Authors Note: Enjoy

The flight couldn't have been but a couple minutes but it felt like hours. She was far from the only anxious one, even Ozpin looked a little more on edge than she had ever seen him. It was for good reason of course.

Beacon was under siege by the Grimm and there were still civilians in the area. From what little she overheard from the pilots radio, things were looking bad. The Grimm had yet to break into Vale proper, but the way things were going the city would have its own concerns soon enough. The sheer amount of negativity from the civilians at Beacon would be enough to drown their defenses in Grimm.

Thankfully, they had Atlas and their armies to help fight. The Atlesians were taking a beating trying to hold back the tide but they were buying time and that was enough for now. Once the civilians were safe the hunters could turn their full attention back towards the school. Grimm horde or not, she liked those odds.

Soon the cavalry would arrive and they were gonna make the Grimm regret the day they wandered out of whatever cave they came from.

They just had to make it until then.

"LZ is clear," The pilot's voice buzzed over the intercom. "Your escort will lead you to the FOB, there you can link up with whoever is leading the defense."

Things had already been organized? There was something to say about the Atlesians and their discipline but Yang couldn't think of it. Instead, she prepared herself; physically and mentally.

Nobody said a word as the Bullhead landed abruptly, shaking violently at the sudden stop. She would have fallen over were it not for Jaune catching her. His smile was a little forced but it still had a hint of smugness to it.

"So now you're literally falling for me?" She wanted to punch that look off his face but smiled instead. The humour was nice, it helped more than just her relax. Even now, she could see his team laughing at the crappy joke. She could practically feel Weiss' eyes rolling in her head and it distracted Ruby from what had just happened in the arena.

Blake didn't even seem to hear it, simply staring at the door with an intensity that said she was looking beyond it. A soft hiss wrung out and the door flew open.

"Best of luck." The pilot's voice came back over the intercom.

Ozpin was the first one out, already moving away from the Bullhead before the rest of them had even set foot out of it. It was the first time she had actually laid eyes on Beacon and it caught her breath.

The school grounds had been turned into a battlefield. She could just make out a few Grimm moving around in the distance, the faint sound of gunfire and yelling. It took her a moment to process it all, she wasn't the only one. Each of them were affected in their own ways, even Ozpin.

After a moment a couple soldiers came over to address them, or Ozpin rather. He gestured for them to follow and they did, being led in the direction of a number large tents set up on one of the other landing pads.

A makeshift barricade served as their wall in case any Grimm decided to try anything, though judging by the lack of action they had managed to clear at least a part of the school grounds.

Dozens of soldiers were rushing back and forth, some moving to relieve others on the barricade, while others rushed off in groups with their froids further into Beacon proper.

They were led to a tent set up roughly in the center of the encampment, where their escort told them to wait as Ozpin spoke with the commander. A voice from the inside told them all to enter and the man who escorted them nodded, before allowing them all inside.

The walls of the tent had a number of tables set up, all with some kind of computer or radio on it. Men and women barking out instructions and orders while constantly updating a number of boards with information she didn't understand. In the center was a table with a map of Beacon.

A woman had her back to them as they entered, inspecting something on the map.

"Headmaster, I'm glad you have been able to join us." Winter turned to look at them, sparring an extra long glance at Weiss, no doubt to make sure she was unharmed.

"Specialist Schnee." Ozpin nodded. "What is the situation?"

Winter turned back towards the map. "We have Grimm spread out through the academy grounds. We've managed to get the bulk of civilians out but there are still a number in Beacon proper, they're currently the center of our focus."

"How did the Grimm get so close so fast?" Jaune probably meant to whisper it to one of them but Winter clearly overheard him.

"The White Fang brought them in via Bullhead, before dropping their own forces off. It's made predicting the Grimm's movement difficult."

The White Fang were the ones behind all this? Yang spared a glance at her partner, only to see a very neutral expression on her face. Despite that, she could see the emotion in her eyes. It was difficult to tell what emotion exactly but, judging by the way her hand gripped her weapon tight enough to turn her knuckles white, it wasn't a good one.

"We've also had unconfirmed reports of Adam Taurus somewhere in this area." She gestured to a group of side buildings.

Yang didn't know the name but Blake clearly did because her hands began to shake. Yang set a hand on her partner's shoulder, causing the girl's head to snap to her. She opened her mouth to speak but nothing came out.

A second later it was gone and Blake stood perfectly still.

That worried her more than the clear fear she had seen in her partners eyes.

"-aiting for more hunters to arrive from Amity." Yang turned back to the present concern, making a mental note to speak with Blake as soon as they stepped out of the tent and could get a bit more privacy. "Until then we can't risk overextending ourselves."

"Then it is good that hunters have already arrived." Ozpin turned to face them. "You are to follow Specialists Schnee's orders, she is skilled and trained how to handle this kind of situation."

He looked back to Winter. "I'm afraid I can't stay and help, there are things in the school that I must see to." It was clear she wanted to ask questions but she nodded instead. Ozpin turned to her. "Once things here have been settled head to the tower."

Yang wanted to ask why but nodded instead. There wasn't time for questions, they had to act fast in order to stop things from getting worse. He left and for a moment they stayed silent.

Ruby was the first to speak. "What do you need us to do?"

Winter broke them up into teams and instructed them to defend the barricade and the surrounding area until more hunters could arrive. It wasn't the most glamorous thing and it wasn't what most of them wanted to do but if it helped they wouldn't hesitate.

She heard a wearing sound from beside her, one of the Atlesian robots that guarded the entrance to the command tent seemed to twitch before its face plate glowed red.

Torchwick was loose on his ship. Ironwood growled but kept his composure. They would be there soon enough, though it would be a closer call then he would have liked. He was more frustrated with his own oversight.

He had left the scroll on that ship. It was under lock and key but reports said that Torchwick wasn't alone. If they got their hands on that scroll and got it to the command room.

Ironwood refused to entertain the thought.

"Sir, I'm trying to reach the bridge but I'm not getting anything!" The pilot was already moving to land anyways, knowing the General wouldn't want to waste a second.

"Men, be prepared the second we land. We must make it to the bridge as soon as possible." Ironwood turned to the Scientist. "Are we-"

"I've got it, James." Dr. Polendina stood, holding something gently in his hands. "We won't have a very large window. We have to act fast." He handed the item over reluctantly.

The General nodded, pocketing it before turning to the door. "Open it up, I'm going ahead. Keep the doctor safe and make for the bridge." The door opened and he lept out.

The fall was only a couple meters and he landed in a roll, moving as fast as he could to the nearest entrance way. There wasn't a single person on deck, Ironwood clutched his hands and ignored the implications of that.

The route to the bridge was fairly straightforward and nobody challenged him on his way. The door opened just in time for him to see Torchwick turn from the console he stood by. A scroll was plugged into one of the readers, a symbol of a black chess piece displayed on every screen in the room.

Ironwood drew his gun, preparing for a fight, Torchwick's smile was filled with arrogance.

"I don't know if that would be in your best interests, General." The criminal turned to one of the screens, a camera feed showing just what they had done. "I'd say you only have a few seconds before things get truly out of hand."

The General glared but lowered his gun. Torchwick smiled and moved closer to his companion. "For what it's worth, I hope you win." A second later they were gone, replaced by the sound of shattering glass. He paid it no mind, instead, rushing over to the central control unit.

Reaching into his coat pocket he withdrew the device the doctor had handed him, plugging it into the console he waited.

His men arrived behind him, the doctor with them, and he still waited.

"Did it work?" The doctor's voice was filled with a mix of pain and hope that the General understood all too well.

The holographic display before them came to life, the black queen symbols on the nearby screens vanishing.

"I am combat ready!"

The General breathed a sigh of relief, smiling at the model displayed before them.

"It's good to see you Penny." He meant every word of it. "We can talk later but right now I need you to do something for me."

"Sir?"

"A virus has been downloaded onto my ship, can you-"

"I've already begun to purge the system."

He couldn't express how glad he was to have her.

The droid's display went back to normal, as if nothing ever happened. It hadn't gone unnoticed of course.

Winter was speaking over one of the radios to try and get answers. Whatever she heard clearly shocked her, as she looked to the nearby droid with concern. She gestured for it to leave and it did.

She seemed suspicious that it had followed her order but shook her head and listened to whatever else was being said. She smiled a moment later, it was a strange thing to see on the stern woman's face.

Yang couldn't think of a single time she had smiled or looked even remotely happy. Though, to be fair, she had only ever seen her during the mission to Mountain Glenn and now. Neither were exactly happy occasions.

"Yes sir, I'll patch her through to the main channel." She tapped a few buttons on a nearby console. "They will be able to hear her now."

The console was silent for a moment before a familiar voice spoke. "Is friend Ruby there?"

She saw her sister step forward, hesitantly. "P-Penny?"

"Affirmative, it is I!"

Yang saw the tears swell up in her sister's eyes. "I thought you were… we saw you die." Pyrrha looked away in shame only for Nora to hug her from behind, Juane resting a hand on her shoulder.

"My father saved me!" Penny explained. "General Ironwood called him all the way from Atlas a few days ago."

Yang smiled , and to her surprise it was honest. Nobody had died yet. They still had a chance to win this without losing anyone.

She turned to look for her partner, only to realize she was no longer standing beside her. She looked through the group but saw no sign of her.

Jaune was the first to notice her concern.

She was careful to keep her voice down. "Where's Blake?" Juane looked around, clearly not having noticed either.

Yang looked back at the map, noticing the section Winter had gestured to earlier. The place where the Atlesians had supposedly run into Taurus.

Damn it, Blake. What are you doing?

The Grimm were easy to avoid, their senses overwhelmed by the amount of negativity in the air made it easy to avoid them. How he would have loved to destroy them, to fight back the horde and save the day.

Alas, that was not his mission. There was more than one thing of Value at Beacon, Miss Xiao Long was safe for now but the Relic had to be hidden.

Once it was safe he could turn his attention back to the invasion of his school and the protection of the Fall Maiden.

"Oh, what do we have here?"

Ozpin stopped where he was, turning to the woman in the red dress. She held herself like a huntress, confident and armed, but it was her eyes that gave her away.

"Students are advised to head to the landing pads, though I'm sure you already knew that Miss… Fall, was it?" He turned to face her, hands resting gently on his cane.

"If I see any students I'll be sure to pass on the message." Weapons appeared in her hands.

Ozpin sighed but fell into a combat stance. He would have to make this quick, the Relic might stay hidden where it is but he would feel far better were it with him.

Hopefully Salem hadn't taught her too many tricks.

Authors Note: This chapter was a pain, mostly because I had to go back and watch some v3 stuff to figure out the time table a bit and uh… I didn't do that until the day I uploaded this because I'm lazy and just got my gaming console after 7 months of no video games.

I know Neo's semblance doesn't involve teleportation but… I like the Coeur Al'Aran style Neo, so that's what I'm going with. AU? Sorta?

I also like what he did with Roman and how he has a "will change sides to escape Cinder" type deal. So in this story he kinda tipped them in the right direction by "accidentally" leaving his scroll at Mountain Glenn where they could find and retrieve it. Which just so happened to allow them to prepare for the virus being unleashed, even if they made the oopsie of leaving the scroll on the same ship as Roman was being held on.

That is my chekhov's gun for a drastically different "Fall of Beacon".

Still remains to be seen whether this will be a fall or not though.

Hope you enjoyed it and as Always I encourage you to review and elt me know your thoughts.

Sincerely SE