RWBY: Book of memories

by Fasak

The're different reasons why people assist to Beacon: Some of them for glory, dreams and fame, others for honor and redemption, others for survive and because they don't really have a place to go and others...for more darker reasons... [Warning: English isn't the first language of this autor, beware of grammar mistakes] (Rated M for blood, dark themes and future sexual situations)

25. Black and White

For a hundredth time through the night Coco saw Velvet check her Scroll just to sigh melancholically again, the bunny girl was lying in her bed with one leg bended and holding her device in front of her, in the air. The intervals from where she checked constantly her Scroll became shorter as the night passed; in contrast her concerned expression was more evident. Coco watched this from her desk, she was doing her homework but the crestfallen expression of her teammate kept distracting her from her duties to not say that it was also worrying her.

Coco always thought that Velvet was a sweet girl and a really great friend but sometimes she was too meek and timid for her own good, so she barely interacted with other persons outside of them, and that in their line of work could be dangerous. That's why she and her team constantly encouraged her to meet new people and make new friends, a thing that she reluctantly acceded, but acceded nonetheless. Their hope was that she would make new friends and acquaintances and maybe, just maybe —and with their approval of course— she would get a boyfriend. She was cute and kindhearted, and she had saw catching the eye of one of two boys.

But apparently she'd other things in mind. Because she skipped the first two steps and went straight to money. It wasn't the fact that Velvet had a boyfriend, and a good looking, truly it wasn't, the problem was with whom. It took her by surprise, she'd saw her making out with that guy, and after the Nuthanger mission, she formally introduced to them as her, ahem, boyfriend.

Needless to say their teammates were not amused. Mainly because of his fame. So this guy apparently bangs half of Beacon female population in the first months and then she starts seeing Velvet and suddenly his a goody-goody? A philanderer with a reputation like his, with a shy girl like Vel? Yeah, fat chance, things could only end up bad and they didn't like the idea of seeing her hurt.

They tried to tell her, several times, but she always shrugged off their comments or defended him. It was only a matter of time, so they decided that they were going to help her by not helping her, they could follow him and take evidence and show it to Velvet, it would break her heart and make realize that she was being deceived, and they could do it, but the main reason they didn't follow this wasn't because it would take time or was going to be tiresome, they would always made time for her friend and had her back; it was mainly because Velver needed to mature, what mattered if in the end the result was going to be the same? It was better if she knew it by herself and grew up than by being protected by her friends and didn't progressed at all? Like an overly protective mother stopping the learning of her child.

She needed to fall, so she could learn how not to.

The only thing they could do was consoling her and be there for her.

And break his fucking face, of course.

Today, this seemed like the fateful. Yatsu and Fox told her that they saw him going to the city with his partner. A really pretty girl. The two of them. Alone. They had bought her; her favorite ice cream that was now stored in the mini-fridge that was on the corner and had tissues ready for the dam to broke. Their other teammates were waiting for his future ex ready to receive him with warm welcome. "He hasn't answered?" Coco asked.

Velvet checked her Scroll "No" she answered with a crestfallen expression.

"Didn't he say that he'll call you?"

"Yeah, something must've happened, that's why I'm worried" the faunus girl answered.

"Weird" Coco said with a tone that Velvet knew too well.

"Coco. No." she admonished.

"Come on Vel. Seriously? You're gonna defend him, now?" Coco said conceited as she raised a brow.

Velvet rubbed her eyelids. "I'm not in the mood"

"Right. And who fault is that again?" the leader retorted.

The faunus girl pursed her lips "I just don't want to argue"

"He was supposed to call you isn't? Do you even know where he is?" Coco asked as she crossed her legs in her seat.

Velvet sighed in defeat. "In the city, looking for his friend"

"With a girl"

"Partner. And she has a boyfriend"

"Let me guess. He told you that?"

Velvet didn't answer, she remained silent and checked again her device seeing if there was a notification, but there was none. She settled in a more comfortable position, her body sideways with her head resting in her pillow, and an arm under the same. "Vel, please, I just don't want to see you hurt" Coco said as she stood up, it almost sounded that she was imploring "Fox and Yatsu saw him take an airship to the city holding hands, what does that sounds to you?" she stopped talking, the expression of her teammate halted her. It was an expression that she'd never seen before. It wasn't one of ire, or of shocked. It was an amused smile but without mirth, despondent will be more accurate. Like if she knew something that the rest didn't know; a little secret. She knew that the reason of that expression wasn't because of Nairod, it was because of her, her leader. And that made her feel stupidly guilty. It was no different of telling a kid that wanted to be a hunter that he wasn't going to be a hunter.

"Everyone thinks the worst of him at first" she said doleful, her eyes looking at the distance. At a memory "Even me" she admitted ashamed, remembering the first time she meet him. "And I don't know why" it was one of her biggest confession and made her feel like the worst being of the world.

Coco was about to speak when a small flare appeared at their window, followed for the barely audible sound of an explosion that ebbed as it traveled farther away. One of the perks of their room was the view, all Vale could be appreciated from their window, or at least for the lucky ones that their room pointed at the right direction. Coco and no few students saw at the distance a smidgen of orange, yellow and red ember at the wharf, the light shone brightly between the blackness of the smoke and the natural dark clouds of the night that seemed like the final light of the dusk that blazed resplendently a last time before fading into the oblivion. Students were gathering at the skyports and courtyard, Scrolls in hand, filming all, other saw the landscape from the cosines of their room, herself included. Velvet joined her at the window. "What in the dust?"

For some reason an eerie fear seized Velvet. She selected one of the contacts from her Scroll. "Please pick up" she didn't know that she was repeating the same thing until Coco told her.

Luckily she didn't need to call him twice "Hello?"

"Tell me that wasn't you Nairod" Velvet said with a firm voice. The worrisome expression that she'd before it seemed like a joke now.

"What? What are you tal-"

"Don't play coy, Nairod. The wharf, was that you?!" she raised her voice to a point that made Coco back away.

"No" even though he said that various 'Bang' and other explosive sounds could be heard right away.

"Are those gunshots?!" Velvet jolted indignant.

"Eh…no?"

"Nairod Aldrich Rosswick Gray!" she said enraged.

"I swear Vel, it wasn't me! I just arrived here and-" he groaned after he finished his sentence.

"YOU ARE THERE?!" Velvet rushed to the window. Seeing the docks at the distance like if she could see him from her window. A loud and deep impact came from her Scroll, so loud that made Velvet cringe in pain.

"Nairod for Monty's sake, help me with these bigots!" a voice came from the other line, she knew who it was. It was her partner. The sound of the buzz against wind resistance confirmed her theory, arrows were being shot.

"I'll bring you up to speed fat, ok?. The White Fang and Lip-Lip are fighting in the wharf for some bloody reason and my friends are in the middle of it. I'll see you tomorrow in the morning and tell you everything, ok? I love you"

A myriad of doubts and questions plagued her head, but she knew he would hang up before she could ask something, so she didn't ask, she just made sure that she needed to make something clear "We need to talk!" it was the last thing she said before the sound of the hung up line filled the room.

"Velvet?" Coco called for her. But she didn't answer; she brought her Scroll to her chest and saw the landscape once again. Among that pyre of scorching inferno, it was Nairod. She could only hope for the best now.

That however did not reassure her at all.

---

The scene unfolding before their eyes was one of pure chaos; the two airships had completed their objective: Each vessel shoot down the other. However they did at the same time; one of the airships made collision with one of the cranes and crashed squarely in one of the ships that had the misfortune of being locked in docks and started to burn the whole watercraft whilst the other fell and exploded in one of the warehouses. The chauvinists however didn't seem to care at all as they kept shooting at each other.

This was turning dangerous, if one the explosions or if the fire reached the freights of Schnne Dust Company, the damn dust, if bad came to worst, it would form a crater in the city and everyone in the docks or near them would die. And the hunters-in-training knew what that would bring clawing to the city. They had to stop the fire, and/or leave the place immediately, before either the police or the military arrived, firemen could probably arrive at the scene as well but they didn't though that it was going to happen at any time soon until the situation was quelled.

"We need to move" Noire suggested. They were in a safe position but that could change at any moment.

"What about the fire? Or Blake?" Rohan asked. None of them wanted to stay here, Rohan was a known enemy of Lip-Lip and they had contacts in the police, besides Noire had basically escaped prison, if they were arrested by the VPD…

But they couldn't either turn the blind eye here.

"Do you see Sun here?" Noire asked.

When Rohan turned to see the place where Sun was supposed to be but instead there was a small heap of apples "Where the- Oh hell no. Did he went at for Blake?" was he in such a trance that he didn't noticed him?

"I believe so. I don't think anything bad would come out of that. Let's leave Blake safety at him and let us focus on the fire" Noire said as he crouched down, both tips of his index fingers in the ground.

"Hmm. Do you think the Schnne's would mind if we 'borrow' a bit of Dust?" Rohan said as he rubbed his chin.

"What do you have in mind?" Noire inquired. He was trying to determine how many enemies were, and pinpoint Blake and Sun.

"Ice or Water dust should do the trick, don't you think?" Rohan said as he rubbed his chin.

"There at least three dozens of intermodal containers, you want us to open them each one?" Noire asked in disbelief.

"Huh" he'd a point, as always. It wasn't that Noire was a pessimist, it just that he always saw the flaws in plans that could be fatal. "Shouldn't be a list here or a document that shows the goods of the cargo? Or something like that?"

"A manifest? It should be, to the foreman or an overseer, maybe even to a carrier. Feasible"

"It's settled then" Rohan said as he stood up. "Let's put the fire out and then we skedaddle out of here" Rohan.

"Indeed" Noire replied.

"But still, shouldn't we know where those two are?" Rohan stated, they couldn't leave them as well, though they doubted that they would have the same problem as them if they were caught by the fuzz.

"What do you think I've been doing all this time?" Noire said in rejoinder. Finally he found among the hostile auras there were two, no three, that stood up. One orange, other purple and other yellow. There were after each other, if he'd to guess Torchwick was in the run, and Blake and Sun were after him. "Found the- wait a minute" there was another aura, it was hostile, but his aura was entwined with another thing, denial, shock, betrayal, ire…and slight trepidation.

And it was right behind them.

He didn't need to scream or tell Rohan. He was already facing the intruder.

"'Sup, Hound, or shall I call you bitch now?" the mysterious man said in disdain. He'd an armor between light and medium, shoulder armors connected in the middle, forearm and shin guard armor with the same design and a bullet proof vest as well, Rohan knew that outfit, it was a special attire granted to exceptional members of the White Fang. A familiar weapon strapped at his back. A mask that covered the upper half of his face, and the lower part was covered in a black material similar to one of a helmet, red markings were in the upper part resembled that of claws.

"Conway" Rohan repeated the name in a lower, quiet tone.

"Who's he Rohan?" Noire asked.

"Is that the name you're using now, Rufus? The name of that stupid tale?" the intruder interrupted, aired.

Rohan didn't yield at the taunt, his own ire building slowly within him "Now, he's just another fanatic extremist killer" he answered at Noire. The reply made the arms and fist of the other to tremble in rage "Years ago, I would had the pride of call it, my brother"

---

Fiver was yanked at side crashing with a table; his mind still in a stupor, like if his own world had been paused or everything was so surreal. The place where he previously was, it was now occupied by her sister, her sabre, clashing with two blades of two androids. The robot had humanoid appearance, with a pair of arms and legs and the size of an average human, clad in an armor of rust, black and red with a thin midsection that was basically a tube connected to a bulky chest at the upper part and in the lower part to a broad groin. The said tube could rotate at both ends but it could not move at side for the same thick parts. The joints, that connected the limbs of the android were made of cables, flexible tubes, metal bellows, compensators and other myriad of materials were covered by its armor. On one arm it had a hand with blade that resembled a large and thick needle, and in the other instead of an arm it had a mini-turret. Its head and face was more like an esque smooth mask helmet that had a silver holographic image of a skull.

The sabre of Hazel was fighting dominance over the two blades of the robots; it was hard to fight against mechanic force, by a large margin. But Hazel managed to fend them off thanks to her aura. Pushed back the image of skull that was on his face was replaced for an exclamation mark momentarily, to be replaced by a skull again. The droids launched again at Hazel, one of them swung its blade and the other was going to strike in the opening, she spun and crouched on the spot and slashed at the droid who had attacked, the other had thought that she will leave herself open but it passed above her but tried to attack nonetheless. It sent a knee to her, but she managed to block it with her forearm and pulled it to the ground.

She did a backflip and landed on top of the neck of the droid that she brought down, breaking it, avoiding the hailstorm of bullets that the others robots fired at her, her aura muffling the shoots that she couldn't avoid. She did a backflip again, this time sending the machine to its shooters, knocking down a couple of them. She deflected most of the bullets that were firing at her with her saber as she dashed and jumped behind a counter, the bullets hitting the counter and the bottles that were in the shelves, shards of glasses and liquor rained on her as the bottles exploded. She sheathed her saber on the scabbard and Guardian Thorn transformed on her gun form.

She then noticed a pair of twins that were next to her, she changed her position, leaning her back just below the shelves to both see them better and see if any hostiles approached. She saw the twins; white and red being her primary colors, they were pretty beat up too as well. Bruises and burns covered parts of her body, however her faces were almost pristine, untouchables. At most a scratch was on her countenance. The two of them had pale green eyes, strapless dresses, black straight hair, though in different lengths.

The one that was on the left wore heavy cyan makeup that highlighted her eyes and her hair was long. A white dress with a plushy scarf around her neck with red and white feathers attached to her left, a flower hairpin, white gloves and a belt adorned with chains. Hazel noticed the bladed heels that were at the end of her high boots, there was a small armor at the front attached to the ankle; it also had chains that were probably a simple decoration. "Probably her weapons" Hazel thought.

The other twin, in contrast to her sister wore red and had short hair with heavy red makeup on her eyes. White and red feathers on her left ear, and a black fur hanging off her shoulders held by a front grey chain and red gloves that held a large black and red curved claws pressed closely together, they were probably of the size of the forearm of its user, and had spikes on the knuckles of the claws. Hazel didn't have to be rocket scientist to guess what those were. "Bodyguards? They don't seem the type"

"Want to take a picture? It'll last longer" The girl in the white dress said, feeling uncomfortable at being scrutinized by the newcomer. Her tone was somehow snobbish.

"Just wondering why're you hiding here" Hazel admitted, she'd noticed how the others girls had been watching her as well.

"We're not hiding, we're tactically advancing towards a definitive victory!" The girl in red replied, very defensive, holding a finger in the air, explaining the vital difference.

"Hubris" Hazel though "Uh-huh "she conceded, but in a childish way. Like an adult talking to a kid.

The other noticed this, and glared at her. "Say…" the girl in white started "Have you saw a guy with-" she didn't finished. Hazel rose from her place and shoot down hastily at three automations that were approaching and other robots that were on the back, taking out seven in total. She took cover before they started to shoot again.

"What?!" Hazel asked between all the gunfire.

"HAVE YOU SEEN A GUY WITH A BEARD AND A BLACK VEST?!" she finished. Her twin was covering her ears.

"On the street! He's-" Hazel was cut off, a bullet bounced hitting something behind the counter "HE'S FINE!" she screamed among the hail of bullets.

"Told you!" the girl in red admonished her sister.

The gunfire subsided eventually. "YOU DEAD YET, BITCH?!" some male voice called.

In answer Hazel threw an uncut red crystal and shoot at it. It created an explosion blowing up some robots. They started to shoot again. Despite have taking out at least a dozen of them they were still plenty of mechs in the club, to not mention that she'd spotted a few persons in the room, she was still in disadvantage. She was about to ask what had happened when she remembered that she hasn't introduced yet. "Hazel Watership" she said to the girls.

"Melanie" the girl in white replied.

"Miltia" the girl in red greeted.

"Pleasure. What happened here?" Hazel asked before returning fire. She knew she hit something, but not if she took it out.

"Well…" Miltia started as she hummed something, trying to recall the events. The twins were awfully calm about this entire ordeal. But she couldn't talk, her team had become her too blasé too care.

Her team

She glanced cheerless at the impaled body of Song. She didn't know what would happen know. To both its team and their members, they had done her best, but unfortunately it hasn't been enough. She didn't know what was happening in the head of her brother, but seeing how he was in such a daze she guessed that it wasn't good. Nyx, with his carefree attitude made hard for her to know how he would react.

And her?

She didn't want him death, yet why she felt relieved? Why would the death of someone grant her so much peace and ease?

She felt disgusted with herself.

"Me and Miltia were merely overseeing the renovations when someone knocked the front door. Junior answered with few men to tell them to bother someone else, but instead we ended up attending them, I dunno why. They asked for the drinks that were behind the counter and started to play their shoddy music in the mixer-"

"And it was new" Miltia condoned, as she clutched her legs together sitting in a quasi-fetal position; remembering the horrible sounds that they classified as music.

"-they got tipsy pretty fast, and tried to make moves on me and my sister" Melanie said icky.

"Such gall" her twin said with the same revulsion.

"I was about to slap one of them when that guy-" she signaled to the impaled Song, she didn't like how she nonchalantly referred to Song, she was surprised of how upset it was for it actually "-fell from one of the air vents and started to whack everyone"

"He was rather sexy, actually" Miltia added. "What a waste"

"Song. His name was Song" Hazel spoke up. It wasn't a merely 'he'.

"Friend of yours?" the girl in red asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Teammate" she revealed before she could stop.

"So, Beacon, huh? You don't seem pretty shaken"

"I suppose" she granted. But to her, she was actually amazed that she'd lost her composure for a second. She didn't want her brother being with a partner that probably had part of the "soul" of a grimm, but she didn't wanted him death either, but thinking it better, how was exactly going to keep him away from Fiver? Telling his brother about all would make small difference. Requesting the headmaster if they could change partners? Could she ask for a change of team or something like that? She did it before after the initiation and it didn't work, and even if he abided he would need reasons, and without sounding like a mad woman, there were nothing but feeble hopes. At most, he would accede at changing partners, and that would hardly make a difference, the missions would still be carried in team, the constant risk always present.

What could she ever do? What did she ever hoped to accomplish?

"I thought that hunters were supposed to be close as lip and teeth?" the question of Miltia took her out her trance.

"Mhm" she simply replied. The simplicity of her answers brought more questions to the twins than answers.

They weren't close; Hazel has never been close with anyone except with her brother, she'd always ensured the safety of his remaining family as top priority, and in her opinion she could have done a better job. The proof of it was something that wasn't there now, their non-existent bunny ears that were previously on top if her head.

"Fuck" she though. It was like playing a movie and no being able to stop the film, the control simple broke. If she ever remembered something of those days, even the slightest detail or memory, she was dammed to recount the whole fucking thing.

Luckily she was in the middle of a gunshot, which didn't stop the memories but it made easier to ignore them, very similar like a numbing, if she couldn't stop the movie at best she could choose to not watch it, she was crouching now, hoping that a small window would show and she could make it count.

After escaping from Sandleford they ended joining the White Fang, they didn't force them to join them, but they were the only ones near, and they were with them, back them anyway, the change of leadership came later and well—liquor got in her eyes, a beer that was on the counter, she should be thankful that it was only alcohol and not shards of crystals. After they were saved by the Commander Cadium she offered a teddy bear, with Fiver sleeping on her lap, the anesthetics and medicine that the —back then— private Ivory had given them had made effect on him sooner than her. Both of her heads covered in bandages, stained in dry blood, she had other thing with her at difference of him. A blanket made of cotton that they used to cover the fallen soldiers, a blanket that covered her ragged clothes; she was trying to not think on the several hands that had tear her twill shirt, and her pants, when the Commander Cadium offered a teddy bear, she replied that she wanted a gun.

They helped her, to her and her brother, she received psychological treatment and shelter, during her sessions she reminded the doctor several time that they never raped her, it wasn't a Stockholm symptom or that she tried to justify them; that she tried to return in any kind of the bonhomie that they showed back when they were escaping from a massacre. Oh no. That died the day that they cut the ears of her and her brother for refusing to kill a human family. She didn't owe them shit. It was merely that the Commander Cadium broke into the place before they did something. She'd been victim of sexual assault, but she'd never been raped, they were about to, but it never happened. That didn't excuse them of the deed, it actually made it worse.

Her experiences had made her reclusive, event then there were things that one couldn't do without trusting or open herself to someone, fighting in near death situations was one of them. She was cooperative with the authorities, in exchange she was granted immunity and protection. She joined after a…incident with assassins and, surprisingly, she quickly fit in, as she said, they were things that one couldn't do without trusting on someone, her unit had her back in missions and she replied in the same kind. There were also guys that tried to 'broke' her shell, her heart of ice as the guys in her unit used to joke; the only thing that ended broke was their testes.

She would need to be a shell shocked veteran to not open with anyone else, she was only eighteen, with a life ahead, her experiences in the army, their former teammates didn't betray her like the scum of the White Fang nor died with Sandleford. They were there. Beacon was similar, the initiation were they had to rely in each other, the rooms, the classes that they shared, very similar, she didn't socialize at first, but the insistence of Fiver and the constant stalking or 'wooing' of Nyx made it hard. Spending half of the day daily with the same people made hard to not form any sympathy; the system was designed that way. Besides Song had been the one that at least had respected her space and privacy.

So, yeah, despite not wanting him near Fiver, or to be a potential danger she'd to admit that she'd at least a modicum of sympathy for Song.

Just a little.

"Sorry, I guess" she whispered. She said more to herself than for him.

The twin only saw her lips move. "What?!" Miltia asked. The bullets had not stopped, not even for a second. How much ammo did those things had?

"That that doesn't explain why you're hiding here!" Hazel asked as she cleaned the alcohol off her face.

"We're not hiding!" Miltia clarified annoyed, covering her ears with her hands.

"IF I WERE YOU I WOULD SLIT MY THROAT AND WRISTS, BITCHES!"

"Because of him" Melanie pointed out the male voice that spoke up, answering the question of Hazel "After your…friend started to wreak havoc into the place, that guy said that we have seen too much and wanted us out of the picture. How cute, he must've thought that we were two fragile flowers"

"Our goons were quickly overwhelmed by the mechas and the other guys in the place" Miltia added.

"Weren't they drunk?" Hazel pointed out.

"That's what it seemed to us. I'll say that both sides were surprised" Melanie answered. For every ten words that the girl in white said her twin said just one. Hazel would have considerate adorable if it was in better circumstances.

"And where did the robots came out?" Hazel questioned, did they let them in with them? She doubted that they walked in with four dozen of armed androids.

"They were outside in a moving truck, if I recall. When the fuss started the guy with colorful language tipped something on his Scroll and the mechs were here in a trice. The problem are the Gold and silver ones" Miltia responded. Indeed, she'd saw them when she was dashing. Instead of the rusty and black armor that the other robots had there were two that had a different color. "And for the record, we were waiting for a distraction"

"But the distraction came to us" Melanie adjoined.

"Do you have a plan or something?" Hazel quirked an eyebrow. If they were waiting for something to happen they must had a plan, right?

"In fact we did!" she replied proudly.

"…and?"

"We…uh, were going to…leave…" she said the last part reluctant.

She couldn't blame them "Sounds like a good plan" she meant that, there was a difference between a lost battle and a battle that you couldn't won. There were times when you'd to escape or know when to retreat. Besides with their objective failed, there was no reason to linger here anymore "How you were planning to do that?"

"There's a hidden door next to the DJ's stands" Miltia pointed out. The mixer was on a second floor, the only people that could enter there were Junior and the twins not to mention that only them knew that it was there. "It has a palm scanner hidden right next to it, only three of us know that exists. A countermeasure in case that something like this happened"

"But since, Junior is already outside…" Melanie added.

"Then you can escape without trouble" Hazel finished for her.

"We're not escaping!" Millia clarified.

"I'LL TURN YOU INTO SOUP AND MAKE CHEAP COLLARS WITH YOUR TEETHS!"

"Monty, has he been like this all this time?" his screams could be heard despite the rain of bullets.

"Oh yeah" "Definitely"

"At first he didn't know we were here, so he started to scream at the whole place" Melanie explained.

"What? Wait, how long have you been here?" Hazel inquired, arching an eyebrow.

"Thirty-eight minutes" Millia answered.

"And he didn't though of searching behind the counter?" It was the most logical place and stupid place to search. And those mechs seemed pretty expensive, weren't they supposed to search heat marks?

"I'M GONNA MESS YOUR SHIT SO HARD THAT YOU'RE GONNA BE THE ENVY OF ALL THE INDUSTRY OF MODERN ART!"

"Ok, that's bordering with the ridiculous!" Miltia pointed out to nowhere in particular.

"I don't think he's a clever man" Melanie, replied.

"YOU ARE DEAD, BITCHES! YOU HEARD?! DEADER THAN DEAD!"

"Charming" Hazel said.

"But now we don't know when our next distraction is happening"

And then Hazel noticed something, among the shards, shrapnel and splinters it was the feather of a crow. "I don't think you're gonna have to wait too much"

---

Despite the pandemonium occurring below everything was calm on the rooftop, at least for Rohan and his so called brother, for both of them everything had stopped, sounds, color and time. Even reality itself.

The calm before the storm was what Rohan though, if the calm had been the last days then how the hell the storm would be. He should've though about all this, he really should, but he didn't, how much were odds? One in one-hundred? One in thousand? It was too coincidental, so he didn't bother to dwell in those impossible thoughts. He didn't like overcomplicated stuff.

He really should have thought of it.

"Noire, go ahead, without me. I'll wrap up thinks here and meet you later"

"What a discerning idea. Send the blind man to search for the papers. As useful as a hammer of crystal"

"Noire…"

"I know. I know, treat with care. This guy is not someone to trifle with, I don't need my eyes to know that" the dark skinned male warned before jumping down. Rohan was thankful that he didn't pry anything on Conway.

"You meddle with humans now? You have stoop too low Rufus" the other one said in upbraid.

"What do you want, Conway?"

"Me? I want freedom! To fulfill a dream, a world where the faunus can walk freely the streets as free men and women without feeling the shackles of oppression!"

"Ugh, Monty, you still saying that?"

"You used to believe in that!" the blonde faunus removed his upper half mask, revealing his angular face with blonde hair and pair of fur wolf ears perked above all his mane, red eyes looking at him fiercely. He was sure as hell that he was growling beneath the lower half mask.

"Flash news, I didn't, I never did. And even if I did, it didn't stop you from trying to kill me" It wasn't for lack of trying "Speaking of which is Sienna or somebody else with you? I don't want more surprises" he said as he started to walk at the right, prompting the other to walk at the opposite side, they soon were walking in circle as the rest of the place burned. Each one following the movements of the other, making sure that nothing escaped a thing of the other.

"Why? Feeling the guilty crawling on your back?"

Rohan laughed outloud, riling Conway more. "I'll take that as a no. Tough luck for you"

"I don't need them to finish the job, Rufus" he declared.

"Yes, yes you do. None of you can fight me alone. That's why you made me fight the Warg alone and then you ambushed me. And even like that you couldn't kill me" One of the perks of his semblances is that made him almost nigh invincible. He still remembers clearly how they appeared from the shadows after he killed the giant wolf grimm. "Hey tell me something, what happened to Sienna?" he couldn't help but wonder.

"Hmph, you lost the right to talk of her, you dick" the blonde said in disdain, pointing a finger at him.

"I only want to know what happened to her" he answered scratching his head. After all it was his fiancé.

Conway sighed exasperated "I was betrothed to her"

"I see. It makes sense I suppose, you liked her since we were kids. I bet you begged to the old man for that to happen. Congratulations, do you also want the crumbs of the cake that I ate hours ago?" Conway dashed at him, with his weapon in hand. But Rohan had already draw Ronin and Pariah his brass knuckles blades.

Just like he'd done thousands of times when he was sparring with him in the past, he stopped the edge of his weapon, a blade that wasn't long enough to be considered a sword but neither short enough to be considered a knife.

"So easy" Rohan though "It's been a year and a half, Con. I know that trick, show me something new"

"How 'bout this?" he pressed a button of his weapon.

The last thing he knew is that he was sent meters away, his body weirdly numb and convulsed collapsed after a few seconds, he knew that feeling. He experienced that in the Nuthanger Base, it was an electric current, it was weaker in comparison to the one that knocked him, but it was still strong. He kip-up and saw that the cutting tool emitted electricity that flowed from the guard to the tip of the blade, the current sounding louder than a stun gun.

"Ok, that's new"

---

"Ok, whores, this ends now! Come out of there, or I'll slit this boys throat!" the guy with blonde hair and green eyes screamed at the counter bar. He was wearing a stripped black suit with a purple and blue tie. The guy held a knife next to the neck of Fiver, hovering dangerously by a few inches.

"Who's that?" Miltia asked, using a shard of a bottle to see the reflection of what was happening.

"I dunno?" Melanie said leaning at her sister to the image that was on the crystal.

"My brother" Hazel answered using the same method that the twins.

Melanie clicked her tongue "Tough luck" she said uncaring.

Two words were enough to know that they cared little if her brother lived or died in that moment. "I guess"

"DIDN'T YOU HEAR? ALL OF YOU! GET OUT OF THERE OR I KILL THIS BOY!"

"Go to your so called exit as soon as I jump" she whispered to them "GO AHEAD!" she screamed. The reply took off guard not only the twins but to Nero as well, and all his companions.

"Huh? What?" he asked raising an eyebrow.

"I said go ahead!"

"I'm really gonna do it!"

"I know you will, that's why I'm telling you" she was scared of how easy the words left her mouth and how serene was her expression, to not said her heartbeat; she was completely calm. But her mind was screaming; she was playing a dangerous card here.

Nero Fnainer Geier exchanged view with his entourage, the golden and silver mechs that were at both of his sides tilted their heads with holographic interrogations marks on its helmet face. Claret, his personal assistant shrugged and the others gave him a blank expression, none of them expecting this answer. "Well, that was out of my equations!" he said before he drove the knife down. Blood spurt, tainting the face of both hostage and captor, just as their clothes and all around them; robots, floor, people, none of them was left unscathed by the crimson fluid.

Nero let go the limply body of Fiver as his arms fell off, severed cleanly with a weapon. Nyx managed to catch the body of Fiver before this hit the ground, and threw him at Hazel who'd jumped out of the counterbar along with a pair of twins whom he'd never seen before.

One of the twins had blades attached to the heels, the girl send a spinning kick at the golden robot that instead of arms had two scythe blades. The kick of the blade took off guard the mecha, slicing a good part of its throat, sparks erupted from the same, but it didn't fall. An exclamation mark that was on the helmet was replaced with one of an angry skull. Surprise was evident on the face of Melanie as the robot swung one of its arms, she managed to duck the attack and able to counterattack with a hook kick. The tube that connected the chest was made so the robot could made a full spin on both the lower and upper parts, so the mech didn't had to stop to swung his blades again, using the momentum his upperpart started to spin like a circular saw. Melanie managed to do a back handspring kicking one of the blades stopping the momentum and making the automation lose its balance.

Her twin had a better luck causing a better first hit, marks of claws were left on the helmet mask a she slashed it, the holographic face started to flicker, disappearing and appearing in flashes. The attack of Miltia also reached to hit the chest, gashing and exposing a good deal of cables and circuits that just like the other mech started to burst with sparks. Unlike the other robot this was silver and it didn't had bladed arms but legs bowed backwards with blades attached to it along with stilts loaded with elastic like-springs , it resembled like powerisers. She jumped and stood hanging upside down with one hand resting one the head of the mecha and with her free arm she slashed the arm that had miniturret attached to it. It didn't severed the robotic limb, but put the mini-turret out of commission, she leapt into the air using the hand that'd on the head of the mech and landed gracefully, before striking another two automations. She wasn't thinking of fighting them, she was thinking of escaping.

"I am not escaping!" she'd to remind herself. She whistled to her sister as she dispatched another mecha.

Melanie dashed at it, and jumped over the golden robot as this swung his arm-blades once again. As she dive down she landed a knee kick on top of the head of one mech and managed to slice it in half. She kicked a few other mechs before following her sister.

If it wasn't because Hazel saw the arms of the guy she would have thought that all that blood belonged to Fiver. She catched his brother, and her heart almost left her chest, she'd ponder why Fiver hasn't do anything all this time, or why he didn't fought back or said something. At first she thought that he was in shock or even that he fell unconscious.

And maybe he was, she didn't know; this was the first time she'd saw her brother like this.

His eyes weren't closed, they were open, but instead of finding his hazel eyes full of life, he found two white, empty orbs. If he was in shock or knocked out, she would know what to do, she'd done it before. But this was new, however she couldn't dwell, not here, not in this bedlam, she'd him on her arms; that was enough, at least for now. She could think of something later.

She clutched him and dashed for the hidden door that the twins had mentioned. But in her way a girl appeared on her way, pinkish-white hair commend in a bun and mint green eyes, she was wearing a suit that emphasized her feminine curves. She'd a cigarette on her mouth, the end of the rod lit and she exhaled the smoke, she waved one of her hands and in a swift swipe, bullets of smoke were shot. Fortunately Hazel had Guardian Thorn in her saber form so she was able to block few of the bullets, however she received a hit in the shoulder, the attack made her feel like if she'd been sting by a something pointing but thick.

She noticed that the girl was moving her hand again, but then she jumped backwards, a slash getting between them. Both turned quickly and saw that Nyx had Geri in its nodachi form, the blade of roughly a meter was aiming at the girl with mint green eyes as the hooded boy flicked his visions between the girl and Nero.

"Hello~ Side minor characters!" Nyx greeted both of them. For an instant he looked at Hazel and gave her a wink. "I got this" that's what he made her understood. She really wanted to help, but with Fiver in this condition, she would only get in the way. The best she could do now, would be take Fiver to Weiss or Yang and return to assist him. He couldn't escape with them, they would only follow them. She needed to hold them back and give them time to escape, but seeing how Song had fared…

She pursed her lips. Nyx had helped them. She trusted that she would save her brother before this Nero guy struck. She gave her a window so she and Fiver could escape. And what she'd done? Wishing the dead of his friend? Feeling relieved? Not even managing in time to at least seeing him go.

Yet, there he was, saving her hide once again.

This was teamwork. Trusting your life and the life of others and the ones you care to another person entirely; always looking for each other. She couldn't think of something to say, and even if she did she doubted that words would left her mouth. So she turned away, and ran towards the twins.

"You fuckity fucking fuck fuck! That was my good arm, you little shit!" Nero roared.

"Oh, don't be a baby, arms grow back!" Nyx quipped.

"Claret, go after the girls, bring me their heads!" Nero ordered to the girl with pinkish-white hair.

"Understood" she took a deep breath "Units S-079 and G-069! Follow protocol Papa Romeo-Level 2!" the order made the hologram on their helmet-mask face first as an exclamation mark to transform into a shield. The two units despise being almost completely neutralized, appeared next to Nero in a trice.

The palm scanner was well hidden, Hazel expected to find a palm scanner attached to the wall, but there was no such a thing, even when Melanie approached the wall she expected for the device for pop out of the same, but she simply put her hand on the wall and a rectangle flashed around her palm. Blue circles slowly surrounded the tip of her fingers and flashed to green with an access granted sound that reverberated and opened an automatic door that was right next to it.

"Miltia!" the girl dressed in white called for her twin.

A few droids came after them but Miltia them with swipes from their weapons. Hazel sheathed her saber in the scabbard, transforming Guardian Thorn in her weapon form, she shot rounds at the mechas as she retreated and threw her brother towards the door. Hazel however threw him at the same time that the girl in red was crossing the door; that had not been an accident; Hazel did it on purpose in case the twins decided to ditch them. That was the salvation of Miltia as the place where she previously was, was pierced by a stake of smoke. Turning around she saw the girl with the cigarette in the air and preparing to launch another stake, Hazel opened fire on her. The spike that was ready to be launch lose its form once the bullets hit its master; Claret waved her hand in a crescent movement, making a sort of shield that protect her from most of the bullets.

"Tsk" Hazel articulated with her mouth. So she could not manipulate only the smoke and its quantity but also its form and be able to solidify it. "So those stakes must being her doing" she though as she saw the long stakes that had impaled Song. Gritting her teeth, she fired her weapon again at her and the other girl used her free hand to grab the bullets. Hazel took close attention to the small pink ripple that appeared on her palm.

"Aura" Hazel analyzed. She saw how the girl closed her fist with her free hand, but the crescent shield remaining intact. That only leaved one option "Watch out!" she screamed to the twin.

Miltia saw how the smoke stake morphed losing his straight form and became a small ball of smoke before sending needles-like projectiles at her. The girl was able to swing her arms at the opposite direction of each one, smashing the attack with her claws. The shards of the cracked smoke that had become like ores of ivory fell on the head of the boy with gunslinger hat.

The first thing that came during the hypnopompic state of Fiver were the sounds of something that resembled a battlefield that was taking place from somewhere afar; gunshots, blades clashing, the shattering of crystals and curses from someone really irate. After he opened his eyes, the sounds became louder. He shut his eyes closed from the sudden exposition of sounds and light, he tried to stand up, but was only able to sit, there was something on him, and was forced to open his eyes even if all his body and senses screamed otherwise.

For a split of second he'd forgot everything, Song, the club, the dead siblings, everything; and though that he was sleeping on his bed in Beacon and was having some sort of sleep paralysis. Boy, he wished that had been the case. The first thing his eyes meet was a girl with rosy white skin dressed in a red strapless dress and black flur hanging on her back. He was focusing mainly on her pale green eyes, primarily because…she was inches from her face. Scratch that, their foreheads and noses were actually touching. While he blushed directly fiercely from the closeness, she remained mostly unflappable, mostly, a glimmer of red leaked through her cheeks.

"How do I close this?" Both teens snapped to the girl with the white beret, she was shooting a few more rounds to the outside from what it would be considered a frame door.

"Button" Miltia signaled with her left claw. The holographic display of a button appeared on the wall, emerging from blue neon lights of the same; despite being a 3D image, when Hazel punched the button she could felt it as it was there.

The doors closed instantly before being pierced by stakes. "Persistent" Hazel muttered and turned her attention to the duo. "I should have assumed that your hormones would've been enough to wake you up"

Fiver face turned red again, whilst the other stood up rather indifferently and strutted away, with her face high "Whatever" unknown to both Watership siblings when Miltia walked upstairs, she headed to the corner of the room, and crouched in shame with her hands on her now flushed face "Miltia, what're you doing? What happened? Help me open the hatch!"

"For a second I thought it was Ruby" Fiver though as she watched the twin go, focusing on the movement of her hips.

Hazel cleared her throat, and Fiver turned to see her to find her with her arms crossed, an amused smile and a quirked eyebrow. He wagged his arms "I-I wasn't, ah, I was ju-just- uh" but instead he received a hug from her. The sudden affection caught him off guard, but he returned it nonetheless.

"You okay?" she said as she kept her arms on his shoulders.

"I-yeah, just-" he said as he passed his hand through his hair, his hat falling behind him and hanging from his neck. Then everything hit him "Song! What happened to him?!"

Hazel didn't said a thing, but her expression was the answer of Fiver. He quickly ran upstairs and Hazel followed after him. It was a white room, a pristine office, with a mere desk and three chairs; one behind the furniture, and two in the front. There was a painting on the wall and vertical ladder right next to the desk, with a hatch at the end, which the twins were trying to open. He ignored the twins and headed to the large window that was at the opposite side of the ladder, which had to be a one way mirror, because she remembered clearly not seeing a window in the club .

The whole place could be appreciated from the room, right now the sounds of the fight outside were muffled but what stood out more wasn't the battle itself. "Song…" Fiver whispered as he watched the flabby body, stakes through his body that even pierced the ceiling.

"I'm sorry, Fiver, we arrived too late…" Hazel said with a hand in the shoulder of his brother.

"Song…"

"Fiver, we-" her words died in her throat. She didn't know what found more aghast, the fact that she couldn't detach her brother from the window or the fact that the body of Song gasped for air, and started wriggle.

Both set of sibling stopped in their tracks as the saw the azure eyed boy, broke free both his arms and legs, and grasped the stake that pierced his chest directly, till it cracked and broke in thousands of pieces, and crawled to a sword.

An exaggerated two-handed sword with a large blade with a black diagram that exented through the middle of the blade, from the beginning of the fuller till the end of the central ridge and the point of the blade. It had an also long hilt wrapped in a black material that resembled more handlebars of a motorcycle and an equally long handguard. One could only need to see the sword once to now that only a person with inhuman strength could lift it, let alone brandish it.

But Song, not only retrieved it from the ground, he raised high with one hand and twirled before sinking on the floor. He twisted the bars of the handles, and the blade split in two lengthwise wide and thin halves. The edges locked apart, till they touched the end of each cross-guard, the black diagram had spread as well, being the only thing that connected both bisected blades making a complex inner portion visible, showing that the diagram had not only an aesthetic purpose. Song grabbed with both hands the large hilt and raised it once more, an azure light surrounded the boy but a gleam appeared in the sword as if this had come to life. The gleam became a twinkle, and the twinkles into bolts, and suddenly there was a lightning in the blade.

With his teeth gritted, Song swung his blade, and an azure light covered the whole place. It was lucky that the room was soundproof and that was well protected and that Song directed his attack at the opposite direction in which they were. Otherwise they would have been caught in the explosion that destroyed the whole building.

---

Both blades meet each other again. Pariah and Ronin clashed with Vajra, the name of the electrical blade of Conway. The weapon of the blonde faunus had become a pain in the ass for Rohan, every time he parried the attacks of Conway, it send an electrical discharge through his body, sending him away or shaking wildly, which forced him to dodge the attacks of Conway. Rohan brought up his forearms to protecting himself from a horizontal slash, but the electricity made his arms shake uncontrollably, luckily he grasped tightly his bladed knuckles so he didn't drop them.

Rohan changed Pariah and Ronin, in their gun forms, the two bladed knuckles became two mauser c96 and opened fire on Conway. The other zigzagged avoiding the shots, closing the distance between them, once he was close enough he lunged Vajra; Rohan stepped aside but the other twisted the blade and swung it. The redhead did a back flip and shoot again midair before landing on his feet. Conway either reflected or dodged the projectiles and dashed forward, repeating the same process.

This wasn't working, he was only evading and running, every attack he launched, was blocked and forced to move, if he took this to close quarters Conway only needed to make contact once and he would be launched thanks to the electrical current on his weapon, Vajra; his aura was barely able to do something, the safest plan would be to keep his distance and hope that one of the bullet would hit him…or use his semblance.

No, those weren't available options, his semblance could end the battle swiftly, but it could hurt everyone nearby, Noire, Blake, Sun and if things got worse, any nearby civilians or police officer that would arrive soon. But he could neither turn this into a long fight, if he wanted to end this, he needed to take him out, and the only way he could do that was hand-to-hand; he needed to land one definitive hit or destroy his weapon or disarm him.

He put Ronin away, and took a fight stance, with Pariah in its gun form.

Conway looked at him in disbelief "Wait…you…you're gonna try to disarm me?!"

"Maybe, maybe not, maybe you can go fuck yourself" he waved his hand towards him "Come"

.

Meanwhile, Nairod and Janice were around the corner of one of the warehouses, squatting with their weapons in hand. Bullets flew across the place, in different sizes and in all directions, the flames engulfing one the ships docked there and the farther side of the wharf. Both airships had fell down, one crashing flatly on the ship that was burning right now and was about to sink and the other exploded in the air and its shell crashed on one the warehouse. Most of the men of the White Fang we're dying or dead, they had the numbers, but Lip-Lip focused on quality over quantity, and it was paying off.

The two trainees turned around, when they heard something cracking behind them, only to meet with other fellows hunters. Blake, Sun were just as surprised as them.

"Nairod, Janice? What're you doing?" Blake questioned, obviously surprised by the meet.

"We could ask you the same thing" Nairod said referring to Blake and Sun.

"We were after Torchwick when-"

"Torchwick?" Janice asked. Both she and her leader standing up.

"He's working with the White Fang" Sun explained.

"Uh-huh, and then?" Nairod urged to continue, not wanting to get sidetracked.

"We lost track of him when…the guy with the bandana in his eyes, told us that you were here"

"Noire?"

"Yes?" a familiar voice asked right behind Blake and Sun who jumped, startled. He was standing in all his might, wearing his usual dark blue cloak; with his weapon Sanglant Vindicta on his right hand and strangling a faunus with the uniform of the White Fang with his left hand.

"Hey, mate" Nairod greeted him.

"'sup" he responded as he dropped the faunus. His weapon in his pickaxe-like mode.

"How did you find us, did you used your aura thingy?" Janice questioned.

"Not exactly" Noire replied.

"Then how?"

"You left a trail of carnage that a blind man could have followed!" Blake exclaimed, pointing at the bodies lying on the ground. Wherever they were dead or unconscious it mattered little at moment.

"Ok, now that's dramatic" the ashen hair boy said.

"I, uh, actually did" when he stumbled at the bodies he only needed to follow at the opposite direction in which they were pointing.

"Where's Rohan?" Janice asked, walking up to Noire; dismay seeping through her voice. Noire grabbed her and threw himself to the ground; bullets hit the place where they were. Blake, Sun and Nairod did the same, projectiles bounced from the walls and the ground.

"On top of a warehouse, fighting…someone" Noire said as he stood up, he used his aura to locate Rohan, and indeed he was where he'd been.

"Perfect! Let's go get him and then leave this place" Sun said, and the rest seemed to agree.

"Can't do. Not with that fire, if it reaches the intermodal containers, the whole area could disappear"

"And what do you want us to do? We're huntsmen-"

"And huntresses!" Janice added.

"Not firemen! How do you expect us to put out the fire?" He said exasperated, with his arms on the air.

"There must be some ice or aqua dust in one of those containers. There must some kind of manifesto here along with the proper clearance in one of the foreman office" Noire explained, as he looked to Nairod.

"Right. Blake, Sun, got get that manifesto and use as much dust as you can. I don't think the ice queen will care if we use part of her cargo to save her remaining cargo. Me, Janice and Noire will go for puppy and rendezvous with you later"

"Got it" Blake nodded as she leaved the place, leaving Sun behind.

"Where you- Blake, wait!" Sun ran after her.

"Come on, let's go for our puppy" Nairod said as his teammates followed him.

.

"This is one of the most stupid ideas I ever had" Rohan though. It wasn't brilliant, or smart, but it could work. Maybe, if he didn't died or passed out before he could do it.

He shot and dodged, Rohan only fired his weapon when he was sure that he was out of the reach of Conway, if not he held his arms close to his body with the guard up, similar to a boxer. The blonde wasn't taking any risks now, he was wielding Vadja with the current in the blade; even though he evaded the sword, he could felt electricity flowing through the air, making his air bristle. Time ago he could've dodged the blade, stop it or disarm him and hit him with the stock in the nape and ending this once and for all. But now it was harder, he was faster, better, even he didn't wanted to acknowledge he'd to admit that he'd grew stronger.

Instead of a feeling of proud that would have rose within him time ago he felt ire, both with him and with Conway. What has he'd done this time, he was out of shape, his fangs had become dull, it seems that he'll have to sharp them.

"This'll serve as training, it will be good for a change" he thought. As the blonde came with a diagonal slash Rohan stopped it with the palm of his free hand stopping the upcoming attack. Surprise was evident in the emerald eyes of Conway. Just because he had lost his touch, it didn't mean that Conway was stronger now. "Don't get cocky you punk ass bitch"

Rohan send a punch to his ribs, but Conway block it with his own free forearm, he then twirled the blade and tried to stab him; the redhead evaded the piercing cut and put distance between then and fired Pariah. Conway fended off the shots with his blade and dashed to Rohan, he was once again surprised when the other rushed to him instead of putting distance as he'd been doing. The redhead pointed at the head and shoot, Conway was barely able to duck it, when a back fist was coming to his face. This time it was him who was forced to back away.

He was landing from a back flip when Rohan was already aiming at his head at point-blank-range. Conway tilted his head, when the other pulled the trigger, the sound of the gun, deafened his right ear. He swung his sword but Rohan kicked the pommel stopping it, gritting his teeth Conway sent a left hook that Rohan blocked easily with the back of his palm and received an elbow in his cheek followed by a headbutt to the bridge of his nose, that made him stumble back, and Rohan wasted no time to kick him in the chest, sending him away.

The blonde wolf faunus was crouching, coughing from the blow to his solar plexus when Rohan was already in front of him, he blocked a upcoming punch with his forearm. When Rohan saw that, that didn't work he sent a knee to his face; Conway parried it with the back of his palm that was clenching the blade that it served as a support. The blonde was grabbing the sword with a reverse grip; he swung the blade upwards in crescent form trying to put distance between them. It didn't work as Rohan simply spun in the place and used the momentum to bash him in the temple with the stock of Pariah.

"Fuck" Conway though as he landed with his back on the floor and rolled a few more meters. The movements of Rohan had been sluggish at the start of the fight, he'd though that he'd grow weaker but he was becoming faster, daring, with each passing second, the hound was waking up. He needed to end him quickly.

Each of them looked directly at the eyes of the other. The crimson eyes of Conway meet the pink of Rohan. The redhead remembered how he'd walked aimlessly for weeks before to be found by the Meritage family, members of the White Fang, they took him in, treated him like one of them and gave them something that he always yearned deep in his heart; love. After years of being alone he finally had something that could be called a family. He left his old name behind and took a new one; theirs.

Rufus Meritage.

All that changed the day that they tried to kill him.

All because he fell in love with a human.

Never in his wildest dreams he would have thought that they will try to ice him. Maybe that he would become a persona no grata, or that they wouldn't speak to him anymore, or that they would deny him forever once he was gone. But not that they would send him to a suicide mission to prove his loyalty and that after complete the so called mission his family would emerge from the shadows and finish the job that the grimm had failed to do.

He was a kid in need of love and took it from the first persons that he crossed paths with, it didn't matter if it was scarce, he only wanted affection.

He was just as broken as the first day they came to this world.

He sniggered, enraging Conway somehow.

Both of them rushed at each other. Conway thrust Vadjra at Rohan. But he didn't dodge the steel, nor tried to ward it off. He took the attack directly. The blade pierced the side of Rohan, blood sprouting from the tip of the sword. Rohan grabbed the blade, stopping from going deeper and stared at Conway whom by instinct turned the blade on.

But the electricity didn't flow. Conway exchanged glances between the sword and Rohan to see why it wasn't working. When he saw Pariah transform from a gun to a brass knuckle he understood then. More like, he remembered. Pariah and Ronin were knucklebusters with a no-small blade at its sides; they were exactly identical, but the redhead always declared that he wore Ronin on his left hand and Pariah with his right hand. Though exactly similar, they had different abilities, Pariah could detonate at the impact kinetic explosions whilst Ronin could sent electric shocks at impact.

Electric shocks. Conway remembered the day he constructed Pariah and Ronin, the former wasn't still finished and every time he hit something it send minor shocks in her left hand. They gave him a pair of gloves made of insulate material, until he finished his weapons. Apparently he'd never throw the gloves away.

Conway was using aura, but it did little as Rohan jabbed him right in the cheek, the blade sinking deeply in the flesh. The blonde was thrown to the edge of the roof but no before bouncing in the floor like a rag doll.

Rohan turned off the electricity and removed the blade with a groan of pain. "Why do I have the worsts ideas at first?" it hurt but it didn't touch anything important. He tried to focus his aura on the place of the wound, luckily that would stop the bleeding till he can patch it up.

He walked to Conway. It was dangerous, he knew it, but he didn't care, it was a matter of pride, to gloat at him even he wasn't in his full senses. When he reached where he was he saw that he wasn't moving and his eyes were half-closed, but judging by the bleeding that came out of the gash on his cheek and the dust that shifted in front of his face meant that he was alive, but out of commission.

He was unconscious.

"You still got a way to go, kiddo. Better luck next time" he threw Vadjra right next to him and jumped out of the roof of the warehouse with a smirk on his face.

He still got it.

When he landed on his feet he was shocked when he received a hug. Shocked but not startled, he immediately recognized the smell. "Janice?" he asked.

She kissed him in response. "You ok?"

"Course I am. What are you doing here?" he said grabbing her face to see if she was hurt. The only thing that seemed to be hurt in her was reflected in her eyes. He'd worried her. He instantly felt guilty.

"You guys didn't return, so we came to look for you" she replied.

He furrowed his brow "We?"

"There you are, puppy!" just as he recognized the smell of Janice he recognized the smell of the person who just talked, to not say his annoying voice. He scowled at the sight of Nairod strolling to him with Noire at his side.

"I've told you thousands of times to not call me that!"

"Which case I've replied that which of my testes you wanted to kiss first"

Despite being in what it would be considered a fallout shelter —because "safe room" didn't did justice of how well protected the room was— they still heard and felt the explosion that had just occurred in the lower levels. The equivalent of a missile had just exploded within the club and the room was almost as pristine as when they entered, except for a minor detail; the window of the room was cracked and pushed lightly inwards. No one knew what had happened; an azure flash blinded everyone momentarily before they heard the muffled roar of an explosion.

The twins were on the floor; Melanie was on top of Miltia who was face down, screaming curses. Fiver was scratching his eyes, being blinded by the flash and Hazel was 'sitting' on the floor, she'd tripped after being startled by the sudden cracking on the floor and the quake.

The hatch from the roof opened, surprising everyone. "There you are" a deep voice spoke up. Turning up, they saw a bearded man.

"Junior!" the twins said at unison.

"What are two doing?" Junior asked arching an eyebrow.

"We, uh, fell" Miltia said awkwardly.

"Hello!" Yang pooped out of the ceiling, startling the sisters.

"What is she doing here?!" Both twins said once again at unison.

"Long story. C'mon!" Junior said signaling with his hand.

The twins groaned in displeasure but they did as they were told, but there was a problem, the bars of the middle and upper part of the ladder had fell or were too far to reach on their own. "Give me a boost" Miltia demanded, and her twin nodded.

"Don't look up!" Miltia said looking at Fiver.

"You're talking to me? I can't see anything more far than my nose!" Fiver spoke up, looking at a wall. Melanie intertwined her hands and Miltia stepped on them and jumped and grabbed the edge of the hatch. Junior helped her to go up by grabbing her hand.

"Miltia, you're heavy!" her twin said wagging her hands.

"You're no feather either!" the girl in red retorted. The cheeks of Melanie turned as the coat of her sister. She jumped and just like Miltia and Junior grabbed her hand and pulled her up.

"Now, you two hazelnuts" Yang said extending her hand. Fiver followed the origin of the voice but walked towards the window again. Hazel had to lead him towards the hatch. She positioned with a primeval precision and grabbed the back of his pants.

"Hazel, what're you-" and then she launched him upwards. With a scream, Fiver soared skywards and landed unglamorously.

The military girl jumped, getting out the room nonchalantly.

"Buzzkill" Yang said, with her hands on her waits.

"Junior. You need to see this" Everyone heard Melanie spoke. The bearded man walked up to her, and his jaw his the ground followed almost closely by his knees, when he saw the landscape before his eyes.

A more accurate expression would have been what he did not see.

The whole entrance –no, the whole front part- had disappeared completely, leaven only remains of what it was there. Half of the club had been blown to pieces; rods of still were visible from the destroyed, broken and mended in different ways, debris had heaped at the carcass of the club and its proximities were by no means clear of rubble.

"Ah, for the love of- come on!" Junior said exasperated, throwing his arms to the sky to fall to their sides again. He covered his face as he kept grumbling curses.

"I-I'm sure you can rebuild it again…" Fiver tried to console the man.

"She wracked the entire place the last time and this didn't happen!" Junior said as he pointed at Yang.

"Oh, yeah, the old times" Yang mused.

"That's it! No more blondes in the club!"

"At least nobody got hurt!"

"Except the men that were inside, you know…" Miltia said, after thinking for a while.

"Weren't some of our guys there?" Melanie added and her sister shrugged in response.

"Fuck damn it! Almost! I'd almost finished repairing it" Junior said kicking the same place over and over again, making a small crater.

"Weiss, you're awfully quiet" Hazel pointed put, ignoring the conversation of the twins and the older man.

"What makes you think that I have something to add to such inane conversation?"

"I'm not talking about them" Hazel pointed with her thumb "I'm talking about burning wharf at our backs? Aren't crates of dust of your company over there?"

"The intermodal containers of the Schnne Dust Company have many multi-layered dust barriers and thicker containers that most of the average crates. It can resist a fall from thousands of feet and it can be quite a task to open one without proper clearance. So I doubt that the dust is in danger or that it can be of danger for the people of the proximities. And even if it the possibility of open one was at stake I doubted that someone would be stupid enough to use a dust to put out a fire. Mostly because you will need a strong reagent to activate the quantity of dust that lies within"

---

"Ok, I got the clearance and which of the containers have the dust we need, let's go" Noire said to his team.

"Right. Let's go" Rohan nodded. Noire had brought them up to speed on their plan, and Janice seemed to agree but Nairod was adamant.

"Using dust to put out a fire doesn't sound like the most brilliant idea we ever had…" was his argument.

"Define 'good'" Janice said quoting with her fingers.

"Something that does not put our life's at risk?" he replied unsure.

"…we have those?"

"Yeah, we don't have good ideas, just bad and worst" Rohan added.

"Besides, you have any better ideas?" Noire asked.

The ashy haired man, scratched his head "Fair enough"

They tried to stay as low as possible as they ran across the battlefield, they had their aura up, but even so, a bullet still could kick like a mule if it hit them, but it was better than being death. "But still, we're gonna need something strong to activate the entire dust"

"'The entire dust'?"

"Within the intermodal container there are smaller crates that inside have a circuit that activates the Dust, making it useless if they are opened without the proper clearance or password. The Schenne's doesn't mess around about the security of their property"

"Wha- like a dye pack?" Janice asked quirking her eyebrows.

"Exactly. Except when we open it we're simply going to find useless icicles, charcoal or an explosion at worst, depending what kind of dust is inside"

"Are you sure?" Noire sounded incredulous.

"Positive"

"How do you know this?" Rohan inquired.

"Long story. The good thing, is that the security of the containers doesn't mess the Dust if the crate isn't forced, but that doesn't mean that the Dust remains inactive. The security of the cases is restricted to the same. It doesn't safeguard them from any overwhelming impact or a high fall, the case can break and the circuit would redeem worthless"

"In other words, instead of trying to force the lock, we are going to have to break the whole door"

"Precisely. But of course that runs the risk of activating the Dust but is better than nothing"

"But we have the clearance. So I doubt we need to destroy the containers or break the cases" Janice said.

"I think that clearance it's only for the intermodal containers, only Schnne employees must have proper clearance to open the crates. I mean, if a normal foreman unrelated to the company could open the crates just like that, then he could easily steal small amounts of Dust from the crates and sell them in the black market. Besides, when have thing go our way, love?"

The three members exchanged a brief glance among to see if one had a counter-argument; but there was only silent.

"Regardless we're gonna need something big to activate several raw Dust. At this point it shouldn't be ore now but still requires to being refined. Or what, did you guys planned to launch them into the fire just like that?"

"Not going to say that it didn't come to my mind" Rohan looked away, but not in embarrassment, more like thoughtful, a rare sight indeed. "I think I have something strong enough to activate the cases of Dust"

"If you say Dust I swear to god I'm gonna kick you in the bollocks" Nairod said with no mirth.

"Not exactly" he answered in the same kind.

"Rohan…" Janice said with concern.

"Don't worry; I'm going to be fine. With the the damage I 've taken will be enough I think, but just in case take cover" he reassured her. The interaction between them seemed to be that he was going to do something specifically and dangerously stupid and that it wasn't the first time that it happened.

"Are we missing something here?" Nairod said raising an eyebrow as he wagged his finger between the two.

"Do you have any recollection of seeing our semblances?" Janice asked.

"Err…" now that she mentioned, he recalled that in fact he'd never seen their semblances…and neither his to be fair. "No, I don't think so? Why?"

"Well you're going to. But is kind of risky and involves several questions, just follow my lead in this case, will you?" Janice said cagey.

"…ok, I'll bite. What is your move?" Nairod said crossing his arms.

"You three have to stay close to me. And when I say close I mean like at least a meter away from me at most in case things go south. Rohan needs to be in …where's a good place, Ro?"

"I estimate…near the ships will be more than enough" The redhead answered.

"Right, then we will go on the opposite direction. But first we must find first Blake and…whoever is with her too or she could be dragged into the crossfire if shots hit the fan"

"Crossfire?" Noire inquired.

"Long story" Rohan replied for her. The explanations brought more questions than answers, but they didn't press on. They seemed very serious about the subject. In any case they were going to found out soon.

"Ok, led the way" Nairod stepped aside, like if he was lending the pass.

"Ok, Noire you said that you found Blake, isn't?"

"Yes. They are near the containers chasing someone"

"Excellent, Rohan you go to the ships and we will push one of the containers. If we put our whole aura and our back into it without getting shot then we will throw one or two over the edge. Hopefully that will be enough" She explained her plan, rather concise.

"Hopefully I don't overdo do this time" Rohan commented; and somehow it didn't reassured both Nairod and Noire.

"Right. Then let's put an end to this heated battle, shan't we" Nairod said.

Needless to say his teammates were NOT amused.

---

Flare, was the name of the semblance of Song, it allowed him to augment his aura, strength, speed, reflexes etc. among others, it was basically a momentary boost of all his being, though it only lasted for a few seconds, and he couldn't use it twice in a row. As stronger the boost was, the shorter the time of wield it was; and more tired he felt. There was an occasion when he used Flare so strongly that he passed out after the swing.

Fortunately he could overcome that weakness with Kyrie, the name of his gigantic blade, technically known as Coaxial Auric Energized Zanbato (CAEZ), he'd said overcame, but better management would be a better description. Kyrie helped him to… drew the full potential of each time he used his semblance, squeezing every ounce of aura he could muster. Using his semblance with Kyrie saved a good chub of aura that he would have wasted away with any other weapon.

A good example that he could think of was in the initiation when he killed the Taricha that was going to attack Ruby along the Deathstalker. Back then he'd the weapon of Abel with him, Requiem. He'd used his semblance back then with the same quantity of power that he just used right now. The same attack with Requiem back was barely able to the grimm tadpole. But with the same output of energy in Kyrie, Song just destroyed half a building.

"Talking about overkill" Yang said with a hand over her lilac eyes, similar to a visor. Her eyes widened when the dust had settle and a figure emerged from it "Is…is that Song?" she asked unsure.

He still was in the same position that when he'd brandished his giant sword. Like if was frozen in time, because he wasn't moving. Even from this distance Yang could clearly see the black sclera and the bright red eyes as clear as the day. A heaved sigh left his chest and his shoulders sagged, he started to catch his breath, quick and hefty gasps entered and leaved his lungs from his mouth; after a while he tried to balance his breathing and closed his mouth and used his nose. His throat was dry, his chest burned with each puff, and his fingers were numb, not to mention that he was struggling to keep his balance.

Considering the conditions, he was good. He'd expected a worse backlash from not using Kyrie after two years. Like, losing all sensation in his arms and bleeding exaggeratedly.

"Well, crap. looks like you didn't faint. I was expecting you to pass out so I could drag your sorry ass and get out of here ASAP" a voice a few meters away from him spoke up.

"Shit, you were here? Didn't saw you" Song said surprised.

"Nor hear me either, apparently, because I practically wailed 'Holy shit. Holy shit. Song, hang on, I'm here, can't you hear me you mangled cockwomble?' At you"

"You're not death and you have all your limbs" Even though he'd said that it was clearly that he'd received a good deal of damage, blood fell from his right arm turning it crimson as well from some part in the top of his head, hiden in the hair. The red hot liquid fell till his chin and started to drip. "Don't be melodramatic"

"Man, you're such a douche" Nyx said as he cleaned the blood from his eyes and his forehead with his forearm.

"I didn't ask you to come for me or stay" Song retorted.

"You're right, you didn't, reason why I'd to come. All of us"

Song froze in the spot, and that's when he felt the presences nearby.

A flaming-burning flame full of energy. An cold ice surrounded by different and unique snowflakes. A mirage of snow and a rose. A giant and sturdy spirit similar to a bear. An all-seeing gentle eye that watched over him. And balanced but constant flow between cold and fire.

He knew most of this auras. Why were they here? Somehow he putted the pieces together.

"You…" Song pointed his finger at him, as if he wasn't expecting this, even from Nyx "You…told them" anger and betrayal built in his throat.

"They saw your siblings, Song"

"You took them to the wellspring?" Song forgot his wounds and walked towards him.

He'd to calm him down. In this state he was unstoppable if he started to fight, not to mention dangerous and unstable; but not mindless. He'd one shot. "They appeared in Beacon. To her. They warned her about this, and she came to me"

"Her?" Song stopped in his tracks, and raised an eyebrow.

"Yang" Nyx replied.

"What?" it was the last thing that Song could inquire.

The dust started to shift in an unnatural way, it began to swirl up in the air focusing in different focal points becoming bigger and bigger till the whirls made contact with each one forming a nine meters tall whirlwind, though it didn't carry any force it was clearly visible and ominous. The Funnel cloud became narrower till it reached the palm of the woman with the executive suit and pinkish-white hair; appearing of thin air.

Next to her, chunks of debris fell, pushed by the bronze and silver robots, in between, Nero emerged, his shirt, jacked and even a part from his pants from his elegant suit was torn apart, revealing his metallic arms and the bionic enchantments that were lying in his entire torso.

"If I had my two hands, I would clap" Nero declared, as he passed the androids.

Wow, last time he saw him, Nero only had three mechanical fingers on his right left hand and two bio-mechanical organs. "Man, you're a goddamn, Robo-Cop, now"

"You like them? Thanks to these babies, is that I was able to survive that explosion. Though you destroyed my favorite suit"

"You're no longer human" Song declared.

Nero laughed out loud. "Like you're one to talk" he scrutinized the two of them. They weren't in their best shape right now, but if they had proved something, it was that they were stubborn as hell. "So, you…" he pointed a finger at Song. "…you interrupted our celebration back there."

He moved his finger to Nyx "And you cut my only remaining human limb. And just for you to know it was my fap hand. I am not happy" His assistant Claret, pressed some buttons from her own Scroll and from the sky, like a small meteorite, a container with the appearance and shape similar to one of a coffin fell near them. From it a Gold robot appeared, very similar to its counterpart silver and bronze, but it didn't had any blades or turrets in its hands. But it neither looked like the standard android that Hazel had fought. "You're going to come with me. Either alive, in chunks of meat or near the death's door. Either way, I win. So which is gonna be?"

An eerie and tense silence aroused, as everyone exchanged views on each other. Both Song and Nyx looked at their enemies slowly and thoroughly before looking at each other and nodded at the same time. Then, both of them flipped at him.

"Thank Monty. I was actually hoping that you gave me a reason to see you bleed. Claret" Nero called to the girl.

"Understood" The pinkish-white haired girl, still had control "I'm going to seize them. After all, the director is still interested in the remaining remnant of the Cimmerian project and the original blueprint of the doctors Quetzal" Nero visibly frowned.

"I'm going to immobilize them by impaling their limbs avoiding any vital organ. Is this of your liking?" Claret added, and the face of Nero brightened immediately.

"Yeah, that's a win-win!"

"Not for us, we get stabbed!" Nyx screamed internally.

They were fucked up. Both literally and figuratively.

Despite that the assistant of Nero didn't appear to be using her semblance all this time they were discussing, both Song and Nyx knew it was all a ruse, for the simple fact that the cloud of smoke from the sky hadn't disappeared nor did the clouds of smoke from ruins. They were hefting their options; Song wounded heavily starting to get used to his old weapon and with him being caught in the explosion, they were an easy prey, they would have to get closer, but the assistant would not allow it.

They were about to dash at them when the smoke on the floor transformed on deadly and crooked spikes like a giant bush of thorns tried to catch them. Song swung Requiem to the thorns that tried to get closer, from the corner of his eye he saw a thorn of smoke tried to reach his leg, he was forced to move to avoid it, as another thorn tried to reach him from his blindside again, it went constantly forcing him to focus on the thorns in front of him as several tried to attack him from behind. Nyx was on the same boat, but worse because a thorn had caught him unaware from his right side. Another was about to get a hold on his leg when he teleported using his semblance which was about to deplete, if he was in Miss Goodwitch class his aura would be in red. Both knew that she wasn't actually trying to catch them, that would be to easy and a bonus if it worked, her original goal was separate them from each other, herding them as afar she could. Occasionally

Song and Nyx were touched by the thorns and forced to relocate. Then out of the blue the thorns stopped to move, but remained there. The energy above them made both Nyx and Song look upwards and noticed that the cloud had morphed differently; it now had spikes pointed at their position. So not only she was trying to separate them, but also preparing another card, this girl knew how to use her semblance. So either they were caught by the thorns or impaled by the stakes.

"Basically choose your poison" Nyx though as he saw the expressions of both Nero and Claret. They were smiling sweetly as the spikes fell upon the two boys.

Nyx and Song were getting to ready to deflect as much as they could when a giant glyph with the form of a snowflake appeared above them, blocking the stakes of smokes. The smile of the two assailants disappeared as not only the attack was stopped but as unknown presences fell upon the two. Surprising not only Nero and Claret but Nyx and Song as well.

Claret had to leap at her right with a somersault as explosions fell in her previous location. Nero was protected by the silver and bronze androids as a barricade of missiles and shots of energy were shoot at him.

Taking a break, Song and Nyx were able to send their attacks as well breaking the formation that the girl with pinkish hair had.

"Friends of yours?" Yang asked as she reloaded Ember Celica and took a new stance. A tooth smile appeared on her face, standing next to Song.

"Oh, you know us. Making friends everywhere we go" Hazel deadpanned, drawing Guardian Thorn.

"You guys are worse than Ruby you know" Weiss replied not amused by her current situation.

"You ok, fighting with us?" Fiver asked Junior and the twins.

"Can't talk for them, but I need to blow some steam off" Junior said with the vein in his forehead popping up.

"Same here" The twins said at unison; getting the club destroyed once was bad for business, but if it got destroyed twice and without consequences people would start to talk.

Nero wailed outloud "Ugh. You aura users are such a pain in my butthole" he said taking a stance to fight as well, a needle-blade appearing on his left arm. His company did the same as well.

"You would now about pain in the anus, isn't Nero?"

Ok, he was definetely dead.

---

Everything was fucked up before the declarations of Nairod prove it to be horrendously truth; they regrouped with Blake and Sun and with the clearance that they had obtained they could only open the intermodal containers but not the crates that were within. When they forced one an explosion occurred within the crate, an explosion of cold occurred within and ice shed from the borders.

Seconds later several members of the White Fang appeared behind them leaded by Conway things just turned from bad to worse up to eleven. Rohan sighed tiredly, sometimes it would be easier to just snap his neck, and he'd had that though for years before this very moment.

They closed the doors before any bullet reached them, locking themselves in. The sound of the bullets bouncing against the metal didn't stopped. They seemed very determined to kill them.

"Perfect, now we're going to have to sit here until we get cooked to death by the fire" Sun sarcastically.

"I wouldn't worry too much about that, I say that we have an hour of air at tops here" Noire reassured him.

"I'm not worrying about that, because if this sound doesn't stop I'm gonna kill myself!" Janice said covering her ears from the sound of the metal clashing.

"I should have killed him, when I had the chance…" Rohan said to no one in particularly. "Hey, what happened to Torchwick?" Rohan redirected his attention to Blake.

"He escaped" Both Blake and Sun replied at the unison.

"What now?" Noire left the question into the air. They couldn't use the Dust, they were trapped and either one thing or another was going to kill them.

"Hmmmm" Nairod mused, gaining the attention of everyone. His hand in his chin and he was looking contemplative at the floor. "I like golf"

They weren't even surprised.

"So, I wanted to call my team, but my scroll got destroyed. Anyone has yours intact?" Blake asked, her face calm and collected.

"No reception here" Noire replied.

"Ditto" Everyone minus Nairod chimed.

"What do I say Velvet?" in cue the ashy haired man asked to himself, a serious air covered his visage.

"I'm sure it's going to be fine, calm your tits" Rohan reassured him.

"Fine?! She said 'we need to talk', when in heavens had that mean good news? 'Hey honey, We need to talk, I wanna be better woman for you; I wanna fuck more and spent less money'"

"Ok, stop it" Rohan said, holding his hand out, in signal to stop.

"'Hey, we need to talk, I want to cook more and wear that lingerie you told me' Never"

"Seriously, stop" Blake this time urged him to shut up.

"Hey, we need-"

"NAIROD! WE'RE GOING TO DIE EITHER BY ASPHYXIA, BURNED OR SHOT, WHY AREN'T YOU WORRIED?!" Janice screamed not because she was desperate –which she was- but because she couldn't stand anymore the sound.

"Huh? Oh, right" Nairod looked at Rohan. "How strong is your semblance?"

"Wha-?"

"Cause, let's say I threw several open containers with several crates of dust to you, would you your semblance break through the containers and the crates?"

"Oh, ho, ho, yeah, definitely" the red haired bragged.

"Then let's get out of here"

"They still are shooting at us" Sun pointed out.

"I never say that we were opening the doors" Nairod replied.

.

Something strange started to happen from outside. Conway Meritage, saw how the intermodal container started to shake. The container where Rufus and his posse had entered was located near the edge at the top of a stack of the same, just about two containers at its right. Why did they specifically enter that one? He didn't know and didn't care. He was going to make sure that they didn't leave here alive. Rufus should've killed him when he'd the chance, instead he'd mercy. Bad mistake; his last mistake. He wouldn't even mention this to his father, or his mother or Adam or even Sienna. He would take this to his grave.

He just needed to make sure that this place didn't become his.

The shaking stopped. And suddenly a strange force smashed against the side of the container, pushing the other two making them tremble. The assailants exchanged view with each other trying to decipher what was happening when again the container smite at his side pushing harder the other two containers making one of them fall.

"Oh no" Conway though. He knew what they were trying to do. "Stop them!" he ordered. Unfortunately for him that order wasn't a specific one. One of his men charged at the side of the container and tried to push it, but it was crushed when this was pushed stronger from inside and clashed against the other which make him fall when they hit it inmediantely. It was obviously that inside they were gaining momentum and crashing against the side of the container. Hence and repeat. They could protect themselves with their aura and they did. There was a bulge at the side of the container, either the metal yielded or did the container.

But certainly, not them.

Truth to his word, they pushed it again and the container fell over the edge of the stack of large metal crates, and smashed to the floor with a loud crash bending the large metal container into a very open 'v'

"Fuck" Conway though with a gravely frustrated rage, the vein of his forehead ready to burst. But judging by the startled look of their comrades, his aura apparently spoke by itself.

.

"That was fun. Let's never do it again" Sun said pushing the crates in which he was buried.

"Beat you to it" Nairod spoke up, cleaning a bit of blood from his forehead.

Noire and Rohan were already pushing the crooked metal doors, with a loud creak the doors yielded and the hunters saw that they almost had no time. The fire had spread out too much; half of the wharf was burning so did the corpses of the fallen. Yet both the White Fang and Lip-Lip seemed determined to still kill each other. And there they were, the hunters, trying to put an end to this whole onslaught.

"Rohan" Nairod spoke to the pink haired faunus. "Where's the best place where you can use your semblance?"

After a few seconds of contemplation that feel like an eternity Rohan pointed in one direction "There"

"Oh, bollocks" Nairod couldn't help but curse his luck. The direction which Rohan had pointed was right in the middle. Like right on the middle of the firefight, in the eye of a storm of bullets "Oh well, try to stay alive until then" Nairod said as he patted his back.

"What and where are you going to do?" Janice spoke up as Nairod started to walk off in a completely another direction not heading even to the containers.

"You'll see love, you and the rest just keep an eye for both puppy and me and my brave companion" Nairod replied as he grabbed Sun from the collar of his shirt. "No pun intended" he said referring to Noire.

"Its…ok…"

"Wh- Who me?" It was all that Sun could say before Nairod literally dragged him.

"Yeah, not going alone and need someone that can climb and jump" Nairod brought up to speed "I'm borrowing it for a second" he said to Blake.

"Just go" Blake said to him and Sun seemed appalled by the consent.

"Seriously where are we going?!" Sun asked between worried and confused, passing all the containers. Getting away from the battle.

"I told you, I like golf, I'm just going for my club" the ashy man replied as he headed to one of the giant cranes.

Numbers weren't on their favor, both literally and theoretically. Nero knew that even with the Unit G-089 in perfect conditions and recently mod. S-079 and B-069 were damaged and their self-repairing functions could do so much; they weren't on their peak. Claret had used a good chunk of her aura and him itself had lost his right hand.

And yet still, he couldn't help but feel excited at the prospect of beating the life out of them.

Plus it would serve as a test to see how much his gadgets could do against aura users.

"Claret" he though and his assistant hear him clearly. The neuro-processor in her brain allowed him to listen him as if they were speaking. "Looks like they plan to come in two. Try to finish quickly, you're the muscle among us. Fifty meters at your left there's a structural weakness in what remains of the building in both the second and first floor, if you destroy it, you can either bury them alive; if they survive the debris around would create a small crater in which you can finish them off with your spikes" she'd already prepared the ground before all the fight. The semblance of Claret, Smokey Mirror could manipulate the smoke but she couldn't create it. Reason why she always had a cigar on her mouth. Luckily for them, the dust of the debris and fire gave her a lot of ammo. They didn't had the numbers but certainly the ground was in their favor.

"Do you understand?" he though again. From the corner of his eye he saw how she nodded slightly. "Good, let them come first"

And so they did.

Song and Yang went for Nero, Nyx and Hazel for Claret, Weiss and Melanie for the new golden robot and Miltia, Fiver and Junior at for the new monster of Frankenstein.

The final confrontation began.

---

Haven't update something in a while, I've been working on my novel, with the settings, the characthers, the story etc, so I haven't been focusing on the story hard enough. Just posting the first part, so you can have an idea of what's going to happen next. Now that I ended a part of my side proyects I'll finish the second part soon enough.

Hopefully. XP

15-5-2016: Updated a second part. Almost there.

23-5-2016: Updated a third part. Still way to go.

15-7-2016: Oh god you're still here?

28-8-2016: I'm starting to believe that I'm never finishing this.

5-10-2016: Had this for a while, didn't remember why I didn't updated.