Chapter Forty Three

Heroes and Turncoats

Seconds after she landed on the battleship, Ruby was accosted with multiple griffons intent to make a meal out of her.

Ruby dispatched them quickly, albeit with fatigue setting into her bones. She twisted and twirled her scythe as her torso bent and her legs pushed her forward. The head removed from one, the wings sliced off another. She panted as the final one fell in a mess of flailing limbs and wings, and steadied her stance. From above, she heard the pained screeches of nevermores, and her silver eyes flicked up to find… a storm. A storm that churned lightning and reigned down fire on the Grimm. Her eyes veered to the right. A Bullhead hovered amidst the chaos, and through the sea of avian Grimm, she spotted Amethyst and Neo staring back at her. Amethyst's eyes were alight with Maiden fire. Her scroll pinged.

Amethyst: {Neo here. Lots of Grimm. Be down ASAP}

Ruby felt relief for the first time since the bombs ignited. She had backup, and all Amethyst had to do was cut down enough Grimm for Neo to join her. That relief was washed away as a piercing shriek rang across the sky and caused Ruby to flinch and turn.

She nearly choked on her own tongue. A Grimm that rivaled the size of the battleship she stood upon beat it's large spanning wings and dropped pitch-black liquid from its jaw in gelatinous globs. Bone-white ribs ran along the underbelly and as it screeched, its head nearly split in half from how long its mouth ran back. Stretches of red sinew strained and shook between its maw as it cried. Bone-spikes ran along its spine and along its tail until the tail split into three prongs with equally sharp boned ends.

Ruby had only heard of such a Grimm in stories. Horror stories where the heroes couldn't fell the beast, and instead forced it back into a slumber. Yang had told them to her in her mischievous days, and she had her sister sleep next to her for weeks after. It was real. Was the fairytale real as well? How many fairytales weren't actually fiction?

"A Wyvern," She breathed, and it edged its head, just a tad, in her direction like it heard her. It curled within itself and flexed out with a final, guttural screech before speeding forward with powerful wing-beats. Her silver eyes went even wider. It was headed towards Beacon.

This self-assigned mission became even more time sensitive. She found her way to Roman's number and typed a quick message.

Ruby: {Are you on the ship still}

No answer.

Ruby: {If you're in your cell tell me and I'll come in}

No answer again. But this time, she saw the little check mark and the read notification at the specified time below the text.

Ruby: {Roman?}

She growled as he, yet again, didn't answer. Was he in his cell? Was he out? If he was out, how did he get out? Did one of Cinder's lackeys release him? Did they hurt him, or did they think he was still on their side? She drove herself crazy with the revolving questions, and with resolve, decided to find her way in. Her eyes scanned the area, and in the distance, she spotted a hatch. That would have to do… if she could figure out how to open it.

Then the hatch opened on its own. Wait, no it didn't. Oh Oum, she saw wings. Lynae.

Ruby: {Lynae is here if you're alive come up!}

Ruby tucked her scroll away and two handed Crescent Rose after she wiped the start of stress sweat from her palms. I'm stronger than I was before, Ruby told herself. Lynae has weaknesses. I need to exploit them. She used her semblance to speed forward in the hopes to catch the Faunus unaware. She reared back her scythe, fired behind her while the soles of her new boots glanced along the smooth metal of the ship once or twice, and with a cry of exertion, she swung her scythe around to hack at Lynae, who didn't even have her weapon in hand.

The second Ruby thought her strike would be true, Lynae lifted her left arm. Silver eyes widened as Lynae's electric glove sparked and shot out an orb of blue electricity that knocked Ruby back with spazming limbs. She grit her teeth as she fought to regain muscle control. She forgot about that pesky little thing.

"I'm insulted you thought that would work."

Ruby rolled to the right as Lynae brought her now extended glaive down upon where she was, and twirled her scythe around to ward Lynae away from another attack while she recovered. She hopped back as Lynae swung her glaive around with a serene smile on her face. Ruby folded her scythe up and used the bulkier but far smaller form to deflect Lynae's attacks and throw her off balance.

Lynae teetered back on one heel, and Ruby pressed forward to swing at her exposed side. With an annoyed growl, Lynae's wings stretched and flapped so Ruby's attack merely glanced across her ribs, and before Ruby could think to duck, Lynae raced forward and tackled Ruby while her flight took them farther away from the hatch.

Ruby twisted around in Lynae's arms and bit her lip to stop herself from crying out as Lynae's electric glove clamped onto her hip and sent shocks of lightning into her. She kept a desperate hold on Crescent Rose as she aimed the barrel at what she hoped was Lynae's right wing. She fired, and Lynae yelped as ice encased the majority of her wing. They fell to the ship in a graceless heap, and Ruby took Lynae's temporary panic over her wing to edge out of her grip and get some distance between them. With a growl, Lynae flexed her wing, broke the ice from her feathers and glared hotly in Ruby's direction.

"Why on Remnant are you even here?" She spit.

Ruby narrowed her eyes and unfurled her scythe yet again. She spiked it in the metal and kept her sight on Lynae. In a split-second decision, she decided not to mention Roman, just in case Lynae was still in the dark. "How did you gain control of Penny?"

Lynae blinked, noticeably surprised. Ruby realized that was the first expression she ever saw on her face aside from annoyance or aloofness. "Ah, the android. I didn't realize she was in the system. How many friends has she killed?"

Above them, Grimm screeched as fire and lightning scorched their bodies. Ruby's lip twitched.

When Ruby refused to rise to the bait, Lynae fluttered her wings and let the wind take her back as her glaive reformed into a sniper. Ruby took aim as Lynae did, and they both dodged from side to side as they fired at the other. Lynae's unpredictability in the air gave her plenty of room to maneuver around Ruby's shots, but Ruby's speed made Lynae's accuracy equally as poor. Ruby grit her teeth and stopped firing. Instead, she narrowed her eyes and focused on her flight pattern. Lynae's flight was wild and seemingly random, but she must have been cognisant of the Grimm around her since Amethyst didn't seem to target any down at Lynae's position, and by some luck, no Grimm dove for her.

An idea sprouted in her head. She switched in gravity ammo, and swung her scythe around to point behind her. Ruby lurched forward, ducked under another shot by Lynae, and with a small hop, fired her scythe. Her stomach dropped to her feet as the force of the gravity dust propelled her at a breakneck speed. A flock of nevermore younglings narrowly missed Lynae's wings and changed their sights to Ruby. With a determined yet confident grin, Ruby twirled and fired her scythe to the right to avoid them. Lynae's sniper rounds traced by her as she steadily approached in a wild and zig-zaggy pattern, all the while slicing at the stray griffon or nevermore. When she was within a few meters, Ruby bent her knees, pointed her toes, and rocketed towards the blue eyed agent and kept her trajectory even as Lynae hastily raised her electric glove yet again.

Just as the pulse shot from Lynae's palm, Ruby angled the barrel of her weapon in such a way the orb of electricity exploded in its electric mess below her and propelled her further up, overtop Lynae. With a final boost from a Crescent Rose shot, Ruby slammed her heels right into the base of Lynae's wings. A choked shriek came strangled from Lynae's lips as her wings momentarily lost function and she fell to the battleship. Ruby wasted no time in pursuing. She shot another round behind her and twirled Crescent Rose with a bit of a cocky grin, and caught Lynae's torso in her blade's sharp bite.

With a cry, Ruby spun around and, after her blade did some damage to Lynae's aura, threw her towards what she guessed was a… wing? Flap? She didn't really know, but it was a raised piece of metal, and Ruby winced at how Lynae's back bent at an unnatural angle as half her body wanted to topple over it and the other half stayed right on the side she hit. Lynae fell to the ground in a heap.

She cartwheeled to the side with Crescent Rose firmly in her grasp as another griffon tried to dive bomb her. She yelped as another landed right behind her, but a dash of ice froze it in place, no doubt thanks to Amethyst's intervention. She turned, slid between the frozen griffon's legs, and baited the other griffon to smash through its friend as she dashed away towards the hatch. Her silver eyes briefly lifted to the Bullhead, where she saw Amethyst's attention drawn away by a… a pride of manticores?! But they were native to Solitas and Anima, not Sanus!

The griffon behind her screeched, and she dropped to one knee with what she thought was a bit of a cool slide, and wrenched around with a diagonal arch to her scythe, aimed right for its neck. Ruby gasped as the Grimm snapped its head to the right and snagged the blade of her scythe in its beak with a shrieking growl. A pull of the trigger and Ruby realized her clip was empty. With a grunt, Ruby tried to pull her weapon from its grip, but the griffon pulled back with a defiant red stare and raked its bird-like front legs at Ruby's aura.

The beast nearly pulled Ruby completely to her feet as it wrenched the weapon back further and further. Ruby felt a rage fill her bones as she desperately tried to keep one hand on Crescent Rose while the other fumbled for her extended magazines. She only had one clip of gravity and one of ice left, all regular bullets used up at Beacon and on the initial barrage of griffons. She could slap another gravity in, it would be fine. Her aura was fine, still kicking at sixty-ish percent, and while this griffon was annoying its claws weren't doing much, just focus-

Bright blue tendrils speared into the griffon's back. Ruby felt the air leave her lungs as she fell back with a hard thud after the griffon hastily released her weapons to cry in pain. Ruby could barely process the glaive that sliced through the griffon with deadly precision before Lynae was upon her. Ruby coughed as the blue-clad and blue eyed woman pressed her weight down on Ruby and pushed down on her scythe so it was useless and digging into her breastbone. Lynae reverted her glaive to sniper form and placed it on her back.

"She's mine."

"Get - off!" Ruby wiggled around as the edge of her own weapon dug into her skin through the thin cotton of her grey shirt to the point it would bruise. Lynae's eyes went alight with her semblance and Ruby felt her back melt in pain.

Lynae dodged a meager swipe of Ruby's hand. "Stop. Resisting."

Distantly, she recognized the guttural screams to be hers. Ruby felt tears pools around the edges of her silver eyes, and begged to whatever deity would listen for the pain to stop. Her vision went blurry as Lynae flexed the hand with the electric glove, but instead of just the glove, an odd necklace with a lightning crystal was clenched between her fingers. The other hand was clad in a white glove with a red symbol, and Ruby felt… weak. Ruby feebly swiped a hand at Lynae's face, raked her nails from cheek to chin, but Lynae's aura held strong. Her dead eyes sparkled as the pain continued, and Ruby whimpered as she reached down to clamp her hand around Ruby's neck.

"Oh, Lyn!"

The mocking, sing-song tone of the voice barely registered for Ruby as Lynae, right in front of her eyes, exploded. Ruby sucked in a deep, ragged breath as the pain blinked away and the pressure on Crescent Rose ceased. She flinched as the firework-like explosion glanced along her face, but she forced it away as she thumbed the button to fold Crescent Rose up and struggled to roll from her back to her stomach.

Her silver eyes caught sight of Lynae standing in the distance with an indignant The fuck, Torchwick? before purple strings of light beamed around her and Neo slammed down on Lynae's back with her parasol in hand, and moments after landing she glanced in the direction of something behind Ruby, smiled, and nodded before she rushed after the hawk faunus. Ruby shuddered in relief. Amethyst must have cleared the skies enough, and took the opportunity when Lynae was blown off her. But who…?

Familiar dress shoes stepped into her vision, and the end of a very familiar cane was placed right before her eyes. Ruby's eyes trailed up from the cane, to the black-gloved hands placed upon the top of the cane, the white coat, and oh wow, he willingly came to her aid?

"Well…" Roman Torchwick leaned forward with a thin smirk and unsure but lively emerald green eyes. "Hello, Little Red. Having fun playing hero, aren'tcha?"

Ruby felt a sob catch in her throat. She tried to make her fingers move. Tried to push herself up, but her muscles didn't respond properly. She flexed her throat, and meekly replied, "H-Hi. And… not really."

Roman's expression was careful and wary, but as she continued to twitch and spasm he sighed and briefly closed his eyes. He knelt to one knee and scooped Ruby up by her shoulders to sit her up and lean her against his torso. "Just give it a minute, it'll go away."

"O-Oka-kay."

Everything burned, and her nerves ached. She felt oddly cold even though she didn't lose any blood and, while the wind didn't help matters, she was fine before. Her bleary eyes spotted Neo trading blows with Lynae in the distance. Roman pulled her up more and wound his arms around her torso to make her more secure.

"Relax."

"Trying." Ruby breathed out a shuddered breath. "Lynae used her semblance, and- and she tried to put something on my neck."

"Oh? Well, she didn't succeed. And I know. Her semblance is a right bi- uh, annoyance." Roman corrected himself with some annoyance in his tone. Then, he asked, "Red, while I'm - shockingly - pleased to see you, what the hell are you doing here?"

Ruby gasped for breath as her nerves tingled and she huddled closer into his coat. He smelled of pumpkin spice and cinnamon. "I care."

Roman went quiet. "Hn."

A small smile broke across her face. She had a feeling she was getting through to him. "Slate?"

"Taking a nap."

"You mean…"

"I didn't kill him, Red."

She flexed her fingers experimentally. With most of her control of her arms back in action, she pat Roman's hand. "Proud of you."

He scoffed. "Believe it or not, Red, I don't murder because it's fun. And, technically, no murder can be pinned on me, but that's beside the point. Anyway. Better?"

She really should react to his little explanation, but her muscles were too jittery for her to focus. "I-I think? Just cold."

She felt him shift behind her and suddenly she was lifted into the air. She wobbled on her feet but only when she was somewhat stable did his hands leave her sides. After another lingering glance at Neo and Lynae, Ruby turned to see Roman shucking off his coat. She raised a brow.

"Roman, what- um-"

Ruby blinked rapidly as the crime lord slid the coat under her cloak, forced her arms into it, and settled it on her shoulders. It left him in a black longsleeve and his grey ascot. Again, he said, "Better?"

Ruby looked down at the white coat. He even did up a few of the buttons, even though she was drowning in it. "Why…?"

"I believe in a mutual back-scratching system."

She merely blinked twice again in deeper confusion.

He proceeded to roll his eyes. "You took care of me, Red. I took care of you. There. Now if you will excuse me-" Roman turned, twirled his cane in his grasp, and eyed Lynae as she locked her glaive with Neo's parasol. "-I believe I have a bird to put down."

Ruby started after him. "I can help-"

"Red." Roman whirled around and pointed his cane at her. Not in a 'I'm going to shoot you' way, but in a 'I'm reprimanding you and this is my pointy stick to assert authority' way. "You can barely stand. Wait there, let your body shake it off. An electric shock is no joke."

She pressed her lips together. Roman… was protecting her. The way he portrayed himself it was obvious he didn't want it to seem that way, and he felt just as awkward actually doing it, but… he was. Ruby felt a smile edge across her face, and she caught his hand before he could turn. His expression showed genuine surprise at the action.

"Thank you, Roman."

"Right." Roman was quick to spin around and wrench his hand from her grasp. "Let's get this over with."

"Give me it!"

Pyrrha rolled as Cinder barreled towards her with propelling flames, and swung her xiphos around to slash Cinder's back. Cinder twisted around and planted her heeled feet on the wall, reached her hand out, and underneath Pyrrha's feet a pulsing orb of heat formed.

Pyrrha somersaulted back right as the orb burst into explosive flames. Her eyes burst into green flames as she gripped Ozpin's desk with her semblance and swung it blindly in the direction of Cinder. She batted Cinder to the side and in view, and the near-ascended Maiden slammed and cracked the glass window overlooking Beacon.

Pyrrha narrowed her eyes with a firm frown. "I'm not going down that easy."

Cinder rose as flames swirled around her. "You'll still go down."

A wall of flame encompassed the office and, without much thought, Pyrrha parted the flames around her with her small magic reserves. She let a larger vortex of water she managed to summon before surround her before she charged forward and slammed her shield into Cinder. The flames around her hissed as the water around her dashed them away, and Pyrrha spun as she slashed with her xiphos and bashed with her shield. Cinder growled, slammed her palm into Pyrrha's shield, and blasted her back with a focused eruption of fire.

Pyrrha twisted around as she sailed backwards, and gripped her armor to halt her inertia just before a pillar of fire shot up from the ground and the heat of the flames rushed over her not an inch from her face. She felt a shift in her soul that caused her eyes to widen.

Amber guided her magic, firm and supportive. I'm with you, Pyrrha.

As if on instinct, Pyrrha righted herself and dropped to the ground to see Cinder form her swords and lunge forward. She flexed her hands and thrust them forward as the pillar of fire Cinder summoned parted around Pyrrha and rushed toward Cinder. Cinder yelped as the flames plumed and encompassed her body, and not long after she disappeared from view Pyrrha darted forward, jumped, and twisted through the air. She flicked her xiphos around to slash it across Cinder's chest, but suddenly she felt an extra grip on her weapon. She was around to face her opponent and Cinder pressed her hand to Pyrrha's stomach. Searing heat burned at her chestpiece, and she went flying back hard into the wall, her weapons flying from her.

Stay strong! I don't know if this'll work, but I'm trying to reach out to Amethyst!

What did that mean? Pyrrha had no time to ponder it as fell into a crouch, looked up to see Cinder rocketing toward her yet again, but a quick flick of her fingers and her shield flung around and smacked Cinder in the face. She went widely off course, and as Cinder hurried to stop herself from smashing into the wall, Pyrrha ran to the center of the room yet again and called her weapons back to her hands.

The air of Ozpin's office was normally just the right temperature: cool and comfortable. But now a dry weight was in the air, and it felt so uncomfortably hot that Pyrrha felt sweat form all along her body and dampen her scalp. She gripped her weapons tighter as she angled her lower lip to blow air up and towards her face to cool it, if just for a moment.

I'm nearly there.

"Whatever you're doing, be fast…" Pyrrha mumbled. And with another cry, she launched back into the fray.

Penny Polendina was pissing. Him. Off.

Whatever her frame was made of, it more than protected her, it nearly made her impenetrable. Her aura was inhumanly high, likely due to modification in her creation, and if he found the person that invented her he had half a mind to beat them to death.

Mercury suppressed a groan as Scarlet went flying through the air after Penny sent him with a blast from her swords. He's spent so much time away from fighting he had forgotten just how ineffective some of the students fighting styles are. No refinement, still experimenting and finding that niche. As he dodged both Penny and the Knight reinforcements attacks, he kept an eye on Scarlet as the redhead pirate used his semblance to glide back around to safe ground.

A second later, his aura flickered, flared, and broke in a red mist.

"Dammit," Mercury growled. "Scarlet's down!"

"Don't worry!" Weiss's voice sounded from behind him. "I've got him."

Weiss's glyphs appeared along the airstrip leading towards Scarlet's current position as the heiress herself rocketed past him and launched herself into the air with a- was that an arm sticking out of that huge glyph following her? The arm held a sword out which Weiss landed on as she reached out to clamp a hand around Scarlet's wrist. Was that a Schnee summon?

Sage jumped in front of Mercury and deflected one of Penny's swords. "Focus, Mercury."

Mercury scowled. Knight reinforcements flanked Penny as she launched her swords at them like spears. The human soldiers never arrived, and Mercury had a feeling they were gunned down when their backs were turned. A bit of teamwork would mow the opposition down quick enough though. With a grunt, Mercury burst into action. He leaned so his torso nearly touched the ground as he ran in a wide circle toward the ginger android. Bullets smacked into the ground around him.

He skidded to a stop behind Penny, leant his torso forward with a smirk, and yelled, "Quicksilver!" The rush of rose petals didn't come. His vicious smirk faded. "Gem? Oh, shi-"

Mercury rolled to the right and avoided a blast from Penny. He ran at her and kicked his leg up as he dropped into a slide. It caught her chin and he used his hands to lift his body up, twist his torso around, and buck both legs into her side. She was sent flying toward the edge of the airstrip. To his left, Sage appeared as he slammed his sword through a trio of Knights.

"Where's Ruby?!"

"She left on one of the lockers to try and disable the hack on the battleship!" Sage yelled back.

Mercury's brain stuttered to a stop. "She- on a lock- AND YOU LET HER?!"

"She's your girlfriend, man, don't look at me!"

Oh Gods. He would not panic. Stop. Panicking. Ruby would be fine. Mercury clamped down on a glare before an idea formed in his head. "Alright then. Poison Ivy."

Sage blinked. "Huh? Wait a minute-"

Mercury gave Sage no time to question as he performed an aerial cartwheel and planted his heels on Sage's sword. Sage grunted but held his sword in an upward slanted position, and Mercury clenched his fists before he fired off his boots. He launched high into the air and spun to avoid the shots from the Knights, and narrowed his eyes at the gaggle that swarmed and surrounded Penny yet again. One of the Knights… was holding something?

The Knight chucked the cylindrical object up towards Mercury. He swung his leg around to kick it back.

Just as his foot made contact, the cylinder furled out into yellow wires that wrapped around his legs and locked. Mercury couldn't stop the strangled yell that escaped him as electricity burst from the wires, and his legs seized. His calm descent turned into a tumble, and Penny merely stepped to the side as his body rammed into two Knights. The Knights crumpled and he rolled along the ground as his chest wound pulled.

Mercury coughed. "That's not good…"

The last of the Knights advanced toward Sage. Sage's aura flickered but didn't break, and he beheaded two before he had to duck and roll to avoid the same tied up fate as Mercury. Mercury sat up and tried to grab at the wires only to yank his hands back as the wires zapped at his hands. He froze as Penny's shoes stopped right by his feet. He lifted his eyes to hers. Her red eyes flickered to green, but her swords circled around her head idly.

"Polendina." Mercury raised one hand. "Whatever that virus is telling you to do…"

Penny's fingers curled and her left eye twitched. "Resisting is difficult."

"Hey, c'mon, you're not just another node - er, whatever it's called, in the system, right?" Mercury tried. Gods, how do you talk down a rogue android that had you dead to rights? He really wished he had natural empathy right now so he'd know what to say, but might as well try to channel Ruby for a second. "Soul is you. Not whatever a computer is feeding into you."

"I- yes, that is, ah, t-true, but-" Penny clutched her head with her hands. "Wait, that's it! M-My soul- I can lower my aura! This virus c-cannot… will not control my soul!"

Mercury rolled to the right as her eyes flickered red and swords spiked into the ground where his head once was. Penny growled as she forced her swords into the pavement as one of her eyes flickered green. Mercury wormed his way to his feet as Penny forced her aura down until it didn't protect her.

"I- it's done. Now disable me!"

Mercury awkwardly hopped so he was behind her, hooked his left arm around the strings of her weapon, wrapped them a few times with quick winds of his arm, and pulled. Penny yelped at the sensation and whatever control she reigned in snapped away. She tried to kick back and maneuver her swords around to knock him off, but Mercury locked his right arm around her neck and squeezed tight so they were back to chest. Mercury hissed as the strings squeezed at his armor and dug into his skin, but dug his heels in as best he could as Penny thrashed and struggled.

"Polendina, nice that you can lower the aura, but," He said through gritted teeth. "Stop. Fighting. Back."

"I'm trying!" Penny cried. "M-My soul and body are- are- are desynced! It is like the virus has somehow severed my connection to my motor control unit!"

Mercury rolled his eyes. "Then shut down." She responded by kicking her legs up. Green bursts of power spewed from her feet and Mercury's feet suddenly left the ground. "That's not shutting down, Polendina!"

The world blurred around him and his eyes watered from the wind that hit his face. He was able to slow the world around him long enough to see Penny had them both rocketing right off the edge of Beacon to plummet to the city below, and for just a moment, helplessness claimed him. His aura ticked down more and more with every second, he was spent from using his semblance on the damn bomb, and while the pull didn't seem serious, he knew the new battle-scar Lynae gave him was bleeding, how much he didn't know. And his damn legs were still tied up.

Just as they flew off the edge of Beacon grounds, Mercury felt something snag. All the force of Penny's thrusters hit his arms and he couldn't hold her in a chokehold under the force. His right arm was flung from her neck but his left, which was still wrapped in strings, was nearly yanked from its socket as Penny tried to rocket away. Mercury grunted as he tried to bend his left arm to pull her back in as the strings tightened and tried to tear at his skin.

"Mercury, you need to let go of her!"

He craned his neck to see who was speaking, and felt his eyebrows wing up as Blake, cat ears out for all to see, her clothes shredded and bloody, stood with her hands clutched tight onto her ribbon. Dust and debris coated her hair and her face was riddled with grime. Gambol Shroud was wrapped securely around his legs and Blake's heeled feet skid against the pavement as she desperately hung on.

"What the hell happened to you?"

Blake yelped as she was yanked just a bit closer to the ledge. "Focus on the now, please!"

A black glyph formed under Blake's feet, and her struggle to avoid also taking flight ended as the gravity glyph pulled her to stay in place. Mercury grit his teeth and tried to reach for the ribbon so he could grab hold of it too, but Penny's thrusters had a lot of kick. He spied Weiss puffing out ragged breaths as she sprinted toward them.

"Cold Feet!"

His eyes blew wide as Weiss called out their attack name. The hell was he supposed to do, go limp? He uncurled his left arm as Weiss's arm-glyph went soaring toward him and a metal head and torso roared as it wriggled into existence. He felt Penny's strings begin to unravel from his arm, and just as he felt the sudden pull between Penny and Blake go lax, a bluish-white metal hand clamped around his torso and made a cough of gargled air escape him.

The Arma Gigas curled Mercury into its half-manifested chest as it swung its sword down upon the retreating sword and strings. Penny screeched as her strings snapped with a clean cut from the sword and went into a tumble through the air. Her swords twirled and scattered in all different directions. She became a speck in the distance as she fell towards Vale, and while he realized the robot was Ruby's friend, all he could think was Thank God. Mercury sucked in deep breaths as the summoning glyph floated back to solid ground and, with a careful armored hand, the Gigas set Mercury on the pavement. He hopped awkwardly to keep his balance, and somehow the summon was precise enough to cut the electric wires around his legs with a broadsword without hitting him.

Mercury stared up at the Gigas, then at Weiss, who now leaned heavily on her sword which she stabbed into the ground. "So…"

"Did… Did I just kill her?" Weiss asked breathlessly.

"Probably not."

"Uh. Okay." She held up one finger. "I… might pass out."

His eyes darted to Blake, who looked ready to keel over. "You're not the only one. Blake…"

"Y-Yang's… worse…" Blake gasped. She clutched her side and stumbled away, towards the now growing mass of people. On the ground was a mane of golden hair. Sun was at her side, up to his elbows in bandages and blood. Sage stood guard. Blake collapsed beside her and lunged for her hand as she burst into tears.

Her remaining hand.

"How did-?" Mercury cut himself off as his blood began to boil. Was she breathing?

"Some bull faunus!" Coco shouted over her constant gunfire. She mowed down hordes of Grimm that tried to enter the airstrip as Velvet readied new ammo casings behind her.

Mercury growled and drew together his brows. Adam Taurus. And if he had to guess, Blake's injuries had to do with the persistent bull too.

Scarlet limped over with a deep grimace. His coat was torn up in the front and his pants were ripped to reveal bloody and skinned knees. "Why did Penny attack us?"

Weiss scowled through her pants. "I suppose she's another traitor. I never would have guessed she would be one though." Her glacier eyes lifted to Mercury, guarded and questioning. "Did you know about Penny?"

Mercury frowned. "What? No, Penny isn't working for Cinder she… uh…"

Weiss and Scarlet stared at him expectantly. The Arma Gigas, funnily, cocked its head at Mercury as well, but he was stuck on what to say. Should he just… say Penny was a robot and be done with it? How else was he supposed to explain her attacking them out of nowhere? And really, it's not like keeping Penny a secret was at the top of Ironwood's priorities right now-

What sounded like an approaching jet engine reached his ears. He whipped around to see Penny, like the damn terminator, flying back towards them with her eyes pulsing red and two of her severed swords in her hands. "Uh-"

"Everyone down!" Weiss barked, and Mercury felt something hit his back. He went tumbling down, and Weiss's ponytail draped down in front of his eyes. He felt the breath leave him again and he struggled to cough out a word as he saw a freaking red laser beam blast from Penny's eyes.

"She's targeting the evac ships!' He heard Sun yell.

To his right, one of the ships fell on its side and burst into flames at Penny's attack. He heard some people rolling around inside it. Mercury felt Weiss shift on his back. He craned his head around to see her hold up two fingers and flick them forward. Her summoning glyph zoomed in front of them, right in Penny's flight path. The Arma Gigas spun its sword and readied its stance.

"Ice, don't-"

"Stay down," Weiss cut him off as she pushed herself to her feet and dashed low along the ground. She ran at Penny with her summon close behind. Mercury braced his elbows on the ground and lifted his torso up.

"Ice, seriously, don't, she lowered her aur-"

Weiss dropped to one knee and slid along her glyphs with her body diagonal. Her left arm extended up and sliced into Penny's right arm. Green fluid sprayed from the deep wound and the ginger android gasped. Mercury saw Weiss's eyes widen as she realized what he tried to tell her, and she raised a palm and began to shout for her summon to stop, dematerialize, no-

The sword fell away with light blue sparkles, but the armored arm still went to attack. It grabbed Penny, and slammed her to the ground. At first Mercury breathed a sigh of relief, but then the arm lifted her again and slammed her down. And again. And again.

The students around him froze and stared. Mercury engaged his semblance and gripped the summon, and with an annoyed tone, he yelled, "Little help with the rouge Schnee summon?!"

Pyrrha's back hit the ground hard, and whatever air she had left was stolen from her as Cinder slammed her knee into her stomach and kept it there. Cinder went to grab Pyrrha's face with her left hand, but Pyrrha latched onto her wrist and directed the flame in her palm to shoot in a random direction. With her semblance, Pyrrha grasped a group of small gears from the clockwork above and locked them around Cinder's other wrist. Pyrrha tried desperately to catch her breath and push Cinder back all at once, but Cinder's grasp of her powers was superior and her power stronger. The gears around her wrist began to melt, and Pyrrha bit back a cry as the hand that grasped Cinder's wrist began to heat with the same boiling fire.

Despite her decision to offer herself to Cinder as a means to buy her friends time to escape, a part of her desperately wanted to fulfill Ozpin's goal: for her to overtake Cinder in battle and fully ascend. But the more she tried to grasp at the Fall Maiden magic within her, the more hopes died. It was too little, she too weak and inexperienced, and while Amber held her hand in the beginning attacks, she had gone silent since she set off within her own consciousness to try something. Pyrrha still couldn't determine what.

Then, surprisingly, another voice prodded at her consciousness.

Well… this is new.

"Amethyst…?"

Cinder's eyes widened. "What? What are you talking about?"

Yeah… Amber did something. By the way, hey Ames.

Hi Aime.

Hm. Well Pyr, I 'see' your issue here… this might help.

Like a zap of electricity, Pyrrha felt an energy rush through her and made the feeble magic within flare and bubble. Her eyes burst a brighter, spilling green, and with a fierce cry, Pyrrha emitted a gust of wind from her hands that blew Cinder back and up into the mess of gears hanging over Ozpin's office. As Cinder tumbled around the moving gears, Pyrrha stood and rushed for her weapons.

"What just happened?" Pyrrha questioned in a hurried whisper.

You can just think of what you want to say to me, you don't have to speak it. Amethyst sounded amused.

Pyrrha brought her shield to protect her and backed away to the edge of the room where the ceiling was solid. She put her back to the window and did her best to ignore the growing louder screeches of Grimm outside. Is… is this you, Amethyst?

Indeed. You're my Maiden Sister, Pyrrha. My connection to Amber is… somehow allowing me to do this. I'm lending you my strength: my magic.

A gear came clattering down after a strong blast from Cinder. The Amazonian Warrior's head snapped forward and straight as her green eyes brightened and flamed, and with green flames under her feet and a sphere of water surrounding her, Pyrrha rose until she levitated in midair.

"This… feels amazing!" Pyrrha exclaimed.

She could feel Amethyst smile through the connection. I'll keep this up as long as I can. Keep fighting, Pyrrha.

Through the water droplets, Pyrrha found it within herself to smirk as Cinder dropped down only to stumble back at the display of power before her. Pyrrha let Miló and Akoúo̱ float before her with her semblance. Akoúo̱ circled in front of her to shield her torso, while Miló darted through the Maiden elements and forced Cinder to block the blows from the xiphos with her obsidian swords.

"How?!" Cinder seethed through gritted teeth as her glass heels clacked with every step back. "You shouldn't-"

"Amethyst and Amber are with me," Pyrrha replied calmly as she bent her hands into a claw shape and the water spiraled and shaved into hardened ice spears. "And you're alone."

Maiden magic, baby. I'm split on what element Pyrrha would use the most. Cinder is fire, Amethyst is lightning, Pyrrha... water? It plays into the Achilles thing. Kind of.

Dragon Lord Draco: If Pyrrha lives Jaune is gonna drag her kicking and screaming to a therapist for that 'live for me' comment XD

Astray-Tech: I looked up some clips of it, and the Hound is so cool! A Grimm that can adapt and transform is so interesting, and considering what's inside of it... woah. Also, glad you enjoyed!

TheBoxGhost117: You didn't respond to my PM, so a quick response: 1) Blake running is one of the most annoying plot points imo, and 2) I've taken scenes (Yang v. Mercury, for example) and changed the outcome. Also, bold of you to assume Wilted V4 is going to be anything like canon V4. And, look, I gave you a week grace period to respond and you didn't, so. If you stick around, cool, if not, hope other author stories keep your interest. I'm not going to give you another chance to insult me in a review.

The Night Whisperer: Roman's weaknesses are ice cream and cinnamon rolls! I love platonic Rosewick, it's just adorable.

The Baz: Indeed!

PoofyOhio: That's understandable! However, don't count on a copy-paste conclusion! Hopefully the future chaps will spice it up enough for you.

Servos New Head: LOL! I promise I won't give you a reason to eat a ghost pepper. I'm sorry you feel left out, but thanks for the laugh! Your rankings are... interesting. :)

Next chapter: The Butterfly Effect.

Lonessa out.