolated, but they're already back."

"Who's back?" Pyrrha asked when she was on solid ground again.

"Beings that should stay where they belong, lost in the tides of time." Jaune was playfully slow in handing Pyrrha her things back, as she knew he would be. "Blake," He said, turning, "Return to Beacon, tell them everything that happened here and with Tyrian, I'll hear that tale, later. Pyrrha and I will return to her village and see if Glynda knows of what blighted Oobleck."

Suddenly, the ground shook again, a voice like a thunderclap sounding, "Where are you, Huntsmen?!" The shoulders of the monstrosity peeked over the piles of relics, "There you are! Thanks for standing so still, I'd hate to have to cut a swath of destruction just to find you again. Though, I'll be doing that anyway!"

His legs worked again, though, if not for the pilot harness, he would not be standing to control the Paladin. "Well, Paladin? How shall I kill my little pets?" As he chuckled, a deep, metallic voice rang out.

"Sir, all weapons systems have decayed beyond permissible use. However, there is a rocket assisted leap function still available. If you can stand, I will begin countdown."

That's more like it. Adam smirked as the insufferable construct bent to his will.

As they turned and ran, Pyrrha tossed Jaune her bag and shouted, "I brought it down once, I'll do it again!" Then knelt, running her hands from her ankles to her hips, Weaving strength into her legs, and leapt towards the Paladin as it regained its feet...

"Sir, all rocket motors ready. Shall I begin countdown?"

"Begin ignition sequence, I want full power on my word." Adam knelt, then, "Now!" and leapt for all his worth…

As she sailed through the air, the Paladin knelt, then, with a volcanic roar, a cloud spread from its legs and back, and it leapt well above Pyrrha's own flight, the wind of its passing sending her tumbling through the air…

Suddenly, there was a thunderous roar, and a resounding crash as the ground shook hard enough to knock Jaune from his feet, despite his balance. He turned, terror freezing him to his core as he saw the monstrosity standing over them, their head start for nothing. Then, it drew back its mountainous fist, elbow high like an arrogant youngling in a brawl, and Jaune scoffed as he regained his footing…

Blake knelt, waiting for it, eyes closed and peace in her heart. She had lived well, she'd saved lives and brought peace to many, even those she'd no choice but to fight, whom she'd never killed. She was ready for whatever adventure her death would bring, and glad for what her life had given her. Darkness fell, the earth shook with a resounding crash…

…Blake's ears split with Jaune's howl of rage and pained defiance. Blake opened her eyes, and saw Jaune, gripping the monstrosity's fist with a grasp that cracked its armored hide, before pops rang through the air, Jaune's howl growing an edge of madness as muscles within his arms, legs and trunk tore free of bone, and he fell to his knees as the fist lifted back into the sky…

Pain, lots of pain. His pain was in pain. He knew nothing else but the pain that dripped from every fiber of his being. He looked up to the sky, and saw the beautiful, beautiful copper hair, and the beautiful, beautiful face it framed that screamed his name, and the pain was nothing, for there was only her…

Pyrrha watched as his eyes shut, trembling at the thought of being left behind, when she heard a crack of thunder, a thump, and the strangest energy filled her bones.

"Well, now." A voice said, "Late, but in the nick of time." Pyrrha looked to the strange man, saw as his hands swiveled from his wrists and an ominous hum filled the air. A glow flooded from the holes in his open wrists, he looked to the descending fist of the Paladin, then, faster than her eyes could track, his arm snapped forward, and a flood of pulsing energy tore through the entire length of the Paladin's arm, shredding and blasting it away.

As the Paladin stumbled backward, the stump on its left shoulder glowing orange, the man looked to Pyrrha. "Pardon me, be right back." Then leapt higher than even Pyrrha thought possible towards the Paladin, lances of power arcing from his wrists through its belly, leaving glowing holes as wide as Jaune was tall clean through in an even line from one side to the other. As the man began to fall towards the ground again, the Paladin caught him in its titanic remaining fist with a clap like thunder, only to have its torso torn clean off by the hand's sudden yank and thrown beyond the horizon, the legs and hips falling to the ground, lifeless.

Gravity manipulation was a tricky thing to figure out, but when they cracked that code it was among the greatest breakthroughs of scientific history. Many, many uses, like the repellant field Flynt was using to prevent himself from getting crushed, at the same time locking himself in his exact location in space. Seeing as the earth travels more than a hundred thousand miles per second in its orbit (and seeing as it was the correct time of day) he stayed put while the earth continued to move in its orbital arc, leaving him and whatever chunk clung to him behind.

After he had waited three seconds he juiced up his repellant field-tearing open the hand of the 396 "Paladin Praetor Centurion" MECH(Oam, that name grated his soul), then surveyed how much he'd brought with him.

It was a pleasantly shocking amount.

He knew he'd brought the hand with him, but the wrist should NOT have held. The elbow should NOT have held. The shoulder should NOT have held.

Though, he was pleased to see everything above the cut he'd made through the waistline had tagged along, too. Impressed as he was with his own design work from more than a millennium before, Flynt scowled, remembering how hard he'd fought against building the damn thing in the first place. Simple fact was, the budget they'd thrown into building 396 in the first place could have put an armored exoskeleton on every soldier his nation had once had. Morale was the only thing 396 ever excelled at. With a familiar ball of disgust in the pit of his stomach, Flynt loaded a uranium pellet into the ionizing chamber of his right plasgun. One shot later proved all 396 ever could have been was a one thousand five-hundred-ton cheerleader.

Adam thought nothing, felt nothing. Whatever had just happened, he had no words to describe. How, ever, could he convey what he'd just seen? First, a flesh and blood man had CAUGHT the punch of one of the mightiest constructs the Ancients had ever built, then, another man had so thoroughly thrashed the Paladin in ways he couldn't comprehend. An entire arm, just… gone. Then, he'd torn the Paladin in two as if it was a bug… How?!

The wall of the pilot chamber burst open, the man who'd torn apart the Paladin as if it was a doll striding in, body glowing a livid orange, then, reaching out, his fingers melted through the harness, the stench of the cloth filling the air as Adam fell to the floor at the man's feet. "Round… Two?" At Adam's silence, "Didn't think so."

Pyrrha pressed her fingers under Jaune's jawline, her heart starting again as she felt his feint heartbeat. She took his dagger from his boot and gently cut his shirt from his chest, heart shattering at the sight of nearly every muscle out of place under his hide. "He's alive, but it's very fortunate he's out cold…"

"Is there anything you can do?" Blake asked, trembling at the sight of her friend's ruined body.

"No, my Grandmother, perhaps, but he's beyond my power to save." Pyrrha's sight blurred, and she swept away her tears. "If we move him, we're more likely to make it worse than better, I have no guarantee my Grandmother can mend him, and by the time she could get here his muscles will have started to heal wrong…"

Suddenly, thunder filled the air again and the man landed nearby. "Sorry I'm late, wasn't sure you needed my help." Then he was at Jaune's side. "Lucky he didn't get worse, all things considered." He looked to Pyrrha, chuckling. "Shame he's missing the view." Drawing a crimson blush from her as she vanished, he turning serious before the ripple touched him.

"My body is for HIS eyes, only." She said, her blush spreading to her chest. "Now, is there anything you can do for him, or are you merely a destroyer?" She looked to Blake and saw her turning as pale as the dead. Suddenly, she heard a thump, and looked as the man had opened his shirt, pried open his chest and drew a small bottle from a rack within his body.

"Half the point of my bein' here ma'am." He gave the top of the bottle a twist, opening it, then poured the potion within into Jaune's mouth. "Now, this will look very strange to you, but you'll have to trust me." Suddenly, his left hand began to glow cherry red, the air dancing from the heat, then, his palm split open, threads thinner than hairs sprouting forth. With his other hand, the man reached within his chest again and drew another bottle with a sponge at the opening, which he pinched, a small crackle sounding, then began swabbing iodine at the center of Jaune's chest. "Good thing no skin was broken, makes surgery a lot simpler." Then, he laid his right hand where he'd cleaned Jaune's hide, the threads slipping underneath, and Jaune's muscles began returning to their proper place.

As Pyrrha's heart began beating again, she heard a choked sob from Blake. As she looked to Blake, Pyrrha saw the tears running in streams along her cheeks. "Blake," She startled at Pyrrha's voice, "What's wrong?"

"Last I saw a Scentless One," She whispered, "they killed another man I loved…"


In case it isn't clear, the Paladin is roughly 40% Pacific Rim scale.

Anyway, questions and comments are welcome in the reviews and pms, even if it's just a "MOAR NEOW" I'll take it. Seriously, I wanna hear from y'all!