Chapter 48

Collapse

Elith, Vale

All of the White Fang were pulling out of the city, their job evidently complete after that Wyvern thing had broken apart the tower and caused some kind of giant flash. What was even going on at this point, myths breaking apart towers, the White Fang attacking a kingdom, and a hunter academy falling to Grimm.

"With the way things are clearing up here, I think we should go help with chaos seems to be going on up there." I said. "Wouldn't hurt to make sure Erik and Clara are okay."

"Agreed." Robin said, Carter just nodded. We started running towards where I could see Bullheads descending from Vale, we could catch one with how fast they're moving. I kept my eyes peeled for Grimm or Atlesian knights as we went, but thankfully saw none of them on our way. We managed to reach the ships just as one started to depart, I leapt into the Bullhead and held out my hand to help up Isaac, Carter, Robin, and lastly my clone.

"What are you kids doing, this is for evac from Beacon not to." The pilot suddenly said.

"Do we look like kids to you?" Carter asked. "Get us to Beacon." The pilot asked no more questions as the Bullhead quickly rose up, the ride was quiet for a mere moment before I saw a flock of Griffons Making their way to us.

"Shit, just what we needed," Isaac said as he loaded shotgun shells into his Knixes.

"Pilot, can you get us above the flock?" I asked.

"For a moment, it won't be for long though." The pilot replied.

"I won't need long," I said as the bullhead rapidly rose upward, drawing the Griffon to flock beneath us for a moment. Then I shoved my clone off of the Bullhead, straight into the flock. They instantly grabbed at the clone to tear it to shreds, but the clone did the job themselves as they suddenly erupted into multiple arcs of electricity. This stunned and damaged the Griffons enough to make them plummet into the ground below, keeping them away from us.

"Smart move Elith, good job," Robin said.

"Thanks," I replied.

It didn't take long to reach Beacon, and what we saw when we got there was hardly good. Almost everything was in ruin or on fire, people were lined up for evacuation and many people were injured or possibly dead. I scanned around, seeing some familiar faces but not seeing Clara or Erik anywhere.

"Carter, there you are!" I heard Ivory's voice sound out as she teleported in front of him, giving him a quick hug. "How are things shaping up in Vale, hopefully, better than here."

"Things are stabilizing, we came here to see how we could help," Carter replied.

"Not much to be done here, I hate to say that there's not much hope for Beacon right now," Argus said as he walked up to the conversation. "Where's Liath?"

"He's…" Carter started, clearly knowing what to say, but not wanting to.

"He died saving our asses," Robin said, none of team LIAC seemed to know how to respond to that, they were simply silent for a bit.

"Have any of you seen Erik and Clara?" Isaac asked.

"I saw Erik, he was looking for three people and I sent him to them." She pointed towards a building near Ozpin's demolished tower. "He was headed to that roof last we saw him."

"Thanks, we have to go find them," I said, Isaac and I started to run off into Beacon just as I saw the most relieving sight of my life. It was Clara and Erik riding an Ursa towards me, Clara weakly raised her hand to wave as she approached.

"Elith, Isaac!" Clara shouted. "You two are okay!" She leapt off of her Ursa and crashed right into me to give me a hug, then she gave Isaac one as well. I noted that Erik wasn't moving to get off the Ursa, or moving at all for that matter.

"Is Erik alright?" I asked, hoping he was just tired or even wounded, I just hoped the answer wasn't what I expected.

"He's hurt, unconscious actually," Clara explained. "A piece of rubble knocked him out as we were running here and I had to hitch a ride, I guess it worked out because it let me retrieve something else as well." Clara killed the Ursa and caught Erik as he fell, then she set him down and grabbed something else that had fallen.

"Is that Dakota?" Isaac asked.

"Yeah, he was killed by some man named Adam," Clara said, clenching her fists.

"I'm sorry to hear that Clara," I said, not knowing what else to say.

Clara, Bacon

The three of us shared what had happened to us as we walked, two Elith clones carried Dakota and another carried Erik. I was slightly distracted though, I was scanning the area for Yang and Blake. Eventually, I decided they'd gone to Vale and sat down to recant my part of the story, choosing to leave out my lapse into zero aura for now.

"We should get down to Vale, it's not safe to stay here," Isaac said, standing up.

"I agree, I don't want to stay here too much longer." I agreed, we got ourselves into a Bullhead and made our way down to Vale. As we descended Erik's eyes started fluttering open and he raised his hands up to his head, touching where the rubble had hit him.

"I'm guessing I have Clara to thank for my life?" Erik asked.

"Yeah, you really need to quit getting knocked out," Isaac said.

"Three times now, it's becoming a pattern." Elith joked, Erik grinned weakly at the joke and closed his eyes.

"Wake me up when you guys stop being assholes," Erik said.

"You'll be asleep for a good while Erik." I joked. "You might never wake up if those are your conditions." The ride was quiet for the rest of the way, then we dismounted into Vale. It did seem mostly stable, Grimm were being driven out and killed in droves and it seemed the Atlas bots had been eliminated as a threat. People were already working to fix damages, I could see Glynda putting rubble back together and not too far from here I saw Dusty. Dusty was binding rubble with his chains to drag them into piles, he stopped his work when he noticed us though.

"Clara, you good to see you and your own are alright," Dusty said. "I wasn't worried though, you guys are a durable group."

"Yep, if there's something we do best it's taking hits at least." Erik joked, Dusty laughed a bit at that.

"Yeah, but I've seen you lot dish out some good hits as well," Dusty said back. "There's a safe zone set up at the docks, rest up there and I'll meet up with you guys."

"Alright, stay safe," I said, then we started off for the safe zone.

Erik, safe zone

As we walked my head began to hurt less as my aura came back and I started thinking about what's been going on, and my mind happened upon a significant question.

"Where are we going to go after this?" I asked out loud. "We don't have dorms or a school for that matter, do any of us have a home to fall back on."

"I'm dead if I try going home," Isaac said.

"I'm too old to go back to the orphanage," Clara explained.

"My dad exiled me from the household, so I don't have anywhere specific to go," Elith said.

"So essentially we're all homeless right now." I summed up, everyone nodded. "I'm tempted to ask what else could go wrong, but today's a bad day to make statements like that.

"At least we have each other, that's worth a lot." Isaac submitted. "Leagues better than splitting up honestly."

"That's a nice sentiment, but I'd rather think on here and now at the moment," Elith stated. "Now's not the time to get worked up over the aftermath."

"She's right, let's get to safety first." I submitted, and we all made our way to the docks to find that they were already quite crowded with hunters and civilians alike. Clara was looking about anxiously, probably for Yang.

"Why are you so concerned, I'm sure Yang's fine," I assured her.

"She was missing an arm when I last saw her Erik, define fine." Clara retorted.

"Not being dead." Elith supplied, probably thinking that was a helpful submission. The conversation was interrupted as Blake popped out from the shadows, seeming in a hurry to get out of the crowd.

"Blake, where'd you leave Yang?" Clara asked, Blake just pointed towards a ferry getting ready to depart and continued on her way. What's her deal, shouldn't she be staying near her injured teammate? Clara immediately started towards the boat and we followed suit, not wanting to lose track of each other.

Isaac, ferry to Patch

We'd found Yang on the boat and managed to get aboard before it left, Mr Xiao Long was there as well for obvious reasons. The boat was joined by Qrow carrying an unconscious Ruby on board not long after we boarded, team RWBY does not seem to have the best of luck today. The boat departed and quietly sailed off towards Patch, I moved to the back of the fairy to look out at Vale.

"What are you doing over here Isaac?" Elith asked, coming up behind me and tapping my shoulder.

"I felt like I was interrupting the situation over there, I'm not involved with Yang or related to her family so it felt odd," I explained.

"Makes sense," Elith said. "I was feeling awkward back there as well."

"Today is by far the second shittiest day of my life," I noted.

"On the other hand, it's been disillusioning," Elith said. "Now that we know kingdoms aren't safe havens anymore, we know to be prepared to defend ourselves."

"So much crazy shit has happened today, I hardly know where to start," I said.

"Well, I'll start by thanking you for saving my life earlier," Elith said. "When you got between me and the bull faunus, that could have been a dangerous circumstance."

"Don't thank me, thanking me means you expected less from me," I said half-jokingly. "Never think I won't do the best I can to help you guys."

"Never think that I won't thank you for that." Elith countered, giving me a hug. The hug lasted for some time before she backed up and gave a small sigh. Silence passed over us as we looked out towards Vale, fires still burning in Beacon above it. It was a sad sight, I hadn't been there very long but Beacon was already a place that meant something to me. At least almost all my friends came out of this still breathing, poor Liath…

"I don't want to stay in Patch," I said to Elith.

"Why not?" She asked.

"I should be in Vale to help with recovery and reconstruction," I explained. "Vale is in greater need than Patch."

"I'll come with you when you head back," Elith said. "Erik and Clara will probably stay though."

"It's not like we're abandoning them, we'll be able to meet up easily," I said. Silence returned as the two of us sat down and thought through what we'd do to help Vale.

Author's notes

Don't you just hate it when you're in school and then a criminal organization besieges it using a giant Wyvern and monsters of Grimm, and all you're doing is trying to get a decent education for yourself?