RWBY: MRRN

Volume 6, Chapter 34: The Battle Rages

Disclaimer: I do not own RWBY. All rights go to Rooster Teeth.

"Argus Mech, engaging Leviathan," the mech pilot addressed David Brownwood as he moved towards the colossal Grimm. He aimed the Dust cannon for the Grimm, then activated the Earth Dust, firing two shots at the Grimm and trapping its legs in large rock. The Grimm roared in anger as it tried to free its legs from the rocks, but didn't do so in time to avoid being savagely punched by the Argus Mech.

The Leviathan slashed at the mech, dealing some damage to the front view window and causing it to stumble back a few steps. When the Leviathan slashed at the mech again, the pilot raised the left hand and summoned a Hardlight shield to deflect the attack. He then countered with a Fire Dust attack from the cannon, shooting the Leviathan's head at point-blank range.

It stumbled back before gaining its footing again and unleashed a continuous blast of fire at the mech; before it could do too much damage, the pilot activated the Hardlight shield with the mech's left hand. He then raised the cannon up and activated the missile launcher, aiming for the Leviathan's head.

The missiles fired off, exploding on the Grimm's head and shoulders, but not doing enough damage to kill it. No matter what, the Argus Mech pilot knew that he couldn't allow the Leviathan to get to Argus or it'd certainly mean that the city would fall. He was the only line of defense between the colossal Grimm and Argus's safety.

-0-

"What…what are those?" Jaune gasped as he looked down to see the grotesquely large Iron Knights rushing towards the breach in the wall.

"Berserkers," Pyrrha gasped. "We need to get down there now!" Pyrrha and Jaune hurried down the stairs to help aid in the defense, joining the soldiers rushing down to stop the Berserkers from leaving a wide opening for the rest of the Iron Knight forces to attack.

"Open fire!" David commanded as he joined the defense. "Aim for the open spots in the armor!" He aimed his bow and fired several shots at the openings in one of the Berserkers' armor, but seemed to do very little other than make them angrier.

"Commander," Math addressed. "There's a button on their back that nullifies their pain receptors. If we turn them on, they'll pass out or die from the pain."

"Unlike last time, Math, they had armor…and pretty strong at that," Ruo pointed out, seeing how the attacks were merely deflecting off the Berserkers' armor.

"Then we use our stronger attacks and heavy weaponry to break through the armor," Math insisted. "Those Berserkers will tear up our front line if we don't stop them." David activated the commlink and addressed his soldiers.

"Use heavy weaponry on the Berserkers and aim for their backs," he instructed. "Destroy the armor protecting their backs and we can kill them."

"Look out!" Math warned the Commander as a Berserker brought its fist on down on them, which they dodged. The wolf swordsman threw Torrach at the Berserker's armored head to stun it, giving him a small opening to use his Semblance; he imbued Dochas-Mhadaidh with two Aura Swords and slashed at the Berserker's armor protecting its back. The impact left deeply cracked the armor, weakening it, but not destroying it so he could get to the button on the Berserker's back.

"I got this!" Nasser assured before leaping up and using his Semblance with Hafashahn in its great axe form. The Achdarr brought it down on the weakened armor and smashed it to pieces, allowing David to shoot the button that reactivated the pain receptors. As expected, the Berserker cried out in agony before falling to the ground dead.

"What kind of leader allows his own men to experiment on themselves like this?" David thought to himself before reloading his bow/ rifle.

From above, a crow and an eagle flew down to the battlefield, transforming into Forest Kotka and Qrow Branwen as they slashed their weapons against the Berserkers, hitting their armor. Sterling and Ruadh followed behind them, leaping from a flight of stairs to join the battle below.

"What are these things?" Qrow questioned, feeling disgusted by the enemies he was seeing.

"They're Berserkers," Glaucus explained to the veteran Huntsmen as he joined the frey. "There's a button on their back that'll reactivate their pain receptors and kill them."

"Then we better kill them before they tear through our front lines!" Ruadh replied as he loaded a rocket into his weapon and aimed for a Berserker's back armor. Before he could shoot, he was grabbed by another Berserker, who proceeded to squeeze him and cause strain to his red Aura.

As Forest and Sterling rushed to help their comrade, the Berserker felt a tug at its back armor as if it was being pulled off. The three Huntsmen looked back at the stairs to see Pyrrha using her Polarity to pull the Berserker's armor off. To help her, Glaucus activated the Gravity Dust in his staff and blasted at the Berserker, allowing Pyrrha to easily tear the back armor off.

Sterling then leapt and pressed the button, immediately killing the Berserker after it screamed in long agony and falling to the ground.

"Hoo," Ruadh huffed. "Those things are strong."

"And there's more of them!" Jaune pointed out as the defenders poured in to hold against the Berserkers.

-0-

"What...what just happened?" Robin gasped, having heard the explosion that threw off his focus, unfortunately leaving him open to an attack from Emerald, who struck him with her kusarigama.

"What's happening is Argus being destroyed," Emerald smirked, slowly walking over to the blind archer. "And your friends dying with it."

"They won't die," Robin insisted, rising to his feet and facing the green-haired fighter. "Life's thrown so much at us and we came out on top. The mission up north, the Fall of Beacon, rescuing Goodwitch, the Anima Express, the Battle of Haven…none of those killed us when they could have. We are much stronger than you'll ever be…or Cinder for that matter, Maiden powers be damned." Emerald's smirk soured into anger, which Robin immediately suspected.

"Cinder only got those powers because she stole them like the parasite she is, which like she tried to steal the Spring Maiden's powers. All that while, she used you and you willingly obeyed like a lapdog."

"Shut up!" Emerald shouted before attacking him again; he dodged the attack and fired an Ice Dust arrow at Emerald's arm, binding her to a tree. She attempted to summon a hallucination, but Robin slammed Sharp Shot's bladed limb onto her torso, depleting her Aura even more.

Emerald let out a cry of pain before lashing her free kusarigama at Robin before using it to break the ice binding her hand to the tree. She caught on to block Robin's melee attack with his bladed bow, forcing her to go on the defensive.

After blocking one of his attacks, Robin leapt over her and used his grapple on her arm; he then swiftly moved around her, trapping her arm in a hold before punching her in her eyepatch, depleting what was left of her Aura. Emerald fell to the ground, covering her face as she felt enormous pain.

"You bastard!" she cried out, but was unable to get up. She tried reach for her weapon, but again, Robin used his grapple to restrain her hand. Making sure she was immobile, Robin drew out another arrow and aimed for her head, preparing to finish her off.

"You're just going to kill me like that?" Emerald questioned, hints of fear in her voice as she had never come this close to being outright killed before.

"I'd rather do that than give you the chance to kill more people," Robin replied as he pulled back on his compound bow.

To his shock, his echolocation picked up on something moving very fast. Before he could attack, he felt a force to his torso, kicking him back and sending him flying into the trunk of a tree.

"Mercury!?" Emerald gasped as she picked up her weapons.

"Do I seriously have to save you every time you go up against this guy?" Mercury complained before picking up Emerald and running off.

"Ugh," Robin groaned, frustrated that he failed to kill Emerald again, knowing how much of a danger she was with her Semblance; she proved as much during the Vytal Tournament with Yang and Pyrrha.

"Robin, you there?" Oren called over his commlink.

"Yeah, but Emerald got away with Mercury," he informed solemnly. "Wait…you were fighting Mercury and he was moving fast."

"His Semblance must be super speed of some sort," Oren explained. "He destroyed the controls; we can't reactivate the shield."

"What!?" Robin gasped. "Are you serious?"

"I already inspected them; they're inoperable," Oren responded again.

"Then we need to get back to Argus and warn the others," Robin insisted. "We need to hurry."

"I'll find Cole and then meet up with you and Yang," Oren replied. "Hurry back!"

"On it!" Robin replied before picking up his bow and hurrying back to the city.

-0-

Cole and Ebon's match made them deaf to the sound of the explosion of Argus's wall as their blades clashed with each other. Neither of them wanted to hurt each other out of their brotherly love, but due to the circumstances, casualty was inevitable; one had to win, one had to lose.

"We're trying to build a better world, Cole!" Ebon claimed as he dodged an attack from behind by Cole's doppleganger. "Why can't you see that?"

"All I see is my brother helping terrorists and murderers!" Cole shouted back. "You betrayed everything we stood for!" He activated the Ice Dust in his scimitars and threw a wave of ice at Renegade, who used his Speed to dodge the attack and then slam Cole into a tree.

Renegade's blades clashed with Cole's before the younger brother summoned his doppleganger again directly from him and kicked Renegade in the head. Cole then unleashed a barrage of attacks on the Iron Knight lieutenant, quickly depleting his Aura and then punching him straight in the face, almost damaging his respirator.

"WHY!?" Cole shouted angrily. "Why did you do it!? I spent years trying to find you after we believed you had died! Why would you do this, betray everything you stood for?!"

"Because the ideals the Huntsmen lived up to were lies!" Ebon claimed. "They hide behind those ideals so they can do as they please! The Special Units have no authority outside of their Kingdoms!"

"We can't stop every Huntsman and Huntress from becoming corrupt, but that doesn't mean they're all evil!" Cole insisted. "Just like Nachtfel, your hatred has blinded you to reality!"

"Cole!" Oren cried out as he approached the two brothers. When he stopped and saw Ebon, his eyes widened in shock.

"Ebon?" he gasped. "You're…an Iron Knight? Is this some kind of twisted joke?"

"It's twisted, but it's not a joke," Cole reluctantly answered.

"Mercury damaged the controls to the generator; we can't reactivate the shield."

"What!?" Cole gasped, turning his attention to his teammate.

"To make matters worse, the Iron Knights have breached the wall. They're pouring in as we speak."

"No," Cole mumbled. He looked over to his brother…who was now gone, having run off with they were conversing with each other.

"Ebon…" the leader of Team COAL almost cried. "Why?"

"Cole, I'm sorry, but we need to worry about that later," Oren insisted. "We have to get back to the city and warn them."

Cole nodded his head and followed his teammate back to the city of Argus. He tried to force his mind to concentrate, but he just couldn't; suddenly, he became angry at himself.

Had he not allowed himself to be distracted by his brother's revelation, he could've reactivated the shields and protected Argus until Colonel Holang-I's fleet arrived. He shook his head in frustration, blaming himself for the shield controls now being too damaged to use.

"Cole, whatever you're thinking of, focus on Argus," Oren insisted. "Now let's move!"

-0-

The Berserkers were easily tearing through the Argus soldiers and Bushi militia; with Iron Knights still dropping into the city from their transports, the Steel Elites and Silvio were too busy keeping them contained in order to help with the breach.

Grayson dodged a Berserker's charge, causing it to ram into the wall and temporarily stunning it. Remembering that he was told of the button on their backs that would kill them, he clung his kamas onto the armor of one of them, holding on tight as it tried to shake him off.

Gray was flung around like a ragdoll, giving him little time to use his Semblance; when the opportunity arose, he sent a shockwave and blasted the Berserker's armor off, leaving the button perfectly exposed for him. Just when he was about to leap and press it, he was tackled by another Berserker and then thrown into a building.

Before he could recover in time to dodge the Berserker's charge, Ruby used her Semblance to rush towards the incoming enemy and slashed at its head with Crescent Rose, stopping it from hurting her friend. She then hurried over to Grayson and helped him onto his feet.

"Are you okay?" she asked him.

"I'm fine, but thanks," Gray responded before picking up his weapons. "Man, these Berserkers are no joke; they're tearing through our defenses like nothing."

"Then let's not stand around, doing nothing," Ruby insisted. As they looked up, they saw more Manticores descending on the city, flying towards the breach.

"Ruby, we need to get up to that roof," Gray stated. He was about to move, but Ruby grabbed him and used her Semblance to travel up to the roof, leaving the kama user a bit dazed from the movement.

"Okay, when they get in close, we use our eyes," Grayson told the reaper Huntress. "Remember what I said: the preservation of life." Ruby nodded her head and closed her eyes as Grayson did the same, waiting for the Manticores to get closer so they could do as much damage as possible.

Ruby's thoughts went back to all memories that she felt could fuel her Silver Eyes, her desire to see life preserved.

Her days at Beacon, the food fight with Teams MRRN and JNPR, the Vytal Festival, spending time with her friends and having fun together…all of these memories came to her, helping to fuel her power.

"Ready?" Grayson asked Ruby.

Suddenly, the reaper started remembering bitter memories: the Fall of Beacon, her sister lashing out at her, the deaths of so many comrades and good people, Penny's death, nearly dying at Haven. She could no longer feel the power needed to do what was needed of her.

She felt a hand grab her own, undoubtedly Grayson to help her. Having heard her troubled breathing, he was doing what he felt he could to help her concentrate; thank Gods his eyes were closed or else he'd see the blush on her face.

At the same time, Gray and Ruby opened their eyes and unleashed a powerful white light from their eyes, immediately killing many of the inbound Manticores. Though there still some flying to the breach, their numbers had been greatly reduced thanks to the combined effort of the two Silver Eyed warriors.

"You okay?" Gray asked Ruby. "I heard you…well-"

"I'm okay," she assured before looking down at her hand, which was still in Grayson's grasp. When he noticed it too, he immediately retracted his hand and looked away.

Ruby's face heated up as well as she turned away. Why did that happen whenever they had physical contact? He had done it simply as a means to help her concentrate on her power, but now, she was feeling warm and fuzzy on the inside.

What was this feeling? It was new to her, one that she couldn't put her finger on.

"Ruby!" Yang called out as she entered the battle, followed by Robin.

"Yang!" Ruby called back, rushing down the building and approaching her sister to hug her. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," Yang assured. "What about you? I saw the wall explode. What happened?"

"That Grimm ship…it destroyed the wall," Ruby explained. "Wait, if you're back, why isn't the shield reactivated?"

"Mercury destroyed the controls," Robin explained. "We can't reactivate the shield."

"Mercury was there?" Ruby gasped.

"So was Emerald and that assassin from Mistral," Yang explained.

"But without the shield, we'll…oh, no," Ruby gasped. "We have to warn Commander Brownwood!"

"Robin!" Math called out as he slashed across a Berserker's armored head as he and his sister quickly approached their cousin. "What happened? Why isn't the shield back online?"

"The controls were damaged," Robin answered before he looked past them, loud sounds getting past them.

"What did they send in?"

"Berserkers and they're armored this time," Safirlas informed her cousin. "We've taken a good number of them down, but they're still tearing through our front line."

"Then we've no time to waste," Robin insisted, twirling his bow. "Let's take them down."

-0-

Nachtfel looked to see the strike force arriving in the distance, despite the darkness of the late night or early morning. He raised an eyebrow, wondering what had happened that they had left their objective behind.

"What happened?" Nachtfel questioned after they approached him.

"The controls are damaged, courtesy of Mercury," Renegade stated.

"What!?" Nachtfel barked angrily at the assassin. "I told you-"

"I don't take orders from you," Mercury responded smugly. "Don't think you can boss me around." He suddenly felt himself unable to breathe, his neck being slowly crushed by Nachtfel's fist as he was raised into the air.

"I chose to protect you when the others abandoned you and this is how you repay me?" he snarled, tightening his grip on Mercury's throat as the assassin struggled for air. "You've just jeopardized this whole assault and for what? Some entertainment?"

"Wait-" Emerald pleaded, but Nachtfel held up his hand, threatening Emerald to stay where she was. When it appeared that Mercury was about to choke to death, Nachtfel released him and then kicked him in his stomach.

"If you wish to stay around my Knights, then you will obey me," he demanded. "If not, either you leave…or I kill you." Mercury groaned as he felt the pain from Nachtfel's beating, not even having the strength to stand up.

"Renegade, fall back for now," Nachtfel ordered. "Same goes for you, Cloak and Dagger; I'll handle the rest…and I'll handle Mercury when we get back to camp."

"Yes, sir," Renegade addressed. He then walked over to Mercury, grabbed him by his collar and made him walk back.

Cloak and Dagger looked back at the breached wall; with their night vision, they could see the dead bodies of many Iron Knights, possibly some of which had been killed by the blast from the Basilisk due to how they were spread out among the destroyed tanks.

"Cloak, Dagger?" Nachtfel asked the Lynx sisters.

"Did you destroy the wall while our forces were still down there?" Cloak questioned.

"I had to," Nachtfel justified. "Our artillery were being destroyed; I had to destroy the wall."

"But…you could've called back our forces," Dagger insisted. "They didn't need to die."

"I did what I had to," Nachtfel justified again. "You have orders, now go."

Cloak and Dagger shook their heads in disgust at what they heard, that the leader who always insisted that the lives of his followers weren't expendable and yet had needlessly killed them was horrifying.

Were Mercury and Emerald's words true? Was all of Nachtfel's moralistic preaching nothing more than hate-filled hypocrisy to motivate others to fight for him? They understood that as leader, he needed to make hard choices, but needlessly killing his own soldiers?

"Let's go," Dawn insisted to Twilight as they left the battlefield, their faith in Nachtfel now badly shaken.

"Nachtfel," one of the Iron Knights addressed. "Our Berserkers are being taken down. How do they know what to do?"

"Because they were there at Beacon to rescue Professor Goodwitch when Valkoin captured her," Nachtfel deduced. "They simply don't know when to die, do they?"

"What should we do?" the Iron Knight asked.

"With the generator controls damaged, we've less time now," Nachtfel stated. "Send in all forces. Do not stop the attack until the city is taken. Spare no one."

"Yes, sir," the Iron Knight addressed as he prepared to give out the signal to send in all forces and overrun the city.

After having seen the light of the Silver Eyes as Salem mentioned, Nachtfel couldn't bring the Basilisk with him, so he had the ship land nearby so it'd be ready at hand should the need arise.

-0-

"Keep it up!" David shouted to his forces, having instructed them to use heavy weaponry to destroy the Berserkers' armor.

"Commander!" Ruby addressed as she fought off one of the bestial Iron Knights. "We've got bad news! The generator controls have been damaged; we can't turn the shield back on."

"What?" David gasped, realizing the true danger they were in now that they had no way of reactivating their most effective defense. Without their force field to be reactivated, they were now at a much bigger disadvantage than before.

Thanks to the information from MRRN, Glaucus and Safirlas, the Berserkers were going down quickly than they expected, but they had still done much damage to their numbers, having killed dozens of Argus soldiers and Bushi Militia.

"Whoa," Benjamin gasped as he and his Elites arrived at the breach, having dealt with the Iron Knights within Argus. "What…?"

"You took your time," Nora groaned as she brought her hammer down on another Berserker's back armor, greatly damaging it.

"Excuse us, but there were still Iron Knights within Argus," Silvio replied. Suddenly, a loud booming noise was heard in the direction of the Iron Knight army; to everyone's horror, the rest of their forces were now rushing to attack the breach.

"They're sending everyone in!?" Math gasped before looking above at the top of the wall to see ashes flying around; as he suspected, Nachtfel appeared, looking down at the defenders who were weakened from the Berserkers.

"Attack!" Nachtfel roared, drawing his sword.

"Hold on," Math spoke, noticing that Nachtfel's weapon appeared much different; to make it worse, it appeared like the same material as those wielded by the Disciples back on the Argus Limited. As he remembered, they could feed off Aura…and possibly destroy it, killing them instantly.

"We'll take care of the remaining Berserkers," Forest assured David as Teams MRRN, JNPR and RWBY joined him in fighting the remaining bestial fighters.

"Battle formation!" David commanded. "Battle formation! Prepare for close combat!" Many of the remaining Atlas soldiers drew out their collapsible swords and activated Hardlight shields on their gauntlets, prompting Bushi militia to draw out their own melee weapons and the Steel Elites to draw their katanas.

Like a river bursting its banks, the Iron Knights filled into the breach and clashed with Argus's defenders. The Steel Elites led the front with Benjamin Steel, being the first ones to clash with the Iron Knights and easily cutting several of them down in moments.

The battle was coming down to the wire. Argus's defenders had held their ground for so long, despite dealing with Grimm, the Iron Knights and the Berserkers. Even with the breach, they were still fighting, holding onto the words David told them before the battle began.

The Iron Knights had no interest in taking prisoners. If they threw down their weapons in surrender, then they'd be condemning their families to terrible death at the hands of those who claimed to be liberators. If the Iron Knights conquered Argus, then Mistral's northern border would be threatened and the main route between Anima and Solitas would be lost to the enemy.

No matter how hopeless it seemed, the defenders had to fight against these odds, against much larger forces. They had to hold onto the hope that Atlesian reinforcements led by Colonel Holang-I would arrive to help them in time.

"Reinforcements!" Blake called out as she saw Mistral ships through the breach, courtesy of her night vision.

"Right in the nick of time," Forest sighed in relief as they made their way towards the city.

Author's Notes: I added a new poll to my profile. As you've probably seen, I hate Protagonist Centered Morality and try to avoid it in my series, so I made a poll to ask if you think I have it or not.

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