Neo tried to follow the screams. But the screams were coming from everywhere. Everywhere men and women were getting trampled by each other. People in Grimm masks appeared terrorizing the panicked mob. Behind them droves of Nevermore picked people from the sky and destroyed escaping Bullheads.

Neo scanned the people scattering like ants. Somewhere in here, Cinder was on the move. Neo knew where she was going. Before Cinder had kicked her and Roman off her ship, they had known up to this part of the plan. Cinder hadn't trusted them with anything more, but they knew at least that the Vytal Festival was only a distraction for something that Cinder deeply desired.

Neo's eyes roved over to Beacon tower rising out of the forest below Amity Colosseum. Something kept secure in Beacon tower. Already the black swarms of Grimm were converging on the school. It was where Neo had to be. She had to end this once and for all.

Suddenly a guttural scream rent the air, causing Neo to trip over another body. This one was a White Fang lion faunus.

"Blake!" The voice roared. "Never again! You can't leave!"

Neo's head whipped to the side. A very familiar cat faunus was getting held over the edge by a red-red-haired bull faunus in a white Nevermore half-mask. Her aura was flickering like a dying light bulb and Neo could see even from here the pain and panic on her friend's face.

Blake! Neo tried to teleport to her side and staggered as a spike of white hot pain stabbed into her temple. What? Neo stared at her hands in consternation. What was that? It felt like she had slammed into a brick wall when normally she could use her teleportation like slipping into a light stream. Neo shook her head loose.

Before her, a throng of bodies and Grimm stood between her and Blake. A scorpion Lepidurna looked into her eyes with its red ones and snarled. Neo snarled back and shot forward. A slash, a stab. Each swing of her sword cut down multiple Grimm leaving behind black smoke and White Fang splashing red fluid. She was halfway across the platform to Blake when she crossed her sword with the Lepidurna's eight syringe-like stingers. Neo redirected her momentum and flipped over the arms. Her parasol snapped out and caught the Grimm in the eye. When the Grimm roared in pain, Hush shoved into its orifice, snapped open, forcing the Grimm's mouth open. She paused a moment for her to see the Grimm register what was happening before she shot multiple rounds of buckshot into the back of its throat. Three cracks of thunder later, and the Grimm dissolved. Neo dropped to the floor in a roll.

Her eyes immediately shot to Blake. She was still thirty meters from the precipice where Adam was still choking her friend. Blake's struggles were growing weak. Her hands clawed at her neck. Adam's mask had slipped off in the struggle. Neo noted a strange brand on his eye but ignored it for the more pressing matter. Adam's face was set in a strange, feral grin. Neo watched in slow motion as Adam loosened his hands, leaving Blake to dangle dangerously over the edge. No!

"Get away from her!" Neo blinked confusedly. No, she hadn't gained a voice. It was someone else.

Sable stood behind Adam, a katana to the back of his neck. Her blue eyes glowed with a malice that shocked her.

With a breath of relief Neo went back to carving a bloody path to her friends. Hack. Slash. A spewing of a fluid that got into her mouth. Ugh. Wait, that one tasted kind of like strawberry ice cream. What kind of Grimm had innards like strawberry ice cream?

As she made progress, she kept an eye and an ear on the standoff that was happening at the edge of the floating colosseum.

"Well, well." Adam's low and rumbling voice said. "Have you replaced me already, Blake? Is this your new lover?"

Blake, gasping and on all fours, was confused. "What? No."

"What? No." Sable echoed, a little stumbled by the strange conversation.

"Oh. Okay." Now it was Adam that was confused. "Then who are you?"

"I am her friend, and I won't let you throw her off the ship." Sable raised her katana to eye level, point directed straight at Adam.

Adam scoffed. "Well, let's see if you are as strong with your sword as you are with your conviction. That is a good weapon. Are you worthy?" Adam laid a hand on his sword, the sheath glowing brightly red, as he settled into a combat stance.

Sable's eyes narrowed. "Come at me, asshole."

A flash of silver blonde and red blinked toward each with a blink and a crash. Neo couldn't keep her eyes on the fight, as she stabbed another Grimm. She was making slow progress, slower now, for the Grimm seemed to grow more dense the nearer it was to the fight. Neo still couldn't use her Semblance. She cringed in pain even thinking of it.

But she was able to catch glimpses of the fight between Sable and Adam. Sable was holding her own, if barely.

Sable parried a flash of red and returned with a slash of silver. Adam slid just out of range only for his eyes to widen as the blade suddenly lunged toward his heart. Adam brought up Blush out of reflex, the metal sparking as it just barely diverted the cold steel. It opened a wound in his side instead of hole in his chest.

"Interesting trick. It won't work again."

Sable grinned. Her smile was bloody where she had been knocked in the face by Wilt's shotgun blast. "There's more where that came from." She raised her weapon.

Neo could see that she was tired. The level of combat in which she was engaging was greater than she'd trained in. Sable had trained, and she had the potential of a huntress, but she wasn't a huntress. She had a life of a citizen, she didn't train day and night every day like a huntress, and that showed. Her breath was ragged, her shoulders dropped just a little. She was talking to buy time. She couldn't keep this up. Something was going to happen if she wasn't in time. Neo grit her teeth. Twenty Grimm growled at her. She still wasn't close enough.

In the distance, she could see the inevitable. It was like a stop motion picture book, each picture getting closer and closer to static conclusion.
Adam's vicious face. Red sword slashing. Sable blocking. Adam stabbing. Sable dodging. Sable ducking. Sable slashing upward to get some space.
Adam was too close, not giving her time to breath. Neo knew that extreme close quarters were Sable's weakness. It was where her limited physicality came into glaring light, and she couldn't use her Semblance effectively.

So it was that the moment was coming. Neo could feel it. The moment where Sable would slip up. And Adam would capitalize.

There. Sable ducking back to avoid a slash to the neck. Her ankle rolled slightly under the body of a victim in the initial attack. She recovered immediately, but it was enough. Adam's eyes glinted, and he lunged, Wilt glowing and stabbing forward. It was over.

Except it wasn't. Right before that red sword would have punctured Sable's breast, blade stabbing through fabric and into flesh, three swords had interjected themselves. All three bore proudly the crest of the Arc family.

"If you want to get to my daughter." A gravelly voice said. "You will have to go through me."