The World Called Remnant

by Darman700

After failing his Masters Exam Sora goes off to train on his own, but after a series of events, his light fades away and he is considered KIA. But one day he awakens in a world he does not know, a world called Remnant.

13. Vytal Festival Finale: Denied Destines

Well to be honest I really don't know what to say xD...

First of all I'm hoping all of you guys are A-Ok and that the quarantine has not treated you so badly.

Secondly, I'm really sorry for taking up more than half of the year to upload this chapter but man was it hard! In my defense this has been the most difficult I had ever written up to date. So a bit humongous shout-out and thanks to Shiloh who has been a huge help and beta for all these months.

Also an enormous shout out to Shiloh Aldwin, GunBlade2020, Antex-The Legendary Zoroark, GuestWithIdeas, FreelancerAmber, Gamelover41592, triscythe59, Miguel, warrior of six blades, ShadowSnowdappleand, sethman610gmail,com and The Keeper of Worlds, you guys have been with me from the start. This chapter is dedicated to you and as a thanks for being the fire that keeps my imagination going.

As well as an immense and huge thanks to all the new readers and reviews that come by day by day, I hope you are loving the story and hope that you love this chapter...

I wont keep you for long and I'll see you at the bottom...

So... Without further ado!

CHAPTER 13: Vytal Festival Finale: Denied Destines!

From the bottom of my heart I hope you enjoy!

---

There are no wrong turns. Only paths we did not know that we were meant to walk on. Yet destiny keeps calling, and when you fall, you rise...

Thus, we must ask ourselves this: When one falls, who is destined to rise? Good? Evil? On which path will you walk towards?

For in the end...destiny is nothing but yours...to create or destroy…

4:36 PM

'I took too many detours…' Sora thought to himself as he slashed an Usra Grimm to save some of the citizens from a pack of the creatures.

He should've already arrived at the school grounds by now, but he couldn't find it in his heart to ignore those in need. He has rescued many citizens by now, be it from the Grimm or members of the White Fang terrorist group. In the end, he was happy to help out, though he was also aware that he strayed far from his course. He needed to get back on track and head to the school grounds. Despite his attempts get in touch with Ruby, Pyrrha and even Qrow, it appeared that the communications had been cut off.

He winced as his arm stung thanks to an Ursa who bested his reflexes and managed to land a scratch on him. Blood could still be seen flowing out of his limb, so he seared for a place to rest and treat the wound.

He found a small house that still remained intact and headed to the living room where he sat down on a couch to rest for the time being.

"Aaahhhh…this feels great!" he said in relief as he sat down. Unfortunately for him, though, his arm served as a reminder of his current predicament.

He reached for the pouch that Raymond handed him and took out the first aid kit to treat his arm as well as the other small wounds he received. As he was disinfecting his injuries, he took out a radio he that snatched from one of the White Fang members – it was the reason he was able to help so many people – and switched it to a certain frequency to listen in and see if he could help anyone nearby.

'Man, these things sure pack a punch…' he internally grunted as he began to stitch his wound tightly. He winced as he bit the string off.

'I'm glad I took first aid from Kairi when she told us not to always rely on magic.' He smiled at the mention of her name. It had been a while since he had time to think about her; he dearly missed her and vowed that as long as he was alive, he would always find a way back to her.

Just as he was placing his shirt back on and getting ready to leave, the radio began to give off a signal…

"This is squadron 23 reporting in! We have some trapped in the mall near Café, but the commander has entered combat. Do we proceed to help?" the voice from the radio asked.

A woman's voice answered back, "Negative. You know how he is. Unfortunately, Roman didn't die in the explosion. He said he would take care of the snake himself."

"He lived?! Man, I thought he was gonna die from that. I wanted to give the man a fast death you know…"

"Yeah well, I guess karma caught up to him. He's a vile man that deserves what's coming to him. He treated our kind wrong, and Adam is doing justice." the woman spat.

"He never treated us bad. I mean…sure he had his bad spots, but he was a nice guy once you got to know him…" Sora couldn't help but somberly smile; it seemed the guy wanted the person they were talking about to survive.

"…Anyway, he's dead meat now, so just leave him to the boss. Let's meet up at the rendezvous point. I'll see you there…"

"Yeah, see you…" the man said as the line went dead.

Sora stood there in silence considering the options. On the one hand, he could head to the school and hope that Weiss didn't kill him for being late again, though he would be leaving the people in the mall up to the fate of the world. On the other hand, he could help out this person whom they discussed in the radio, but he did question why they turned against him if he was working with the White Fang.

He rested his chin on his hand, thinking through the consequences of each option.

"Hmm…maybe if I help out this person, he might be willing to give Professor Ozpin information."

Nodding to himself in agreement, he grabbed Trinity and raced out to the mall.

"Hope I'm not too late!" he said as he ran at full speed. At the same time, a thought of Qrow came to him. He silently hoped the man landed okay.

4:41 PM

Qrow woke up to be greeted by a heavy headache. He grunted in discomfort as he struggled to rise on his feet. He slowly opened his eyes to see that he landed in a complex building that seemed to have evacuated on time. He noticed some traces of a family that lived in the apartment room from the set-up table with some snacks on top and the television left turned on. He approached towards it and watched as the scene playing right now was the very same destruction happening in the city.

"Those idiots are streaming it live to produce fear in the other nations!" It ticked Qrow off that they were clearly sending a message that said, 'Do as we say or you'll end up like this as well.'

He tried using his scroll but saw that neither any messages nor calls were going out. "So, they cut off the signal as well…" He began to remove some glass shards that sunk deep in his arms and legs by the fall.

"I guess I'm going to have to head towards the school where we were all headed. I just hope they're all okay…"

He thought of his nieces and wished that they had already hightailed it out of the city, but then he chuckled at the thought.

He began to run out of the building. "Knowing them, they must already be at the school by now."

Qrow looked up to the skies and saw that Griffins had invaded the city.

'Well…this is going to be annoying.' he commented as he sprinted towards the school grounds.

Of course, his luck would have the best of him. As he began to run through the streets, a Griffin spotted him from its field of vision and dived towards him. Qrow barely had the strength to dodge him and slashed at the beast, only for it to fly high into the air and evade his attack.

Qrow cursed and tried to shoot the Griffin out of the sky. Some of the projectiles hit the Grimm, but it only seemed angered it. The Grimm took another dive, but this time Qrow waited at the right moment and jumped over the Griffin before slicing one of its wings off, causing the beast to screech in pain.

Qrow smiled as he landed and walked up to the Griffin ending its life with a slash to its head. "Damn it, I'm still tired after all of this…" he muttered as he flexed his arms and cracked his neck.

It would still be some time until his aura would recover. He began his trip towards the school through the city, all the while helping out as many people as he could from either the Grimm or White Fang members.

"Thank you, young man!" An elderly woman told him in gratitude as she got up from the ground.

"It's no trouble, ma'am. Just doing my job. Head over to one of the extraction points from here. You'll find them marked on this map." he told her as he handed her a map.

The elderly woman nodded, but before leaving she took out a water bottle from a pack she carried.

"Here, you look like you need this more than I do." she said as she handed it to him.

Qrow took the bottle with a smile. "Thanks." he replied as he opened the bottle and drained it in one swig.

"Be careful out there!" she told him as he ran forward.

Qrow needed to keep a low profile given as the ones who had taken Fall's powers had seen him. He didn't want them to know he was coming, but he couldn't just leave people to die. He wasn't that heartless.

Just as he took a turn, he heard a sinister voice and crouched down hiding behind some rubble.

'Wait. I know that voice…' he thought as he leaned closer to see if he could hear better.

"Come out, come out, wherever you are…" the voice playfully sneered.

"Hehehe…I know you're nearby. I saw..." The voice faded as footsteps could be heard. Qrow moved slowly around the fallen building making sure not to make a sound.

"Let's see…where did you go you little brat?" Qrow heard as the man moved some rubble around.

'Tyrian! I knew it was him in the comms. But I thought he was looking for the Fall maiden? If he's here, who is he looking for?" Qrow questioned as he kicked a scrape piece of a robot that lay beside him.

'CRAP!' Qrow cursed as he heard Tyrian turn his way.

"Found you!" he shouted as he jumped towards where he heard the sound. He sliced the wall in front of him, only to find an empty house. He narrowed his eyes as he began to walk around.

Qrow was sweating bullets. At the moment, he could not hope to face him and come out victorious without his aura. He could hear Tyrian getting closer to where he was hiding, and slowly reached out to his weapon that was strapped behind him.

But just as Tyrian was about to move the table Qrow was hiding behind, a radio went off. "Hey Tyrian, you there?"

Tyrian grabbed his radio. "What?! I was about to get to the good part!" he shouted with annoyance in his tone.

"Oh, so you don't want me to tell you where the kid's headed?" the man on the other side of the radio said in a mocking tone.

That seemed to catch Tyrian's attention as Qrow could hear him snicker.

"Where is the little brat?"

"Emerald contacted me. She intercepted a message from one of his friends." Qrow was listening intently hoping that his gut feeling was wrong. Because if he was right then Tyrian was after…

"Apparently Sora is meeting up with them at the school. If we head there, we'll be able catch him."

"Hahaha…I see. I'll be sure to mention you to her when I take him." he responded before cutting off the line and running towards the school.

Qrow slouched back on the table and let out a breath he did not know he was holding. He rested his head on the table and closed his eyes.

"Shit!" he cursed and slammed his fist on the ground.

"Damn you, Oz! We should have thought that exhibition match through." he scolded to himself.

"I never expected her to take an interest in him." Before he could linger in that train of thought, a familiar sensation coursed through his body and he smiled.

"Well, at least my luck is not all that bad." he said as he got up and his wounds began to heal. His aura was back.

He cracked his knuckles. "Hang on kid, I won't let them take you. Not while I'm still breathing."

He left the building the begin his chase after Tyrian, though before he could even get far enough to the open space, his eyes went wide.

"Well…" he began as he took some steps back.

"I guess I spoke to soon…" he said as he looked at three Atlesian knights and an Atlesian Paladin aiming straight at him.

xTxTxTxTxTx

5:00 PM

A Griffin screeched in agony as a scythe sliced it in two. Ruby activated her semblance and ran back to where she had left Weiss and Jaune. They were currently defending the base where all of the people were waiting for transport to arrive and take them out of the city.

"Where the heck did all of these Grimm come from?" Weiss asked no one in particular.

"They've been trying to get inside the building where everyone is. I'm guessing they're the ones attracting them." Jaune answered her.

"We need to hold them off until the evacuation ships arrive." Ruby told them all the while changing her weapon to its sniper form to take out the Grimm that were getting too close.

"I'm afraid that is not going to happen…" a man said as he came up to where they were taking cover. He was a buff man who wore an Atlas military uniform with medals pinned to his uniform. On his belt he was carrying a pistol, but in his hands was a rifle he was using to shoot any Grimm and robot that got near the base.

The teenagers looked at the man with a worried look. "What are you talking about?! We have to get them out of here!" Weiss told him as she fatally pierced a Beowulf that was too close for comfort.

The man sighed. "See that ship?"

He pointed towards a ship that was airborne leaving the city. The troops aboard were shooting the Griffins that came too close to it, knocking them out of the air. The girls just nodded.

"That was our last evac ship. We have no more." He heaved out in a defeated tone.

"Then call for more!" Weiss demanded, but Jaune's eyes widened. The man looked at him and he somberly smiled at the boy.

"It appears the boy here understands, and so does the other girl here." He replied after mentioning about Ruby.

Weiss turned to look at Ruby who was simply looking through the scope of her weapon, but Weiss knew that she looked a bit disappointed and defeated.

"Communications are down, Weiss…" Ruby softly spoke as she killed the last Grimm in view. She let her weapon drop to her side and her shoulders drooped.

Weiss' eyes widened in realization and turned back to the soldier. "We can't call for more ships, or back up…can we?"

The man shook his head grimly. "They got the CCT tower down, and unless someone reactivates it, we won't be able to get out an SOS signal out anytime soon. We evacuated the citizens as sonn as possible, but many still remain. We tried using roads and streets but…they're filled with White Fang members, the Atlesian robots or Grimm. It's a suicide mission…" he grimly spoke as he released a heavy sigh.

Ruby then came up to him. "We can go! We can get the tower back on! Then you can call for back up!"

Weiss nodded in agreement. "Yeah! Normal troops may not be able to get there, but we can. We may still be in training, but we've been through worse."

The man chuckled at their enthusiasm. "Your other teammate said the same thing, and yet…" He sat down on a rubble that was nearby.

"Wait! Teammate? You mean Pyrrha? She woke up? Where is she?" Jaune bombarded the man with questions. Ruby just looked towards the empty streets. She heard that Pyrrha went off to where Professor Goodwitch was crashlanding. The troops who were sent with her retuned, but she didn't. When they were questioned about this, they stated that the last they saw her, she was fighting a losing battle.

Ruby thought it best not to tell Jaune anything in case he'd run off after her. Together she was sure they had a chance, but…alone she was more than certain that it would be a suicide mission just as the soldier had told them.

"Yes. Pyrrha Nikos came to me and requested that she be the one sent to help Professor Goodwitch." He began in a somber tone.

"I allowed it given her reputation and enthusiasm to help. I sent a few men with her, but they returned without her. According to their reports, Professor Goodwitch was able to escape in the ship." he continued as he took out a cigarette and lit it with a flaming piece of wood lying next to him.

"So, Pyrrha went with her?" Jaune insisted not getting a good feeling on the man's tone of voice.

The man inhaled the cigarette and let out the smoke to the skies taking notice that the once sunny sky was beginning to fill with dark clouds. "It was thanks to Pyrrha stalling the person who was after them that she was able to escape. My team could not interfere. Their words were, 'It was a battle far beyond our capabilities.' They all got wounded and came back. I honestly don't know if she still lives or not. I am sorry boy…"

Jaune started to see red and breathe heavily after that last sentence. In his mind. for all he knew, Pyrrha could be fatally wounded requesting help. Yet here he was, doing nothing but hiding and making sure nothing entered a building filled with people who had nowhere else left to go. This man sent her knowing the dangers out there, and his men had abandoned her. He raised a fist ready to slam it on the soldier's face, but just as he was about to let him have it, a hand grabbed his wrist.

He snapped his head at the owner of the hand and saw that it had been Ruby. Her arm as well as the rest of her body was shaking, and she was looking down with her hair concealing her eyes. "Jaune…don't. I knew that she left, but…she was already long gone once I found out. I knew you would go after her, but Weiss wasn't awake yet. Together we may have had a chance at catching up to her, but alone…" She shook her head.

"We wouldn't even make it to the next building before we would be out of Aura and either get shot, eaten or worse." Weiss continued for her.

"I know how you feel, Jaune. I wanted to go after her because she's my friend, too. But…we have to trust her. We have to believe that she's okay and will be back." said Ruby as she looked up to Jaune. He could tell that her eyes were holding back tears that she refused to let them fall.

Jaune closed his eyes and clenched his teeth before taking a deep breath and nodded. Ruby let his wrist go and his arm limped to his side.

"If something happens to her, I will hold you responsible!" he said pointing to the man who let out more smoke.

The man laughed a bit. "My boy, if we survive, I'll beg for forgiveness on my knees if anything has happened to her."

"If we survive?" Weiss asked him.

The man simply reached up to his right ear and took out an earpiece that seemed to be connected to the short radio frequency that they established in the building. "Care to give this old man your names, young ones?" he said in a somber tone.

They all wondered why the man suddenly looked as if he was saying his last words but complied to his request.

"I'm Ruby. Ruby Rose" she said.

"Ah, the old bird's niece. I've heard much of you." he said as he took out another cigarette.

"You know my uncle?" Ruby asked with surprise in her tone. The man simply smiled at her.

"A long time ago kid." he replied while letting out some smoke. He turned his eyes to the Schnee heiress.

"I'm Weiss Schnee." Weiss said to him crossing her arms and earned a chuckle from the man.

Weiss frowned. "What?!"

The man waved his hand in front of his face. "Forgive me. It's just that you're the spitting image of your older sister when she was your age."

That earned him a surprise look from Weiss.

"You worked with my sister before?" she asked with slight eagerness in her voice, wanting to know a bit more about her disclosed sister. She barley said anything about her life in the military.

"I trained her in some areas, kid. She was a bit like you, but she smiled a bit more until…" The man shook his head, reminiscing about the past that would do him no good now.

He turned his head at the boy who as glaring at him as he ignored the curious gaze from Winter's sister. "And you, kid?"

"Jaune…" he simply stated to him in a cold tone.

The soldier laughed. "Well, it's good to meet you Ruby, Weiss and Jaune." He got up throwing the cigarette away and checked his rifle to make sure it had full ammo.

The teens looked at him with confused expressions. He turned at them and simply smiled. "We have about a hundred robots and some minor White Fang members heading our way." he stated in a stern voice.

"I am Lieutenant Brome. I have no more troops available to fight other than the ones you are looking at right now. Less than twenty of us."

They widened their eyes looking around them for signals of enemy infantry.

"I want you kids to head back inside and protect the civilians. You are our last wall of defense." He commanded them.

"What?! NO! We can help you! We ca-" Ruby began.

"I gave you an order, soldier! Out here, you are not a student or playing! You are a Huntress!" he shouted in a firm and authoritative tone which startled them.

"And it is your job as Huntsmen and Huntresses to protect the people of Remnant!" he stated as he frowned at them.

"So do you job and protect them! Do I make myself clear?!" he commanded and they all nodded at the lieutenant.

"Yes sir!" they said in unison. A bullet flew by them and they turned to see the streets brimming with Atlesian Knights and a few White Fang member. They all ducked in cover while Lieutenant Brom and his men began firing.

He turned to the children. "GO! DO NOT LET ANY OF THEM PASS!" he shouted at them.

Without looking back, they ran to the entrance of the building and went through the doors. They rested their backs on the closed doors and hung their heads as they heard the Atlesian infantry men cry out in pain. Ruby stood there and gripped her weapon. Weiss, who was already walking inside the building, looked back at her leader knowing what she was thinking. She turned to Jaune who had the same look as Ruby did.

She simply sighed. "I know what you're going to do. I will just say that it's a bad idea." She took out her rapier and turned towards the door.

Ruby looked at her with a confused expression. "I thought you said-"

"I simply said it was a bad idea. I didn't say that I was against it." She smiled at her.

Ruby gave her a wide grin. "Oh yeah! The two BBFs against a whole army of robots! I can't wait to tell Uncle Qrow about this!" she cooed.

"Hey! What about me?!" Jaune asked her with slight hurt in his tone as he took a stance at the door.

Ruby smiled at him. "Sorry, the two BFFs and Jaune!" she corrected herself.

"I'm too tired to argue with you." Weiss said to her as she grabbed hold of the handle on the door.

"You know once we get out there… we might-" Jaune began.

"I know." Both girls told him. They turned at each other and simply smiled.

"Well let's do this, guys! Charge!" Ruby said as Weiss opened the door. As the three were met with cold rain drops, their confident smiles illuminated the dark skies. They went out to fight for the ones they vowed to protect…

xTxTxTxTxTx

5:05 PM

"Man, where did they all come from?" Yang asked Blake as she flung a hard punch to the face a White Fang member.

Blake was tying some of the knocked-out members while taking a peek behind their masks just to make sure that they were not anyone she recognized. She let out a breath in relief when she saw that no familiar faces were in their ranks.

"I don't know. I knew that they had some infantry in the city with Roman, but I sincerely doubt that this many would follow him." Blake told Yang who was finished tying up the ones she had just beaten up.

Yang looked up to the streets and saw that the mall was just around the corner, though she narrowed her eyes.

Blake saw this. "What's wrong?"

Yang shook her head. "I thought I heard something but I-" In that moment a gunshot was heard coming from the mall's direction. They turned to look at each other and nodded. They ran as fast as they could to their next destination.

As they arrived, they could see that the sounds were coming from the parking lot on the other side and ran towards the source, hoping that whoever was fighting was able to hold out as long as they could.

As they turned to the corner, they say a man all in black in front of a person who now laid on the ground with his elbows holding him up. The man in black was holding a katana up in the air ready to give the finishing blow to end the man's life. Yang's eyes widened and sprinted towards the man.

"Oh no you don't!" she shouted, but the man simply jumped to the side and skipped back a bit more to get a better look at the new arrivals.

Yang looked down and saw that the man had orange hair and was bleeding on one side of his abdomen "Hey, you okay?" she asked him.

The man simply laughed. "I never expected that you would end up being the one to save me, Yellow…" he said in a pained voice as he tried to get up. Yang's eyes widened as she recognized the voice and took a better look at the man.

"Roman Torchwick!?" She jumped a few feet back to give herself some distance, thinking that she had made a mistake in saving him. Just as she turned to look at the other man, though, she saw that he was wearing a White Fang mask.

The man in black simply smiled and looked behind Yang. "Well, well, well. Look what we have here."

Yang frowned when she saw that she was being ignored. Even the latest target of the man had been discarded and he instantly took interest on what was behind her. She turned to see that Blake was frozen in place, unmoving and eyes wide, set on the man a few meters away from them.

"I did plan on going off to look for you, but given the cowardice that you demonstrated these past few years, I had thought you might have run off by now…Darling." he said with a sinister smile as he stared at Blake.

Blake visually paled at the man's words and nearly gagged at the sound of the word. "W-What are you doing here Adam?!" she managed to ask.

Adam sighed and simply shook his head. "I told you I was going to start a revolution with or without you. This…" he said as he opened his arms mentioning to the destruction around him.

"Is just the beginning. We will show them to respect the Faunus. I will lead a revolution that will change the world." Adam said to her.

Blake shook her head desperately. "NO! This is wrong! We will gain no respect this way! This will only cause them to hate us even more. We were getting somewhere before; we had begun to get some respect, but then you had-"

"I DID WHAT WAS RIGHT!" he furiously shouted back at her, causing her to jump slightly. It was something that wasn't missed by Yang who was watching their exchange with a fist strongly planted onto her hand. She was getting near her breaking point; this man had no right to talk to Blake that way.

Adam simply sighed. "But I guess that's something a traitor like you would never understand."

"SHUT UP!" Yang yelled at the man to have him look at her.

"You have no right to talk to Blake like that!" She began, getting Blake to look at her surprised.

"Blake may have done a few bad things back in her time, but that does not mean she is a bad person. She has worked hard to keep thugs like you away from us, her team, and the people she cares about! I don't care if she is a Faunus! All I know is that she's just Blake, one of my teammates, my friends." She continued as she looked back at Blake giving her a soft smile.

"So I'm not gonna sit back and just hear you badmouth her because she left you! By all means, I'm glad she did. Because when we met, she knew what was right and wrong. She fights for her kind in her own way, and she will always have our back!" She stated with a powerful voice preparing her Ember Celia by loading them.

Blake looked at Yang with admiration. No one had ever stood up for her like this before. She smiled a bit and let a few tears fall before wiping her face.

"Thanks, Yang." she simply said.

Yang just smiled back at her. "No biggie. Now let's show this guy a lesson or two." She said to Blake as the black-haired woman finally remembered who they were facing. If they were going to fight him, they had to do it together. They can't just rush in as they normally do; Adam was well trained and it would take all they had to take him down.

Roman was slowly limping away from the arguing teens and was almost in the mall when a gunshot got him in the leg, making him collapse to the ground. He screamed in agony and turned to see that Adam had taken out his rifle Blush.

"And where do you think you're going, Roman?" he asked the man turning to him.

Roman simply laughed. "Well, it seemed you kinda got some history going on, so I just thought you might want some time to talk to each other in private, you know. Me being a gentleman and all."

Adam did not look amused. "As I told you, before, you have a price to pay for the way you treated my kind." he stated as he looked at Blake.

"But there is a certain exception I will make. I promise you, Darling, before I get to you. I will kill everyone and everything you love and hold dear. I will make you have nowhere else left to go but to me. And when that happens, I will make you beg for forgiveness and wish that I kill you. But I won't because I will enjoy watching pain and fear etched onto your pretty face." He said making Blake take a few steps back at his threat.

Yang clenched her teeth. "THAT'S ENOUGH!" she shouted as she activated her semblance and her hair flared out along with her red eyes. She used the blast of her Ember Celia to give her momentum as she dashed and jumped in to give a good punch on Adam's face.

"YANG STOP!" Blake warned her. This was just what Adam wanted. To provoke them, and Yang had taken the bait.

Adam smiled as he sheathed his katana and called upon his semblance; he stored a great amount of power since his arrival and was saving it in case he encountered a Huntsman. However, this turned out even better. He would show Blake true despair and prove to her that he would come true to his promise.

Just as Yang was coming down stretching her arm for the hit, Adam slashed his blade while moving forward in a flash. In a moment, he was behind Yang and she seemed to fall slower as her semblance died down as well as her aura. She began to lose consciousness, but before doing so, she noticed that her right arm felt a bit lighter than usual. She turned her head to look at it, but only saw red when her eyelids closed and she landed hard to the ground.

Blake could not say a thing; she could not move. She felt that she couldn't even breathe correctly, like the air was sucked out of her. She wanted to scream, but her eyes could only widen in horror as she saw Adam cut Yang's arm off with a single strike. That's why she wanted to come at him together, but a part of her also told her to get as far away as she could…yet she could not.

Blake began to see that the ground where Yang was at began to stain in crimson. 'She's losing too much blood!' a voice within her said. She saw Adam smile at her state and simply turned to Yang.

"Let this be a reminder, Darling. And remember that all of this is your fault." he stated as he got close to her and was ready to give the killing blow to Yang.

'MOVE BLAKE! GODS DAMN IT! MOVE!' her inner voice commanded, but her trembling legs would not listen to her. She could only watch in horror with tears rolling down her eyes as Adam began to draw his blade down.

She shut her eyes tight in that instant, not wanting to see the blood splash out of her friend's body or have the image scorched onto her mind to haunt her for the rest of her life. But instead, she heard metal clashing with metal. She slowly opened her eyes and saw the last person she had expected to show up in front of Yang's body with his heavy blade blocking Adams blow.

Blake traced the blade down and saw the most angered face she had ever seen in her life. The kind smiling and grinning boy that she had seen a couple of days ago… gone. In its place was a young man filled with a killing intent that oozed off of him with a sting that she felt on her skin.

Sora was holding Adam's sword in place. When he watched Yang go down, he dashed as fast as he could. For some reason Blake did not move from her current place. It was as if she had been paralyzed, and he could clearly see her trembling and crying. 'This is someone she knows!' he instantly recognized.

"Who-?!" Adam began but his sentence was cut off as Sora pushed his blade up, and in that opening he separated Trinity and slammed both blades onto the man's side, sending him a few meters away from Yang's body.

In an instant he picked her up and jumped towards Blake. He brought out his first aid kit and took out some bandages to apply as much pressure as he could. Yang was losing a lot of blood and starting to lose color. If this continued, she would be unable to make it. He turned to Blake who was still frozen in place.

"Blake, we have to get her medical attention! I saw a building there a few blocks from here, down that road where they were helping out the injured. Take her there I'll hold this guy off!" he said to her as he injected Yang with some medicine to numb the pain and hopefully avoid some incoming seizures.

But Blake did not move. He turned to look at her as she was still looking at the place Yang was at. He turned and saw Yang's fallen arm. He winced at the image and internally gagged at the image of so much blood. "Blake, I know this is hard, but you have to help me move Yang out of here or else she'll die…" he said softly to her.

Blake shook at the word 'die' and looked down at the fallen body of Yang.

"I'm sorry…!" she softly said.

"Blake, come on! Snap out of it!" Sora tried shaking her from her shoulders, but it was in vain as she still did not move.

"I'm sorry…! I'm sorry…! I'm sorry…!" Blake continued like a mantra.

Sora shook his head. "I'm really sorry for what I'm about to do, Blake." he said as he brought his hand back and planted a hard slap on Blake's cheek to stop her ranting.

Blake slowly brought her hand up to her burning cheek and slowly turned her head to look at Sora. "Are you finally out of it?" he asked her. Her eyes down casted and gave a small nod.

Sora gave out a breath. "I need you to take her a few blocks down that road. I came from there and found a building where they are helping the injured. You have to take Yang there. Understand?" he instructed to her once again.

Blake gave a simple nod looking at the street he pointed to.

"But-" Blake began.

"No buts! There are no Grimm or White Fang members. I cleared all the paths I took here." he said as he heard a voice come out of the mall.

"That was a hard blow, but now I think I know who you are." Adam said as he came into view. Blake's eyes widened as she saw him.

"I SAID GO! YOUR FRIEND NEEDS YOU! SAVE HER!" Sora shouted, getting her attention. Blake jumped at the sound of his voice and nodded. She rapidly got down and picked Yang up before running towards the street Sora told her about.

Adam frowned at the sight. "And where do you think you're going?!" He demanded as he tried to follow her, but a blast to his side made him lose his momentum and fall to the side.

"I think you're forgetting about me." Roman said as he held his cane up in his shotgun mode. He was leaning on the wall of the building helping himself up with his only good foot.

Roman growled at him. "Oh, I think I did." he replied back as he dashed at him.

Roman blocked one of the blows from his katana, but Adam managed to twist it out of his hand. Just as he was about to stab Roman, he felt someone slash at his back, causing him to miss. Roman took this opportunity to grab the man's Blush from his belt and shot it at close range on Adam's chest, sending him flying a few feet back.

Sora barely managed to dodge the flying body and turned at the man giving him a slight nod. Roman chuckled and simply returned the nod, seemingly getting into a newfound truce. Adam got up and gripped his katana tightly as he jumped towards Sora.

Sora blocked his blow and twisted his legs to the side tripping Adam, but once again Roman was ready and blasted Adam with his own gun once he fell to the ground. Adam, this time, rolled to the side to evade the blast and slashed upwards to Roman's arm, making the man release this gun.

Adam grabbed the gun in midair and positioned the gun in his armpit so that he could blast it behind him. Sora saw this and jumped to the side evading the blast. Roman took this opportunity and limped away from the man, but Adam dashed at him slashing his back to leave a deep wound, making the man collapse to the ground once more.

Roman rolled over and simply laughed. He saw as Sora began to battle the Faunus, luring him away from the man to bring the battle inside the mall. He saw this as his opportunity to escape, but realized too late that he had lost a lot of blood, making him too tired to even move. 'Ah, damn it. I'm sorry Neo. I don't think I'm going to make it…' he thought to himself as his vision began to get hazy.

He gazed at the sky and saw that it was beginning to get cloudy. "Seems like it's going to rain..." he simply stated. He could hear the battle between the two men inside the building. People began to run out of the mall now that the battle had been brought inside, but no one spared him a glance and ran past him.

After a few minutes had passed by, he turned his head and saw a familiar pink running across the parking lot towards him to his right. His eyes widened as he realized who it was. 'NO! Get out of here! Even with your semblance, it's too late for me…' he internally said to himself as he saw the girl of his thoughts drop her parasol and desperately continued to run towards his fallen body.

He gritted his teeth as he tried to get up and turned his head to look at the direction where the kid entered the mall with Adam. He could not see or hear them anymore, though a few moments later he could see a familiar glow of Adam's semblance emitting on the roof of the mall, though the semi-pinkete did not take any notice of it as her focus were on him with eyes filled with worry.

'Keep him occupied, kid. I'll be sure to pay you back one day…' he thought as he got up to one knee with little remaining strength. In that moment he released heavy coughs, and as he brought up his hand to his mouth, he could see that he had coughed up blood.

"Just great…" he simply said. His lungs were beginning to get blood inside them.

He smiled as Neo got closer and looked up to the roof to make sure the coast was clear, but in that moment his blood went cold as he spotted Adam looking down at him. Then he turned his head to Neo and his smile turned into a grin. Roman's eyes widened in horror, and just as he was about to warn Neo to watch out, he began to cough up even more blood. Roman's heart was filled with dread because he knew that Neo would not react in time. She was too concerned about his current state to take into consideration of her surroundings.

It all happened slow in his mind. In that moment he saw Adam jump off the roof with his blade aimed at Neo. Roman didn't know how he did it, but he felt his body get up and run towards Neo as fast as he could. He could now see her eyes brimming with tears. She smiled as she saw him getting up and opened her arms to receive him, but instead of a hug she felt Roman push her. She fell hard onto the ground and closed her eyes upon landing on her butt. No more than a moment later she felt something wet dripping on her face.

Rain began to fall to the ground, and what were just simple drops became downpour as Neo slowly looked up to see that Roman was placing his hat on her with a pained smile on his face.

"How many times do I have to tell you?" he began with a strained voice.

He caressed her cheek moving her wet hair out of her eyes, his blooded hand being washed away from the rain. "Instead of worrying about me, you have to worry about yourself first…" he said.

Neo slowly looked down and her eyes widened in horror as she saw a blade full of blood coming out of his abdomen with the rain taking all the blood from it and spreading onto the ground making red drops fall on her dress as well. Neo's mouth opened wanting to scream but nothing came out. Adam took the blade out and Roman fell to his knees being caught by a sobbing Neo.

"You!" Adam heard a shout and turned just in time to be met with a series of slashes that he could not keep up with while all the same taking him away from the fallen man.

He blocked as much as he could, but the blows were getting faster and heavier. He could feel his aura beginning to be depleted and took notice that the rain was making his grip lessen on his weapon.

After meeting Sora in a blow, he smiled at the boy. "You're Sora, right?" he asked catching Sora off guard.

Adam used the surprise to his advantage and jumped a few steps back to gain some distance. Sora maintained an alerted stance prepared for anything while he asked, "So what if I am?"

Adam snickered. "There was an order to capture you alive, you know." He began.

Sora looked genuinely surprised from that statement. Who would what him from this world? Unless an Organization XIII member had appeared and told them about him. But as far as he had investigated, he had not seen anything that vouched for their interference in this world.

"I just took this opportunity to show the world what the White Fang is capable of. You may say we are responsible for all of this. But you…are just as guilty." Adam continued pointing his katana to him, water dripping from the tip.

Sora looked up to the man with horror etched in his face. 'He couldn't mean all this is because…' Adam smiled from watching his face twist into many emotions.

"This was meant to be a covert operation. Cause a little distraction long enough to get whatever the others wanted from the school, in and out. No destruction, no casualties, nothing this big." He lied with a smile.

Sora's heart slowly began to beat a mile a minute. "But then they heard of you. I really don't know why they want you, but in a matter of hours the covert operation turned into this. All to get you." he continued.

Sora brought down his blade. "So in a way, what happened to your friend over there…was your fault as well." said Adam, though in an instant knew he had gone a bit too far as Sora jumped at him with an alarming speed and brought his blade down at him.

In a last effort he used his sheath to block the blows and jumped backwards running off into the buildings. "I would watch your back, Sora! Walls have ears, you know!" he called out to the boy as he ran off.

Sora's instincts told him to go after him, but he turned to look at the fallen man who was being hugged by a sobbing girl. He took a deep breath and placed Trinity in its compact mode before placing it on his back. He then walked up to the.

"Hey…" he began as he grabbed the girl's shoulder. The girl in question snapped at him and looked ready to attack but he held his arms up.

"I'm not gonna hurt you…" he continued as he took some steps back.

"He's…alright…he…helped… me" he heard Roman speak weakly.

Upon hearing this, Neo's eyes softened and looked at Sora, pleading him for help. She let Sora take Roman and placed him with his back on the ground to look at the wounds. Sora frowned as he took a good look in the amount of blood that was on the man's once white jacket. It was all red now, and the rain certainly did not make a better image as the spot the man was lying on looked like a crimson puddle now.

Sora took out his first aid and began to do as much as he could on his wounds. Neo helped him as much as she could. Roman weakly turned to look at him.

"What's your name kid?" he asked in a soft voice.

"Sora…" he simply responded to him after doing all that he could.

"Sora…huh?" he said as he took Neo's hand and gave her a smile. He turned back to Sora.

"I know, kid. Don't have to say it…" he sadly said but was still smiling.

"Neo here has been with me through and through. In the good…the bad…and the worse. I was all she had…" he began. Sora couldn't find it in his heart to stop him.

"We made a deal with the devil…to have a better life. I hope that one day when you're older you may understand, kid… life ain't fair for all of us. Some of us have to do what we can…to survive. The world is harsh…" he said as Neo gripped his hand tighter.

"When she was younger…she was abused and beaten…" Sora's eyes widened and turned to look at the girl who was kneeling in front of the man.

"It took her voice…her vocal cords were damaged to the pint of no repair. I got her out…gave her a life…gave her myself and some to call family. It was only until then when I realized I needed someone as well…" He coughed up some blood.

"…Look kid. Neo is going to be treated as a criminal. She has done nothing wrong but follow my orders…get where I'm going?" he asked Sora.

Sora's eyes widened in realization at where this man was going. Roman chuckled. "Seems you aren't as innocent as ya' look, kid…" he commented.

"Can you do it?" he asked Sora. The boy simply smiled.

Roman turned to Neo. "You gotta promise me something…" he began. Neo, seeing where this was going, shook her head, spraying out water as she did.

"I know you won't like it…but it's my last dich to keep you safe. Please…do it for me. Can you grant this dying man his last wish…?" Streams of tears rolled down from Neo's eyes, but she simply nodded.

"Sora…I know I'm springing this up to you. But please take care of Neo…" Sora looked at him in shock.

"I know I'm asking a lot…but if you do…I can give you information…on all of that bitch's plans…or at least of what I knew. Neo…she can give them to you…" Sora looked at the girl and she looked at him with sad eyes as she nodded.

"I… I…" Sora started but then looked at the dying man in front of him.

Sora steeled his resolve. "What's your name?" he asked the man

"Roman Torchwick..." He answered.

Sora took his hand. "I promise, Roman…I will protect Neo with my life. I'll treat her like family and not let any harm come to her." he said to him with firm conviction.

Roman weakly smiled. "I'll hold you to that unless you want me to haunt you in the afterlife…" he chuckled. Sora smiled at his joke.

"Neo… go with him. After all that happens…stay with him…protect him… and he will do the same for you. Can you promise me that?" he asked.

Neo nodded and caressed his cheek. Roman's vision began to get blurrier.

"Take care of her…Sora. I'm…counting…on…"

Before he could finish his last sentence, a final breath escaped from Roman's lips, and his grip loosened before his hand fell to the ground with a wet splash. While Neo could not be able to scream in despair, Sora could feel it on his bones. The cry of despair for a person who lost her loved one. He stood up and walked towards the girl who was hugging the fallen body of the man who only wanted the best for his little family.

'I promise, Roman…I won't let you down…' he silently promised the man. In the days to come, many would criticize his decision. They would say he said it only to give a dying man who was a criminal some peace. But in the days to come… they would realize that this choice…was the best of many to come…

xTxTxTxTxTx

5:12 PM

"We have visual on the ship, Commander!" A soldier reported to Winter as he ran towards the woman was currently standing.

Winter was breathing heavily as she stood in front of a flaming Atlesian Paladin. She turned to face the soldier and returned her weapon to its sheath.

"How many?" she simply asked as she began to walk towards a building to her right.

"More than 50 units and some White Fang members as well as a Paladin, ma'am!" the soldier reported in a scared tone.

They were near the CCT tower hiding in a building nearby. She requested backup upon seeing that the place was heavily guarded, but she seemed to have picked up Qrow's bad luck as an Atlesian Paladin followed the backup she requested. Unfortunately for her, the whole platoon was wiped out and the sole survivors were wounded, unable to continue fighting.

As she entered the building, the smell of blood and sanitizer came to slamming into her nose. Everywhere she looked, she could see her soldiers treating their wounded companies. Some medic personnel were screaming orders around and some citizens that they were saved were being treated. She made it very clear that they were to be treated first.

Winter went into a room that she had taken as her own office. The house appeared to have belonged to a scholar as the room she was in appeared to be the study room where he did most of his research. The table was an executive desk as it sat in the middle with a very nice chair that seemed to have leather on it. The wood was glistening as if was brand new, and around the room were bookshelves that were brimming with knowledge. Winter smiled as she remembered her room back in the old days. She always enjoyed a good read when she rested.

At the current moment plastered on the table were plans of Ironwood's ship that they were examining so see various entry points. After a few moments she pinched the bridge of her nose and closed her eyes as she could feel the stress coming to her in waves. She spoke to the rest of the people in the room.

"Okay there are two objectives we need to accomplish!" she began to get their attention.

"They have hacked all the Atlesian robots in the city as well as some Paladins that Gods know where they got them from by the way." she said sighing.

"First, we must get into the command deck of the ship. Once we're there, we need to manually deactivate the robots. All the robots with a link to the ship will shut down, though I don't guarantee that it will be all of them. We will still manage to take a great number of them down to make things easier for all of the ones currently fighting in the city." She commanded earning a nod from all of them.

She looked around the room and hoped that they were giving out their undivided attention. "I had planned it so that there would be more of us, but we are less than 15 units now. I won't lie to any of you. The odds do not look to be in our favor. There are more than 50 of them along with a Paladin."

As she said this, she could see some of the soldiers hang their heads a bit. "I will only take four of you with me so that we can make them concentrate all the heavy fire on us. In the meantime, the rest of you set your sights on the CCT tower. We must have the communications back online in order to call for backup as well as allow the citizens to know where to head towards for the extraction points."

"If we fall here, Beacon falls with us…" she somberly said getting all of their attention back.

"I do not ask that you to give your life for me. I ask that you to give your life to Vale! For the people of Beacon! To give the citizens a chance! A chance at survival! If one of you goes down, take down the enemy with you tenfold! Let's show them the might of the Atlesian Infantry! Are you with me!?" she asked her men and woman.

"YEAH!"

"YES COMMANDER!"

She smiled as they all regained their moral.

"Perfect! Prepare yourselves! We leave in five minutes!" she commanded them as she left the room to where all of the wounded were being treated.

"Ma'am, please permit us to follow you!" One of them with a bandaged arm pleaded as some of the other wounded were backing him up.

Winter somberly smiled at them. "I admire your commitment," she began as she placed her hand on the man's shoulder.

"But we cannot lose more good men and woman." she answered while shaking her head.

"But ma'am, your aura is beginning to weaken! It will take a while until-"

"I know my limitation, soldier." she sternly spoke, interrupting him.

"That is why you must stay here. We, better than anyone, know the capabilities of our robots. I know I may not make it out. You must protect the wounded. Once they all are capable to walk, lead them out to the transport and take them to the evacuation site. Do you understand?" The way she had said it voiced out that she knew she would not make it back to them.

The troops said nothing as they clenched their fists and simply nodded. They knew better than to make Winter Schnee angry at them.

"Good. Alright, I leave them to you. Gear up! We have a virus to stop!" she said as she ran out of the building along with four of her troops. As they got out, they could see that it was raining. Winter smiled at her fortune; the sound of rain would cover of their tracks at getting closer.

But as soon as she got into the view of the ship the Atlesian Knights began to shoot them along with White Fang members shouting commands to them. Winter used her glyphs to grant her more speed, and with a flick of her sword she took out a grand number of the Knights and immobilized some members of the White Fang.

"At your six!" one of her troops called out, allowing her to dodge a bullet aimed at her. Her troops had positioned themselves behind some rubble and were taking out the knights from a long range with their pistols and guns.

Using some gravity glyphs, she maintained a few of the enemy troops in place and pierced her sword to the ground to summon three Beowolves of ice that immediately began to attack the enemies around her.

"Get that Paladin over here, it's a Huntre-AGH!" A member of the White Fang was trying to relay a message as Winter slashed her sword at him. Turning to he right she used the advantage that the ground was wet and iced the ground making many robots and members fall to the ground.

Winter turned to run towards the ship's entrance evading bullets that they sent at her. She saw that a grenade was thrown at her, but before the projectile could hit the floor, she kicked it to a group of robots and Faunus and rolled to the other side.

The explosion went off and she used the cloud of dust and dirt that had risen as cover to get closer to the ship. She could see the inner workings of the ship now that she was almost there, but just as she was about to jump inside an explosion near her feet sent her flying a few meters away.

"Commander!" One of the troops tried to run towards her, leaving his cover, but was met by a hail of bullets. The Beowolves that she had summoned turned to see that a large robot had its arm steaming - it had just unloaded a series of missiles.

"SHIT! It's the Paladin!" a woman of her troops shouted as she tried to take cover, but the bullets that the Paladin was shooting were destroying the cover.

The three Beowolves ran at the Paladin slashing at any enemy that got near them or in their way. An Atlesian Knight took a good shot on one of them, making it collapse to the ground and shatter into ice particles.

The other two managed to get to the Paladin and bit on of its arms as the other slashed at its feet. The Paladin managed to stomp on one of them and finished it off by firing at it in close range. The last of the Beowolf kept on biting at its other arm and slashed at it. The enemy troops were firing at it, but the Beowolf would not let go. By one last pull of its mouth the Ice Beowolf teared off its metallic arm, falling with it to the ground before shattering into ice.

"Tell the other team to get their arse into the CCT Tower!" one of them commanded the woman as she nodded and contacted them by their short radio. The man saw that some of the enemy troops were closing in on where Winter had apparently flown off to. He cursed as he got up.

"Wait, where are you going?!" she asked him after she sent out her message.

"I'm not going to let them get to the commander! Once I draw their fire, try to get close to the Paladin and place this charge in the unions of the legs! That's where they're most vulnerable." he commanded as he passed a belt of charges to her.

"Wait!"

But it was too late as he rolled off the cover and drew their fire. He ran towards the group that was closing in on where he had last seen Winter.

"Oh no you don't!" he screamed at them getting their attention. They instantly began shooting at him, and he felt the Paladin get his leg. He screamed in agony but still he kept on running towards them.

He took out to grenades and with his teeth pulled the safe. He felt more bullets go through him but he smiled. "If they take out one of us, we take out a tenfold of them!" he screamed as he fell losing consciousness, though not before letting the grenades loose throwing them into the group of enemy troops.

"GRENA-" one of them tried to yell as they went off ending them.

But that wasn't the end of their assault as the other woman in Winter's troops had run off to the Paladin amiss the distraction. The Paladin turned in time to see her and began to shoot at her before she could get close enough.

The woman tried to move faster than the bullets, but found that she could not. She received the storm of them straight on, falling fast onto the ground. The members of the White Fang keep on shooting at her just in case.

"Man, I think that was the last of them." one of them said.

"Go check out where the Huntress fell. I saw the Paladin release a load of missiles towards her, but given that she has an aura she may have lived." One of them ordered.

"We need help at the tower a group of- UGH!" One of their radios went off.

"Shit! They're trying to get the communications back online! Send the Paladin to help them out!" He simply commanded to the rest. The Paladin turned and began to move towards the building when the last survivor of Winter's group came out running from the cover.

"Oh no you don't!" he said as he shot at the members near his ally's body, catching them off guard. He ran and grabbed the charges from her body and headed towards the Paladin.

The Paladin turned a bit too late as the bullets flew just over the soldier as he used the wet floor to his advantage to skid under it. He rapidly placed a series of charges in the Paladin and took out the detonator. He received some bullets on his back and fell to the ground as he let go of the detonator.

He grunted as he jumped to the side and crawled with all his remaining strength towards the detonator. Then the Paladin moved its leg and stomped on the man's feet, crushing them as he let out a scream in agony.

"Nice try." one of the members said as he got in close to finish the job.

As he got close, he heard the man painfully laugh, which caused the member of the White Fang to raise his weapon. "What are you laughing about?!"

"For my brothers, you mut!" the solider said as he raised his hand and revealed the detonator strongly grasped in it. He smiled as he pushed the button that was on it.

The White Fang member just widened his eyes as the Paladin's legs exploded following up with a chain explosion throughout all its mechanical body resulting in an even bigger explosion that took out many of the troops that were near it.

As all of this took place, none of the White Fang members took notice of the chaos that was happening inside the ship they were currently guarding as a certain Huntress had successfully gotten inside.

Winter was limping a bit as she finished off the final robot that was guarding the mainframe of the ship. She turned on the screen and got into the system as she typed her password. After that, she headed to the main window that showed how many Atlesian Knights were connected to the ship.

She smiled as she saw a big number on the screen "I'm sure that these are all of them. General Ironwood always did like to keep things in control."

She began to type in the shutdown command.

"Thank you for your sacrifice, it was not in vain…" she said as she thought of the troops she had taken with her. With a smile, she sent the command to all of the robots out there.

xTxTxTxTxTx

5:30 PM

As the command went off around all of Vale, many people were about to fall to the mercy of the Atlesian Knights. The army General Ironwood had brought to protect and save Vale had been turned against them, turning the tides of the battle in all fronts.

All the possibilities that Ironwood had made were instantly turned and the cards placed against him. But in a smaller instant the tide was once again in their favor as Winter and her team had successfully deactivated the robots and recovered the communications by reactivating the CCT Tower by manual override.

Qrow was sweating bullets as he had taken out many knights and White Fang members, but the Paladin still remained and his newly recovered aura was beginning to weaken once again.

'I condemn the Gods who gave me this damn semblance…' he began to curse his luck for the umpteenth time as he prepared to leave his cover to keep on fighting.

But in that moment, something came to him that he had never expected to hit him: Good fortune. As he rolled out of his cover, he saw in surprise as the Paladin and all the knights around him began to fall to the ground shutting down, leaving only the few members of the White Fang who were trying and failing to get answers out of their communications.

Qrow laughed at their predicament and caused the men to point their guns at him.

"Well…" he began as he saw the few members in front of him take a step back.

"I guess…this isn't your lucky day, is it?" he rhetorically asked as he dashed towards them instantly, taking them out.

"Big shots with numbers backing you up, but without them, you are all outclassed!" he stated as he finished the last ones. He began to hear a ring from his pocket and saw that communications were back online and all the messages that had been sent were coming in like the rain that was drowning him.

He scrolled through his messages and saw that one was from Ruby that said she on her way to the school. The mention of the school reminded him the reason Tyrian was heading there. He quickly looked up Sora's number and dialed it.

"Come on, kid! Pick up, pick up!" After being sent to voice mail for the second time, he could not waste any more time. He sent a message to Ruby in hopes that Sora had met up with them and they were safe as began to run as fast as he could towards the school.

At another side of the city, three students could be seen standing in what looked like a graveyard of robots, but to their dismay their number just didn't seem to go down. They were beginning to look exhausted as well.

All three teens met back-to-back to each other as they were surrounded by White Fang and Atlesian Knights.

"Well… I proved my point. Bad idea…" Weiss told her team leader as she was taking in deep breaths.

Ruby was none the better as she was also very tired. "Hey! As I remember…you also wanted to come…" She heard a chuckle to her side and pouted at Jaune, elbowing him.

"Sorry Ruby. It's just…we're here facing the end, and you just keep smiling. I admire that, you know. I wish I could be a bit like that…" He admitted, making Ruby blush a bit.

"Aw… well…" Ruby tried to get out.

"If it's any comfort to you…I did think you were doing a nice job as team leader Jaune. Just had to man up a bit more…" Weiss said in a soft tone, making Jaune's eyes widen at the comment.

"You…you really mean that Weiss?" he asked her, but before he could get his answer, all of the robots around them suddenly began to fall to the ground without warning, shocking the White Fang members around them.

"What just-" A member of the White Fang was about to ask but was met with a bullet to the chest by an Atlesian Infantry soldier.

"Don't just stand there! Take care of the rest!" one of the soldiers yelled at the teens who snapped out of their stupor and instantly turned their sights to the remaining members of the White Fang and the few Grimm that had decided to come out as well.

In a couple of minutes, they had taken care of all of the remaining enemies and were resting their backs to a wall.

"What just happened?" Weiss asked from her position on the ground. She had forgotten all about her etiquette and not worrying about getting her dress wet. She just wanted to rest her tired feet and bandage her wounds.

"The robots got deactivated." a gruff voice came from her back and made her jump slightly.

The three teens turned to look at Lieutenant Brome who had his arm bandaged and his leg bleeding.

"Don't you need to get that checked out?" Ruby asked the man.

"What?! How? Who-" Jaune began.

"Winter managed to get into General Ironwood's ship and issue the manual shutdown command from there. Apparently she and her team got the communications back online." He interrupted Jaune taking out his scroll mentioning it to the teens.

In an instant all of them took out their scrolls seeing at the bombardment of messages that were still incoming to their devices. Weiss took out her scroll, and as she checked her messages, she saw that there was one very recent from Winter.

'Are you alright?' it simply said.

Weiss smiled at the message and sent her answer to her sister. She looked up to see that Jaune was trying to call someone, but all in vain.

"Pyrrha isn't answering. I got a text from Ren. Nora is with him, but they haven't heard from Pyrrha either." he said rapidly.

"I've called for backup. They'll arrive shortly. Now that communications are back online, I can send a team to where she once was. Do you want to go with them?" Lieutenant Brome asked the boy who firmly nodded.

"I'll go search for Pyrrha. You guys coming?" he turned to ask them, but saw that Ruby had her eyes glued to the screen on her scroll; it was showing a message.

Weiss looked worriedly at Ruby.

"Hey, is everything okay?" she asked her. Ruby looked up to her and showed them the message that was from her uncle. It read:

"Hey Kiddo, I hope you're all okay. Listen to me, I know this is sudden and you may already be at school. I need you to leave there at once. They're after Sora. I don't know why they want him, but they do. I know he must be there at the school with you guys by now, but someone dangerous is heading there. Get him out of there and leave Vale ASAP! I'll be okay. Take care Kiddo. And take care of Sora. If you get a hold of Yang, make sure she's alright. I just hope she's already hightailed it out of there."

Weiss scanned the message with horror. "They're after Sora?" she asked Ruby who grimly nodded.

"We have to warn him!" Jaune told her.

"I tried…" Ruby told them.

"I tried calling him, but I can't get an answer. I sent him several texts, too, but nothing either. I'm afraid that…it may be too late…" she began.

Weiss casted her gaze to the ground. She took a deep breath and looked up to Ruby. "This isn't like you." she simply said.

"Huh?" Ruby asked with a shocked expression.

"Its not like you to just give up." Weiss continued, crossing her arms.

"Sora's an idiot. He doesn't know how to use his scroll, doesn't know how to check the map, and probably doesn't even know how to answer a call." she continued mentioning each point with her fingers.

"Plus, I'm sure the idiot got lost and hasn't even arrived at school." she said as she smiled at Ruby who was listening to her.

"So just go back to your normal self and tell us to get our gear moving up to meet him because I know you. Even if they took him, you'd go after them to get him back because you're Ruby Rose. Our dunce of a leader who has a hard hero complex." Weiss finished as she got up and fastened Myrtenaster to her side. She looked up to see that Jaune and Ruby were looking at her with a surprised expression.

"What?!" she irritably asked them.

Ruby jumped on her wrapping her arms around Weiss in a tight hug.

"Weiss! I never would've guessed you knew me sooo weeellll!" Ruby squealed.

Weiss was trying to get out of her grip. "Oh yeah! Don't worry, Sora! The besties are on their way!" she shouted in determination as she let go of Weiss but kept her arm around her shoulder.

Weiss simply sighed. "Yeah, yeah. Lets just hurry up before he does arrive at the school. And let go of me! You're sweaty and wet."

Despite her demeanor that shouted she was annoyed, she silently hoped that her assumption was right and he had not arrived at the school yet.

Ruby turned to look at Jaune who didn't move from his place and was looking away while rubbing his neck.

"I-I'm…sorry Ruby, I know he's a friend and all, but-"

"Don't sweat it, Jaune. I understand. Go find her and make sure she's alright. Just be sure to let us know when you do find her." Ruby said to him with a smile.

Jaune looked up to her and smiled back. He nodded to her.

"Yeah, I will! In any case, when you do find Sora, tell us as well. For some reason, I feel that Pyrrha would want to know he's okay as well." he said to her.

Ruby wanted to ask him if he knew anything about the relationship between Sora and Pyrrha, but she knew that she had to leave that conversation for later.

"Alright let's move out! Take care Jaune!" she said as she began to run off towards the school and Weiss followed.

"Wait up! I have a sprained ankle!" Weiss shouted at her.

Jaune smiled at them.

"Ready to go kid?" The man asked him with a gruff voice as he saw a car coming up to them with some troops.

"Yeah!" Jaune responded with a nod and got onto the vehicle with the man heading off to the last known location of Pyrrha in the downpour that was currently surrounding Vale.

xTxTxTxTxTx

5:15 PM

It was all dark…

She felt nothing…

She saw nothing…

She heard nothing….

She smelled nothing….

Is this what death felt like? Just falling into a dark abyss with no end in sight? Just pure darkness? She could not feel anything; no sentiment to be found. It was a strange feeling, to be honest. A lonesome darkness that kept on going as far as the eye could see – well, at least she thought her eyes were open – in this darkness. She didn't even know if she was standing or not.

In that moment, she felt somewhat at peace. Nothing was weighing down on her. No pressure of having to fight someone, to go somewhere or to save anyone. Just darkness and some images coming to her mind.

Was this really it?

Was this how it ends? Just as he had shown her?

Was it all just part of a plan?

She suddenly heard a voice. Her own voice calling out to her. At first, she could not make out what she was saying until the voice got clearer and the words came to her ears…

"Do you believe in destiny?"

Destiny?

Fate?

Predetermined lives?

Was it all worth for naught? Is everything we do just a well written out script?

She felt fire run through her veins and her hands clench into fists.

NO!

We forge our own paths! We fight day by day to make things right!

She began to feel her strength returning.

'I won't let it end like this!'

She began to feel something solid on her back and noticed she was on the ground. 'I have to try! I won't give up!"

"Then stand, Pyrrha! Open your eyes and stand up!" A voice commanded her. The very same voice that she had thought had tricked her.

With a newborn fire coursing inside her, she opened her eyes and stood gasping for air and grasping her chest where an excruciating pain was to be expected, yet nothing came. She looked at her surroundings and saw that she was not on the courtyard where she had been battling, but back in the glass pilar where everything had started.

"Was it all a dream?" she asked herself, thinking that she was still in that cave. But then a voice spoke up.

"Oh no, this is all very much real Pyrrha." Pyrrha looked up to see the hooded man looking at her while holding the Clockwork Keyblade in his hand.

"You tricked me!" she stated. She wanted to feel anger towards him, but found that she felt no hate towards the man. All she wanted was an explanation.

The man smiled. "You know, it was really hard keeping the Keyblade from coming to your aid. But in the end, I managed to do it. I'm sorry you had to live through that, but believe me when I say that you had to endure that in order to understand."

Pyrrha somberly chuckled and placed a hand on her chest where the arrow should be currently at. "Then what am I to understand? What am I supposed to understand and do if I am dead!?" she found her voice raising.

"You had to die, Pyrrha. I had to let this world take you so that you would not be tied to its laws and rules. Sever the lines of fate, and they will be yours to weave." The man replied in a somber tone.

"You know, every Keyblade has its own powers. Some have fire qualities, others amplify your magic, strength or speed. There are even some that allow you to control gravity and move elements at your will." He continued. Pyrrha though it best not to interrupt him.

"This blade, however, is one-of-a-kind. It's the only one that exists with its power. Many sought after it, but it was lost after the war." He was almost speaking to himself by now, but then he looked up to her and began to walk towards her.

"I searched for it through many worlds hoping it would help me regain what I had lost. But when I finally found it, I realized too late that I had given more than I should for it and found it could not help me. Out of despair and desperation, I looked for other ways to enhance its powers to fulfill my dreams. I found a man who promised to help me in exchange for helping him reach his dream as well." His voice turned somber and Pyrrha noticed some regret in it.

"In the end, we created a machine that could help us reach that." He laughed sadly and held Clockwork with a pained voice.

"Oh how wrong we were. We brought destruction to the world for altering the balance."

Pyrrha began to put the pieces together.

"The cave…" she softly said.

The man nodded. "In my last attempt to stop the machine from destroying everything, I sacrificed myself. It ultimately ended with me being trapped in a dimension where time did not pass, but surprisingly, I could observe it. That's how I knew about you…and what would become of you."

"Why are you telling me this now? If you haven't noticed, it's too late now. And besides…the more you tell me, the less I understand..." she truthfully told him.

The man walked in front of her and chuckled lightly before shrugging. "This may be the last time we meet in a very long time, Pyrrha. I want to know one more time if you are willing to take the mantle of Keyblade bearer and try to change the fate that this world is destined to follow."

That was the final straw.

"What's the point?! I AM DEAD! I can't go back! Of course I was willing to do it! I was willing to do anything to save them! To save them all! I would have gladly given my life ten times! But now…now…" Her voice broke down and tears finally began to roll down her cheeks.

"Time..." the man replied while wiping Pyrrha's tears with his gloved hand.

"What...?" Pyrrha was about to ask as the man took her hand and placed the blade in it.

"Clockwork. I couldn't have placed a better name for it. The Keyblade that you are holding now has the ability to control time…" he finally told her, and her eyes grew wide.

"You mean-!" The man interrupted her.

"I had to let you die to erase the fears in your heart. You cannot keep on living with the fear of death, and though the blade controls time, the farthest it can take you back is one minute. Or, well, that is how far I could take it…and why I couldn't fulfill my dream." Pyrrha looked down cast.

"I'm sure that more than a minute has gone by past my death…" she said.

"In here, time does not pass on by. It just stays. I brought your conscious here just a minute before Cinder released her arrow, but the choice to go back is yours alone." he said as he saw her eyes light up with hope.

"Will it work? Will the blade come to my aid now?" she asked

The man nodded. "If that is your wish, it will. But you must remember that it all comes with a heavy burden. One that you master will share with you."

On the mention of a master Pyrrha remembered.

"SORA!"

"Yes. He is meant to train you, but before all that can be achieved, you must help him yourself." he added.

"What? What do you mean by that?" In that moment, the ground began to tremble beneath her feet.

"There's no time to explain! Your consciousness is heading back!" he warned her.

Pyrrha had so many questions for the man, but she knew that time was not on her favor anymore.

"How do I do this?" she asked him.

"Will for it! Imagine the moment you wish to return. Imagine the arrow coming out of your chest and back to the bow. Imagine the magic flowing through you."

He saw Pyrrha close her eyes and try.

Pyrrha opened her eyes and grunted. She tried once again, only to be met by failure once more.

"I can't!"

"Do you wish to save them?!" The glass was cracking underneath them. Pyrrha nodded.

"Then fight!" Pyrrha closed her eyes and concentrated on the images.

"Fight for the impossible!" The images became clearer.

"Fight for what's right!" The blade in her hand began to glow green.

"Fight for your future! Fight and stand!" The gears in the Keyblade began to spin.

"So that tomorrow may come! It is time…for you to deny your destiny and write your own!"

Pyrrha was enveloped in a bright light and disappeared from the man's view.

The man just smiled.

"And so… your legend begins with your end. Good luck, Pyrrha."

xTxTxTxTxTx

Pyrrha opened her eyes and saw that she was on her knees in front of Cinder. She no longer felt weak. Instead, she felt a newborn fire within her that screamed for justice.

"Do you believe in destiny?" she asked Cinder once again as the woman pulled the glass arow on her bow aiming it at the Amazon woman.

Cinder simply answered her, "Yes."

Pyrrha smiled, and just as Cinder released the arrow, the young Huntress in training responded with all her might that she could muster and respond back, "Well I don't!"

She summoned the Keyblade and swapped the arrow away while lunging herself towards Cinder. She swung the blade and shattered the bow glass, hitting her straight on the side of her shoulder.

Cinder was cast away from the impact to the concrete and looked up to see with her eyes filled with horror as Pyrrha, auraless, stood up without any wounds on her and faced her gripping a blade that she had never seen in her life. She questioned where it came from, but one thing she was certain of was that this young woman who stood before her now was a totally different person. More different than the one she had just beaten, and she had a bad feeling in her gut that the results of this new battle would end up a lot more differently than the one prior. The fire in that woman's eyes seared into her very soul.

The sky thundered and raindrops began to fall to the ground. Cinder wondered what had caused the sudden change in the woman and where the weapon she was holding had come from.

"Wha-?!" Cinder began but didn't have time to finish as Pyrrha dashed towards her at an alarming speed.

'She got faster!' Cinder thought as she barely had time to create her glass weapon. But alas, to her luck, Pyrrha's blade shattered her weapon instantly and slashed her straight on the chest.

"AGH!" Cinder shouted as the force of the strike slammed her against the wall, but Pyrrha was not done with her. She went up to her, and before Cinder could hit the ground, she dissipated the Keyblade and slammed her fist onto Cinders stomach, following with an uppercut punch to her jaw. Not letting her up, Pyrrha followed up with a strong reverse kick to her ribs, sending Cinder flying a few meters away before crashing with a splash to the ground.

Pyrrha flexed her muscles a bit as Cinder tried to get up while spitting out blood. She got on her knees and helped herself stay in place with her hands.

"YOU!" she began.

"YOU WERE DYING! I HAD YOU ON YOUR KNEES!" Cinder shouted at Pyrrha who simply called upon Clockwork. Cinder's eyes grew wide.

'What is that thing?!'

With speed that Cinder had not seen on Pyrrha, she lunged at her. Panic coursed through her and she immediately got up and began to call upon half of the maiden's powers, sending continuous fireballs at her.

Pyrrha saw them and simply placed Clockwork in front of her in a diagonal position blocking the blasts. Once the smoke was clear, she saw that Cinder had gotten up and created her twin blades once again.

Cinder sprinted at her and stroked her blades as fast as she could. Pyrrha received some cuts and wounds on her, but none were serious as she was on the defensive now. Cinder raised her blade and Pyrrha slashed upwards meeting them midway. The clash of blades was heard throughout the whole block.

Both women were giving it their all, this time both evenly matched…or so it seemed. Pyrrha gritted her teeth and with both hands on Clockwork, one on the back of the blade and the other on its handle, she pushed as hard as she could.

'Not this time! Not again!' she thought as she pushed with more force. Cinder's eyes widened as she felt the force coming back towards her. She heard her crystal weapons crack and panic filled her eyes as they shattered in her hands, though she refused give up. She twisted her legs and ducked the blow that was coming upwards from Pyrrha's blade.

Cinder crouched right in front of Pyrrha's abdomen and smiled as she called upon the maiden's power that was inside her before blasting a full force of fire on short range. She heard Pyrrha scream and saw as she was flown a bit away from the spot they were in.

Cinder heavily breathed but smiled in victory.

"You may have gotten a new toy..." she began as she wiped the remaining blood dripping from her mouth.

"But the end results are still the same." She raised her hand and called out her bow and arrow, firing at Pyrrha's fallen body. Though just as she thought it was going to hit, Pyrrha rolled out of the way.

Cinder gritted her teeth and continued to shoot arrows at her enemy. Pyrrha dodged all the arrows that she could, but winced when one impaled her right shoulder. That did not stop her; instead, it only fueled her more. She began to swat the arrows away with Clockwork and ran towards Cinder.

Cinder smiled as she saw a clear shot, though, unexpectedly, Pyrrha threw her blade at her. Cinder barely had time to react as she jumped into the air allowing the weapon to harmlessly pass by before being nailed to the wall behind her.

'She's too weak to call upon it with her semblance. Otherwise, she would have used it by now. No weapon left at her disposal.' Cinder smiled as she landed and jumped to the side evading the fist that was aimed at her.

She summoned her weapon with her semblance and smiled as she began to bring the weapon up aiming at the exposed side of Pyrrha. The Amazon woman saw this and her eyes widened.

"It's over!" Cinder shouted.

But it was all in vain as Pyrrha met her with a strong diagonal slash breaking her weapon into crystals. Cinder screamed in pain as she was sent a few meters back to her knees with a wet splash and felt her aura leave her. She looked up in fear as Pyrrha was standing a few feet in front of her with the mysterious blade pointed at her. Ironically, their positions had been reversed in a matter of seconds. It was now her at her enemy's mercy.

"What is that thing?" she weakly asked Pyrrha mentioning the weapon. She was sure that it was still in the wall up until seconds ago. In an instant, it was in Pyrrha's hands. Silence overpowered the scene that had been filled with explosions and yells. Only the drumming sound of the rain could be heard as it cleaned both women's wounds and washed the blood that escaped from them.

"Give up. I do not wish to hurt you any more than I need to. Your aura is down and you have no strength left to stand. Come quietly and face justice." Pyrrha demanded to Cinder as she lowered her Keyblade just a bit. Pyrrha used her free hand to move her wet hair out of her vision to keep a close eye on Cinder.

Cinder laughed out loud.

"Give up? Face justice?" she mocked at Pyrrha.

"Look around you, girl…" She motioned left her hand through the waterdrops, mentioning the destroyed city. Cinder began to call upon all the powers of the maiden she had left to her right hand hoping it would go unnoticed.

"There won't be a place for me to face justice. Your city will fall, and so will your school, Ozpin, your friends, and soon…" she said to her and noticed that the girl's mind went elsewhere when she mentioned her friends. She smiled before rapidly raising her right hand.

"You! I told you girl…you should always go for the kill!"

Pyrrha's eyes widened as she saw the biggest ball of fire she had seen in her life coming straight towards her, evaporating all the water that came near it.

She knew she would not have time to dodge it given as she was too close. She instinctively raised her right hand and placed her Keyblade diagonally down to cover her head and chest before shutting her eyes.

'Please…! Just let me live through this…!' she wished to the blade as she felt the heat get closer and closer.

But the extreme heat never came. Instead, she heard a deafening scream. She immediately opened her eyes, half expecting it to be herself being the one screaming, but… she neither felt any pain nor felt burnt. She frantically examined herself and saw that she was unharmed, though she kept hearing the scream and turned to see a big cloud of steam coming from where Cinder was.

As the cloud of steam from the blast dispersed, she could see Cinder kneeling as half of her face had been scorched. She definitely lost an eye, and it seemed that her left arm had become useless. Her skin steamed as the raindrops hit her. Pyrrha winced at the sight of her knowing that it had to be very painful, yet she wondered what exactly happened.

"WHAT DID YOU DO?" Cinder shouted at her, looking at her with a terrified look. Pyrrha was about to answer her that she had done nothing until she turned to look at her blade and wondered if it was possible?

'Did it save me?' she asked herself as she looked at the blade with more fascination than before.

Cinder looked at Pyrrha with a single eye filled with hate and fear.

"I'LL KILL YOU!" she continued as she raised her right hand, but in an instant, she saw Pyrrha cut the distance between them and now stood in front of her with the blade raised with the point aimed at her face.

"I will tell you again one more time. Give up!" she stated, not wanting to give the final strike. She felt her hand begin to tremble as water poured from her face. She could see Cinder's expression filled with fear from the water falling from her face and her one good eye. She thought for a moment that maybe she was crying, but the rain hid it from the world. Pyrrha wondered if she had that same face some minutes ago.

She sighed and turned her blade around, ready to strike Cinder with the dull part of the blade to knock her out. But instead, her blade was blocked by another blade that had a green and orange handle.

Pyrrha jumped back as she looked around to see who it belonged to as it seemed that whoever the owner was had a telepathic semblance. She then heard wet steps of another person come out from one of the buildings.

"I will hold her back." A robotic voice said with no sentiment as Cinder and Pyrrha looked on with surprised at the person, or in this case android, that had just saved Cinder's life.

"You need medical help. I have contacted your allies. They will meet up with you three blocks from here. Leave." the animatronic girl stated to Cinder who glanced back at Pyrrha and noticed she was looking at the new arrival with wide eyes.

She laughed. "I'm guessing you didn't know about Ironwood's little toy, did you?" she mocked as she painfully got to her feet and began to walk away.

"This was a weapon developed by Atlas. This is Penny…" she mentioned with her only good hand to the girl who had an emotionless expression.

"When we meet again…I will kill you." she said as she saw Penny hack into an Atlesian robot that was on the ground. The robot carried Cinder and ran as fast as it could out of there.

"Wait!" Pyrrha was about to go after her or use what little strength of her semblance that she had to bring her back, though only to be met with a blade hitting the ground near her feet.

She looked up to see that Penny had taken out many blades that formed a half circle around her head. "I am afraid…I cannot let you follow."

Pyrrha looked at her and met her red eyes with a saddened expression.

"I was afraid of that." Far off deep in her mind she could hear a voice calling out to her.

"Some battles… are just meant to be fought…"

She took out Clockwork and charged at Penny…

xTxTxTxTxTx

Coco had been through many battles, and some of them she was sure as hell that continuous battles were never a good thing. It was also something she dreaded. It drained one's stamina, and aura takes time to recover. As much as one may try, it was inevitable that the ammo will run out.

While he wore ammo as an accessory as well as a way to always make sure she had spare ammo on her, she never would've expected there to be an invasion of robots and Grimm on such a high scale. Not to mention the White Fang members. As for the cursed rain, it jammed her gun from the water entering inside rusting the bullets. Rusty bullets meant lesser power, and lesser power meant less efficiency in killing.

It was in these times she cursed her decision to not have a melee weapon, but the upside of her situation was that it appeared the robots had finally died out. Just like that, they all collapsed to the ground simultaneously.

"Looks like someone hit the kill switch." she joked to Velvet who was helping out some of citizens behind them.

Both of them nodded and looked out to see Yatsuhashi throw a White Fang member like a rag doll to the other side of the street.

"Yo Yatsu!" Coco called out to him.

Yatsu turned at Velvet and silently asked her what was wrong.

"Got any word from Fox? Last I heard from him, he was on his way back from the arena."

Yatsu shook his head. Fox had decided to stay back and help out the people in the arena evacuate as they went down as per Professor Ozpin's orders to help Vale.

"Well communications are back online. I tried calling him, but he hasn't answered. I just hope he brings my extra ammo. Sorry for leaning on you so much." she told the tall teen with a smile.

Yatsu was about to answer that it was no problem when a roar came up from behind him. Catching him by surprise, a Beringel swatted him away with ease sending him flying towards a building with a loud crash.

"YATSU!" Coco shouted with concern in her tone, but her attention was taken back to the creature that stood before her. She once encountered one of these Grimm, but it took all of them together to take him out.

"Get out of here!" Coco told Velvet as she stood in between the Beringel and her.

"But-!" Velvet began.

"No buts! Take the people in that building and get the hell out of here! I'll hold this thing off!" she said as she took a fighting stance.

Velvet just stared at her.

"GO!" Coco commanded as she charged at the Grimm. Velvet nodded and lead the people out of the building.

The Grimm roared at Coco and ran at her, but at the last moment it jumped over her and began to run towards the people. Coco watched in horror as the Grimm was headed towards her teammate.

"Velvet!"

"BAD GORRILLA!" A scream came out of a building and a hammer slammed onto the Grimm which was sent off hitting a wall.

"Alright, a home run! Did you see that Ren?" Coco turned to see that Nora had arrived just in time to hit the Grimm catching it off guard, saving the people.

"How many times…will you run off…like that?" Ren huffed as he finally caught up with his friend.

"Aww, come on, Ren. You gotta exercise more. After this, we're running laps around the school!" Nora said as she planted her hand on Ren's shoulder. Coco chucked as she saw the teen turn pale at the girl's suggestion.

"Hey love birds! Hate to break it to you…" Coco began making them look at her.

"But you just pissed that thing off." She mentioned with her thumb pointing at the Beringel currently charging towards them.

"Oh yeah…" Nora said as she smiled at Ren who simply groaned, taking out his Stormflower.

He sprinted at the Beringel covering his presence with his semblance. Once he was near it, he began to shoot at it at close range to its face. The creature stopped its charge and threw a punch at Ren who dodged using his grapple to a lamp post.

Upon diverting its attention to Ren, Nora used the opportunity to jump and slam her hammer down at the Grimm's side. The creature roared in pain as part of its bone plates that worked as armor broke off from the sheer force of the hit. The Grimm tried to grab hold of Nora, but in that moment, Coco had come up close to it sliding under it.

"I hope you didn't forget about me, Sweety!" she said as she planted a bomb on its chest and rolled out of the way before the Grimm could slam her with its mighty fists. With Nora's help, she got as far away as possible. Once she was at a nice distance, she pressed the button on the detonator and the bomb exploded receiving another pained roar from the Grimm.

"Alright, you go girl!" Nora told Coco as she high fived her.

Coco smiled now that the Grimm was dead meat with an explosion like that and turned to look where Velvet was at. She managed to load all the civilians on a truck and get them out of there before heading back to them. Though just when they thought they were in the clear, they heard Ren shout out, "Nora, look out!"

Nora turned just in time to push Coco out of the way from the Beringel's strike take the blow for herself, which slammed her to the ground creating a small crater where she now lay. Nora groaned in pain as her aura gave out from a hit like that.

The Beringel was about to finish her off when Ren charged at the Grimm.

"Get away from her!" he angerly shouted.

The Grimm stroke a punch behind him, but Ren dodged the blow and skidded with the water that was on the ground to the creature's exposed chest. The bone plates had come off due to the bomb and aimed his gun point there, but before he could fire, the Beringel managed read his movements and grab one of Ren's legs with his other arm.

He slammed Ren onto the ground and then threw him to a wall that was on the side with a force strong enough to make a hole through it with Ren's body. Coco looked in horror at her current predicament.

'Shit!' she thought as she saw the Grimm turn to Nora's unconscious body.

Before the Beringel could move, Velvet sprinted in front of her taking out a mirrored image of Crescent Rose. With a jump to the skies, she placed the scythe behind her and brought it down with a circular movement across the Beringel's chest followed up with another slash, severing the Grimm's arm to leave it with only one. The creature roared in agony as he tried to catch the girl that had appeared in front of him, but Velvet slid out of its grasp with a swift movement. She took a stance that Coco recognized as Yang's and saw that in her wrists a mirrored image of Ember Celia.

With powerful strikes powered by dust bullets she punched the Grimm on its side then dodged another strike from it and jumped, sending a nice punch to the Beringel's head to knock it back to the ground. With a final movement Velvet created another image of another weapon, this time of Myrtenaster, and with swift moves that rivaled Weiss' own, she pierced the Beringel in the face as it tried to get up.

Velvet jumped back to where Coco was and they both watched as the Grimm began to disperse in black smoke.

"You okay about using all those?" she asked Velvet who simply nodded with a smile.

"I can always take another picture of them." she responded to Coco.

"Let's make sure these guys are okay." Coco said as she went in the building to get Ren but saw that Yatsu was carrying the man back.

"Yatsu! You're okay!" Velvet said with a smile as she came up to him. She saw that Ren was slightly bleeding from his head.

"He needs medical attention. He may have a concussion." Yatsuhashi replied with a little concerned etched in his voice. Velvet nodded as she told him to place Ren on the ground so that she could treat him. He placed him beside Nora who was moved by Coco shortly after.

Coco took out her scroll to check their aura levels and frowned.

"Yatsu, you need to rest. You're out of aura." She told the man as he shook his head.

"We've been going battle after battle and-" Coco began to scold him.

"You have no ammo on your weapon, and Velvet and I are the only ones who can keep you safe. I know you can fight hand to hand, but you have been fighting as well. Your aura is less than half of Velvet's…" he mentioned to her.

Coco stayed silent. 'I need to get myself a melee weapon'

"We need to get them check out in a better place. Nora has a broken hand and Ren may have a concussion. We must-" Velvet began but was interrupted as another roar came out from where the Beringel had come out.

Coco and Yatsu watched in horror as two more Beringels had come out into the area and stared them down. "Well…" Yatsu began.

"Shit…" Coco finished for him.

xTxTxTxTxTx

Pyrrha jumped out of the way from the blades that were sent towards her by Penny. She was exhausted, but she knew she needed to buy time until she could use her semblance to immobilize the android.

"Why are you helping them?!" Pyrrha asked the animatronic girl.

Penny looked at the Amazon woman with a confused look. "It is my job to protect my allies…" she responded in a monotone voice.

"So, you were always against us? I thought we were your allies, your friends!" she shouted at the girl as she came up to her and tried to land a hit on Penny, but the girl jumped back at the same time as she used her blades to try and strike Pyrrha from behind. The young woman barely jumped out of her aim.

"My… friends…" Penny began. Pyrrha could see the confusion in her eyes. Then it occurred to her…

'The Knights were hacked…the Paladins were hacked…she's an android as well, so maybe…' Pyrrha's sight jumped to Penny 'She's been hacked as well, but a part of her seems to be fighting it.'

"Yes, your friends! Ruby told us all about you and wanted us to meet you." she said as she felt her aura coming back to her.

"Ru..by?... She… is my… friend?" Penny said as she retreated her blades and brought her hand to her head. It was beginning to hurt.

"Yes!" Pyrrha tried as she saw Penny groan in pain as she held her head.

"You're not yourself, Penny. Let me help you." Pyrrha offered as she tried to get close to her.

Penny saw this and sent her blades at her.

"STAY AWAY!" Penny shouted.

"Penny, we have encountered a problem! I need you to retreat and head back to me. I will fix up any problem you have, just do not listen to her! Remember! She is the enemy! Come back! That is an order!" A communication came into her head and her headache calmed down.

"Affirmative." she simply replied and began to run off distracting Pyrrha with her weapons as she cut the cord that tied them to her.

Pyrrha swatted them away with Clockwork and saw her running off.

"Wait!" she shouted at her and brought her hand up ready to use her semblance, though only to be greeted by a surge of electricity that ran through her body and made her scream out in agony. She fell to her knees and stopped trying to use her semblance. Once she stopped, so did the electric surge.

She took heavy breaths of air and held her chest while looking at where Penny once stood before sighing.

"What was that?" she wondered.

She tried to use her semblance once again, but faced the same results. She dissipated Clockwork and tried again only for it to actually work this time. She frowned in wonder and called upon Clockwork to try and use her Polarity again, only to feel the electric current once again flow through her and bring her to her knees once more.

Pyrrha huffed. "Guess using my semblance and this power is a big no-go huh?" she asked no one in particular.

She got up and heard an alarm go off in her scroll. She took it out to see in horror as Ren and Nora's aura levels had gone down to zero. She sighed in relief when she saw that Jaune's was nearly full.

"He does have a lot of it after all" she smiled.

Pyrrha brought out her GPS and saw that Nora and Ren were not far off and sprinted to their location.

"I hope I'm on time"

xTxTxTxTxTx

6:08 PM

Velvet was gasping big intakes of air as she stood in front of Coco, Nora and Ren. Coco had suffered a hard blow by one of the Beringels and was kneeling holding onto her bleeding arm while behind Velvet and Yatsu who was also wounded.

They managed to take another one of those Grimm down, but the other was still standing and nearly untouched.

"Well, I had planned to go out on a much bigger glory, but this maybe it…" Coco said as she painfully got up.

"Yatsu, get Nora and Ren out of here. Take Velvet, too. Only one of us has to die here." Coco said as her teammates looked at her in horror.

"Coco, we-!" Velvet began.

"Velvet don't argue and listen to me! This is the only way! Please get them out of here!" she said as they heard the beast roar and begin to sprint at them.

"NOW VELVET!" Coco yelled at her while Yatsu pulled on Velvet's arm. Velvet, with tears falling from her eyes, turned to Yatsu and helped him place Nora and Ren on his shoulders.

But just as they were about to run, a red blur appeared in front of them. Coco looked surprised as she saw the Amazon woman they all talked about stand in front of her and the Beringel. "Thanks for watching out for my team!" Pyrrha smiled at them.

"Time to return the favor!" Pyrrha said as she pushed Coco out of the way and backflipped above the Beringel just as it launched a blow to where they once stood. In a single movement, Pyrrha called upon Clockwork and slashed at the back of the creature making it roar in pain. It tried to turn and hit Pyrrha, but in a swift motion, she dashed to its side slicing the creature in half.

Coco and the rest looked at her in amazement as she singlehandedly took out a Beringel with two strikes.

"You alright?" she asked Coco.

She heard a camera go off and saw that Velvet had taken a picture of Pyrrha. The woman sweat dropped. "I'm not actually looking quite well for a picture."

Coco laughed at the situation. "That's just how Velvet is. Thanks, by the way. I'm Coco. That fellow back there is Yatsuhashi and the cute girl over here is Velvet." She mentioned to her team.

"I'm Pyrrha." she said taking her hand before continuing, "Thanks for taking care of my team."

"No biggie, we gotta help each other out. We're just about to head over to the evacuation point to get them medical attention. Wanna come with?" she asked Pyrrha.

Pyrrha shook her head. "As much as I would love to, I know they are in good hands. Please take them. I must go somewhere, but I beg of you, again…please take care of them." she pleaded to her.

Coco smiled. "Hey, no need to beg. I give you my word that they'll be okay. But if I may ask, where are you headed?" she asked the woman.

Pyrrha frowned remembering the message Ruby had sent her. "I have to make sure a friend is okay." She simply said as the rain began to dissipate…

xTxTxTxTxTx

Sora was heading towards the school. He helped Neo move Roman's body to the evacuation point while also making sure the woman wouldn't run off and disappear. The girl wrote out that she kept her promises and would still be there when he came back.

Once he left her and turned to an ally to get away from any prying eyes and ears, he allowed the nausea to finally get to him. He held out as long as he could after seeing Yang lose her arm and witnessing so much blood. He needed to for Blake and Neo's sake. But now that he was alone, he vomited until he was certain that he was done and he heaved out for some air.

He thought back to what Adam said to him.

"It's my fault…" he muttered to himself as he felt some sort of self-loathing. All of this was his fault. He slammed his fist to the wall and wiped his mouth with the back of his other hand.

"I have to talk to Qrow…" he simply said as he searched for his scroll.

He checked every pocket he had only to remember he had left it in his locker back in the arena when he entered to face Qrow.

"Well…guess I gotta head out to the school." he stated as he remembered it was where they were planning to meet up. He began to walk, but didn't fail to notice he was trembling.

"GET A HOLD OF YOURSELF!" he screamed at himself, taking some deep breaths to recompose himself before rushing towards the school.

A few minutes later…

The rain had stopped as Sora finally arrived to the school yard searching desperately for Ruby and Weiss. He helped out some students, which some had mentioned they saw Ruby and Weiss head out towards the yard. They told him that after they had gone through, they heard gunshots and metal clashing with metal, but they were too afraid to look back and see what was happening. Sora ran as fast as he could, hoping that they were all okay.

By the other side of the school, a red-headed woman was running with her Keyblade in hand. She could feel the blade itself trembling as if sensing something was wrong.

"Somehow, I'm getting a very bad feeling about this…" she said to herself as she ran through the school.

As Sora ran through the school, his line of sight detected traces of a battle…and a heavy one at that. His heart ran rampant as he noticed rose petals in the ground covered with blood.

"Oh God…please no…!" He ran even faster as he followed the trail of petals, leading him towards the courtyard that was just outside the dorms.

Pyrrha continued her haste towards where it appeared the dorms were. She could see that traces of a battle happened here, though she could certainly make out that whoever battled here were not fighting a Grimm. The unease and nervousness slithered down her spine.

Sora reached to the gate that led to the yard, his eyes widening when he saw the rubble from the dorm scattered everywhere. He skidded to a stop and cautiously made his approach to adjust his vision from the flames that surrounded him. Once his vision became clearer, he wished it never did…

His heart rapidly beat and his breath staggered; he couldn't believe his eyes. In the middle of the yard were the people he was searching for…but in a such a state he never hoped to see them in…

Weiss's leg was stuck in the rubble. It did not seem to be crushed, but rather just tightly tucked. Bruises her painted on her face and parts of her attire were shredded. Blood flowed freely from some of the wounds and she was knocked out cold, though her face held a pained expression.

His sight slowly traced the battlefield and found Qrow slouched on the side of a building with his back pressed to the wall and his hand limply grasped to the hilt of Harbinger. Blood dripped down from his other arm and left side of his face. Sora feared the older man was not breathing correctly from the irregular pattern of his chest rising and falling.

Despair filled Sora's heart as he stopped to see the scene occurring in the middle of the yard…

Ruby lay helplessly on the ground with a foot on her back firmly holding her steady and in place. She was heavily wounded; her hand seemed broken and her eyes were glued to a scene filled with panic and horror. She desperately attempted to crawl out of her current predicament but couldn't. Just when he thought she was going to break free, the owner of the foot kicked her face with a strong force, causing her to bleed from the mouth. Sora's heart stung from the sight and his grip on Trinity hardened…

"I said…stay put and watch!" the man holding her down shouted. Sora followed the man's foot up to his face and immediately recognized him.

'Mercury?!' he questioned in confusion.

"Please…no…!" Ruby whimpered. Tears threatening to fall from her eyes…

Sora could not understand why she was begging when her view was focusing on something around a corner that blocked his line of sight. He crept by the wall that granted him some cover and turned his head to see what Ruby was seeing. He wished he hadn't…

He heard a bang on the ground and felt Trinity's weight leave from his hand. His eyes widened.

'Wha…?!"

He was looking at a beaten Winter…a harshly treated and beaten Winter. She was held up by the tail of a man with an evil grin on his face as he appeared to be enjoying watching her suffer. Her face was beaten with one of her eyes ruptured, her attire torn and stained with her blood. One of her arms seemed broken and she was barely breathing. Sora stood there in horror holding his breath.

'No, no, no…! This cannot be happening…! Winter a-and Qrow…they couldn't have lost…! H-how could…?!' Sora thought with a dreadful tone as he looked at his fallen comrades once again.

"Okay, now that you have lost sight on one eye…" the man cackled.

"Where. Is. The. Boy?" he asked Winter, gripping her neck tighter with each passing word.

Winter cracked up a half smile before responding to him, "With your mother."

Tyrian's laugh failed him and kicked Winter in her already broken ribs, earning him a strong scream of pain.

"I thought you were the smart one…" he said with unamusement in his tone from the answer she gave him.

"You ran out all the way from the CCT Tower all just to make sure that we would not get our hands on this kid. Now, where is he?" Mercury asked her as well

Winter weakly chuckled. "Even if I did know…I'd rather die than tell you!"

Tyrian's frown reverted back to his cynical grin as he replied with a low chuckle, "Consider your wish…granted!"

"NO!" somebody yelled out, but before Winter could see whom that voice belonged to, a strong sting pierced her neck. She reverted her eyes to see that Tyrian stung her with his tail. In an instant, her head grew lighter and her eyes became heavy.

Tyrian turned his head to see who yelled and his smile grew wider. Using all his might with his tail, he threw Winter to a wall and Sora could only watch in horror as she met the wall with a frightening force and fell limply to the ground.

'Winter…?' he meekly asked to no one.

He could not see her breathing. All he could see was blood spilling from her, staining the ground she was lying on. His heartbeat became rapid; he wanted to help her, but his legs couldn't move.

"Sora! Get out of there!" he heard someone shout.

Footsteps could be heard coming closer towards him.

'No…!'

He could hear someone calling out to him desperately.

'She can't die…!'

He could hear someone being hit.

'I have…!'

His breath hardened.

'To save…!'

Someone jumped on top of him.

'Them…!'

*BOOM*

Pyrrha arrived to witness the scene with horror and sprinted to get Sora out of there until a huge gust of cold and black air abruptly interrupted her and filled the area. She turned to see that the young man who had his foot on top of Ruby flew off on one direction and so did the older faunus man who was approaching Sora in the opposite direction.

She watched the center of the purple storm to see Sora staring at Winter's body with wide eyes and trembled as despair crept to her heart. A black purple shadow began to cover Sora, including his feet and hands. His clothes and hair dyed black as the air grew cold and the fire around him glowed purple. Sharp claws grew from the tips of his fingers, and his eyes became yellow. Pyrrha stepped back and dropped her Keyblade to the ground as she covered her mouth with both her hands. Her eyes grew wide in horror as she watched Sora turn into a creature she wished she only imagined that day in the cave…

"Heartless…" she frighteningly whispered. In the explosion of a dark purple vortex, Sora emerged from the storm with black mist radiating from his entire being. His eyes were nothing but hollow yellow, his skin and clothes jet black, and his face expressionless from the blank stare at Winter.

"You damn brat!" she heard someone frustratingly cry out and saw that Mercury flew towards Sora to throw him a flying kick. The boy merely crouched and dodged the blow, and rapidly turned to grip Mercury's leg before tossing him to a building with a strong force that put out some of the fires along the way.

Sora kneeled on all fours and ran like a beast with such speed that Pyrrha thought impossible for a mere human to acquire. He reached to Mercury in a flash and grabbed his face, slamming to the ground and throwing a series of slashes to his body. Without letting up, he picked him up by the face again and tossed him to the air. As he lept to the sky to meet him, he firmly grabbed the leg that kicked Ruby and jabbed the man's abdomen with a force so strong it created a small crater after crash landing back to the ground. As they landed, Sora grinded him to the ground and caused something to come up.

When the dust cleared, Pyrrha's eyes widened in horror as Sora held the man by the neck in one hand and a robotic leg in the other. She could see the young man trembling as blood flowed from his fresh wounds. Before both of them knew it, Sora threw the man with all his might many meters away from the scene, and Pyrrha flinched as he slammed to a building that caved in after contact.

She then heard a scream and turned her head to see that the man who tortured Winter went behind Sora, but as he brought down his weapons to slash the boy, he was only met with thin air. Pyrrha watched as Sora dodged the man by jumping backwards and landing on all fours, staring blankly at Tyrian with his hollow yellow eyes.

Out of frustration, Tyrian ran at the boy, and Sora did the same. As they got closer, Sora abruptly disappeared in front of him and reappeared behind him, slashing his back. He repeated the process of disappearing and appearing in multiple angles of the man, slashing at all of his sides. As the man's aura gave in, Sora threw one final piercing slash onto his entire chest, leaving the man a deep wound.

Tyrian screamed in pain and frustration. As he raised his tail to sting the boy, Sora caught it with one hand and grabbed it with the other to lift Tyrian in the air and slam him back to the ground as if he were a rag doll. Tyrian's back hit the flat surface of the ground with such a hard force that it shook the earth beneath him.

"W-w-what are you?" Tyrian asked meekly, all traces of the previous man gone and replaced with a man frightened for his life.

Then Sora did the most horrific and brutal thing Pyrrha ever had to witness. He grabbed hold of the tip of the man's tail with one hand and part of the body of the tail with the other hand. With a sickening, crunching sound, he ripped the tail in two. A frightening scream of excruciating pain escaped from Tyrian's mouth. Pyrrha gagged from the sight of the liquid spewing out of the tail, and before long, Sora lifted the man up by the neck and threw him the same way he did to Mercury but in the opposite direction.

Pyrrha trembled and the rapid beating of her heart could not be still. What she witnessed wasn't the strength of a Heartless, it was something much, much more frightening. She could only watch as Sora slowly began to approach Winter until she heard a gun charging near him.

Pyrrha turned to see General Ironwood aiming his gun to Sora's head at close range. "Don't move, you monster!" the man said with a scowl tracing his face.

Sora just blankly stared at the gun as the general continued, "I knew you were trouble since I first heard of you! But now I know that you must be terminated!"

As Ironwood pulled the trigger, Pyrrha panicked and ran as fast as she could to save Sora despite knowing in her heart that it would be too late.

A gunshot echoed across the courtyard, but her eyes as well as Ironwood's grew wide as they saw Winter jump in front of Sora to take the bullet for him.

Winter slowly looked down at her chest to see blood flowing rapidly from the gunshot wound. Her world became dizzy and numb, and she was beginning to slip back into darkness. Before she collapsed to the hard ground, Sora caught her on time and held her close to him.

Winter looked deep at his hollow eyes and caressed his cheek with her free hand.

"It's okay now, Sora…" she weakly said to him as she struggled to maintain her smile.

"It's going…to be…okay…" she softly continued until her breath became shallow and her eyes closed shut. The arm she used to caress Sora's cheek fell to her side and went limp.

A teardrop fell on her face and Pyrrha looked up to see Sora's eyes regaining their deep blue color. The darkness surrounding him began to dissipate into the air, returning his natural tanned skin, brown hair, and normal attire.

"Winter...?" he meekly asked as he lightly shook the woman in his arms.

"Winter…?! Please wake up!" he begged louder with a cracking tone in his voice as he shook her again while more tears ran down his cheeks.

"No…! What have I done?!" he asked in panic as he looked as his hands to notice they were covered in blood.

He gently laid Winter to the earth beneath his feet and crouched above her as he reached out to her hand and grasped onto it like his life depended on it. A moment of silence passed until he could no longer hold in the dread and despair that filled his heart. He took Pyrrha and General Ironwood by surprise when he released a deafening scream of anguish that may have been heard by those who were close by. Though before he could let out another cry of anguish, his vision began to blur and felt his strength leave him. He collapsed to his side and fell unconscious. Snapping out of his stupor, Ironwood saw his opportunity and readied his gun until it was swatted away by another person who stood in his way with her own weapon pointed at the General.

Pyrrha glared at the man with a threatening expression. "Don't move! I called for medical attention. They will arrive shortly, but you will not lay a finger on Sora!"

Ironwood said nothing as he and the Amazon woman stared each other down…amiss to them that the battle of Beacon reached its end…

xTxTxTxTxTx

"As such…Beacon survived.

Destines…denied…

New stories began to be woven…

An ending…rewritten…

A wake up to reality…yet a secret unspoken…

But…we were foolish…foolishly young…foolishly ignorant…

We had thought the worst was over…

As I would soon find out his reason…his goal…his crime…

I laugh at my stupidity…for the worst…had yet to come…"

Ozpin's Death: Evaded

Penny's Condition: Hacked

Pyrrha's Death: Denied

Fall of Beacon: Evaded

---

Well everyone how was it? I truly hope you liked it, in any case once again I apologize for the super late chapter but... in a way I guess some of you are already accustomed to that xd (Sorry about that btw)

But anyhow, again thanks to all of you guys who are still with me throughout this ride... I got a few things to tell you if you can give me your time...

First I have opened up a poll on my profile feel free to cast out your vote, take notice that I want to hear you opinion on the matter. Let me know what you think of the question mainly it is about if you think Sora needs a semblance or not? Take notice that this will not affect the plot of the story I just wanna hear your thoughts.

Secondly a reader (you know who you are) contacted me and suggested me to open up a Ko-Fi account, he wanted to invite me a cup of coffee. I thank you from the bottom of my heart for such an action. I was reluctant to mention this but I'll only do it this once on this chapter, if any of you wish to do the same as him and invite me a cup of coffee for the nights of writing I'll leave my account here (You can find me as Darman700), and if you do You yes you. THANK YOU! :D

ko-fi,com/darman700

Well I hope you don't hate me for that...

But anyways I'll see you next week this time its a present for Christmas chapter 14 will be done by then and it will be my present to all of you... :3

So I wish you the best of nights/days wherever you may be...

And as always... see you on the next chapter!

Kudoos...

Darman700... OUT